5 Paragraph Essay Sample
Paper Details
Topic: "begin
from the beauties of the earth and mount upward for the sake of that
other beauty, using these as steps only..." How might Socrates'
conversation with Diotima on the nature of Love result in a disdain
for the physical body and sexual love?
Details: 5 paragraph formal essay each body paragraph should have a
strong topic sentence and 3 supporting points each body paragraph
should include at least one quotation all quotations should be from
" Plato Symposium and Phaedrus" this book is the only source
can be used in this essay.
The Nature Of Love
This
paper discusses the discourse of various philosophers like Appolodorus,
Socrates, Phaedrus, Aristodemus and many others. The main topic of the
discussion is the nature of love and how it affects the lives of
people indulged in it.
The
conversation between Phaedrus and Socrates begins by appreciating the
beauty of the nature. The dialogue prolongs beneath the plane tree. An
abstract from the dialogue is as under:
Soc.
By Here, a fair resting-place, full of summer sounds and scents. Here
is this lofty and spreading plane tree, and the agnus cast us high and
clustering, in the fullest blossom and the greatest fragrance; and the
stream which flows beneath the plane-tree is deliciously cold to the
feet. Judging from the ornaments and images, this must be a spot
sacred to Achelous and the Nymphs. How delightful is the breeze: -- so
very sweet; and there is a sound in the air shrill and summer like
which makes answer to the chorus of the cicadae. But the greatest
charm of all is the grass, like a pillow gently sloping to the head.
My dear Phaedrus, you have been an admirable guide. (Plato)
Then the conversation differentiates between a lover and a friend. In
friendship one cares for another not for his own selfish desires but
for a mutual understanding and similarities of opinions. The following
part of the conversation clearly defines the interest which a
non-lover and a lover may be looking for in an individual:
“Many
lovers too have loved the person of a youth before they knew his
character or his belongings; so that when their passion has passed
away, there is no knowing whether they will continue to be his
friends; whereas, in the case of non-lovers who were always friends,
the friendship is not lessened by the favors granted; but the
recollection of these remains with them, and is an earnest of good
things to come.“
(Plato)
A friend is never interested in one’s
physical body or sexual love and this is the reason that a friend’s
association can be everlasting. However, this is not the case with a
lover. A lover might desert you anytime if he gets fed up of your
sexual attractiveness and at any time when you do not seem to be
sexually appealing to him. It happens that a lover might quarrel with
you after fulfilling his desires. A friend on the other hand respect
one’s moral values and will not indulge in any such act that would
in any way harm his friend. The following quotation yields the
difference between a lover and a non-lover:
"Every
one sees that love is a desire, and we know also that non-lovers
desire the beautiful and good. Now in what way is the lover to be
distinguished from the non-lover? Let us note that in every one of us
there are two guiding and ruling principles that lead us whither they
will; one is the natural desire of pleasure, the other is an acquired
opinion that aspires after the best; and these two are sometimes in
harmony and then again at war, and sometimes the one, sometimes the
other conquers. When opinion by the help of reason leads us to the
best, the conquering principle is called temperance; but when desire,
which is devoid of reason, rules in us and drags us to pleasure, that
power of misrule is called excess. Now excess has many names, and many
members, and many forms, and any of these forms when very marked gives
a name, neither honorable nor creditable, to the bearer of the name.
The desire of eating, for example, which gets the better of the higher
reason and the other desires, is called gluttony, and he who is
possessed by it is called a glutton -- I the tyrannical desire of
drink, which inclines the possessor of the desire to drink, has a name
which is only too obvious, and there can be as little doubt by what
name any other appetite of the same family would be called; -- it will
be the name of that which happens to be eluminant. And now I think
that you will perceive the drift of my discourse; but as every spoken
word is in a manner plainer than the unspoken, I had better say
further that the irrational desire which overcomes the tendency of
opinion towards right, and is led away to the enjoyment of beauty, and
especially of personal beauty, by the desires which are her own
kindred -- that supreme desire, I say, which by leading conquers and
by the force of passion is reinforced, from this very force, receiving
a name, is called love." (Plato)
Now the point arises as to what the lover makes of his beloved that
results in a hatred for the desire of sexual love. Well, in a nutshell
the answer lies in the fact that the beloved becomes a submissive
slave of the lover. The lover adopts such a strategy that would make
the beloved ignorant, clumsy and inferior. He instills such a behavior
inside the beloved that the beloved thinks that he is no longer able
to live his life the way he feels i.e. the beloved lost his identity
as a separate human being. This can be supported by the following
dialogue of Socrates:
“He
who is the victim of his passions and the slave of pleasure will of
course desire to make his beloved as agreeable to himself as possible.
Now to him who has a mind discased anything is agreeable which is not
opposed to him, but that which is equal or superior is hateful to him,
and therefore the lover Will not brook any superiority or equality on
the part of his beloved; he is always employed in reducing him to
inferiority. And the ignorant is the inferior of the wise, the coward
of the brave, the slow of speech of the speaker, the dull of the
clever. These, and not these only, are the mental defects of the
beloved; -- defects which, when implanted by nature, are necessarily a
delight to the lover, and when not implanted, he must contrive to
implant them in him, if he would not be deprived of his fleeting joy.
And therefore he cannot help being jealous, and will debar his beloved
from the advantages of society which would make a man of him, and
especially from that society which would have given him wisdom, and
thereby he cannot fail to do him great harm. That is to say, in his
excessive fear lest he should come to be despised in his eyes he will
be compelled to banish from him divine philosophy; and there is no
greater injury which he can inflict upon him than this. He will
contrive that his beloved shall be wholly ignorant, and in everything
shall look to him; he is to be the delight of the lover's heart, and a
curse to himself. Verily, a lover is a profitable guardian and
associate for him in all that relates to his mind. “(Plato)
The lover casts such a spell upon the beloved that he ceases to accept the importance of his parents, property, and jewels, kindred and even his wife and children. These are the things which are the most prior requirements of an individual. And such a person who fails to comprehend the significance of these is said to be insane and lifeless. In fact the beloved would start imagining that the above might pose hindrance in his love for his lover and this is the way he becomes a helpless prey of his lover. His conscious fails to recognize what is right and wrong for him. He is driven into the deep valleys of illusions produced by the lover.
Although
the some part of the Symposium by Plato and the latter part of
conversation of Socrates with Phaedrus show the power and bondage of
love, yet the disgrace brought to the beloved overwhelms all of these.
In almost all cases the lover plays the inhuman and fraud character.
Works Citied
Plato. Symposium and Phaedrus (Dover Thrift Editions) (January 31, 1994) Dover Publications
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