Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
the story. Even if we know the outcome, as in the movie Titanic, we enjoy watching
how the contest plays out and how the characters react to the ups and downs dealt
out by fate or the playwright. In a well-constructed story these repeated reversals
accumulate power, adding up to the emotional impact that Aristotle claimed was the
point of it all: catharsis, an explosive and physical release of emotion, be it tears of
pity, shudders of terror, or bursts of laughter. T h e reversals, like drumbeats, impact
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our emotions, triggering reactions in the organs of our bodies. By Aristotle's theory,
these drumbeats were supposed to accumulate tension in the bodies of the audience
members until the biggest beat of all, at the climax of the play, released a pleasurable
shudder of emotion that was believed to cleanse the spirit of poisonous thoughts
and feelings
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