Aristotle's emotions of catharsis (pity and fear) are aroused by:

1. The Poetics ties the emotions specifically to dramatic spectatorship. 2. The two emotions distinguish tragedy's effect from comedy or epic. 3. The cathartic mechanism is a spectator-based theory of art. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1974 — Aristotle's Poetics — "The emotional purification occurs "through pity and fear," which are aroused by witnessing tragic events"_