In Sympathy with Narrative Characters

Sympathetic responses to characters are a pervasive form of narrative engagement, and they contribute importantly to what makes perceiving a narrative a rewarding experience. Yet, the notion of sympathy has received relatively little attention in contemporary philosophy of art, especially when compared to the lively debates surrounding the notion of empathy.1 Here, I propose an analysis of sympathy that addresses the notion's complex structure, one that enjoys several explanatory advantages in understanding our responses to others. Sympathy will prove to be a multifaceted phenomenon, one deserving an even more thorough investigation than offered here. However, it will amount to progress if my analysis succeeds in isolating a paradigmatic mechanism of engagement—call it “paradigmatic sympathy” or “sympathy proper” or, for short, “sympathy”—such that a number of responses that are commonly called “sympathetic” can be understood as being in various ways akin to it. My topic is sympathy as a broad mechanism of one's engagement with another, hereafter also the “target” of the response, where the other is responded to with favor (while we can dub antipathy the mechanism by which one responds to another's experience and situation with disfavor).2 It is not sympathy as an emotion, as when the term is used interchangeably with such terms as ‘pity,’‘sorrow,’‘tenderness,’ and so forth. Sympathetic responders in the sense relevant here may feel any one of a wide range of emotions, depending on the situation affecting their target: not just pity, but also happiness, anger, disappointment, and so forth. Hence, I submit, we respond sympathetically not just when we pity Desdemona as she tries in vain to persuade Othello of her loyalty and love, but also when we feel happy for Superman as he succeeds in reviving Lois Lane, or when we feel a complex entanglement of emotions for Willy Loman as he ends his life. Largely for this reason, what follows will include little critique of other accounts, since most of them look at sympathy as an emotion or a set of emotions. By contrast, my proposal on sympathy as a mechanism of engagement, if successful, will provide us with a criterion to identify a wide range of responses as sympathetic.3 Typically, sympathy is discussed by contrasting it to empathy, and indeed an understanding of the former notion can start from pointing out the ways in which it differs from the latter. As a first approximation to such an understanding, notice that, while empathy roughly amounts to feeling with another, sympathy amounts to feeling for him or her.4 My niece fears the dentist but I do not fear him, at least do not fear him for myself. Rather, I am worried for my niece. A mother is grieving for the loss of her child but I do not grieve; I pity her. The new graduate is joyful and happy and I am happy too, but for her, not for myself; and so forth. Or so it seems. Undoubtedly, empathy and sympathy are different psychological phenomena and different modes of engagement with narrative characters. They differ from each other for the emotional responses they prompt and, related, for their relationship to action. Empathy seems to be the paradigm of a self‐oriented response: roughly, when empathizing with someone, I vicariously experience his or her mental states, in a sense as if they were mine.5 Sympathy, instead, seems to be paradigmatically other oriented. Responding sympathetically seems to emphasize the other's experiences and situation, often perceived as different from one's own. Famously, Thomas Hobbes considered it to be constitutive of “pity” (what he also refers to as “compassion” or “fellow feeling”) that one's own situation be perceived as different from the target's.6 Sometimes, sympathizing with someone may be considered a condescending response partly because the sympathizer is in a better situation than the target and likely perceives oneself as being so.7 On the other hand, sympathizing with someone who is better off than we are—responding favorably to his joy, for example—may become part of a mixed response to a fortune that did not hit us, and be mixed, for example, with envy or self‐commiseration. Further, in itself, empathy has no relationship to desire; hence it is in principle compatible with any attitude toward the person we empathize with. My understanding the athlete's joy from her point of view can make me feel happy for her or, in contrast, make me feel envious of her victory. Or, of course, I can be indifferent to the matter.8 Paradigmatically, a sadist's pleasure in the pain he procures to his victim may even be enhanced by the capacity of imagining, empathically, the victim's pain and fear. By contrast, one of the first things to be noticed about sympathy is that sympathizing with someone involves a favorable attitude toward the other, a desire, ceteris paribus, that the other persist in a positive situation or be freed of a negative one. All the above is, I think, quite uncontroversial. Of course, a much more precise account of empathy could be provided, and such an account might yield, by contrasting sympathy to empathy, additional insights into the latter of the two notions as well. Yet, proceeding just by contrasting empathy to sympathy not only necessarily produces an incomplete account of either notion, but it also suggests a misleading account. the two of emotional being to the of sympathy and relationship with than contrasting empathy to I a view that, but also their I that, responses are understood as empathy as a constitutive in the above when I for my niece or pity the grieving or am happy for the not I am in a or I propose that sympathy be understood as a mechanism of one's engagement with form of engagement with the target and a for him or her, in a sense to be The and of my be it the empathy and, the I look at the two in in this I will two different of response that can be called hence two different ways in which empathy can contribute to to a that, I to the that an is indeed to of the I that is likely the one that will be considered most the us just of empathy as the the of another's experience. The is that, no empathy is that it is a of sympathy seems to a of not of favorable responses to another's experience or situation may respond with favor to and vicariously to in any their may in a number of different may be to to the for when that is from the range of our own A may be joyful for the who just to their while being even when he to her emotions from her a at a of the may the “sympathetic” and in being to to the relevant we may be in the other's experience to in perceiving a we are with the of positive characters who are not much at the of the we may respond in their in sense them their experiences to we may that we with or with who from vicariously to their may be experiences we do not to we are to who are favorable responses toward that are or to any form of are so responses that are commonly called “sympathetic” and not to include empathy in any am I as I what seems to be at just one form of for it a of and a in narrative are several to do and I will most of this to them and their to an understanding of narrative the us just that the that the is used to a range of not a to such responses as of the phenomenon, suggests that the such responses be in of their a I is by to what I is the paradigm of roughly, empathy A to the of sympathy has to do with the commonly to to respond sympathetically to on us not just because it that we are of being for but also because it us as to other here seems to quite to do with our capacity of if what that of as or for them may to we as respond in a to of and when we respond to someone experience we can more and are to that experience in our our engagement seems and more this to when we are on the of It is to such a response as in the if what we in his or her understanding our situation from than as in the that our situation is or as the may the situation is a negative the response seems likely to be if the situation is a positive the response seems likely to be mixed with envy or self‐commiseration. The may to do with two different ways of a situation affecting a understanding that the other, is an or understanding the of what the other's may be All of this has a on understanding our engagement with in at least it suggests that the a and other characters has to do not just with the amount of we for the former but not for the but also with the of the we and a that is and often by the of the are for the in a in the we are when we what it be for someone to the experiences he or she is and related, the responses we for the are we in a is, we other things being a narrative that us to with characters the experiences of we can to from their point of our to of may be by our of a response to the of a and may for that the that, by us the of of the makes us with them in a the we with to that to us toward partly are to be as in the we to the of response that I am is the paradigm of A to sympathy as engagement has to do with such an account can that to be to it. my account may be to be to a number of responses with to with we are not are of what can be called the of a who has just their is by the on her in to her for the we are not the the what we with her, and quite are also of what could be called at or characters who will of a situation affecting A for may be from to her situation, hence the and the narrative be with such and a are of what we could sympathy by sympathy for when we for someone on the of an of the situation affecting him or her that is different from the the person in we can with someone who has in an situation even if he is in what he has I a of not only may to be for my that sympathy not empathy, but they also accounts, not on the for that sympathy or emotions that are in with the or the sympathizer to the By to the and of what I called and with to of to with the even the of her in of has for and to with no and even to for also to feel sympathy for the form of and when her while his is in out to but ends their on he if has no of what is we respond in because is to her and what I sympathy by as by this to the hence them from the that we can respond sympathetically to a even because to the that the to that will into and I her to even she is to what is the most to However, sympathy for my do they that sympathy is better of as a response to a situation affecting a or in the above the response can be by to the a a or an experience we the target The is that we can empathize with the experiences of or of a we with the in we what it will be for her to that her by her own with to in of we her of her and her sympathy is an especially It is in my account by to a for what feel if she her has their is by of for example, toward the sympathetically pity the it for him to his to do the little that to his are sympathetically happy of the the she the of the first can empathize with the and by to the emotional experiences they were they On the other hand, the that the response a of the person that will in be the and pity the but are also that did not to his we are happy for the with a amount of on the and of our responses prove the of the to an experience that we will is different from an experience that we sympathy by be with to the experience the target than to what the target will or could Yet, such an experience is one that we can to that the target not in the experience importantly on our It for for a of mixed with to a we may feel for the but partly because we to the experience of situation that she we may also the different response that an of the experience The of two different in the experience the to one in the experience she what in complex ways our engagement with this narrative with and sympathy our to that is, the relevant experience is in that the experience is a different one. As that our sympathy may be mixed and with other Further, to the account sympathy for a with to experiences she will may be with as in my from It also the sympathy for the in of may be or be as the may by the with her It to we may for someone who not much for the situation he is but our response, may be mixed or in It is a of sympathy that not to the but refers just to such things as the and is in to account for our responses in or an account seems to the in response when the target has the relevant experiences and when the target not as as when the target not such will and the account seems to be to the in and of the response when we are the of the target the relevant to the a to a target of the relevant and least in of and not on the being of the account may a either to that the relevant and are by the of and hence that the response will also be or to that the and are by such an and that the responses are different because of that, and hence to the of the in the responses not on his or her the It is to may a to an of sympathy as the response by of to the target and that the sympathizer makes his or her Yet, a set of and one's own may to what the target or as my account The to an account of sympathy as empathy has to do with the that is to the the investigation is not about the of it is not a is one that if in empathizing often to what I that empathy is compatible with and indifferent we can that, often to in another's experience to sympathizing with him or at a analysis of empathy, one be the range of of response that could be called is the from what is called as I to is, the response to another's of an by or with a various of Here, it is to the term to of engagement that are or form of Yet, of empathy of are at least two us a situation from the point of view as the it and it as the target it or the the to the situation, that and in such a is to the empathy as has a to be what to paradigmatic is no not to be here. 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The of the can be so and may such a of that the to do can if with with the other for the that it were to the by the to or by them into and so I not to are that, I someone for person could not for they are compatible with an of the of the are part the that is to sympathy is as to the of the relevant and such an as of the that are with the and Of course, with to to the of an Yet, this is an where responses to and is to be the the has are to oneself to the for and I the of the relevant in the for as for the two of the a a is not to I it is especially relevant that, with to the be the of the of the are of when it is not the are any more the of the to from the for we are as from the of as with to may often be of sympathy where no is at sympathy may a situation so of us that we do not our will by the they can be Sympathy as a mechanism of engagement with emotions. It also emotions as where the partly has to do with the emotion is only when it has another's experience and relevant as with the emotion is only when it from the of empathizing with and in his or her relevant an account of sympathy has several explanatory advantages for a of narrative engagement, of which I to The ways by which narrative may be to respond sympathetically or to and the psychological and of this of narrative engagement, are by an account of sympathy as a response one that an and a of them in terms of from the analysis to in the of our engagement with narrative and not just in the sense that we respond to characters in a number of most by empathy and It is of that a of Sympathy, in to be a complex and one that, in of can be at the of a of responses that are called makes such a is that it to a one that the pervasive of the in our narrative and of empathy even in responses that are as I by to their capacity of us, so to with and mental in their are especially to and paradigmatic understood as empathy and an form of likely when a situation is in a narrative such one can be with an for engagement, the of a and their that provide their with for engagement that in only in when we can to a when someone we especially the to with us his or her experiences us his or her or when we to that us our our understanding of sympathy to our of the and that may in about what of our such a partly to our the we as of and as who our own and, in a of our