A Belle in the Prison of Socrates
A review of a play by Ahmen Etman about Socrates’ final days. Yet another text to find. Looks good.
The second scene is about Socrates’ trial. Andocides has switched sides: despite taking Xanthula’s money, he now speaks on behalf of the prosecutors. It is Lysias, whose speech on love is discussed in Plato’s Phaedrus, who proposes to defend Socrates, but the latter refuses, again. Xanthula asks her money back from Lysias, but it is not clear why, since she only gave money to Andocides.
Andocides gives two reasons for Socrates’ accusation: his corruption of young men and his atheism (the most important reason, i.e. Socrates’ anti-democratic stance, becomes clear at the end of the scene). To these two main reasons Andocides later adds some comical ones, that Socrates would have instigated youngsters to use drugs and to keep rats. After Andocides’ speech it is time for Socrates’ defence. The reader/spectator who is familiar with the Apology of Plato (and of Xenophon) will be surprised at Socrates’ words. Here, Socrates is not the triumphing philosopher, but a very weak person, who even wants to weep at the end of the scene. We might see this as an evocation of the frailty and impotence of the individual in the face of the state system. The scene ends with the verdict: the votes for acquittal are equal to the ones for the death sentence, but the judge (Democratia herself) has the last word. She condemns the philosopher to death. The conclusion has a clear political message: in the end it is democracy itself that condemns an individual to death.
While the last scene of the first act is a comic highlight, the last scene of the second act is a tragic highlight. We are now in Socrates’ prison. The situation recalls Plato’s Phaedo, but what happens is totally different. A demonstration has taken place in Athens calling for Socrates’ release. Socrates disapproves of the chaotic and violent situation in the city, and we might see here Socrates depicted as an ancient Gandhi or Martin Luther King. Because of the anarchy that rules the city as a result of the people’s call for Socrates’ release, Democratia comes to visit Socrates in prison. Playing the role of Plato’s Crito, she offers Socrates to flee into exile. As in Plato’s dialogue, Socrates rejects the offer. He does not want to violate the law, for he wishes to be a model for society.
A comic interlude is provided by the entrance of Xanthula and her maid. Now his wife truly is “A Belle in the Prison of Socrates”. This meeting is comic, for, when Hedone sees Socrates together with Democratia, she thinks the two are having an affair. Like Democratia, Xanthula tries to persuade Socrates to escape, but again he does not agree.
Next, Socrates has another guest: Plato himself. Like the encounter between Socrates and Aristophanes, this is a highly pleasant meeting for classical philologists. An intertextual joke is made at the beginning of the dialogue between the two philosophers: Socrates’ question if his pupil is still ill reminds of the opening of Plato’s Apology, in which is said that Plato could not be present at Socrates’ trial, since he was ill. Afterwards, Plato says he is planning to travel to Egypt to gain wisdom. This is an allusion to the legend that Plato went away from Athens for a while after Socrates’ death.
After Plato has left, together with Socrates’ wife, maid and children, Socrates’ guard (well-known for the warm relationship he has with Socrates in Plato’s Phaedo) reveals that he has instigated a revolution and thrown off Democratia. Now that he is in power, he wants to set Socrates free. Socrates does not agree, for he considers the usurpation illegitimate. In accordance with Crito, Socrates wants to carry out what the law has condemned him to do, and so he drinks the cup of poison and falls dead.
Hence, the comedy has become a true tragedy, showing what democracy can do to people who oppose to the system. An evolution is certainly evident, throughout the play, in Socrates’ attitude to democracy. While Socrates’ criticism of democracy is light at the beginning of the play, the piece progressively acquires a more bitter tone. The play ends with Socrates’ determined opposition to the democratic system. The play thus develops from what first seems a mere comedy towards a tragedy, in which the dangerous sides of democracy are emphasized.