142. 162 CHAPTER III

162 CHAPTER III

some other events. Therefore, as in the case of history so in that of drama, the situation, which leads to the chief or central event, develops but slowly. The completion of the æsthetic image is accordingly reached by a slow process. It develops as the dramatic presentation proceeds. A state of self-forgetfulness having been brought about by the extremely interesting dramatic preliminaries and identification with hero having taken place at his appearance in the aforesaid manner, the situation affects the audience exactly as it does the hero. This kind of affection of the audience with the presented is what may figuratively be spoken of as the first strokes in the making of an æsthetic image,1 This, with additional strokes in the form of empathic reaction and emotive responses, reaches the state of fully developed æsthetic image when the dramatic climax is reached. Æsthetic experience, therefore, does not persist throughout the presentation because the æsthetic image, on which it depends, slowly develops. Hence it is a climactic experience. It arises when the image reaches completion, when the basic emotion rises to the highest relishable pitch.

V. FROM IMAGINATION TO EMOTION. All the three, the poet, the actor and the spectator have, according to Indian æstheticians, almost the same experience (Samanonubhavah). The process involved in the rise of the experience and its subjective and objective consti- tuents also, therefore, must be almost the same. We have already stated that æsthetic experience is due to identification with the focus of the presented situation. The psycho- physical condition of the æsthete in æsthetic experience is similar to that of the actor himself. Purpose, mental and 1. Dh. L. 57.