ABSTRACT
For Aristotle, the plot is the most important mechanism for bringing about the arousal of pity and fear. In spite of Aristotle's qualified enthusiasm for theatrical spectacle, it seems that its popularity among Renaissance audiences outweighed his authority on the matter. Renaissance critics were increasingly interested in the relationship between spectacle and the psychopathology of audience response, perhaps as part of an attempt to reconcile the conflicting demands of rationality and fantasy which Orgel has identified. In keeping with his cursory treatment of the visual dimensions of the theatre, Aristotle does not explore the capacity of spectacle to generate a particular kind of emotional response in the audience, and he does not identify optical effects as a particular stimulus to wonder. Wonder attracted some of the sense of pity, and was frequently characterised as a distinctively empathic phenomenon.
