On the Aporia of the Pleasure of Tragedy

In the 17th through 18th century when reflection upon and criticism of the theater became a common concern, one enigma attracted public attention. It was a peculiar experience which is called `the pleasure of tragedy' today. Tragedy evokes in us the intensive feeling of pain and anguish by means of fearful incidents and sufferings of a hero. Yet, we are willing to go to see such a play. Why? This enigma was already hinted at by Descartes', and Fontenelle2 took it up as a subject for his own consideration. Moritz Geiger called it the "Dubossian Problem" 3, the basic formula of explaining this paradoxical experience being set up by Jean-Baptiste Dubos. Thus, Hume referred first of all to Du Bos when he talked about "an unaccountable pleasure" 4. The formula of Du Bos 5 consists of the following three points. (1) Since the boredom of having nothing to do is the most painful tribulation for human beings, the agitation of passion in itself, whatever it may be, is a fundamental pleasure which relieves them of boredom. (2) The pleasure of tragedy is reduced to artistic mimesis in general. That is, the imitated `artificial passions' give us pure pleasure because we enjoy them without concern for their reality. (3) The imitations of passions are qualitatively identical with real ones, but quantitatively weaker. The pain tragedy evokes lies, we can say, only on the surface of our soul, and therefore we can control it. So playwrights torment us insofar as we want them to. We shed tears without real serious sorrow, have compassion for the hero, and enjoy the agitation itself. The Dubossian Problem became a favorite topic of German critics and philosophers of those days. For example, Moses Mendelssohn also recognizes that the "movement and agitation" of those activities of perception and representation which uncomfortable objects stimulate is in itself