Adrian Holden

 “Spectacle and the Sublime”

            Generally speaking, spectacle and the sublime can be defined as elements of tragedy that are intended to enhance the audience’s experience.    These facets aim to facilitate in inspiring the emotions of “pity and fear” which Aristotle claimed to be one of the principal goals of good tragedy.   While these integrants have separate definitions and uses, they often work together, successfully augmenting the tragic effects. 

Much of spectacle’s appeal (or repugnance) derives from its visual power and ability to hold the gaze of the viewer (http://humanities.uchicago.edu).   Probably the most interesting aspect of spectacle is that it is important to the genre, but many tragic works seem to search for a way to mute or repress it.  Aristotle recognized spectacle as important in that it elicits emotions from the audience, but referred to it as being the “least artistic.” He believed that, “the power of tragedy…is felt even apart from representation and actors,” (Poetics handout).  This could be seen as a reason that most of the classical tragedies have scenes of what could be referred to as repressed spectacle.  That is to say, much of the action that could be considered spectacle (i.e. gore, death, torture) happens offstage and then the audience is introduced to it usually, but not always, by a messenger.  Consider scenes from Agamemnon and Oedipus Rex, respectively.  Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, kills both him and his slave, Cassandra, but both murders occur inside the palace walls while conversation is ongoing between members of the Chorus.  Agamemnon can be heard shouting as he suffers the fatal blows, but the audience is not privy to what actually happens until the palace doors are opened and a bloody Clytemnestra emerges.  Similarly, after Oedipus and Jocasta learn they are mother and son as well as husband and wife, they both exit the scene, first Jocasta, then Oedipus.  We learn from a messenger that after Oedipus finds Jocasta’s corpse swinging from a rope, he then gouges out his eyes with a pair of her golden brooches.  All of these are horrid displays of spectacle but the spectacle is repressed by their happening offstage and then revealed to the audience after the fact. 

            The sublime is defined as a phenomenon whose beauty is mixed or edged with danger or a threat, usually on a grand or elevated scale (handout).  Evidence of this is found throughout each of the tragedies that have been explored through the semester.  O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms reveals a simple look at the sublime as it concludes.  Eben and Abbie have been arrested for their roles in the death of their son.  As they are being led away to prison, presumably, Eben looks to the sky as the sun rises and remarks to Abbie, “Sun’s a-rizin’.  Purty, haint it?” (O’Neill 64).  In this case, the beauty of the sunrise is compounded by its power and then mixed with the imminent threat of jail for both Eben and Abbie.   This, in turn, creates a simple, yet dynamic example of the sublime.

            Other evidence of a sublime occurrence in tragedy materializes when characters cannot find words for what they are feeling.  An example of this is found in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus.  After the death of Oedipus, a messenger comes to relate to the Chorus the events surrounding his death.   As Longinus notes in his treatise on the sublime, “Magnificent are the images which Sophocles has conceived of the death of Oedipus, who makes ready his burial amid the portents of the sky,” (“the sublime” handout).  The messenger says, “The man (Oedipus)was gone, nowhere to be seen;/Only the king (Theseus) we saw with upraised hand/Shading his eyes as from some awful sight,/That no man dared to look upon…” (Sophocles 54).   Theseus is the only “witness” to what actually happened to Oedipus, but it is interesting to note that he watched more or less through his fingers because the sight was so “marvelous” and “awful”.  The messenger goes on to say that he would not be surprised if no one believes what little account he can emit because it almost sounds foolish and far-fetched, but this is alright with him because that is the best description that he can muster.  This is because the sublime often “transcends or transgresses normal categories of perception or expression,” (“the sublime” handout).