the effect of 'purgation' or 'purification' achieved by tragic drama, according to Aristotle's argument in his Poetics (4th century BCE). Aristotle wrote that a "tragedy" should succeed 'in arousing pity and fear in such a way as to accomplish a catharsis of such emotions'. There has been much dispute about his meaning, but Aristotle seems to be rejecting Plato's hostile view of poetry as an unhealthy emotional stimulant. His metaphor of emotional cleansing has been read as a solution to the puzzle of audiences' pleasure or relief in witnessing the disturbing events enacted in tragedies. (Baldick, 2001, p. 35) The view that Aristotle's concept of catharsis represents a process of purgation in which the emotions of pity and fear are aroused by tragic dramas and then somehow eliminated from the psyche of the audience has dominated scholarly discussion of the Poetics since Bernays first published his highly influential analysis of the catharsis question in 1857. Opposition to the purgation theory has, however, never been quelled. It continues to exist today in three forms which see Aristotelian catharsis either as (a) a form of moral purification through which a proper discipline is placed on the audience's reaction to pity and fear, or as (b) a form of structural purification in which the development of the plot purifies the tragic deed of its moral pollution and thus allows the audience to experience the emotions of pity and fear, or as (c) a form of intellectual clarification in which the concepts of pity and fear are clarified by the artistic representation of them. (Golden, 1973)
