The Contempt, the Anger and the Laughter: The film The Butcher Boy under an Aristotelian perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17851/1983-3636.11.2.33-46Keywords:
passions, anger, arrogance, empathyAbstract
This article aims to relate the emotion of anger, according to the concept of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, with the film The Butcher Boy, by Neil Jordan, based on the eponymous novel by Patrick McCabe. Following Aristotle’s characterization of anger arising from contempt, spite and arrogance, we consider that what drives the Butcher Boy’s desire for revenge in the film is the first type, the latter being an intermediate result in the unfolding of the plot and assumed, mainly, by offense. It is a relationship not only descriptive and psychological, or even, illustrating the passion that affects the character, but a verification of to what extent the original narrative adapted for the film, can effectively be considered part of Aristotelian ideas.
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