Criticism is the exercising of judgement in the country of art and literature. It is the overall term for surveies concerned with shaping, analysing, and measuring plants of literature. It refers to description, analysis, reading, and rating of literary plants. Literary unfavorable judgment trades with different dimensions of literature.

The critic is a individual who is possessed with the cognition necessary to enable him to articulate right judgements upon the virtue or worth of such plants.

The map of literary unfavorable judgment is to analyze the virtues and defects of a work of art and eventually to measure its worth. The main map of unfavorable judgment is to edify and excite. The true critic is one who is equipped for his undertaking by a sound cognition of his topic. The true critic can detect the qualities of power, beauty and deepness of significance. He can give us a fresh point of position. He is sometimes a way finder, interrupting new land, with a friendly passion. As such the primary maps of literary unfavorable judgment are reading and judgement.

Until our clip these two maps have been combined since the bulk of critics, while gestating judgement to be existent terminal of all unfavorable judgment, have freely employed reading as a agency to that terminal.

Different positions about unfavorable judgment

First, the position of unfavorable judgment is straight related to the critic ‘s ain rational doctrine or mentality of life. It is determined by the likes, disfavors, and biass of the critic himself.

Second, the theory of unfavorable judgment is related with the theory of poesy.

Third, critical theories are closely connected with the spirit of the age.

Principles of Criticism

The first rule of literary unfavorable judgment is the chase of truth. But the truth of literature is different from the truth of scientific discipline. Poetic truth is the truth of thoughts, and experiences of a work of art.

The 2nd rule of literary unfavorable judgment is emphasis on symmetricalness. This rule implies right choice and agreement of stuff.

The 3rd rule is the rule of idealisation. This rule implies aesthetic consciousness of the reader.

The Qualities ( features ) of a critic:

1- He must be a adult male of rare organic esthesia. He should hold a rare and alone sense of opinion.

2- He must be a adult male who is widely read.

3- He must hold a proper preparation and proficient accomplishment in different subdivisions of literature.

4- He must lift above all biass, personal, spiritual, national, political, or literary. He must be nonsubjective in his positions.

5- He must hold inventive understanding. He must be sensitive and humane.

6- He must possess a sound cognition of human psychological science and human nature.

7- He must hold knowledge in all subdivisions of literature.

8- The critic must acquire at the head of the writer.

9- The critic must hold a philosophical head.

10- He must be of varied experience. He must be exhaustively acquainted with the great writers in several linguistic communications.

Plato and Aristotle

Plato as a Grecian critic and philosopher was the first among those who approached literary unfavorable judgment in the 4th century B.C. Plato was concerned with the job of the public-service corporation of poesy. Plato was against poesy. Poetry corrupts heads of kids which is why Plato banished poets from his ideal commonwealth ( Republic ) . He regarded poesy immoral and untruthful. To Plato, doctrine is superior.

Aristotle, Plato ‘s pupil and critic took up the challenge of Plato and asserted the high quality of poesy over doctrine. Poetry gives direction and delectation.

Plato thinks that the poet is restricted to copying the kingdom of visual aspect. Furthermore, a poet is possessed by lunacy and is non in control of himself. The poet leads work forces off from truth. Therefore he considers him unsafe to society. Plato accepts the poet in The Republic if he limits himself to songs offering congratulations of the province or God, that is to state, furthering morality. The poets are misleaders and they are followed by the misled.

Plato ‘s moralistic and didactic unfavorable judgment

Poetry is antirational and without content. A verse form for Plato is a aggregation of transcripts of the thoughts or signifiers. His sentiment has been outlined in his duologues and in The Republic. Poetry tends to elicit emotions. So, the poet is non fit to be a good citizen. The moralistic attack believes that literature is morally good or has a capacity to act upon people so as to do them morally better. Plato thought that bad and evil influences of literature should be kept from the immature coevals during their formative old ages.

Plato defends doctrine. His intent is to show the practical high quality of doctrine over poesy. Plato onslaughts poesy and play on moral evidences:

1- Poetry is non contributing to societal morality.

2- A poet “ tells lies about Gods ” and Gods and great heroes who descended from the Gods are represented as corrupt, dishonest, so capable to all mistakes and frailties of common humanity. Works of poets like Homer must non be prescribed for school survey.

3- Drama is even more harmful because playwrights and poets appeal to the baser inherent aptitudes of work forces, their love of the sensational and the melodramatic.

Plato ‘s disapprobation of poets

Plato onslaughts poesy on rational, emotional and moral evidences, and demonstrates its inutility, and its corrupting influences. He condemns the poets because “ they feed and H2O the passions alternatively of drying them. ”

Plato ‘s The Republic and poesy

The Republic is a philosophical work written by Plato in the signifier of a duologue. It is an enquiry into the nature of justness and the organisation of a perfect society. The work is a drawn-out expounding of the thoughts underlying Plato ‘s earlier duologues. The authorities acts to implement the virtuousness, the true felicity, productive life and flawlessness.

Aristotle

Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, was a Grecian philosopher and critic. He portions with his seniors – Plato and Socrates- the differentiation of being the most celebrated of ancient philosophers. His celebrated work is The Poetics which outlined the three Integrities of play: unties of clip, topographic point, and action. His celebrated diction is in the kingdom of Poetic play. He applied his rules of play to Oedipus, the male monarch by Sophocles. He refers to this drama to exemplify his critical footings: secret plan, character, thought, linguistic communication, spectacle, katharsis, tragic hero, the three integrities, tragic flaw. Harmonizing to Plato and Aristotle, the tragic hero has to be baronial and from a high category like Oedipus.

Aristotle purposes at replying Plato ‘s unfavorable judgment of the poet as a mere impersonator of visual aspects. To Aristotle, the poet is an impersonator and Godhead.

Aristotle ‘s theory of calamity

Calamity, harmonizing to Aristotle, is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete in itself, possessing a certain magnitude, is clothed in linguistic communication that gives delectation. Tragedy is an imitation of an action. By an action, we mean an event or procedure of events- something go oning. Action is a procedure of events embodied in the lives and volitions of human existences.

Aristotle ‘s Poeticss

Poeticss is Aristotle ‘s great work on the rules of play. He believed that the major map of art is to supply satisfaction, for felicity is the purpose of life. He argued that calamity stimulates the emotions of commiseration and fright.

Aristotle ‘s Poetics is one of the most influential paperss of all time produced on the art of play. It had its influence on the 17th-century play. In Poetics, Aristotle discusses the six indispensable elements of play secret plan, character, thought, tragic hero, katharsis, the three integrities, tragic flaw. He states his sentiment on the best type of tragic secret plan, and suggests it as the most effectual agencies to elicit indispensable emotions such as commiseration and fright.

Plot

By secret plan Aristotle means the agreement of incidents. Incidents average action. Tragedy is an imitation of action, both internal and external. The secret plan should be so framed as to elicit the emotions of commiseration and fright among the witnesss.

Fictional characters

Aristotle lays down four indispensable qualities for word picture:

1- The characters must be good.

2- The characters must be appropriate.

3- They must hold similitude.

4- They must hold consistence.

Aristotle is against debut of immorality and evil in the secret plan of the drama.

Tragic hero

The tragic hero is a adult male of ordinary failing and virtuousnesss, tilting more to the side of good than of immorality. He is a adult male of baronial feelings and emotions. He falls from a place of exalted distinction and the catastrophe wrecks his life because of some great mistake or infirmity.

Hamartia ( tragic mistake or defect )

Harmonizing to Aristotle, the tragic hero must fall through his or her ain mistake or Hamartia. This term is besides interpreted as “ tragic defect ” and normally applied to the tragic hero ‘s excessive pride or hubris ( pride ) , which causes fatal mistake taking to his autumn.

Catharsis

Catharsis is defined as catharsis or purification. Pity and fright are related feelings. We pity others whereas we fear for ourselves. The tragic sick person is a adult male like ourselves.

The Integrities

Aristotle emphasizes merely one of the three integrities ; the integrity of action.

Aristotle is against plurality of actions ( incidents ) . As for the integrity of clip, Aristotle mentions it in relation to dramatic action. Aristotle ne’er mentions the integrity of topographic point. However, he considers it desirable to restrict the action to a individual topographic point.

Plato and Aristotle: similarities

Aristotle agreed with Plato that:

1- Poetry is an imitative art.

2- Poetry arouses the emotions.

3- Poetry gives pleasance.

4- Emotion has an consequence upon the whole personality of the witness or reader and on his emotional behaviour in existent life.

5- Both considered poesy from a practical and useful point of position.

Aristotle and Plato: differences

1- Plato set out to reorganise human life ; Aristotle to reorganise human cognition.

2- Plato was a transcendentalist and had the disposition of an creative person ; Aristotle was a scientist, a life scientist, an experimentalist, who arrived at his rules through observation and analysis.

3- Plato was an dreamer. He believed that the phenomenal universe is but an objectification of the ideal universe. The ideal universe is existent ; the phenomenal universe is but a shadow of this ideal world.

4- Plato ‘s linguistic communication is poetic and charming ; that of Aristotle is dogmatic, telegraphic.

5- Aristotle makes full usage of nomenclature and philosophies of Plato. Plato was a more original mastermind ; Aristotle more comprehensive and systematic.