(a) At this point I will make brief mention of only the most general basiccharacteristics of tragedy; their concrete particularization can come intoview only in the light of the stages in tragedy's historical development.

(aa) The true content of the tragic action is provided, so far as concernsthe aims adopted by the tragic characters, by the range of the substantiveand independently justified powers that influence the human will: family

The essential principle for discriminating the kinds of epic poetry dependedon whether the substantive material to be portrayed in an epic was ex­

pressed in its universality or related in the form of objective characters,deeds and events.

Lyric, conversely, is divided into a series of different modes of expression bythe degree and manner in which the subject-matter is more loosely or moretightly interwoven Witil the person whose inner life that subject-matter reveals.

Dran~~~ic poetry, finally, makes central the collisions between charactersand between their aims, as well as the necessary resolution of this batt1e.Consequently the principle for distinguishing its genres can only be derivedfrom the relation of individuals to their aim and what it involves. The

specific character of this relation is also what decides the particular mannerof the dramatic conflict and outcome and so provides the essential type ofthe whole course of events in its living and artistic presentation.

As the principal points for consideration in this matter we must, in gen­eral, emphasize those features which in their harmony constitute the essence

of _ev~rY!.rtle. action: (i) what is in substance good and great, the DivineaCtualizegjn the world, as the foundation of everything genuine and abso­

lutely"~ternal in the make-up of an individual's character and aim; (ii) thesubj~ci,the individual himself in his unfettered self-determination and free­c!o;n. In whatever form dramatic poetry brings the action on the stage, what

, is really effective in it is absolute truth, but the specific way in which thiseffectiveness comes on the scene takes a different, and indeed an opposed,form according to whether what is kept dominant in the individnals and

thei: actions and conflicts is their substantive basis or alternatively theirsubjective caprice, folly and perversity.

In this connection we have to examine the principle for the following genres:

for tragedy, taken in its substantive and original typical form;for comedy, in which the mastery of all relations and ends is givenas much to the individual in his \villing and action, as to externalcontingency;for drama, i.e. for a play in the narrower sense of the word, as occupyinga middle position between these first tIVOkinds.

11'1~H~e~ f{eack~,:f

., eJihff ~~ ~~~ie30

Aesthetics: Tragedy,COlnedy and Drama

----------------------------"------------------

The Gcnrcs of Dram.atic Poetry and the Chief Featuresit has had in History

If IVCglance back brief1y on the course we have followed in our considera­

tion of uranwtic art up to now, we first established what its principle is in itsgeneral and particular characteristics as well as what it is in relation to thepublic. Then, secondly, we saw that a drama presents to us live the wholedevelopmcnt of a complete and specific action, and therefore it imperativelyneeds a fully visible presentation, and this can only be given artistically byactual performance in the theatre. But if the action is thus to be made realobjectively, it must itself be altogether deter~f~ed ~nd finished in itself in

poetic conception and treatment. But this can only be done if, thirdly,dramatic poetry is split into different genres which borrow their type, whetherit involves oppositions or their reconciliation, from the difference betweenthe ways in whieh the characters and their aims, their conflict and the out­

come of tile whole action are brought on the scene. The c~~iefmodes arisinghom this clirference and having a varied historical development are "tragedyand comedy, as well as the conciliation of these two modes of treatment,which 01111' in dramatic poetry become of such essential importance thatthey may serve "as the basis for the division of its different genres.

In explaining these points in more detail we have

(a) flrsl to bring out the general principle of tragedy, comedy and the so­called 'drama';

(b) secundIy, to indicate the character of classical and modern dramaticpoctry, their difference having been produced in the course of the his­torical development of tragedy and comedy; .­

(c) thirdly, to consider the concrete forms which comedy and tragedy espe­cially have been able to take within this difference.

(a)

(~)

(y)

'n-aged)') Comed.y alld Dranfa

(a) The Principle of Tragedy, Comedy and Drama

4,19

·J5LJ Pllllosupl,J' oj Aboolurc Spil'it Tragedy) Comedy and Drama 451

love uetwecn husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters;political life also, the patriotism of the citizens, the will of the ruler; andreligioll existellt, not as a piety that renounces action and not as a divinejudgcrnent in man's heart about the good or evil of his actions, but on thecontrmy, as an active grasp and fl1rtherance of actual interests and circum­

stances. A similar excellence belongs to the gel~uinely tragic chara~ters.Throughout they are what they can and must be in accordance with theiressential nature, not an ensemble of qualities separately developed epically,in various ways; on the contrary, even if they are living and individualthemselves, they arc simply the one power dominating their own specificcharacter; for, in accordance with their own individuality, they have insepar~ably ideI1lified themselves with some single particular aspect of those solidinterests we have enumerated above, and are prepared to answer for thatidentification. Standing on this height, where the mere accidents of theindividual's purely personal life disappear, the tragic heroes of dramatic arthavc risen to become, as it were, works of sculpture, whether they be livingrepresentatives of the substantive spheres of life or individuals great andfirm ill other ways on the strength of their free self-reliance; and so in thisrespect the statues and images of the gods, rather abstract in themselves,explain the lofty tragic characters of the Greeks better than all other com­mentaries and notes.

In general terms, therefore, we may say that the proper theme of the

original type of tragedy is the Divine; not, hovvever, the Divine as the objectof the religious consciousness as such, but as it enters the world and!~9!::.vidual action. Yet in this actual appearance it does not lose its substantivecharacter, nor does it see itself there as inverted into the opposite of itself.In this form the spiritual substance of will and accomplishment is the con­crete ethical order [das Sillliche]. For if we take the ethical order in its directgenuineness and do not interpret it from the point of view of subjectivercflcction as abstract morality [das JorlJlell AIoralischeJ, then it is the Divipemade rcal in the world and so the substantive basis which in all its aspects,whether particular or essential, provides the motive for truly human action,and it is in action itself that these aspects develop and actualize this theiressencc.

((3{3) Everything that forces its way into the objective and real world issubject to the principle of particularization; consequently the ethical powers,just like the agents, are differentiated in their domain and their individualappearance. Now if, as dramatic poetry requires, these thus differentiatedpowers are summoned into appearance as active and are actualized as thespecific aim of a human 'pathos' which passes over into action, then theirharmony is cancelled and they come on the scene in opposition to oneanother in reciprocal independence. In that event a single action will undercertain circumstances realize an aim or a character which is one-sidedlyisolated in its complete determinacy, and therefore, in the circumstailcespresupposed, will necessarily rouse against it the opposed 'pathos' and so

lead to inevitable conflicts. The original essence of tragedy consists then inthe fact that within such a conflict each of the opposed sides, if taken by

itself, ha?justijication; while each can establish the true and positive contentof its own aim and character only by denying and infringing the equallyjustified power of the other. The consequence is that in its ethical life[Sittlichkeit], I and because of it, each is nevertheless involved in guilt.

The general reason for the necessity of these conflicts I have touched uponalready. The substance of ethical life, as a concrete unity, is an ensemble ofdifjerellt relations and powers which only in a situation of inactivity, like thatof the blessed gods, accomplish the work of the spirit in the enjoyment of anundisturbed life. But the very nature of this ensemble implies its transferfrom its at first purely abstract ideality into its actualization in reality and itsappearance in the mundane sphere. Owing to the nature of the real world,the mere difference of the constituents of this ensemble becomes pervertedinto opposition and collision, once individual characters seize upon them onthe territory of specific circumstances. Only froll1 this point of view can webe really serious about those gods who dwell in their peacefDI tranquillityand unity solely on Olympus and in the heaven of imagination and religiousideas, but who, when they now come actually to life as a specific 'pathos' ina human individual, lead, despite all their justification, to guilt and wrongowing to their particular specification and the opposition to which this leads.

(yy) In this way however, an unresolved contradiction is set up; it doesappear in the real world but cannot maintain itself there as the substance ofreality and what is genuinely true; its proper claim is satisfied only when itis annulled as a contradiction. However justified the tragic character and hisaim, however necessary the tragic collision, the third thing required is tbe

tragic. Eesolution of this conflict. 13ythis means eternal justice is exercised onindividuals and their aims in the sense that it restores the substance and

unity of ethical life with the downfall of the individual who ha.s disturbed itspeace. For although the characters have a purpose which is valid in itself,they can carry it out in tragedy only by pursuing it one-sidedly and socontradicting and infringing someone else's purpose. The truly substantialthing which has to be actualized, however, is not the battle between particularaims or characters, although this too has its essential ground in the natureof the real world and human action, but the reconciliation in which the spe­cific individuals and their aims work together harmonious]y without opposi­tion and without infringing on one another. Therefore what is superseded inthe tragic denouement is only the one-sided particular which had not beenable to adapt itself to this harmony, and now (and this is the tragic thing inits action), upable to renounce itself and its intention, finds itself condemned10· total destruction, or, at the very least, forced to abandon, if it can, theaccomplishment of its aim.

In this connection Aristotle, as everyone knows, laid it down [Poetics,

144gb 26] that the true effect of tragedy should be to arouse pity and fearand accomplish the catharsis of these emotions. 13y 'emotions' Aristotle did

'1) .~P/l/l,)supIIY vj. ibsullilC Spiril

1J'agedJ', C01lledy and DminG 453

not mC:l1I mere feeling, my subjcClive sense of something correspondingwith me or not, the agreeable or disagreeable, the attractive or the repulsive- this most superficial of all criteria which only recently has been proposedas the principle of dramatic success or failure. For the only important thing[or a work of art is to present what corresponds with reason and spiritualtrulh, and if we an~ to discover the principle of this, we must direct Our

:Jltclllion 10 totally difIerent considerations. Even in the case of Aristotle's

diclum wc must therefore fix our eyes not on the mere feelings of pity andfear but on the n:Jture of the subject-matter which by its artistic appearanceis to pmify Ihese feelings. A man can be frightened in face of, on the onelJand~[hing finite and external to hirn, or, on the other hand, thepower of Ihe Absolute. What a man has really to fear is not an externalpower and oppression by it, but the might of the ethical order which is onecklerl1linant of his mvn free reason and is at the same time that eternal andinviolable something which he summons up against himself if once he turns

'against it. Like-fear, pity too has two kinds of object. The first is the objectof ~1E!:L~!i0E!-;J:? sympathy with Someone else's misfortune and

suffering which is fdt as something finite and negative. P~ovinc~al fel~e~._are always ready wilh compassion of this sort. For if it is only the negativeaspect, the negative aspect of n"11sfortune, that is emphasized, then the victimof misfortune is degraded. True:~Wfy, on the contrary, is sympathy at the sametime with Ihe suLTerer's eth~;Jj;:;-Stification, with the affirmative aspect, thesubsta11live thi"i1glr;;lt;;';";';Cb~e'p-;:esent in'him. Beggars and rascals cannot

inspire us with pity of this kind. Therefore if the ~~~terllasinspiredill us a fear of the power of the ethical order that he has violated, then if inhis n~'rtu~ehZis to ;i~~';;-;-'tl:~'g'ic ;y-;;p';t:hy he must be a man of worthand goodness himself. For it is only something of intrinsic worth which

strikes the I:.::art of a man ofm2,ble E.~.I.illg~~and shakes itto its deptl1S. Afterall, therefore, we should not confuse our interest in a tragic denouement

with a naIve sense of satisfaction that our sympathy should be claimed by--?"sad stury, by a misfortune as such. Such miseries may befall a man, withouthis contributing to them and without his fault, merely as a result of theconjllI Icture of external accidents and natural circumstances, as a result ofIllness, loss of property, deatE~t~ the onIY·i~terestl'il them by whichwe sl]()u[(rprop~iTy b~ iripp~d is C;-ureagerness to rush to the man's help. Ifwe cannot help, then spectacles. of wretchedness and distress are only har­~owin!2 1\ truly tragic SUTfcrh.: ..g..<,;:;-;rr;~-~;;;t~ar;'--T;-;~iY~Elflict~n theindividual agents as a consequence of their own deed which is both legitim­ate :lIld~,_Q.'Y}:lgto the resulting collision,-b~a!TIew.?~:,tEy'~and for which theirwhole self is answerable ..

(?:-\. Aboy, ,"co, k,,· "oJ 'cog;' ,ymp"hy 'h", thtnf"" ",nd, th,t ",n" of"-- -.:-~ ..re co nclll atJ()n \Y~.J!l~"tr,!g,~s!L::!.ffuLdsJ2L!h eJ~!:~E~.L<;>!~$!~,~,L1!J.':t.:e.Inits absulute sway this justice overrides the relative justification of one-sidedaims and passions because it cannot suffer the conflict and contradiction ofnaturally harmonious ethical powers to be victorious and permanent intruth and actuality.

In virtue of this principle, tragedy rests primarily on the contemplation ofsuch a conflict and its resolution. Consequently, owing to its whole mannerof presentati6ii, it is dramatic poetry alone which is capable of making theentire range and course of tragedy into the principle of a work of art anddeveloping it completely. It is for this reason that I have only now taken theopportunity to speak of the tragic outlook, although it is at work extensivelyand variously, even if to a lesser extent, in the other arts also.

(P) In tragedy the eternal substance of things emerges victorious in areconciling way, because it strips a,-,'ay from the conflicting individuals onlytheir false one-sidedness, while the positive elements in what they willed itdisplays as what is to be retained, without discord but affJrmatively har­monized. In comedy, conversely, it is subjectivity, or personality, which inits infinite assurance retains the upper hand. For, granted the cleavage ofdramatic poetry into different genres, it is only these two fundamental fea­tures of action which can confront one another as the basis of such genres. Intragedy the individuals destroy themselves through the one-sidedness oftheir otherwise solid will and character, or they must resignedly accept whatthey had opposed even in a serious way. In comedy there comes before ourcontemplation, in the laughter in which the characters dissolve everything,including themselves, the victory of their own subjective personality whichnevertheless persists self-assured.

(aa) The general ground for comedy is therefore a world in which man assubject or person has made himself completely master of everything thatcounts to him otherwise as the essence of what he wills and accomplishes, aworld whose aims are therefore self-destructive because they arc unsubstan­tial. Nothing can be done, for example, to help a democratic nation wherethe citizens are self-seeking, quarrelsome, frivolous, bumptious, without faithor knowledge, garrulous, boastful and ineffectual: such a nation destroysitself by its own folly. But it does not follow at all that every unsubstantiaJaction is comical on account of this nullity. In this matter the laughable isoften confused with the comical. Every contrast between something sub­stantive and its appearance, between an end and the means may be laugh­able; this is a contradiction in which the appearance cancels itself and therealization of an end is at the same time the end's own destruction. But for

the comical we must make a deeper demand. For example, there is nothingcomical about the vices of mankind. A proof of this is given us by satire, allthe more tediously, the cruder are the colours in which it paints the contra­diction between what actually exists in the world and what virtuous menought to be. Neither need follies, senselessness, silliness, be comical, takenin and by themselves, although we laugh at them. In general, nowhere canmore contradiction be found than in the things that people laugh at. Theflattest and most tasteless things can mOVe people to laughter, and theyoften laugh all the same at the most important and profound matters jf theysee in them only some wholly insignificant aspect which contradicts theirhabits and day-to-day outlook. In such a case their laughter is only anexpression of a self-complacent wit, a sign that they are clever enough to