Socrates as portrayed in The Clouds

As evidenced in his text, The Clouds, Aristophanes was a very witty and comical writer. In The Clouds, Socrates is very sarcastically portrayed. Many of the characteristics of Aristophanes’ Socrates and Plato’s Socrates are very different. In The Clouds, Socrates is a sophisticated atheist with a quick temper and a lack of patience. Socrates is in charge of the “Thinkery.” He is not a teacher, but merely an overseer of the facility. The members of the “Thinkery” have a very materialistic take on the ideas of the world. According to Socrates, the gods do not exist. Aristophanes uses the character Strepsiades, a difficult and narrow minded student, to bring out the impatience in Socrates. Socrates isn’t understanding or patient in the least with this student. Socrates is easily frustrated by Strepsiades’ inability to grasp the concepts taught in the “Thinkery.” The quick temper of Socrates is best exemplified in the second scene of the text. Socrates is extremely disgruntled by Strepsiades’ ignorance. He is very demanding and harsh in his tone towards Strepsiades. Socrates expresses no tolerance for unintelligence. As for Socrates’ moral characterization it was hard to decipher his moral character as being either good or bad. Aristophanes’ humorous depiction of Socrates leads the reader to believe that he intended for the reader to interpret Socrates as a bad person. However the reader has a hard time thinking of him as a bad person because in the back of an informed reader’s mind he/she might be thinking about the real Socrates, an ingenious philosopher and great teacher. There was never a concrete statement or specific passage in the text in which Aristophanes directly targeted Socrates as a bad person. The only place where a case for a “morally bad Socrates” comes out is in the second scene when he is so quick to give up on his student, Strepsiades. Although Aristophanes’ diction casts a negative light on the character of Socrates, he never directly accuses or scorns Socrates’ teachings or his value as a person. The “just” and “unjust” methods of thinking are juxtaposed to one another in this text. The “just” and “unjust” verbally battle one another in front of Pheidippides. It seems as though Socrates does not choose one side or the other. He leaves it up to the students of the “Thinkery,” to decide for themselves which path to follow, that of the “just” or “unjust.” I think that it was the intention of Aristophanes for the readers not to admire the work of Socrates. The sarcasm associated with Socrates makes it hard to respect or admire his work within the “Thinkery.” Socrates is not labeled as a teacher to the students himself; he is simply described as presiding over the establishment. He is not doing something useful with his life because he is sabotaging the minds of young thinkers. The purpose of the “Thinkery,” over which Socrates presides, is to spread the idea of a materialistic outlook of the world. Therefore the work of Socrates is not something to be admired. I think that Aristophanes portrays Socrates in such a humorous and satirical light because he wanted to describe Socrates in a way that had not been presented by anyone else of that time period. Aristophanes’ humor is what makes The Clouds enjoyable to read and different from any other texts about the work and life of Socrates.