Comparison Of Aristophanes's View Of Love

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In the Symposium, both Aristophanes and Socrates give contrasting explanations of love. In this essay, I will explain how Aristophanes ' understanding of love, while fascinating, is unrealistic due to the fact that it presents the ultimate love between two humans as selfish in origin. Socrates ' understand is much more representative of what we consider to be an ideal romantic relationship.

Aristophanes explains his view of love using an ancient myth of humans that existed before we did. These people were round, with four legs, four arms, and two different faces. When these early humans tried to rebel against the gods, Zeus punished them by splitting them all in half. After this, the humans are described as having longed to be back together …show more content…

For example, say you have an elderly couple of soul mates who have been happily married with a healthy relationship for over sixty years. Realistically, this would be considered an ideal relationship. Now, imagine that the husband passes away and his wife outlives him. Despite the fact that they both lived full lives and shared a lifetime of love and growth, Aristophanic love would now consider his widow to be incomplete because she is living without the physical presence of her soul mate. Also, because they are now apart, Aristophanic love would have it that the widow 's joy and fulfillment from her marriage would be replaced with the relentless lust and longing to be with her husband again. This is a black-and-white view of complex emotions. Suppose her husband was suffering, and she knew that it was best that he was now at peace. The fact that she does not wish for her husband to be back on Earth with her should not diminish the fact that she still loves him just as …show more content…

She defined love 's purpose in her speech as "giving birth in beauty, whether in body or soul" (206C). Someone who seeks out beauty is spiritually uplifted, "starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stars" (221C). In this explanation, love is more than just a self-serving desire. It is almost like a ladder to betterment. Diotima also makes the distinction that love is "being a lover" rather than "being loved" (204C). Where Aristophanes focuses on receiving being the main motivation in love, Diotima instead asserts that it should be

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