Socrates In The Clouds

Who is Socrates? By many he is recognized as the father of Western philosophy. Other than that, very little is known about his life. What we do know is told from different viewpoints. Most of his life was chronicled through the dialogues of one his most famous students Plato, in The Republic and the plays of Aristophanes, in The Clouds. Each had their own portrayals of Socrates’ characteristics and beliefs.
If you have read his texts then you can tell that in, The Clouds, Aristophanes wrote with a comical tone. In Clouds, he portrays Socrates roughly and sarcastically. This Socrates is a sophisticated atheist that is angered very quickly and lacks patience. To show readers the lack of patience, Aristophanes uses Strepsiades, a student of Socrates. When it comes to his students, Socrates isn’t much understanding nor is he patient. Strepsiades easily frustrates Socrates by not being able to understand the teachings of the Thinkery, a faculty which Socrates has high influence of. Socrates is really irritated by Strepsiades’ ignorance. Socrates expresses no tolerance for unintelligence and had a very harsh tone when speaking to Strepsiades. As for Socrates’ moral characterization goes, it was hard to tell if Aristophanes was trying …show more content…
Throughout the story, there is a scene where numerous people of Athens bash Socrates for negatively influencing the youth (by being an atheist). Socrates’ response to all of this was that, he is doing everyone a favor by being the one to question everything and in light of all of this, Plato shows on unfairly Socrates was victimized. Socrates' companions wanted to break him out of jail, but he refused the effort because he will honor law and ask told earlier afraid of what death awaits him. So in the end we see his taken away for something he believed in and devoted his life