Socrates Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Socrates responds to the beauty of Agathon’s speech – and, more broadly, to all of the speeches delivered before Socrates begins – by chiding the orators for an overemphasis on their rhetoric and a lack of truthful substance; that is, Socrates criticizes his peers for their dedication to the, “fine impressive air,” (199 A) of their praises of appearances of Eros, and sarcastically laments that he will only be able to deliver a, “real eulogy,” (198 E), a real speaking well where he interprets well as truthfully rather than beautifully as his peers do, of the topic itself. He then continues to specifically question Agathon himself, first – again – addressing the rhetoric wrapped around Agathon’s message, but then striking at the root of his host’s words. His begins a line of questioning concerning familial relations …show more content…
This – again – Agathon must respond affirmatively to. Then, as the object of desire is, per Socrates, something that is desired, Socrates pushes further and extracts from Agathon an affirmation that the object of desire cannot be possessed by the one who desires it (200 A). Further, Socrates asks Agathon to recall the premise of his own speech on Eros, in which he defined Eros as exclusively a desire for beauty – not for ugliness – but also describes Eros as being beautiful, of possessing a beauty in itself. This is then expanded to declare that Eros must not only lack what is beautiful, but it must lack what is good. It is then in a culmination of making clear this contradiction that Socrates has defeated Agathon’s speech on Eros, which elicits from Agathon the remark, “I see no means, Socrates, of contradicting you,” (201 A-C). In Socrates’ own speech, however, he perhaps provides reason for Agathon’s inability to refute a single one of his
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