Literary Criticism on Plato and Aristotle

Roza Puspita/186332026
Plato was a philosopher and his focus was about morality in the society. He was influenced a lot by
the great philosopher Socrates. He is known for his mimesis in explaining literature. In his theory
of Mimesis, Plato says that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life. He believed that
‘idea’ is the best reality. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality.for Plato, philosophy is the
primary thing to focus on. Plato rejected poetry as it is just the copy of copy of the idea on the moral
and philosophical grounds. In his explanation of mimesis, he tried to explain by giving analogy of the
carpenter and a chair. The idea of a chair is the first thing in carpenter’s mind then he tried to give
physical shape to his idea, finally he made a chair by imitating the picture in his mind. And for him,
the chair is the literature and it is a copy of copy. Plato says that art being the imitation of the actual
is removed from the Truth and it is less precious than reality. Plato said argues that literature have
negative effect to the personal and the society. He stated that poetry can weakened the control of
emotion of the people because of the detrimental consequences and it can make people become
immature.

Aristotle on the other hand, he didn’t see literature like the way Plato did. He said that in responding
to Plato’s theory about poetry, literature is not only just the copy of copy but It is the representation
of selected events and characters necessary in a coherent action for the realization of the artist’s
purpose. He create his own imagination give the beauty to the thing he is imagine, Aristotle believe
that there are the process of creativity in there. And this creativity cannot be seen in the raw
material or just the idea. This creation cannot be just judge as it is not the creation in concrete terms
of things and beings. Thus considered, it does not take us away from the Truth but leads us to the
essential reality of life. Aristotle believes that the literature can alter people understanding of
morality because information is portrayed in an objective manner to convey the right meaning
without necessarily stimulating negative feelings in the society. People can observe and learn the
object of the literature better. In this way, Aristotle saw that Literature affects the society in two
ways. In one way, the effect results from actively reading while the other way, the effect results
from passive observation but all of them stimulate our emotions and minds hence attain different
conceptions of morality and ethics in the society. To sum up, Plato believes in the absolute reality,
and that poets depict things as what they are, so the poetry according to him deform the reality. On
the other hand, Aristotle argues that poetry takes us closer to reality because it teaches and warns
us, and shows us the result and the consequences of bad deeds. Thus, literature is a way of learning
but can have both negative and positive impacts in our lives and the society.

I agree with Aristotle point of view of the literature. Although it is only the result of imagination but
it can make people more creative. It teaches us effectively and it teaches us the truth. I also agree
with Aristotle that he said actually morality can be learnt trough literary work and it will not only
have negativity on it or by watching drama and reading poem it will weakened our soul. Basically
drama teaches us morality that can be reflected to our life, by understanding how the tragedy
achieve their peculiar effect, we can see how the psychological and morality works in people mind
and heart. It teaches human to have more in morality by reflecting what they have seen or read in
the literary work and implemented it to the reality. This also called as the process of creativity. We
can say that it is the positivity of the literature.