Aristotle

Differing Views on Mimesis Between Plato and Aristotle

Plato thought art was inferior to philosophy because it is two degrees removed from the truth. Aristotle offers an antithetical argument:  Art is a good thing because it is removed from the truth.  When we see someone dying on stage or in film we are aware that it isn't happening in reality.  Because of this, art offers a form of catharsis, that is relieving of emotional tensions.

That was my problem with Plato.  I can't imagine a world without any kind of cathartic release.  Art helps to deal with real life emotions because we can see ourselves in the representation of life put upon a stage, written in a book or sang in the song.  Without this cathartic release, I think the human race would be as exciting as a program on CSPAN.  That's the importance of art.  Catharsis brought about in art ends. How could one become a fully realized person without delving into the depths of emotion?  How can one stay distanced from life in logic and reasoning only, letting the world and all of its pleasures and pain pass by like a pretty girl in a bar that you couldn't get up the nerve to talk to?

Aristotle's View of Tragedy

Aristotle's view of tragedy is formulaic.  He believes that the hero should be better than common man in a tragedy.  The plot should contain a beginning, middle, and an end, and the plot should start with the hero in the highest of places and should end with him in the lowest of places.  I can think of innumerable examples of this, but Shakespeare's Othello is one of the better examples.  In it the main character is betrayed by someone he believes he can trust, but the betrayer is peeved that he was passed over for a position for Othello.  He then sets in motion a series of events that leads Othello to believe that his wife has been unfaithful, though she hasn't.  Iago uses Othello's one great flaw to his advantage: his jealousy.  The  hero and his bride end up dead by Othello's hand.  The following link goes to the final scene of Othello.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5ZXr4Gyk0  The play uses many great examples of Aristotle's views:  It is more tragic when someone close to the hero brings about the hero's destruction, the hero must go from happiness to misery because of a flaw in the hero (in Othello it is his jealousy), and the plot must continue from necessity, not from an artificial stage device (such as with deus ex machina).  

Though Aristotle's formula is a good way to bring about catharsis from the audience, it is also to be noted that a writer could break new ground by completely abandoning these principles.  I think a good example of abandoning the logical unfolding of plot is with Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.  The book is told from the perspectives of four characters, and the opening character is mentally handicapped.  He thinks the past is happening in the present, so he jumps from moment to moment.  It is up to the reader to figure out what has happened.