In theatre and more so in tragedies, catharsis is important in that it allows the audience to release pent-up emotion that had been accumulating throughout the play. During a play with a complex plot, there will be a change in fortune in the hero’s life, and then the playwright will also help us understand why the said change in a hero’s fortune happened and the resulting sense of suffering experienced by the hero. It is for this reason that we feel pity for the hero because all men experience suffering. Sometimes we will feel fear for ourselves since we could also suffer the same fate. Catharsis helps the audience empathize with the hero and plays an aesthetic role by giving us a resolution of our emotions. The playwright Bertolt Brecht the use catharsis as emotional manipulation of the audience, therefore, tried to avoid it by using the alienation effect which was entertaining and informative by exposing the theatrical manipulations that the audience is put through
It is an integral point of a play that the character goes through change. The change may be caused by the actions of others, his actions or circumstances. This change leads to the growth of the character. Each character in a play must either change or be an agent of change; it is through this that the play progresses from its start to its end. Without growth, the recession of characters would consequently lead to the stagnation of the plot. Such idle characters will be phased out of a play as they have trivial roles. The expression of this change can, however, be toned down a little so that the audience is still aware of the instruments of theatre and their visual or auditory influence while still appreciating the plight or circumstances of the characters
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The portrayal of change in plays and art, in general, is essential to its audience. Through plays, we learn more about ourselves by using the technique as a mirror on which we examine ourselves and indeed society in general. We also get to learn about societal changes and different cultures. Catharsis is the culmination of such change. In the absence of change in theatre, it would be more difficult for people to take or accept change in real life since the artful portrayal of characters happens to help guide, directly or indirectly, people in actual life. This is because if the universality of the human body and the human psyche. It was Bertolt Brecht’s view that catharsis, through its complete immersion of the audience in a narrative, robbed them of the power to willfully change their real life. Through the distancing effect, however, since the audience not lost in the play, it can consciously observe the characters’ actions and circumstances and objectively compare it with their own hence giving them (audience) power to change.
