by Jennie Mc Donald

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: February 22, 2009

Greek tragedies affirmed the moral values which were once at the core of Greek societies. Theatre allowed authors such as Sophocles, to experiment with new ideas, explore certain issues and to test them in a safe way. According to Aristotle, catharsis is essential to the plot of a good tragedy; it arouses emotions through pity and fear, which in turn brings about ritualistic purging and the renewal of society's morals and values. There are other elements in the formation of cathartic emotions, such as stichomythia, hubris, harmatia, recognition and reversal;[1] each element is expressed in Sophocles play Oedipus the King. The play has an underlying religious element, which is why the faith of Oedipus is generalised into the faith of all mankind. His fickleness is unquestionably shown as the audience watches him go from prosperity to ruin and disrepute. On the other hand, the infallibility of the oracle of Apollo is strongly stressed so that by the end of the play, the spectators learn to appreciate and respect the gods, to behave morally and to respect societal values.

Aristotle believes that the experience of watching tragedy is cathartic because the spectator's feelings are purged through the intense emotional experience of the drama. In his Poetics, Aristotle writes how cathartic emotions develop and explains why our emotions are stimulated and excited when watching tragedy. He writes, "Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity".[2] With the intent of arousing cathartic emotions, Sophocles draws on the audience's empathy; as empathy is the recognition and understanding of the state of mind, beliefs, desires and particularly, emotions of others. Many consider it the ability to put oneself into another's shoes, or to experience the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself. This ability is an imaginative process, which is why it works so brilliantly through drama, as drama allows for the flow of the imagination.

As Aristotle believes, this capacity to recognise the emotions of others is related to our imitative capacities, and seems to be grounded in the innate capacity to associate the bodily movements and facial expressions we see with the proprioceptive feelings of those same movements or expressions. Throughout the drama, the audience also makes the same immediate connection between tone of voice and inner feelings. Therefore, by watching the facial expressions or bodily movements

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