Classical Literary Criticism

PLATO
 • The story of Western literary criticism begins
in ancient Greece with the great tragedies of
Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, and the
comedies of Aristophanes.
Classical • During this time, poets, philosophers,
Literary rhetoricians, grammarians, and critics laid
down many of the basic terms, concepts, and
Criticism questions that were to shape the future of
literary criticism.
• These terms and concepts evolved all the
way through to our own century.

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Plato
• Plato was the Greek philosopher who laid the foundations of Western
philosophy.
• It is stated that Western philosophy is “a series of footnotes” to Plato.
• Plato gave initial formulation to the most fundamental questions of
literary criticism.
• Most of Plato’s philosophy is expounded in dialogue form.
• Socrates is usually the main speaker in these dialogues.

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 The Republic

• The Republic is a Socratic dialogue, authored by Plato around 375 BC .

• The Republic has been Plato’s most famous and widely read dialogue.
• According to Plato, the world that we perceive around us is the world of
imitation or shadow of the ideal world. When a poet imitates this world, his
creation, obviously is twice removed from reality.
• For Plato, poets are away from using their reason whereas philosophers use
their reason to get the truth so they are closer to reality.
• Poets, according to Plato, cannot be good teachers. They attribute human
qualities, behaviors and follies to gods and goddesses.
 Plato’s Theory of Mimesis
Plato's Theory of Ideas is his most original philosophical achievement.

1) Forms or Ideas are real entities. There is a world of ideas which is real. The world we live in is
the copy of that world of ideas. When an artist does copy the nature or anything in it, his art
becomes something that is twice removed from reality.

2) There is a great variety of forms, including the forms of classes of things (house, dog, man etc.);
of qualities (whiteness, roundness etc.); of relations (equality, resemblances etc.); of values
(goodness, beauty etc.).

3) The Forms belong to a realm of abstract entities, a "heaven of ideas," separable from concrete
particulars in space and time. The separation of the forms and their exemplifications is commonly
referred to as the Platonic dualism.

4) The forms are superior to particulars in degree of reality and value; the forms are the
realities of which particulars are mere appearances. The form is a model or archetype of which
the particular is a copy.

5) The forms are non-mental and subsist independently of any knowing mind.
On what grounds Plato
condemns poetry?
Plato condemns poetry on the basis of following
reasons:
a) Art (poetry) is twice removed from reality.
• Things are conceived as ideas before they take
practical shape as things. Thus, the objects of the
world are once removed from reality.
• Art (literature, painting, sculpture) being the
reproduction of these things, is twice removed from
reality.
• Therefore, poetry takes men away from reality rather
than towards it. So, poetry helps neither to mold
character nor to promote the well-being of the state--
the two things by which Plato judged all human
endeavors.
On what grounds Plato
condemns poetry?
b) Poetic inspiration
• The poet writes because he is 'inspired' not
because he has thought long over a subject.
• According to Plato this sudden outpouring of the
soul cannot be a reliable substitute for truths
based on reason. Even if there is profound truth
in poetry it needs to be subjected to a
further test-- the test of reason.
• Poetry therefore cannot take the place of
philosophy.
On what grounds Plato
condemns poetry?
c) The emotional appeal to poetry
• Poetry is a product of inspiration rather
than of reason and therefore it appeals to
the heart rather than to the intellect.
• An individual, who is in search of truth,
can never be guided by poetry.
• Plato illustrates this by referring to the
tragic poetry of his age, in which weeping
and wailing were indulged to the full to
move the hearts of the spectators. So,
poetry ‘fed and watered’ the passions
instead of drying them up.
On what grounds Plato
condemns poetry?
d) It’s Non-moral character
• Finally, Plato indicts poetry for its lack of
concern with morality.
• In its treatment of life, it treats both virtue and
vice alike, sometimes making the one and
sometimes making the other triumph
indifferently, without regard for moral
considerations.
• It pained Plato to see virtue often coming to
grief in the literature of his time. The epics of
Homer, the narrative works of Hesiod, and the
tragedies of Sophocles . Such literature,
according to Plato, corrupted both the citizen
and the state.
Plato’s comments on Drama
Plato’s observations on poetry are equally applicable to drama. In
addition, he makes a few more comments on the dramatic art.
a) Its appeal to baser Instincts
• Unlike poetry, drama is to be staged. The audience consists of
heterogeneous multitude. To please them all, the dramatist
introduces quarrels and lamentations in tragedy and imitation of
thunder and cries of beasts in comedy. Such a drama is capable of
arousing man’s bad instincts. Plato did disapprove such plays in
his REPUBLIC.
Plato’s comments on Drama
b) Effects of Impersonation
• The actors in a play have to impersonate various characters. Such
characters include thieves, murderers, cowards and knaves.
• Constant impersonation results in letting the evil qualities into
the actor’s own nature. Plato argues that even acting the part of an
innocent character is harmful.
• Constant impersonation represses individuality and leads to the
weakening of one’s character. He admits that impersonation of
noble heroes will stimulate virtuous actions such as courage,
wisdom, virtue etc. in the actor.
Plato’s comments on Drama
c) Tragic and Comic pleasure

• The question ‘what is it in a scene that causes pleasure?’, had occurred to Plato. He gave an
explanation of his own.
• Human nature, he says, is a mixture of heterogeneous feelings such as anger, envy, fear, grief
etc. A man weeps or get angry because it pleases him to lose his temper or to go on weeping.
• In comedy the pleasure takes the form of laughter at what we see on the stage. We laugh at a
coward who pretends to be a brave man. Such pleasure, according to Plato, is of negative kind
because it comes from the weakness of the character. We must pity him instead of laughing at
him.
• Also, Plato warns against too much pity and too much laughter. Plato here hits upon a
profound truth that no character can be comic unless he is lovable.