that message home. Nonetheless, the connection suggested here is pretty
weak. Even Oedipus, one might suppose, could have done things differ-
ently–reacted with less suspicion, accepted his fate with more dignity. And,
if this is what Brecht had in mind, then it’s not exactlyempathythat’s the
problem, but rather empathising with particular kinds of characters in
particular kinds of plots, or drawing certain kinds of conclusions as a
result of feeling what the characters feel. This, I think, is closer to
Brecht’s view: that empathy is a concern only when enmeshed with the
other Aristotelian elements explored above, empathy as part of the ritual
of conventional theatre. What, for him, are interconnected elements may
in fact be separable. This does pose a challenge to the unity of his view.
Afinal, and possibly related, feature of Aristotelian drama is the behaviour
and attitude of the audience. This seems to have had two features. First:
the quiet, reverential audience. It is a curious historical fact that, probably
around the start of the twentieth century, audiences began to become
quieter and more reverential at theatrical performances. One suggested
cause is the dimming of the house lights so that more attention could
be focused on the stage (a trend Brecht was keen to reverse). Whatever the
cause, Brecht clearly objected to the effect. A quiet, reverential audience
might well be the kind of audience that would happily and submissively
wait to have universal, unchanging truths thrust down its throat. Second:
going under the spell. In the earlier discussion of theatrical illusion,
I used the term‘going under the spell’to describe the state of an audi-
ence as it gets absorbed or lost in the action. One might think that going
under the spell would be easier if in a darkened room, surrounded by
other quiet, meek spectators–thus, there might be a connection between
these two features of audience behaviour. In Brecht’s view, going under
the spell leads to a reduced capacity for critical thinking:‘they look at the
stage as if in a trance: an expression which comes from the middle ages,
the days of witches and priests’. What’s more, Brecht clearly thinks that
going under the spell enables empathy, thus connecting to some of the
previous concerns.^40 Once again, though, to isolate Brecht’s theoretical
objection to‘illusion’would be to lose its connection to other elements of
his view.
Epic theatre
To get a clearer picture of what Brecht objects to (and what he aims at
correcting in his own work), it will be helpful to turn away from how
he characterised his opponents (i.e. as Aristotelian) and towards how he
characterised his own work. The various terms that Brecht used for his
work–most notably the‘epic drama’(or‘epic theatre’) and the‘theatre of
the scientificage’–require some explanation before we can see why he
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