Insanity In Plato's Phaedrus '

As Stephen’s journey follows the structure of the path to experiencing a true epiphany as defined by Aristotle, he also follows Plato’s concept and explanation for experiencing true beauty, which substantiates his struggle as divinely-given. Plato’s explanation outlines how one’s madness and confusion is significant for experiencing true beauty, if divinely given. Stephen’s buildup of events eventually enables him to experience the ultimate beauty by the end of the novel and prove that his suffering and “madness” is in fact divinely given, in order to lead him to a greater good and higher understanding. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates claims:
“in certain families which have been afflicted with the severest diseases and toils from some sort of ancient blood-guilt, madness crops up and prophesies for those in need, finding deliverance. By taking refuge in prayers and service to the gods, madness in conjunction with purifications and secret rites takes him out of harm’s way, both for the short term and in the long haul, helping a person who is mad and possessed in the right way, to find a release from his present ills” (Plato, 25).
Socrates’ ideology asserts that significant difficulties enable a character to find refuge in and grasp the concept of divine beauty. In one’s struggle, Socrates claims that they will …show more content…
This madness takes hold of a tender soul, one pure like a pathless mountain peak, it arouses and fills that soul with a Dionysiac frenzy to make lyric songs and other forms of poetry, the madness arranging and preserving the countless deeds of the ancients for the edification of generations to come. Whoever comes to the doors of poetry without the madness of the Muses, confident that he will become an accomplished poet by skill or art alone, this person and his poetry will fall short of his aim; the poetry of those who are mad will obliterate the poetry of a sound and self-controlled mind. (Plato,