[Zero Cool]

Melancholy as a complex emotion

The distinctions between melancholy, on the one hand, and sadness, on the other, point up another feature of melancholy. Melancholy is always a complex emotion rather than a simple one. It can be categorized in this way for a few reasons. First, it does not involve a single emotion, rather it is an emotion with various shades: a shade of longing; a shade of sadness; and a shade of feeling uplifted, or even a subtle sense of excitement. Secondly and perhaps most strikingly, it has both displeasurable and pleasurable shades of feeling.[16] This combination of different aspects constitutes a second necessary condition of melancholy, but which also is not a sufficient condition since other emotions involve both negative and positive aspects. A notable emotion of this type is the sublime, which overlaps with melancholy in ways that usefully articulate how the negative and positive elements function within each different emotion, and how both emotions can be conceived as aesthetic.

Kant describes the sublime as a complex feeling that combines both displeasure and pleasure. The displeasure is caused by the agitation and overwhelming of the senses and imagination which struggle but fail to take in the vastness or power of the sublime object. In the dynamically sublime the displeasure also seems to be caused by a feeling verging on fear. We feel so overwhelmed by the object that we would fear for our lives, except that we are safe and secure, and thus able to experience a sense of awe rather than genuine fear. This feeling on the edge of fear is the point at which displeasure gives way to pleasure from an elevated imagination in which we have a feeling of being at home in the world. That is, we are not actually overwhelmed by the object so that we lose control, rather, we apprehend our status as autonomous beings. The feeling here is one of respect for both humanity and nature. So the sublime has negative aspects of mental agitation verging on fear combined with positive aspects of a feeling of respect. Generally, sublime feeling is pleasurable, for although it does not involve the immediate delight of the beautiful, its pleasure lies in a feeling of being exhilarated and uplifted.

With melancholy, the displeasurable or negative aspects lie in feelings of loneliness, emptiness, sadness from loss, and the fear or dread that sometimes accompanies longing. The pleasurable aspect comes primarily through reflection, when we dwell on happy memories or fashion elaborate fantasies. Here melancholy is intentionally sought out by finding solitude in order to deepen the reflection and in turn prolong the pleasure. While the sublime seems to begin in displeasure and end in pleasure, melancholy's negative and positive aspects alternate unpredictably. The enjoyment of a pleasurable narrative may give way to the sudden pain of desperate loneliness or unbearable longing. We might then seek to keep the pain at bay by returning to the sweetness of particular memories.

The differences between the sublime and melancholy are coupled with some interesting similarities. The two emotions share a higher reflective element; a feeling of elevating ourselves above the crudeness of stronger, more immediate feelings. As we have seen, in melancholy we refuse to give in to the urge to collapse into a heap and cry. In the sublime, we never give into the fear of nature's might, and instead we feel the exhilaration of our capacity to cope with an impending obstacle. They also share at least one common cause-nature. With melancholy, nature provides the solitude that serves as backdrop to our mood; while with the sublime, it is most often natural objects that evoke this feeling. The same desolate moor, or indeed a vast, gloomy ocean, may give rise to either melancholy or sublime feeling. Kant points to how sublime objects invite melancholy:

Thus any spectator who beholds massive mountain climbing skyward, deep gorges with raging streams in them, wastelands lying in deep shadow and inviting melancholy meditation, and so on is seized by amazement bordering on terror. . . .
The various aspects of melancholy sketched above provide a working definition of this distinctive emotion. It is a complex emotion with aspects of both pain and pleasure which draws on a range of emotions-sadness, love and longing-all of which are bound within a reflective, solitary state of mind. It is this special character of melancholy that makes it a more refined emotion and an emotion which engenders aesthetic experience.