Socrates Character Analysis in Crito

An important philosopher and public figure in Athens in the fourth century BC. Socrates’ philosophical practice always involves engaging others in dialogue, interrogating them by asking questions in order to challenge their existing beliefs (a practice called elenchos, or the “Socratic method”). In Crito, he makes use of this technique when his friend Crito attempts to convince him to escape from the prison where he awaits execution. Socrates challenges Crito on the morality of attempting to evade a legally rendered verdict, asking him questions aimed at showing the inconsistency of Crito’s proposal with convictions he and Socrates had always shared. Here, as in other dialogues, Socrates takes this method one step further by trying to get his interlocutor to eventually agree with Socrates’ own convictions. Socrates delivers an extended account of the obligations that accompany membership in a political community, attempting to convince Crito to admit that dying willingly is the only moral choice Socrates has left. Though Crito does not directly express his agreement with Socrates’ arguments, he ends the discussion defeated––another common conclusion in the dialogues. Though based on the historical Socrates, the character is ultimately a literary invention of Plato. For this reason, as in other dialogues, it is difficult to tell how much this character represents views which Socrates actually held versus how much he serves as a mouthpiece for Plato’s own beliefs.

Socrates Quotes in Crito

The Crito quotes below are all either spoken by Socrates or refer to Socrates. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Often in the past throughout my life, I have considered the way you live happy, and especially so now that you bear your present misfortune so easily and lightly.

Related Characters: Crito (speaker), Socrates

Page Number and Citation: 46

Explanation and Analysis:

When Crito enters Socrates’ cell, he expects to find an agitated man anxiously awaiting his impending execution. Instead, Crito finds Socrates at peace, calmly aware of his impending death. Crito reacts with surprise and admiration: he observes that Socrates seems to have accessed a deep tranquility beyond Crito’s reach, allowing Socrates to quietly accept “misfortunes” which would make others miserable. He connects this tranquility to his past observations of Socrates, and begins to apprehend that there is some fundamental distinction between Socrates’ way of living and his own. Though Crito does not understand precisely where this difference lies, he notes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. A

SOCRATES: Then I do not think [the ship] will arrive on this coming day, but on the next. I take to witness of this a dream I had a little earlier during this night […] I thought that a beautiful and comely woman in white approached me. She called me and said: “Socrates, may you arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day.”

CRITO: A strange dream, Socrates.

Related Characters: Crito (speaker), Socrates (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 46

Explanation and Analysis:

Crito anticipates that the Athenian ship whose arrival will signal Socrates’ execution will return that day. In this passage, Socrates disagrees, citing a dream from the previous night which he takes to be prophetic. In this dream, a woman in white quotes a line of Homer’s the Iliad (9.363). That line was originally spoken by Achilles, the strongest fighter in the Greek army. Isolated from the rest of the army after an argument, he threatened to leave Troy, anticipating reaching his homeland, Phthia, three days later. The quote serves two purposes here. First, it plays up Socrates’ heroism, implicitly aligning Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti

Surely there can be no worse reputation than to be thought to value money more highly than one’s friends, for the majority will not believe that you yourself were not willing to leave prison while we were eager for you to do so.

Related Characters: Crito (speaker), Socrates

Page Number and Citation: 47

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Crito upbraids Socrates for endangering his friends’ reputations by refusing to accept their offer to accept him escape. Previously, he argued that Socrates should escape out of concern for his own well-being. Since that argument failed to convince Socrates, Crito now frames escape as a moral imperative, effectively attempting to shame Socrates into breaking the law. This flip shows the intensity of Crito’s determination: he attempts to weaken Socrates’ conviction from every possible argumentative angle. Underlying this particular attempt is Crito’s fear for his own public reputation, which is one of the major tensions of the dialogue. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas.

Would that the majority could inflict the greatest evils, for they would then be capable of the greatest good, and that would be fine, but now they cannot do either. They cannot make a man either wise or foolish, but they inflict things haphazardly.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito

Page Number and Citation: 47

Explanation and Analysis:

Here, Socrates interrogates Crito’s belief in the importance of majority opinion by making a large, contentious claim about the nature of good and evil. Though he never says as much, Crito’s concern for public appearances implies that the public possesses some power which makes it deserving of fear. In his response, Socrates lays out and takes issue with this unspoken premise––a premise which Crito himself had, apparently, failed to directly consider. However, Socrates’ response goes further than refutation, quietly making several other important arguments which Socrates neglects to spell out: first, that whatever is capable of the greatest evil is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Com

You seem to me to choose the easiest path, whereas one should choose the path a good and courageous man would choose, particularly when one claims throughout one’s life to care for virtue.

Related Characters: Crito (speaker), Socrates

Page Number and Citation: 48

Explanation and Analysis:

Crito continues his attempt to shame Socrates into accepting his offer of help. This time, he admonishes Socrates quite sharply, attacking his moral character and accusing him of being cowardly. Crito seems to hope this argument will be especially effective on Socrates, given Socrates’ general concern with the nature of good and evil. In actuality, though, it reveals just how uncritical Crito’s conception of virtue is. He makes no attempt to justify his characterization of Socrates’ willingness to die as “the easiest path,” nor does he consider what would make escape the path of a “good and courageous man.” Rather, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam offici

We must therefore examine whether we should act in this way or not, as not only now but at all times I am the kind of man who listens to nothing within me but the argument that on reflection seems best to me.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito

Page Number and Citation: 48

Explanation and Analysis:

Socrates signals a shift in the dialogue, transitioning from an emotional back-and-forth with Crito into the logical “Socratic method”: argument based on self-consistent logical principles framed by Socrates’ questions to his interlocutor. Even in announcing this shift, he preemptively highlights the fundamental difference between Crito’s views and his own: while Crito is concerned with the public and their values, Socrates heeds no principles except those which he personally takes to be logically sound. His phrasing here is revealing. He not only implies that he pays no heed to public opinion; he adds that he listens to nothing within himself except Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officii

SOCRATES: […] Examine the following statement in turn as to whether it stays the same or not, that the most important thing is not life, but the good life.

CRITO: It stays the same.

SOCRATES: And that the good life, the beautiful life, and the just life are the same; does that still hold, or not?

CRITO: It does hold.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

Socrates poses this question while rehearsing conclusions upon which he and Crito previously agreed, asking Crito whether he still approves of each. This, the final and most important of these prior conclusions, elaborates Socrates’ views on the nature of good: goodness, beauty, and justice are the same, at least in reference to a human life. This equation will serve as something like a linchpin for the consecutive discussion, which ranges between questions of personal morality and civic duty without making much distinction between the two: after all, if goodness and justice are the same, there is no need to make Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Vel

Let us examine the question together, my dear friend, and if you can make any objection while I am speaking, make it and I will listen to you, but if you have no objection to make, my dear Crito, then stop now from saying the same thing so often, that I must leave here against the will of the Athenians. I think it important to persuade you before I act, and not to act against your wishes.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito

Page Number and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

Once again, Socrates encourages Crito to engage him in argument based on consistent logical principles. His explanation for this desire deserves notice: evidently, despite his contempt for majority opinion, he considers Crito’s approval somehow valuable. It is unclear exactly why this is the case, and Socrates neglects to provide further justification. Nevertheless, one might take it as evidence of the extent to which Socrates cares for his friends and family, despite his decision to abandon them in death: it seems reasonable to conclude that Socrates does not wish to leave Crito without explaining himself first. This reframes the urgency of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nost

You will also strengthen the conviction of the jury that they passed the right sentence on you, for anyone who destroys the laws could easily be thought to corrupt the young and the ignorant. Or will you avoid cities that are well governed and men who are civilized? If you do this, will your life be worth living?

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito

Related Symbols: The Law of Athens

Page Number and Citation: 56

Explanation and Analysis:

Socrates reproaches himself in the voice of the law of Athens, arguing that he is morally obligated to remain in the city and face his execution. This quote is part of a larger series of arguments based in a concept of civic duty and a version of the social contract. Here, the argument reaches something of a climax: although Socrates may have been unjustly condemned, he argues that disrespecting the laws of the city in which he has spent his life would, ironically, make him just as contemptible as the court originally judged him to be. If Socrates wishes to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. P

Do not value either your children or your life or anything else more than goodness, in order that when you arrive in Hades you may have all this as your defense before the rulers there. If you do this deed, you will not think it better or more just or more pious here, nor will any one of your friends, nor will it be better for you when you arrive yonder.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito

Related Symbols: The Law of Athens

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

Socrates, still speaking as the law, finishes explaining the moral necessity of accepting his execution by indicating a connection between the authority of the state and the authority of the gods. Apparently, due to the binding nature of the imperatives of civic duty Socrates has previously outlined, disobeying the state would mean endangering his moral goodness. This quote adds that such disobedience risks punishment in the afterlife. Moreover, that threat of punishment is delivered in the voice of the laws of Athens. That would indicate that, from Socrates’ perspective, the laws of the city exist in some sort of harmony Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. U

SOCRATES: Crito, my dear friend, be assured that these are the words I seem to hear, as the Corybants seem to hear the music of their flutes, and the echo of these words resounds in me, and makes it impossible for me to hear anything else. As far as my present beliefs go, if you speak in opposition to them, you will speak in vain. However, if you think you can accomplish anything, speak.

CRITO: I have nothing to say, Socrates.

SOCRATES: Let it be then, Crito, and let us act in this way, since this is the way the god is leading us.

Related Characters: Socrates (speaker), Crito (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

These words conclude Socrates’ argument in favor of submitting to the authority of the Athenian state. They reinforce the absolute certainty of Socrates’ conviction: although he repeats his willingness to continue arguing, he also asserts that it will be impossible to convince him to escape prison and sidestep his execution. This certainty stems from the fact that Socrates does not consider the arguments he has just made to be entirely his own: rather, he “hears” them, just as the Corybants (worshippers of the goddess Cybele) hear divine music through a sort of revelation. This quote helps to explain Socrates’ absolute Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiore

Socrates Character Timeline in Crito

The timeline below shows where the character Socrates appears in Crito. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

It is 399 BC in Athens, and Socrates sits condemned in prison, awaiting his execution. No one knows exactly when it will come,... (full context)

At early dawn, Socrates wakes up to find his friend and student, Crito, in his cell. Socrates is surprised... (full context)

Crito sees, however, that Socrates appears completely untroubled by his impending death. He mentions this to Socrates, who merely counters... (full context)

...expected to return today, allowing executions to resume the next day. If true, this means Socrates will die tomorrow. (full context)

Socrates is of a different opinion. He describes a dream he had the previous night in... (full context)

Crito has no interest in talking about dreams. He believes that Socrates must escape from the prison immediately, and he has come to offer his help in... (full context)

Socrates criticizes Crito for being overly concerned with what other people think. The common people of... (full context)

Crito tries again. He wonders if Socrates is hesitant to escape because he’s worried that his friends would get in trouble with... (full context)

...at it, listing all the people and foreign governments that would be willing to help Socrates. This time, though, he expands his argument, adding that he considers it unjust for Socrates... (full context)

Socrates insists that the matter must be decided through argument and reflection. He tells Crito to... (full context)

From here, Socrates begins the dialogue in earnest. He asks Crito if one should only care for the... (full context)

Socrates asks Crito whether the part of the self “destroyed by unjust actions” is more or... (full context)

Carrying the argument forward, Socrates asks why it matters so much that the majority is able to put him to... (full context)

Having reached agreement on this point, Socrates starts another discussion, adding that he considers it “important” to persuade Crito of the reasoning... (full context)

Socrates explores the implications of this belief, asking Crito whether it is acceptable to, for example,... (full context)

Socrates seizes on this moment, claiming that Crito does not really share this belief as he... (full context)

Socrates proceeds by speaking rhetorically as the “laws and the state,” or the nomoi, asking if... (full context)

Crito counters, at Socrates’ suggestion, by asserting that the law acted wrongly towards Socrates by condemning him; for that... (full context)

Before allowing Crito to break in, Socrates insists on explaining where this obligation comes from. He lists the goods he received from... (full context)

Though he has already elicited Crito’s agreement, Socrates keeps pushing. He observes that any Athenian of age has the right to leave the... (full context)

Socrates now applies these arguments to his own case. He justifies this by repeating that he... (full context)

Here, Socrates takes a moment to return to Crito’s earlier argument that dying would mean abandoning his... (full context)

Addressing another one of Crito’s points, Socrates imagines what his life would be like in a new city. If he went to... (full context)

Socrates, still pretending to speak as the law of Athens, concludes his argument by considering his... (full context)

Socrates turns to his old friend and addresses him directly. He tells Crito that he hears... (full context)

Crito concedes, resigned and defeated: “I have nothing to say, Socrates.” Socrates accepts this concession, bidding Crito to make his peace with things: “let it be... (full context)

Socrates Character Analysis

Socrates Quotes in Crito

Crito Quotes

Socrates Character Timeline in Crito