The accuracy of "The Clouds" in portraying the political, social, economic and religious life of people in the fifth century BC Athens

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Evaluate the accuracy of “The Clouds” in portraying the political, social, economic and religious life of people in the fifth century BC Athens

Greek theatre has always been a significant constituent in the past and present Athenian society. Fifth Century BC Athenian society proposed numerous playwrights in their festivities honouring the god, Dionysus. Amongst the many crowd favourites was a legend to describe him in the least, Aristophanes. His works of satirical comedy are still celebrated and enjoyed today. One such example of his famous satirical works is “The Clouds”, written in 423BC.

“The Clouds” is about a father, Strepsiades, who is in debt because of his son’s expensive horse hobby. Strepsiades tries to convince his son, Pheidippides, to attend the “Thinkery” (a school for sophistry), to learn the art of double talk in the hope of outwitting his creditors in court. However, Pheidippides denies his father’s request, so instead Strepsiades decides to enrol himself. Strepsiades’ attempts to learn sophistry but fails miserably when his old age gets the best of him. Another attempt to encourage his son to enrol becomes successful and Pheidippides learns to double-talk from the teacher Socrates. This is later regretted when, at the climax of the story, Pheidippides uses double-talk to justify him beating his father. Strepsiades, out of anger and rage, then sets fire to the Thinkery.

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The main theme dealt with in the “The Clouds” is that of new versus old. Aristophanes challenges the radical thinkers like sophists and the imaginative thinkers like Socrates for oppressing the traditional values held and demoralising the youth. Another theme pertaining to “the clouds” is the confliction of religion and science. In fifth century BC, around the time when Aristophanes wrote the clouds, the commotion of “scientific theory” had just begun. With religion prevailing at the time, such atheistic thinking brought about by people like Socrates was firstly unlawful and secondly prone to ridicule by conservative figures such as ...

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