Hamlet, read as a Dialectic form.

 

Prepared By: Chennur Amrutha Valli Reddy

Roll No: 38

Semester 1

‘Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.’

                                                                                Friedrich Schiller.

 

Hamlet.

Hamlet is the longest play of William Shakespeare, the Father of English Literature. It is the story of a Prince named Hamlet from Denmark, who is told by the ghost of his father to take revenge of his death, but at the very same time, not to give any woe to his mother, who is now married to the executioner of his father.  The whole play depicts the psychological conflict that the son faces in taking the revenge. The atmosphere of revenge is very much alive in the air of the play. Every son in the play is desperate to take revenge of his father’s death. Hence, Hamlet is instigated to take revenge as soon as possible.

 

The beauty of the play lies in the delay of taking revenge. There are many questions which pop up in the mind of the Prince regarding the assassination of his dear father. He is surrounded by many anonymous questions. This play is about a protagonist who set out on a journey to find the answers to the miscellaneous questions that constantly rise in his mind. When, Hamlet acquires the answers of these questions, he again sets on a journey to take revenge of his father’s death and give justice to his soul.

 

In this very course, the audience is the only eyewitness of innumerable deaths that take place on stage. The wind of suspense is very much around in every scene of the play. It ultimately touches the heart of the spectator, and gives place to pity and fear in the minds of the audience.  To make the feeling more dominant, Shakespeare has also employed supernatural elements like ‘Ghost’ in his play.  Nature adds to the beauty of play. It can also be said that nature is personified as fear throughout the play. 

 

Hamlet is rich of symbolisms. We find most of the characters in the play to be surrounded by the clouds of death. Yet, the characters are full of gallant and live to their fullest. The scenes of graveyard are found in all the five acts. Hence, the tone of the play is very much ironic, melancholic, dark, passionate, contemplative, violent and desperate. All the characters with revenge motif are in the thirst of the culprit’s blood. A trap is set by each one of them to hunt the criminal. We see all such characters fighting with their death with the strong passion to live.  But, nature had its own ways. All the characters are stuck in trap of nature ultimately.  Death has ruled upon them and made them the poor slaves of their own guilt.

 

 

Dialectic Form.

 

The very beauties of the writers lie in ornamenting their language with the use of different Figures of speech. He also amuses the readers with the hidden meanings that he gives in his texts. The readers are amazed by the symbolisms that are employed by them. In the very act of symbolisms, nature is personified. Many other symbols can also be used, such as food, places, situations and many more. The difference between the lay man and the creative writer is he employs the words in a creative manner by pouring life to his imaginations. He nurtures them by portraying different emotions through words and making every scene very lively and appealing to the audience.

 

Hamlet is the best example of the dialectic form. The intensions of Shakespeare as such, might not have been to give multi meaning to this long tragedy of his. But, he has succeeded in giving it to the audience.  The book can be read from the perspectives like, feministic, psychological, dialectic, philosophical and etc. Hence, this adds to the beauty of the play. The very important aspect of the play is the dialectic form. As it is commonly said,

 

                 Every word has a meaning of its own in its own context.

Every word written by Shakespeare adds to the meaning of the play.  It has its own symbolisms. It rather has its own trap. Readers are tricked by Shakespeare. Some of the dialogues seem to be of the protagonists. But, in fact they are spoken by the antagonists. The cosmos had its own trap for all the characters.  They all knowingly or unknowingly walked on the path of death. They set a trap for other characters. But, they themselves were entangled in the trap. They dig the grave for others. But unfortunately, they themselves were buried in the graves. People tend to believe that whatever is witnessed by us is the truth. But, in fact it wasn’t.  Hence, this also gave place to innumerable deaths in the play. At the same time, there were some intellectual characters, which seemed to see and know the things.  Here, I would go forward by illustrating the four categories of the dialectic form.  They are,

 

1.     The Trap Imagery.

2.     The Cosmological trap.

3.     Seeing and Being.

4.     Seeing and Knowing.

 

The Trap Imagery.

We all know the meaning of the word trap. Trap is to catch a person with a trick. Here, we see Shakespeare is trapping his spectators with the mesmerizing dialogues and the script. The flow of the language is very philosophical. As the protagonist of the play - Prince Hamlet - is a philosopher we get trapped in his language assuming all the philosophical and beautiful dialogues to be delivered by him.

                    ‘Though inclination be as sharp as will,

                    My stronger will defeats my strong intent,

                  And, like a man to double business bound,

                 I stand in pause where I shall first begin,’

                                                                 Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3.

The above lines seem to be very much philosophical. We mistake it to be the dialogue spoken by Hamlet. But, the fact is the above lines are spoken by Claudius who in the dark night confesses his crime. He is guilty of the crime committed by him. He prays for the mercy of the God. Hence, we believe that a criminal in a very rare case confesses his crime as he is always in a fear that he may be caught red handed. But, the antagonist here took a daring step. Trap imagery works very actively here in this dialogue.

 

We see the characters setting the trap for others. Initially, Prince Hamlet is the one who sets the trap just to give justice to the soul of his late father. But, we witness that Claudius is also planning a trap. This trap is very much similar to the Chess game ( political ). Hamlet is playing the game. But, Claudius is adding more characters to the game. For example, Claudius invites the friends of King Hamlet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just to make them the spy of his nephew/son. He wants them to know the real problem with Hamlet. He wants to know if it is a political issue or a personal issue. Therefore, he orders them to be around the Prince and take notes of his mood swings. Hence, it is also a trap set by Claudius. None of them are aware of the trap set by Claudius. Hamlet wants the drama company to play an act which is very much similar to the deeds done by his uncle Claudius.  He sets the trap only to know if the ghost was of his late father King Hamlet or not. If his uncle was the one who is the culprit of his father’s death. Claudius ultimately gets caught in the trap as he orders the drama company to stop the drama from then and audience was able to see the clear change in his facial expressions.

 

Claudius kills his own brother, the late King Hamlet just to get his wife and throne. He pours the poison into the ears of the King. He bluffs the people of Denmark by telling them King died by the bite of the poisonous snake when he was sleeping in the Orchard. This is also a trap set by Claudius to get power and at the same time, the Queen. 

 

Polonius, one of the best friends of King Claudius also sets a trap for Prince Hamlet. He sends his daughter Ophelia to him so that Claudius could witness the love which has blossomed between them and find a reason for his mad behaviour. Hamlet is very much aware of this trap. Hence, he disrespects Ophelia and walks away from there. But, Polonius does not accept his defeat even then. He sketches out another plan to trap Prince Hamlet. He decides to hide himself in the room of Queen and the mother of Hamlet – Gertrude without their knowledge. He wanted to listen to their conversation and inform the King about it. But, he is killed by Hamlet. Hence, he gets trapped in his own plan.

 

Claudius after learning that probably Prince Hamlet is aware of his guilt, he decides to get him killed. He sends him to England with his spies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He writes a letter to the King of England saying, to kill the one holding the letter immediately. But, Hamlet reads the letter before hand, and re - writes the letter, saying to kill the duo who hands over the letter to him. Hence, the duo Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get trapped by the Prince.

 

Laertes is instigated to take revenge of his father’s death by Claudius. He is very much ready to do so as he loses his sister Ophelia who is not able to recover from the depression of losing her father and finally drowns herself in the madness. Thus, Laertes determines to take revenge of his loved ones death by killing the one who is responsible for all the chaos. Claudius helps him to do so, as he also wants to get rid of Hamlet. He sets a trap again for Hamlet by betting on him in the fence fight against Laertes. He wants Laertes to kill Hamlet by fighting with the poisonous sword. In the very act, their swords get exchanged and even Laertes is killed in the hands of Hamlet. Hamlet is also killed. When Hamlet comes to know about the trap laid by Claudius, he kills Claudius. Gertrude also becomes the victim of the trap. She drinks the drink with poison which is for Hamlet. Hence, the whole royal family gets destroyed. In this manner, we see the trap imaginary very much actively functioning in the play. 

 

The Cosmological Trap.

 

From the very beginning of the drama, we see something which is mysterious. The atmosphere of fear is carried out throughout the play because of the mysterious elements present in the play. The audience of those days wanted super natural elements to be involved in the play. They believe in all such stuff. Hence, Shakespeare has employed such elements in some of his plays like Macbeth.

In cosmological trap, we see the intervention of Nature in trapping the simple beings. In the very beginning of the play, Act 1, Scene 1, we see the ghost of the late King Hamlet which is very much visible to all the characters around during the night time. The guards are very much frightened every night as it is their chief guest during their routine rounds.  Horatio on seeing the ghost for the first time, gets pale and thoughtful. He wants to know if anything is troubling him. But, the ghost doesn’t talk to him. It is to his only son Prince Hamlet that the ghost opens up. He tells the Prince to take revenge without hurting his mother.

 

In the same manner, we see the entry of the ghost for two or three times. But the fact is the ghost is seen by Hamlet only. Ghost is in the room of Hamlet’s mother and his ex-wife, Gertrude on the same night when Polonius is killed. The ghost is very much present for Hamlet. But, at the same time, it is omnipresent as it is visible only to Prince Hamlet.

 

As it was said before, whole cosmos motivated the Prince to take revenge. We see Fortinbras marching to invade the patch of ground which of no worth in Poland. Hamlet is then forced to think, if he is really working upon the task given to him by his late father. Therefore, he decides to take revenge at any cost. This is also the intervention of cosmos as we are not informed if Fortinbras had any plants to be worked upon to invade a part of Poland.

 

The other incident that can be related here is about the attack of pirates on Hamlet. If the attack would not have taken place, then there was a probability of Hamlet being killed. The role of cosmos is very much prevalent here. Even before Hamlet goes for the fence fight with Laertes, something was preventing him to go. But, he goes only because he felt that he is responsible for the plight of Laertes because; he lost his father as he killed him and his sister as she was driven to madness after the death of her father.

 

 

 
In the previous topic, we see many people laying trap for others. But, they themselves got trapped in it. Cosmos had its own sketch to be implemented. Hence, it made the poor people puppets and got its plan into action. In a way, we can also conclude that it is cosmos which is responsible for the massive blood shed at the end of the play. 

 

Seeing and Being.

We are often told by our elders that we should believe only the things which are seen by us not the things which are narrated to us. But, it is not so always. This is play is the best example of it. Claudius seems to be the virtuous character to everyone in the play except, Hamlet and Horatio. (The ghost – King Hamlet) But, the fact was quite opposite to it. He planned intrigues to kill his own nephew/son. When Hamlet tries to frame him in front of his mother, she is not ready to believe him.

 

Mother and Queen Gertrude is not ready to believe Hamlet because, she considers him to be insane. She believes that the loss of his father had mentally affected him. It is not only she who believes so, but almost all the characters except Horatio all the others tend to believe that he is an insane. This was the illusion of the people.

 

The love that Claudius showered on Hamlet and the announcement that he made in Act1, Scene 2, of making Hamlet the next King was to win the heart of his lady love and the public. Laertes was also trapped by the good mask that he carried on his face. Making Laertes as his weapon, he plans to kill Hamlet. But, Laertes realizes this at the end of the play when he was counting his last breath.

 

Claudius not only cheated Hamlet, but he also cheated his brother King Hamlet. The portrayal of the two brothers in the room of Gertrude shows the intimacy and affection between both the brothers. None of them would have thought even in their wildest dreams that Claudius could ever kill his brother. Although, we see the character repenting for his deeds, we see at the very moment not able to sacrifice the power and the lust for the Queen.

 

We also see some downfalls in the character of the Queen Gertrude. Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 2, tells the players to act the scene of The Murder of Gonzaga. From this act, he wants to know if Claudius is the real culprit who killed his father as the scene resembles to the death scene of his father Late King Hamlet. In the act, we see the Queen promising the King to stay as her widow even after the death of the King. But, after the sudden death of the King, she remarries. In Act 1, scene 2, we see that Hamlet is very much upset with his mother because he believes that she has deceived his father by giving him fake promises and remarrying his own brother.

 

Seeing and Knowing.

Our eyes may bluff us sometime, but not our experience. Our experience helps in identifying the genuine person in the crowd of frauds. It helps us in calculating the intensions of the person. It certifies the person according to his deeds. Rarely, we find it miscalculating like our eyes because; our eyes justify a person looking him from outside but our experiences makes its calculations by peeping into the soul of the being rather than his actions. Hamlet is the character who is worthy enough of scanning all the souls of the play.

 

Hamlet doubted the character of Claudius even before the intervention of ghost in the play. He believed that might be, it is Claudius who is responsible for the sudden death of his father. When Claudius sends his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy Hamlet and let him know about his madness, Hamlet immediately identifies them as King’s spies and calls them Sponge. When Polonius wants to tell King Claudius that Hamlet is in love with his daughter, Ophelia, he sends his daughter to Hamlet while the duo was hiding them. Hamlet is very much aware of the plan sketched to trap him. Hamlet knew that Denmark was a swamp. He was very much aware of the political activities which took place. Hamlet is very much alert to every action that takes place around him. The spirit of asking several questions gave him the capacity to identify a person’s true colour.

 

The other character who is as genuine as Hamlet is Horatio. He knew all the secrets of Hamlet. Yet, he did not deceive him. He stood by his friend’s side in thick and thin times. He supported him in every manner. After Hamlet, it was Horatio who knew about the things around the Kingdom. But, he never interfered in them until he was told to do so. He fulfilled all his responsibilities as the best friend of Hamlet and also as a responsible citizen, took care of a Price of the Kingdom and the son of a worried mother.   

Plato's Objection and Aristotle's Defence to POETRY.

Republic.

               ‘Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere’

                                                                      Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Republic is a work written in a Socratic dialogue form around 380 BC in Ancient Greek by Plato, the pupil of Socrates. It is considered to be one of the Plato’s best known works which is deeply intellectual and historical rooted in philosophy and political theory. The whole work of Republic is written in ten books in a dia. Socrates is used as the mouthpiece by the author. Though Plato mainly tried to define and defend Justice in The Republic, it also gives us a view of theories in the field of epistemology and metaphysics.  

 

                                ‘Justice is the excellence of the Soul.’

                                                                                                  Socrates.

 

Plato creates an ideal and efficient state which habitats people of three classes. They are guardians, auxiliaries and craftspeople. Each and every class has its own role to play for the well-being and the uplift meant of the society. In book I, Plato tries to define the word Justice. There are different arguments that come up on the screen. But, all have some or the other loop holes. Finally, we see the apt definition given by Socrates in book II. In book III, Plato throws light on the system of education and he also gives some space for art. In all the other books except the last one, there is a discussion on the welfare of the state, the then prevailing issues regarding the government, and the possible solutions. Now, in book X, Plato raises the issue of the imitative poetry.

 

The views of Plato on the poet’s imitative poetry are not accepted by many of the critics. Even the disciple of Plato, Aristotle does not accept his view points. Thus, as a reply to his allegations against the poets and the poetry, he wrote the treatise named Poetics. The greatest defect in the Plato’s Republic is the absence of free will and freedom. When both are not given to a person, he would not be able to think in an innovative way. Thus, there won’t be new inventions and all great studies would go futile.  They are merely the puppets in the hands of the ruler. Hence, the nation described by Plato in Republic is deeply flawed and would fail to prove itself as a republic nation.

Poetics.

Poetics is the first philosophical treatise of dramatic theory written by Aristotle the pupil of Plato, as a defence on poetry. It mainly focuses on literary theory. He has tried to differentiate the two types of drama – Tragedy and Comedy. He gives us the account on how they came into existence. This book has laid the canons for writing the Tragedy. The Greek tragedies qualify themselves as the tragedies as they follow all the rules. They are called Classical works. Hence, Poetics is a classical work. 

 

Aristotle mainly deals with Tragedy in this Greek work of his. It is believed that Poetics originally was written in two books. The former one dealt with Tragedy and Epic whereas, the later dealt with Comedy and other subjects. But, the book on comedy seems to be incomplete and unrevised. Poetics gave us different literary terms like catharsis, hamartia, hubris, purgation etc. Aristotle stresses on the need of Theory Of Unities in the work of Art. Hence, he says Plot is the SOUL of Tragedy.

 

 Aristotle had some issues with the Plato just because he gave the picture of poets in a derogatory manner in his Republic. So, Aristotle stepped forward to lay the primary canons for the literary work of art. But, many of the descendants also had issues with the canons that were laid by him. So, new canons were made so that all the new form of art also got place in literature. 

Example: Shakespeare’s drama never qualified the Canons laid by Aristotle. So, the high class never went to appreciate his dramas as they believed that his dramas were specially to entertain mass rather than class. So, John Dryden had to come forward with new set of Canons in his work named, Essay on Dramatic Poesy which gave name and fame to both, William Shakespeare as a creative writer and John Dryden as a critic.

 

Plato’s Objection to Poetry.

 

Plato in his book Republic puts many allegations on the poets. He says that the poets should be discarded from the society. Plato says that poetry is inspirational and not rational. They are possessed because, the poetry that they give to the public is written by them in frenzy state of mind. The problem which Plato raises here is that this frenzy is passed on to viewers, listeners etc which is very harmful. Hence, it leads the activation of inappropriate emotions which is ethically incorrect.

 

Plato further says that the poetry implicates the wrong depiction. He accuses the poets to be liars because, Gods are presented in a bad light and the real world is an unchanging world. For example, Gods are shown equal to or lesser then human beings. Therefore, Gods are portrayed in a degrading manner which does not provoke their devotes to worship him. The world shown in the poetry is very much like a mortal world. They brought the change in the unchanging world. Thus he believed that it was harmful to follow such poets who spread inaccuracies and crook the Soul of the period. Further, Plato believed that poets are imitators. Hence, they are immoral as they give immoral depictions to the people. Plato objects poetry because of three primary reasons. They are,

Education.

Philosophy.

Morality.

 

Education.

Plato believes that the literature celebrates all the vices and evil habits. It shows God in a derogatory manner. Most of the Greek works always had a plot ready. The plots were taken from myths. Myths always had place for Gods. Gods were shown to be fighting and sometimes indulging in immoral activities.  All such vices crept into the works of Literature. Hence Plato believed that such types of works should not be taught at schools.

Plato further said that children would fail to differentiate between good and bad. They won’t be able accept the virtue and reject the vice by themselves.

For Example:- 

1.      If the students are taught the Epic poem the Mahabharata in their schools, might be, there are chances that children may draw a conclusion that wars are indeed virtuous to be fought. They fail to understand the true intentions behind the war.

2.     When students are told about the Epic poem the Ramayana, students may make the misconceptions of Ravana’s abducting Seeta out of  love for her. Hence, they may take a wrong lesson from it and there are chances that they may do anything for their love tomorrow. 

From this, we can clearly understand what Plato meant by showing Gods in a bad light. He wanted the poets to make some type of renovation and show God as superior to human beings rather than depicting him to be equal or less than human beings.

Plato believed that poetry enriches the emotional side of our mind. Education is to enrich the mind of reason rather than the emotional mind. In those days, French people used to fight with the monstrous Spartans. To fight against them, Greeks needed not only courage but also mental stability. Plato believed that poetry would disable the Greek children in the aspect of reasoning and would make them more emotional. Hence, he did not want students to read poetry.     

  

Philosophy.

Plato says that there are four types of world. The very first one is Truth. We do not know what this world is like. We just can imagine this world. Hence, this world just exists in our imagination. Then comes the second world named Ideal world. This world is the imitation of the Truth world. We can call the world to be an ideal one, only if it qualifies all the criteria set by the True world. Then comes the Real/Phenomenon world. This world is an imitation of Ideal world. This is the world where we live in. It is hence a mortal world. We want this real world to live like an ideal world. Thus, we imitate it. Now comes the Literary world.

 

                        ‘ Literature is the mirror of the Society.’

                                              Or

                       ‘ Literature is the X Ray of the society.’

Literary world is created by the poets in their literary works. It is the imitation of the real/phenomenon world. The poets present the world as it is rather than modifying it and putting up a makeup of moralities and philosophy. Hence, Literature is thrice removed from reality.           

From the above argument, it is clear that Literature is an imitative art. In fact, it is an imitation of imitations. Hence, Plato calls the Literature to be an inferior art. He says,

‘The imitative art is an inferior who marries an inferior and has inferior offspring.’

He further says that poets write the poem in the frenzy state of mind. They depict the world with all the flaws or in other words, they portray the world as it is. They do not colour the world with morality or rather preach the public by imparting a valuable message. Through their work, they hence pass on the madness to the public.

 

The other issue that Plato has is, he wants the poets to depict the world which is unchangeable. He believes that the true world is a stable world. It would not change like this mortal world of that is pictured by the poets.  But, poets imitate the Real /Phenomenon world which is a mortal or rather a changeable world. In a word, Plato had a problem with the imitation that was done in their works For him, imitation was a sin. .   

 

Morality.

Plato is a philosopher by profession. He tries to give a philosophical argument here. He says, the works should have some moral thoughts and moreover, some morality also should be present in the work. The main theme of writing literary works is to preach the public. But, as he has already slapped the poets saying that they are imitating he objects the poets in all the above fields.

For Example: - When the readers read Hamlet, there is the absence of morality in the play. He does not have any moral lessons to take from the work. In fact, he is left with many questions. The reader may get baffled with the concept of to be or not to be.

                           When one reads, The Oedipus, we do not find even a pinch of morality. Oedipus marries his own mother after killing his own father. Hence, he is the murderer of his father. When his mother comes to know about this fact, she kills herself.

                             If we come to Paradise Lost, the whole concept is taken from the Bible, chapter 1 named ‘Genesis.’ It is not more than two or three pages. But, John Milton extents the whole thing into an epic poem. He adds many imaginary flavours in the work.       

 

Hence, in all the above points, we have seen all the objections raised by Plato. Now, let’s give a look to Aristotle’s defence.

 

Aristotle’s defence.

As many allegations have been put on poets by Plato, Aristotle, the disciple of Plato comes forward in the defence of the poets. He agrees to the fact that art is an imitation of the real world imitated from ideal world which is further imitated from the world of Truth. But, Aristotle says that art gives something more which is actually absent in the real world. It is not simply the imitation of the world but, it is the imitation of selected events and characters in a coherent manner.

For instance, Plato says art is simply the imitation. Aristotle says that we all have the image of chair in our mind. It is a thing with four legs and two arms. It has a back to rest and seat to sit upon. Now, when an artist is told to imitate a chair, he will draw the chair as described above. But, he will further add some shades, or colours to the image. The shades or the colour added to the chair is the creativity. Hence, Aristotle says that Literature is an imitation with creativity.

 

Now, the world created by God himself is not a pure creation of his. It is also the imitation of the ideas that he got in his mind. When God created the world, he had an idea in his mind. When he sat to create it, he was in fact imitating the idea that prevailed in his mind. When he created the world, he was dissatisfied as he felt there is something which is lacking in his creativity. This means, all that which is in the form of an idea in our mind, cannot be imitated. Most of them, but yet something is left out to be imitated. Same happens with the poets. Hence, they say that they are not satisfied with their creative writing as they cannot find the place for all their emotions.

 

Plato now raises the issue that literature is not preaching to the public as it should have been its core idea. But, Aristotle says that the core idea of writing literature is just to amuse or rather give aesthetic pleasure to the readers. Just as Samuel Taylor Coleridge says, if literary work is able to give the aesthetic pleasure at the end and the whole journey has been enthusiastic then it is a true work of Literature. Moreover, Aristotle says, it is not the duty or literature to preach lessons or give some moral thoughts. It is in fact a wrong question to the literature. Teaching is the duty of morality and Philosophy. Literature is an art and hence, it has to be judged with the artistic parameters. Plato believes in ‘Art for Life sake’ whereas Aristotle believes in ‘Art for Art sake.’

 

Plato also feared that students may loose the mental ability of reasoning and start being more emotional if they were taught poetry. But,  Aristotle through the theory of ‘Catharsis’ (purgation of feelings) proved that people tend to clear excess emotional feelings in them after reading poetry rather than becoming more emotional. When people read a work, they sometimes tend to become more emotional and start crying. When they undergo this process, they cleanse off the excess of emotions in them. This therefore gives them a relief and further makes them feel more comfortable.

 

The main point that Plato forgot while making his arguments is that Literature is a subject which is quite different from Philosophy. The main object of Philosophy is to give some philosophical views which might also preach people. But, it is not fare to expect the same thing from literature. If literature also does the same duty of Philosophy, then what is the difference between the two subjects ? Literature has its own criteria and canons from where the works have to be judged. If we reject a song just because it is not a painting and we reject a painting just because it does not sing, it is simply ridiculous. Hence, all the arguments of Plato were futile.

 

Conclusion.

 

Apart from the allegations that Plato has put on the poets, the literary world is  very much thankful to him as he is the one who laid the foundation stone for all the critics. As Alfred North Whitehead says, “… all subsequent philosophy is merely a footnote to Plato…”  So, it is because of whom, Aristotle had framed canons for the literature. Plato did not want the poets to imitate because, the period In which he was living in, was full of issues. There was political instability in the state. This can also be one of the prime reasons behind penning down the book, Republic. Education was in a poor condition. Hence, Plato wanted the children to study Philosophy because, it gives knowledge and lessons for life. Women were considered to be an inferior. There was no equality in the state. All this is because of poor education. Plato was slapping all the allegations on the poets because; the son of Greek literature had set down. Hence there were no innovative thoughts. Even the innovative thinkers were imprisoned and were harassed. Thus, confusion prevailed all over the world of Greek. 

Aristotle had the objection with the interpretation of Imitation that was done by Plato. Hence, he wanted to give an another interpretation of Mimesis which means imitation. Poetry is not copying but making. It is from the Greek word ‘Poien’ that the word poet has emerged. Poien means to make. Hence, it means that a poet does not copy but make a poem. Logically, Mimesis means making not copying. Now, the process of Mimesis, leads to Mathesis. Mathesis is a Greek word which means to understand. Now, the process of making something leads to the understanding of different aspects of the world. Now, this knowledge is to be passed on. So, according to Aristotle, poets are simply passing on their understanding to the world.

 

 If Plato said that poets are imitating wrong things, which influences people in a negative manner, then the point that was overlooked by him is, poetry not only depicts the wrong things in the world, but it also gives place to the moral and worthy actions.

For Example: - As we have already seen in the above example about the Epic poem the Ramayana, there was the depiction of wrong and immoral things. But, the noteworthy fact of the poem in the Ram Rajya. Even now, people talk about the rajya being the most ideal one under the kingship of Shri Ram.  

If there was bad which was present in the poetry according to Plato, then there was also some place for good in the poetry. Aristotle saw the poetry as the medium through which Catharsis was done. The very much excessive emotions were washed away through the process and moreover we were fully balanced with the apt amount of emotions which were present in our body. Hence, our body became a healthy one which had equal amount of all the four fluids in it.