Praxis Middle School English Language Arts (5047) Practice Test

Catharsis is the emotional release the audience experiences in a tragedy. When a tragedy unfolds, viewers are moved by the characters’ struggles, pity, and fear, and through that intense emotional experience the audience’s feelings are purged or purified. That cleansing or purifying effect—seeing suffering and overcoming it—constitutes the essence of catharsis. Pathos is the emotion itself or the technique used to evoke pity or sadness, not the release the audience feels. A tragic flaw is the hero’s misstep that leads to downfall, a cause of the catastrophe, not the audience’s emotional release. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than the characters, creating tension, not the cleansing emotional release.