Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Symposium, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Love
Inferiority of Women
Sobriety, Restraint, and Wisdom
The Ascent to Immortality
Summary
Analysis
After Alcibiades has finished his speech, there’s some joking about his apparent love for Socrates, as well as some jostling for the opportunity to be eulogized by Socrates in turn. Soon, however, a noisy group of revelers barges into the party, “all order was abandoned,” and “everyone was forced to drink vast amounts of wine.” Aristodemus says that he fell asleep, and when he awoke the next morning, he saw Socrates, Agathon, and Aristophanes still drinking and discussing. After the other two drifted off to sleep, Socrates left the party and spent the rest of the day as he normally did, only going to bed that evening.
After Alcibiades’s speech, the symposium dissolves into chaos. Socrates leaves the party and goes about his normal routine, unshaken by a night of heavy drinking and endless talk. He also departs alone, suggesting that nobody else is prepared to fully accept his teaching or follow his philosophical example for now.
Themes
