Platos Love in Stoppards essays

Plato's 'Love' in Stoppard's essays The Symposium, by Plato and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard are two novels that deal with the meaning of the word love and the expressions and actions that are brought on as results of it. Plato delivers a number of perspectives on love in his novel. Different characters at a dinner party give their perspectives about the definition of love. The definition seems to become closer to the truth as more characters take their turn to speak. The Symposium is told to the reader by Apollodorous as told to him by Aristodemus about the dinner party. After the guests have eaten, it is suggested that all give speeches to honor the god of Love. Phaedrus goes first and describes love as a force that acts upon and exists between people. He also proposes that love ensures courage and happiness. Pausanias elaborates on this idea by speaking of two types of love, Heavenly and Common. He also talks about appropriate types of love. Eryximachus sees order as the driving principle of love. He thinks that conflicting elements will make perfectly balanced love. Aristophanes tells a myth about three genders in hopes to explain how love guides us towards those who are close in nature with us. After Agathon speaks about love, Socrates argues that Agathon has just described the object of Love. Socrates attempts to explain what Love is itself by relaying a story he was once told by Diotima. Diotima believes that one should strive for the knowledge of the Form of Beauty to reach love. Arcadia takes place during two different centuries. Some of the characters in the play are portrayed in 1809, and others in the present, which was 1999. The plot takes place in the same drawing room where characters in the present try to discover what happened to the characters in the past. There are many references to science, mathematics, literature, and how they relate to sex. The play shows in depth relationships between different characters and their s...