What Happens When Tragedy Makes Us Weep?

The chapter's central question

『Poetics』 briefly states that tragedy achieves catharsis of such emotions through pity and fear. Tragedy is not a story of an entirely evil person being punished, but rather shows how characters like us fall in a tangle of error and fate. By seeing the misfortune of others, the audience learns the human vulnerability that ‘that could happen to me too.’

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In 『Poetics』, Aristotle explains why we feel relieved and purified after crying while watching a sad movie or tragedy. This is the famous ‘Katharsis’.

While watching a great tragedy, we sympathize with the protagonist's misfortune and experience the fear that 'that kind of fall could happen to me, too.' However, unlike being overwhelmed in the midst of a real-life disaster, in a well-written story, you can follow the causes, choices, and consequences of events to the end. What was a vague emotion becomes an orderly experience.

Aristotle did not explain at length what exactly the process of catharsis was, and various interpretations followed in later generations, including purification, discharge, clarification, and education. What is clear is that tragedy does not just stimulate emotions, but also brings about a change in the audience that allows them to better feel and understand pity and fear.

Context and nuance

Aristotle's theory of emotions is scattered in 『Rhetoric』, 『Nicomachean Ethics』, and 『Poetics』. Each of the three works looks at emotions from different perspectives: persuasion, character, and tragedy. What they have in common is that emotions are not just noise, but experiences with a reason and an object that cause us to see and judge the world in a certain way.

The meaning of catharsis has long been debated: purification, discharge, clarification, education, etc. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that crying while watching a sad movie automatically removes emotional ‘toxins’. A safer interpretation is that well-formed stories reframe vague emotions into objects and meaningful experiences.

Do not oversimplify it this way

There is no need to say that Aristotle knew in advance all the answers to today's psychology. His physiology and social assumptions have limitations of the times. Nevertheless, the way in which emotions were analyzed as events intertwined with physical states, objects, beliefs, and behavioral impulses remains powerful. It is more accurate to find similarities between the insights of the original text and the explanations of modern science, but not to equate them with each other.

Philosophy in life

Have you ever been angry and unable to do anything for the whole day because of the other person's crooked tone of voice, even though it was nothing special?

Catharsis once a day: Purify the emotions accumulated in your heart by honestly pouring them out into your emotional diary.

Primary-source guide

Primary guide: Rhetoric II.1–11, Nicomachean Ethics II, and Poetics 6 and 13–14.

Pathos Editorial · Reviewed 2026-09-12