Theme Of Love In Plato's Symposium

In both life and literature, love exists as a hidden force that secretly drives all lives, propelling people's greatest desires and pushing them to extreme lengths if it means that they will get what they want. Love, in whatever form it comes in, will make people crazy. In fact, it will make them so crazy that centuries after a work has been written, students analyze the insanity behind the actions and the all powerful drive — love— that caused it. In Plato's Symposium, characters examine not only the modern phenomenon of love, but also the god of love, Eros, and his intricate character. Concepts of love brought up by other characters of the Symposium are reflected in Alcibiades desires and mirror the story that Alcibiades tells in his speech about his relationship with Socrates. Alcibiades seems so fixated on reaching the highest level of the ascent of Eros, beauty itself, that he is blinded and unable to see his own tragic vision of love. At the start of his speech, Agathon comments on the physical qualities of Eros, calling him the “most …show more content…
The ascent begins with physical beauty on the lowest level and ends with beauty itself. It is nearly impossible to ever reach this level and find true beauty, but Alcibiades is fixated on getting to it. However, before one can reach this level they must first attain knowledge and wisdom, the second highest point on the ascent, which is where Alcibiades' pursuit of Socrates begins. Alcibiades claims that when one time he saw Socrates serious in thought, it was “so bright and beautiful, so utterly amazing — that [he] no longer had a choice — [he] had to do whatever [Socrates] told [him]” (Symposium 68). Alcibiades believed that, in that moment, he was as close to beauty itself as he could get and that in order to reach the highest level of the ascent of Eros, he would need to pursue Socrates to gain knowledge from