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Comparative Survey, Descriptive Research

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  Comparative survey research is a type of descriptive survey where it aims to compare the status of two or more variable, institutions, strategies etc. This technique often uses multiple disciplines in one study.This does not only compare different groups but also same group over time.Few points are to be kept in mind before starting the comparative survey. ·        Comparison Points -The research should be very clear regarding the points to be compared. This can also be identified through review of literature and experience of experts. ·        Assumption of Similarities -  One has to be clear about the similarities the two variable hold. If the researcher do not find this there is no point of comparison. Criteria of Comparison - The researcher has to identify the criteria of comparison keeping in mind the fairness and objectivity. Appropriate tools has to be identified for measurement of criterion variables. Comparative survey research is carried on when the researcher cannot
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Aristotle's ‘Pleasure Proper To Tragedy’

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Shelley
New Criticism
Aristotle (384-322BC) the student of famous educationist and theoretician Plato differed from his master as he was more inclined in describing and classifying things as they were. However, he followed Plato in defining poetry as ‘mimesis’ but in a different way. He regarded mimesis as a natural healthy impulse.
The proposal for tragedy according to Aristotle was unity of action, place and time which became famous later as the three unities. Another contribution he did in the field was the notion of Catharsis.
Talking about pleasure in his book Poetics Aristotle says,
            They are of three types.
First, when it comes from pity and fear through imitation. Secondly, pleasure is said to be derived from completeness and wholeness of action in a plot. In the third, pleasure is said to be a result of music and spectacular effects. However, every kind of pleasure is not found in tragedy. It affords only those which is proper to it or can be said as pleasure proper to tragedy. In his work ‘Poetics’ Aristotle says,
            The pleasure which the poet should afford is that which comes from pity and fear through imitation.
Pity and fear are man’s sympathy for the good part of mankind in the bad part of their experiences. Pity is evoked when there is discrepancy between the agent and fate and fear when there is likeness between the agent and us.
In Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man, we find the definition where he calls pity the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unities it with the human sufferer. Terror or fear is that which unities it with the secret cause. Similar definitions we find in Aristotle’s book Rhetoric. There he defines them as a species of pain. It is here that we can begin to consider the idea that tragic pleasure derives from the purgation of these emotions.
Aristotle unlike his teacher Plato says that the emotions are good in themselves. Therefore, there should be no need to purge the feelings of pity and fear. Instead, a more sensible definition of the tragic pleasure would be- concomitant with the proper feelings of these emotions. By ‘proper’ he means temperate attitude to these emotions. In the Ethics, Aristotle says,
            Fear and confidence and appetite and anger and pity and in general pleasure and pain may be felt both too much and too little and in both cases not well; but to feel them at the right times with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive and in the right way is what is both intermediate and best and this is characteristic of virtue.
We analyse, Aristotle discusses two kinds of pleasure- pure and incidental. The former is universal and is accompanied by no pain and is likened to the pleasure arising out of contemplation. Those who experience this do so solely by contemplating and appraising the imitation of human emotions in tragedy.
It is through this view that we bring our focus on his statement,
Pleasure is affected through imitation.
As Aristotle said imitation is itself a pleasurable act, all of this applies to epic as well as tragedy and can probably be extended to other types of poetry. The specifically ‘tragic’ pleasure is that pertaining to the medium and the dramatic mode of the tragedy. These constitute the specific imitative aspect of tragedy. A heightened sense of pity and fear is affected when the necessary and probable events take an unexpected turn. This is possible in the complex plot. For e.g. by the end of Oedipus Rex, we feel an appreciation for all the tragic ironies involving sight and blindness, fate and free will, family love and incest and truth and ignorance. All of these feelings are the result of a complex plot; a series of oracles; ironies and complications that it seems were destined for tragedy. Ironically, we enjoy the facts that Clytemnestra kills herself but Oedipus doesn’t; it seems just to us. We pity both mother and son, and we fear that such corruption may befall our families as well. So, the pleasure comes at intersection of pity, fear and appreciation of a plot that is resolved tragically but deservedly.
Therefore, our examination of the elements of the complex plot has led us to a consideration of pity and fear. These together with imitation help us to understand the pleasure proper to tragedy.

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