Study Notes- English Socrates- “No evil can happen” Purpose Socrates’ actual purpose is to defend freedom of conscience. His ostensible purpose is to be acquitted. Audience 501 judges of Athens in 399 BC. Context Athens was a burgeoning democracy and has just been through the ‘glory days’ of Pericles (440 BC).
They have just fought the Peloponnesian war against Sparta and its democracy is under threat. Techniques o He writes in first person, as he is defending himself.
o Uses a morality statement to begin “Thou doest wrong to think that a man of any use at all is to weigh the risk of life and death, and not to consider one thing only, whether when he acts he does the right thing or the wrong, performs the deeds of a good man or bad… .” o He uses an active voice to accuse the jury of their misjudgment of him “Thou doest wrong… .” o He uses conceits “If I should be found to be wiser than the multitude, it would be in this, that having no adequate knowledge of the beyond, I do not presume that I have it.”So God bids, and I consider that never has a greater good been done to you, than through my ministry in the city.” o Socrates takes the higher moral ground, as a means of criticising Anytus and those who accuse him. This can be seen in his use of conceits.
o He is on the offensive, (by offending the jury, ) as opposed to the defensive, (which would be him defending himself. ) o He answers the charges that he is impious and that he corrupts the youth. He does these both in paragraph three, (“the perfection of the soul.” ) This statement is also a conceit, (his way of “the soul” is perfect. ) o He refuses to change (“I shall not alter my conduct, no, not if I have to die a score of deaths.” ) o Socrates was an idealist, Anytus was a pragmatist o Socrates uses polarised positions as seen when he calls Anytus impious; “I am pious in a way that Anytus isn’t because I believe in the gods truly and in human conscience, whereas Anytus is using a religious charge, pragmatically, to get rid of me.” o He uses a humourous metaphor; “a kind of gadfly to a big generous horse, rather slow because of its very bigness and in need of being waked up”.
The Essay on The Use Of Metaphysical Conceit In John Donne’s Poem A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
John Donne was renowned for his use of metaphysical conceit in his poems to convey thoughts through imagery and alternate objects. This article focuses on the numerous aspects of conceits in the poem “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”, and how they help to communicate meanings using the poignant metaphors. When it comes to metaphysical conceit, there is a need to realize the relations between the ...
