A Comparison Of Love And Plato's Symposium

A great writer once wrote: “The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they 're brought out.” Boundless things -- ideas, concepts, memories -- are all torn apart when we speak about them. They get cut up into little pieces, so that we may chew on them and digest them without choking. We end up turning these immeasurable things into literary defecation. Love, for instance, has been constant subject among writers and philosophers for eons. Everyone from E.L James to Plato has written on love and attempted to explore it with language. In Plato’s Symposium, love is discussed

In Plato’s account, Socrates, the greatest philosopher in Athens, provides structure and direction for the speeches about love. He is the key speaker, and the most important guest. However, In Carver’s story, the key speaker is Mel who goes off in fragments and fails to reach any conclusion of what love is. “‘I’ll tell you what real love is,’ Mel said. ‘I mean, I’ll give you a good example… ‘What do any of us really know about love?’” (144) Interestingly enough, Mel follows his bold, confident statement with a question instead of continuing his thought. He literally questions himself and everyone around him, diminishing everything he says from there. Also, Socrates is known for questioning supposed “experts” to collapse their argument or bring them to a higher truth. This method is known as Socratic irony, which Plato displays after Agathon’s speech. “‘Would you also let me ask Agathon a few small questions, Phaedrus?’ asked Socrates. ‘Then, once I’ve got his agreement to certain matters, I’ll be in a position to deliver my speech. ‘Yes, please do ask him your questions,’ Phaedrus replied.” (380) Socrates seems to entertain discussion to find truth. Mel is more concerned on lecturing, and what he has to say. Mel is the entire discussion, and any outside statements become a distraction. “‘Just shut up for once in your life,’ Mel said very quietly. ‘Will you do me a favor and do that

Don’t you think anything good is also attractive?’

‘Yes, I do.’

‘So if Love is lacking in attractive qualities, and if good things are attractive, then Love lacks good qualities too.’ ” (Plato 40-41)

Carver and Plato can both agree that love is a powerful thing. Carver, however, digs deep on how physical, secular and violent the nature of love can be, as displayed through Mel’s stories. Love is at it’s ugliest and most graphic when Mel discusses Ed, Terri’s late and mentally unstable ex-husband’s suicide. “‘He shot himself in the mouth in his room. Someone heard the shot and told the manager...The man lived for three days. His head swelled up twice the size of a normal head. I’d never seen anything like it, and I hope I never do again...I didn’t think she should see him.’” (Carver 142) It is important to note, Mel sees trauma often, as he is a surgeon, and even he found Ed’s suicide too much to bear. Carver uses the stories of lovers in gruesome situations to display the idea that love does nothing more than makes misery for the lovers