The Clouds By Aristophanes Analysis

Out of all of Socrates old accusers, Aristophanes is arguably the most dangerous. Socrates recognizes that Aristophanes is a dangerous man, as Socrates states so in the Apology, “and the most unreasonable thing of all is that it is not even possible o know and to say their names, unless a certain one happens to be comic poet.” Furthermore, it is accurate to say that Aristophanes can be considered the fundamental motive for why Socrates was put on trial.” For example, Aristophanes is the author and producer of the production the Clouds, which is a satirical play that portrays Socrates as a destructive, uncouth man. Furthermore, the play was created almost twenty years prior to Socrates trial. Which, provides an example of Socrates argument …show more content…
Nevertheless, the Clouds also provide an insight to how this view of Socrates could have begun. The creation of Aristophanes’ play can be claimed as an interpretation, from Socrates arrogant attitude, and possible misconduct regarding Aristophanes. There is no factual evidence that proves Socrates and Aristophanes had problems, it is interpretation of the play that causes all the trouble. It is possible that Aristophanes might have strongly disliked Socrates and based the Clouds off this idea. Yet, it is also possible that he could have been trying to satirically point out the need for minds like Socrates. This could be another reason Socrates claims Aristophanes as one of his old accusers, because he never directly explained the true meaning of his play, which lead the public to interpret the play as they …show more content…
Past grudges are unable to be righted or corrected, but present grudges can be fixed and mended. Socrates underlines that “there are many of these accusers, and they have been accusing for a long time now. ”. Socrates previous statement reflects how time can be corrosive because it breeds a sense of greed, contempt, and revenge. As previously stated, it is possible that Aristophanes acted out of revenge while writing the Clouds. As well as, it should be recognized that Aristophanes could have been acting out of greed; the greed to overwhelm Socrates’ legitimacy throughout Athens. Moreover, Greed, contempt, and revenge are concepts that seem to repeat themselves throughout both Socrates Apology and Aristophanes Clouds. In the Clouds, Strepsiades burns down the school over revenge for not getting what he wanted, he is quoted “I too will make one of them pay the penalty today…” , this shows that contempt and greed corrupts and promotes hate rhetoric. Furthermore, this example provides a direct relation to how Socrates is right in the fact old accusers are more dangerous, this also provides an argument for the earlier statement that Aristophanes had written the Clouds with no hostile intent; if that was so, he would not have killed Socrates and his