NAME: Nidhi R. Jasani
ROLL NO. : 18
PAPER NO. 3, literary Theory
& criticism
ENROLLMENT NO.: PG14101018
TOPIC: Plato's objection to poem
& Aristotle reply
SUBMITTED TO: M. K. B. U.
Smt. S .B. Gardi Department
of English
Introduction
Plato belongs to the classical
age in Greek literature Plato was a thinker, philosopher and reason was dominated
in his personality. Aristotle was a follower of Plato. Aristotle was the most
distinguished disciple of Plato- was a critic scholar and practical
philosopher, but Aristotle defers from many point
Plato’ objection to poem
Plato in his famous book ‘The republic’ talks about
the nature of poetry and the function of poetry as well. Plato thinks that
poets are inspired and inspiration is illogical. He says that poets are
possessed by divine madness and their imaginative mind. Plato was also the
lover of truth and he tried to find out the final truth, by thinking over the
question “what is real?” Plato says that poets are liars and they speak lie
through their poems. They present false god in poetry and there by encourage
false hood among people. Plato says that the poet misguides people and they
provoke evil ideas in people’s mind hens poet should banished from the ideal
state. Plato classified two ruling powers as visible and the intelligible. The
former includes shadows, images reflection etc. the later includes reason or
intellectual. He says that ideas are real and physical things are unreal. He
says that “poetry is an imitation of an imitation twice removed from reality.” When
he commented upon poetry, he had in mind the two great epics of Homer. They are
“Eliot” and “the odyssey” Plato also read the Greek tragedy of Sophocles and
Euripides. He love classical work of these poets but for him truth was a prime
concern. Plato says that is an imitation. He gives the example of three kinds
of beds and says that all fine arts are imitative by nature. He gives the word
mimesis for imitation. He says that the idea of bed is a cheated by the
almighty god so the god or nature. The second type of bed is prepaid by the
carpenter from wood. According to Plato the carpenter’s bed is the imitation of
the god’s idea of bed. The third type of bed is a painter’s bed. The painter
paint the bed looking at the carpenter’s bed and so it is the imitation of an
imitation. Similarly when the poet writes a poem, he takes the help of his
imagination and he writes the poem based on the experience of the physical
world which is not real. Plato says that the truth is ideational. Plato defies
poetry and poets and says that they are devoid of truth. Plato also gives an
example of imitative narration in book 3 of the Republic. He takes example from
Homer’s “The Iliad” in which priest chrysies urges. In this reference Homer
speaks on behalf of chrysies himself. The narration becomes imitative on the
other hand if Homer uses the direct method and tells about chrysies to reader
directly, the narration become a simple one.
Plato observes that in all epics and classical
poetry narration tends to be imitative. When we read Plato’s comment on poets
and poems, we come across three aspects of Plato’s personality.
(1)
Plato as philosopher: says that the real is the ideational.
(2)Plato
as moralist: Plato worried about the conflict between the good and bad, and
says that the poet should avoid depicting evil character in their poems. He
says that only virtuous people should be taken as characters in literary work.
As moralist Plato was the lover of truth and for him knowing truth was only
object of his life. Plato considers poetry useful only as a means of achieving
this state that is, only useful if it helps one to become a batter person, and
if it does not, it should be expelled from the community. He states that, the
good poet cannot compos well unless he knows his subject. And he who does not
have this knowledge can never be a poet. Plato says of imitative poetry and
homer, men is net to be reverenced more than the truth. Plato says this because
he believes that homer speaks of many things of which he has no knowledge; just
as the painter who paints a picture of a bed does not necessary know how to
make bed. His point is that in order to copy of a imitate correctly, one must
have knowledge off the original. Plato says that imitation is twice removed
from the truth. Stories that are untrue have no value, as no untrue story
should be told in the city. He says that nothing can be learned from imitative
poetry.
(3)Plato
as social reformer: Plato though about the welfare of society in which he was
born and brought up. He visualized that ideal state in which he wanted to
prepare ideal citizens. Plato says that the stories which affect the minds of
the children adversely should not be allowed. The bad literature spoils the
mind of people and such literature is not worthy to be called literature at all.
Plato says that there should be censorship on literary works and those works
that depict vices of human life should be discarded.
· Aristotle’s reply
He seems to be more open
minded and liberal in thinking about poetry and poets. He was known for his
critical treatise 1) The Poetics 2) The Rhetoric dealing with art of poetry and
art of speaking. Plato speaks as if he were a strict puritan, where as he
welcome all the innovative ideas regarding poetry. Aristotle has written the
book entitled “The poetics” in which he was commented upon the nature and
function of poetry. He talks about all fine arts in general. He not only talks
about poetry but also about painting and music. The poetic is not merely commentary
or judgment on the poetic art. When Aristotle discusses poetry, menace all
literary forms like Epic, Tragedy, Comedy etc. he discus the six part of
tragedy. He talks about nature and function of tragedy, Role of plot in tragedy
and the theory of catharsis. He talks about the three unities, unity of time,
unity of place, unity of action. Aristotle says that plot is the soul of
tragedy.
Aristotle begins his
discourse by admitting that all arts are imitation. In other words Aristotle
says that all arts are inevitable representational. Aristotle agrees with Plato
in calling poet an imitator and creative art, imitation. He imitates one of the
three objects things as they were things as they are said /thought to be or
things as they ought to be. In other words imitates what is part of present,
what is commonly believed and what is ideal. Aristotle believes that there is
natural pleasure in imitation. It is this pleasure in imitation that enables
the child to learn his earliest lesson in speech and conduct from those around
him. Aristotle does not agree with Plato in- ‘pets imitation is twice removed
from reality and hence illusion of truth. To prove his point he compares poetry
with history. He says that poetry is an imitation of an imitation twice removed
from reality but it is not the carbon copy of the physical things. He says that
if poet gives something less than life, Plato missed to see that art conveys something
more than life. According to Aristotle a thinking in seen in a work of art from
the poet’s pint of view and the poet conveys his vision of life in a work of
art. He says that these fine arts defer from one another in three ways. They
are difference of kind in their means of difference is in the objector in the
manner of their imitation.
conclusion
Aristotle was the follower
of Plato but he was not agreeing with Plato in some point. Plato gives theory
of imitation and he also says that poets are liar they represents bad thing in
poem that is why port should be banished from ideal state. Aristotle favors poet and poem. He also says
that imitation is necessary for the literary work.
