ASSIGNMENT

PAPER: 3

LITERARY CRITICISM: WESTERN-1:

TOPIC   :   “PLATO’S OBJECTION TO POETRY.”

NAME     :   BHALIYA UMA H.

ROLL NO:  02

SEM -1: M.A. PART-1

BATCH:  2010-2011

SUBMITTED TO:  DR. DILIP BARAD.

Department of English, Bhavnagar University.

v PLATO’S OBJECTION TO POETRY  :-

ANS:  Plato was the most distinguished disciple of Socrates. The 4^th cen BC to which he belonged was an age of inquiry and as such Plato’s chief interest was philosophical investigations which form the subject of his great works in form of dialogues. He was not a professed critic of literature and his critical observations are not found in any single book. They lie scattered in seven of his dialogues, more particularly in the Lon, the symposium, the republic and the laws.

    FIRST SYSTEMIC CRITIC   :-

Plato was the first systemic critic who inquired into the nature of imaginative literature and put forward theories which are both illuminating and provocative. He was himself a great poet and his dialogues are full of his gifted dramatic quality. His dialogues are the classic works of the world literature having dramatic, lyrical and fictional elements.

According to him all arts are imitative or mimetic in nature. He wrote in the republic that “ideas are the ultimate reality”. Things are conceived as ideas before they take practical shapes. So, ideas is original and the thing is copy of that idea of chair in his mind. Thus chair is once removed from reality. But painter’s chair is imitation of carpenter’s chair. So it is twice removed from reality. Thus artist / poet takes man away from reality rather than towards it. Thus artist deals in illusion.

     THREE MAIN OBJECTIONS  :-

Plato’s three main objections to poetry are that poetry is not ethical, philosophical and pragmatic. In other words, he objected to poetry from the point of view of education. From philosophical point of view and from moral point of view.

It is not ethical because it promotes undesirable passions, it is not philosophical because it does not provide true knowledge, and it is not pragmatic  because it is inferior to the practical arts and therefore has no educational value.

     ARISTOTLE STUDENT  :-

     Plato then makes a challenge to poets to defend themselves against his criticisms. Ironically it was Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle. Who was the first theorist to defend literature and poetry in his writing poetics. Throughout the republic Plato condemns art in all forms including literature or poetry. Despite the fact that he wrote, Plato advocates the spoken word over the written word. He ranks imitation on a lower plane than narrative, even though his own works read like dramatic scripts. It appears as though his reasoning is that imitation of reality is not in itself bad, but imitation without understanding and reason is.

    POETRY – FORMS OF ART  :-

Plato felt that poetry, like all forms of art, appeals to the inferior part of the soul, the irrational, emotional cowardly part, the reader of poetry is seduced into feeling undesirable emotions. To Plato, an appreciation of poetry is incompatible with an appreciation of reason, justice, and the search for truth. In the ion, he suggests that poetry causes needless lamentation and ecstasies at the imaginary events of sorrow and happiness. It number the faculty of reason for the time being, paralyses the balanced thought and encourages the weaker part of soul constituted of the baser impulses. Hence poetry has healthy function, and it cannot be called good.

    DRAMA-FORM OF LITERATURE  :-

To him drama is the most dangerous form of literature because the author is imitating things that he / she does not understand. Plato seemingly feels that no words are strong enough to condemn drama. Plato felt that all the world’s evils derived from one source: a faulty understanding of reality. Miscommunication, confusion and ignorance were facets of a corrupted comprehension of what Plato always strived for – truth.

    PLATO IS, A MORALIST  :-

·         Plato is, above all, a moralist.

·         his primary objective in the republic is  to come up with the most righteous, intelligent way to live one’s life and to convince other  to live this way everything eise should  conform in order to achieve this perfect state. Plato considers poetry useful only as a means of achieving this state. That is, only useful if it helps one to become a better person. And if it does not, it should be expelled from the community.

·        Plato’s question in book x is the intellectual status of literature. He states that, the good poet cannot compose 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, a man is not 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 chair does not necessarily know now to make a chair. His point is that in order to copy or imitate correctly. One must have knowledge of 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 states that nothing can be learned from imitative poetry.

    PLATO’S COMMENTARY ON POETRY IN REPUBLIC  :-

·         Plato’s commentary on poetry in republic is overwhelmingly negative.

·        Plato’s main concern about poetry is that children’s mind are too impressionable to be reading false tales and misrepresentations of the truth.

·        A young person cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal; anything that he receives into his mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models or virtuous thought. He is essentially saying that children cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality and this compromises their ability to discern right from wrong. Thus, children should not be exposed to poetry so that later in life they will be able to seek the truth without having a preconceived, or misrepresented, view of reality. Plato reasons that literature that portrayal the gods as behaving in immoral ways should be kept away from children, so that they will not be influenced to act the same way.

    MALE DOMINANCE OR FEMALE EXPLOITATION  :-

Another objection is that it is often viewed as portraying either male dominance or female exploitation. People argue that this should not be the way the world works; therefore it is not the truth. These claims sound much like the claims that Plato is trying to make when he asserts that certain poetry should be kept out of the hands of children. While the power of censorship can be abused, Plato seemed to believe that his stance is justified because he is trying to make children grow to be good, moral individuals. While Plato has some very negative views on the value of literature, he also states the procedures that he feels are necessary in order to change poetry and literature from something negative to something positive. He does feel that some literature can have redeeming values. Goog, truthful literature can educate instead of corrupting children. In the city Plato would allow only humans to the gods and praises to famous men. Plato does not wants literature to corrupt the mind; he wants it to display images of beauty and grace. Plato’s views may be deemed narrow – minded by today’s society. But one must remember that Plato lived over 2000 year’s age. He probably wrote republic with the best intentions for the people of his time. While his views on censorship and poetry may even seem outlandish today, Plato’s goal was to state what he judged to be the guidelines for a better human existence.

    PLATO’S OBJECTION TO POETRY FROM THE POINT OF VIEW EDUCATION  :-

a)     In “the republic” book ii – he condemns poetry as fostering evil habits and vices in children. Homer’s epics were part of studies. Heroes of epics “were not examples of sound or ideal morality. They were lusty, cunning, and cruel – war mongers. Even gods were no better.

b)    Plato writes: “if we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarreling among themselves as of all things the basest, no word should be said to them of the wars in the heaven, or of the plots and fighting of the gods against one another. For they are not true… if they would only believe as we would tell them that quarreling is unholy, and that never up to this time has there been ant quarreling between citizens… these tales must not be admitted into our state, whether they are supposed to have allegorical meaning or not”.

c)      Thus he objected on the ground that poetry does not cultivate good habits among children.

     OBJECTION FROM PHILOSOPHICAL POINT OF VIEW  :-

a)     In “the republic” book x: poetry does not lead to but drives us away form the realization of the ultimate reality – the truth.

b)     Philosophy is better than poetry because philosophy deals with ideal and poetry is twice removed from original idea.

c)      Plato says: “the imitator or maker of the image knows nothing of true existence; he knows appearance only... The imitative art is an inferior who marries an inferior and has inferior offspring”.

      OBJECTION FORM THE MORAL POINT OF VIEW  :-

a)     In the same book in “the republic”: soul of man has higher principles of reason as well as lower constituted of baser impulses and emotions. Whatever encourages and strengthens the rational principle is good, and emotional is bad.

b)     Poetry says: “then the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by nature made, nor is his art intended, to please or to affect the rational principle in the soul; but he will prefer the passionate and fitful temper, which is easily limited. And therefore we shall be right in refusing to admit him into a well-ordered state, because he awakwns and nourishes and strengthen the feelings and impairs the reason... Poetry feeds and waters the passion instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought to be controlled, if mankind are ever to increase in happiness and virtue”.

c)     These are Plato’s principal charge on poetry and objection to it. Before we pass on any judgment, we should not forget to keepm in view the time in which he lived. During his time:

These are Plato’s principal charge on poetry and objection to it, before we pass on any judgment. We should not forget to keep in view the time in which he lived. During his time:

·         political instability

·         Education was in sorry state. Homer was part of studies-misrepresented.

·        Women were regarded inferior – slavery.

·         Best time of Greek literature was over-corruption and degeneration in literature.

·         Confusion prevailed in all sphere of life- intellect, moral, political and education.

·         Example: philosophers and thinkers like Socrates were imprisoned, forces to drink wine and kill him.