The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
Every action must without exception have a _distinct_ object which it
seeks to achieve. It is through his action that man enters actively
into the concrete actual world, in which also the most universal
subject-matter is in its turn accepted in the poetic work and
defined under more specific manifestation. From this point of view,
therefore, the unity will have to be sought for in the realization of
an end itself essentially definite, and carried under the particular
conditions and relations of concrete life to its consummation. The
circumstances adapted to dramatic action are, however, as we have
seen, of a kind that the individual end meets with obstructions at
the hands of other personal agents, and this for the reason that
a contradictory end stands in its path, which in its turn equally
strives after fulfilment, so that it is invariably attached to the
reciprocal relation of conflicts and their devolution. Dramatic action
in consequence rests essentially upon an action that is involved with
_resistance_;[7] and the genuine unity can only find its _rationale_
in the entire movement which consists in the assertion of this
collision relatively to the definition of the particular circumstances,
characters, and ends proposed, not merely under a mode consonant
to such ends and characters, but in such a way as to resolve the
opposition implied. Such a resolution has, precisely as the action
itself has, an external and an inside point of view. In other words, on
the one side, the conflict of the opposed _ends_ is finally composed;
and on the other the particular _characters_, to a greater or less
extent, have committed their entire volitional energy and being to
the undertaking they strive to accomplish. Consequently the success
or misadventure of the same, to complete or partial execution, the
inevitable disaster or the secure union effected with intentions that
are apparently opposed to their extent, also determine the destiny
of the character in question, that it is inextricably involved with
that which it was impelled to commit to such activity. A true end is
therefore only then consummated, where the object and interest of the
action, around which all revolves, are identified with the individuals
concerned, and absolutely united to them. And whether the difference
and opposition of the dramatic character assumes a simple form or
branches out in various accessory episodes and individuals, the unity
in either case may be of a more severe or less stringent nature.
Comedy, for instance, in the many-sided features of its worked-out
intrigue does not require such deliberate self-concentration as tragedy
does, which is as a rule motived on grandiose and simple lines.
Romantic tragedy, however, is also in this respect more varied and
less consistent in its unity than is classic tragedy. And even where
there is more licence the relation of the episodes and supplementary
characters must be throughout recognizable; and the entirety of the