The stage is nearly empty and stained a dazzling golden, the blinding beams of light creating a halo around the actor. He sees nothing beyond the distant point where the stage ends. At this moment, he is conscious of but himself, of the character he must portray well. A few lines more, a few more facial expressions, and the audience would know it. The audience would be able to share the character’s feelings, cry over his pain, and pity his fate. The lights will soon grow dim, the catharsis will be complete, and the character shall rest in a certain unfathomable emotional peace.
An act performed on stage is not that straightforward. Though the protagonist may resolve their problems by the end of the play and vent all their negative emotions during the process, there is an audience that can feel them too. The theatre is a curious place. The stage and the seats represent two complementary worlds: fiction and reality. Catharsis is a process which connects the two. It is a wave of emotion that spreads across the audience. The term means ‘purification’ or ‘purgation’, and refers primarily to pity and fear. Aristotle was the first to mention it in his acclaimed work Poetics, and believed that if the audience could actually release all the negativity along with the character, they would be able to cope better with similar situations in life. Since Aristotle did not provide any definition of the term catharsis or describe it in detail, we may come up with our own explanation. We could possibly conclude that the portrayal of a character then was not so much about the narration of a story as it was about imparting a lesson to the spectators. They were to actually feel catharsis in its true sense, for the actor was feeling it intentionally all the while.
Although the term ‘catharsis’ has been defined many times over the centuries, it seems that catharsis is, till date, viewed by most as a process experienced during a performance, a play or dance, or even while watching a movie. The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a novel kind of catharsis - a purgation of the negativity that had bottled-up during the lockdown. A study shed light on a trend that gathered pace during the pandemic. People preferred to watch films or TV series that dealt with epidemics, contagions, or viruses. It is somewhat counterintuitive that individuals chose to watch movies or TV series that discussed the very pain they were going through themselves. But viewing a similar situation on screen served as a means of an emotional release for the growing audience. The spectators could project their fears and uncertainties onto the movies or TV series which not only depicted but also suggested possible solutions to the situation they had to face in real life, albeit unrealistically.
Theatre and films might explain well what catharsis is, but its origin remains obscure. One theory suggests that catharsis might have biological, psychological, and social bases. In order to understand this point better, a look at the life cycle of emotions is necessary. Emotions span across four stages: impulse, perception, manipulation, and consummation. Though emotions do have a beginning and an end they may not be ‘consummated’ in the true sense due to blockages that occur while they are being processed. The blockage impedes the emotion from unfolding to its end. For instance, if the emotion an individual experiences is grief, they would probably not be able to get over their grief as the emotion does not transition smoothly to its final phase, which is crying. Crying is the cathartic response to get rid of grief, or the ‘purgation’ of grief. Emotions stay for a longer period precisely because no catharsis ever occurs. Emotions are triggered by a stimulus, slowly grow more intense and then reach the climax which is when the cathartic response takes place. In the example stated above, grief could be incited by loss, and the climax is crying. This is why catharsis might help prevent severe emotional stress if one lets it take place.
But for an entire audience to feel with the actor, the catharsis must take place only to a certain extent. This is where ‘role-taking’ comes in. Think of laughter, for instance. It is a cathartic response too which includes a release of the swiftly plummeting embarrassment or shame. Many individuals take to mirth when they are embarrassed publicly. When a character in a play encounters such a situation and battles it by laughing, the audience may exhibit a similar response (laughter) in either of the two ways: they may laugh because they feel what the character feels or they may laugh because others in the theatre point a finger at the character and make fun of their foolishness. Catharsis occurs only in the first case. Although laughter is inarguably a cathartic response, laughing because someone else does so is not catharsis in the real sense. Role-taking is possible because humans, from a very tender age, develop the ability to consider others’ point-of-view. Empathy takes over what was once egocentrism and children also develop theory of mind. Could one possibly assume that the very human ability to understand another individual’s viewpoint underpins the realisation of catharsis, the primary aim of art and the principal way of restoring one’s well-being?
When Aristotle wrote that catharsis prepared the audience for the challenges of life, he also remarked that catharsis is a source of pleasure. It is the kind of pleasure we experience when we simultaneously feel the emotions of another person and that selfish kind of pleasure we harbour when watching the nuances, oddities, difficulties, and joys of another person’s life, from a safe distance. Catharsis is a release, an alleviation, a form of self-help that plays a dual role: a source of pleasure in the theatre and a therapy in real life, as humanity juggles between its outward, social responsibility towards others, and its duty to preserve its inner emotional self.
Vallari Soman
