6 Janko thinks that catharsis is a means to refine character by redirecting emotions. These situations would test character if one found oneself in them, but few do. So, good literature redirects feelings along the proper course without actually putting the reader in the position of Hamlet or Howard Roark. In a sense it is, but perhaps there are more effective ways to do so. As a doctor can learn a lot about disease from working in a small town office, he might learn much more and more efficiently in a large teaching hospital.
Some art works seem more conducive to such growth.
Sophocles who is seemingly well versed in the complexity of human problems and how this results in tragedy is on a totally different plane than Sartre who is just showing us a tragic or absurd situation. Sophocles challenges while Sartre shocks. He seems closer to Sartre's end. He does not illustrate how different people act in a horrible situation. Even so, Lovecraft's work does not measure up well with this criterion.