The Republic

of Plato : Book
X
Literary Criticism
3SEDE-A
GROUP 5
 Members:
●Anievas, Wilson
●De Leon, Angelica
●Fernandez, Apple Joy
●Librado, Yesel Charity
●Salvacion, Aiah
●Seña, Grace
Table of contents

Literary Analysis 01
The Republic of Plato : Book Guide Question
X

02 03
Guide Question Guide Question
Literary Analysis of
Plato’s Republic
(Book X)
 Plato’s Republic Book X touches a sensitive topic in politics which is the practice of censorship in the
arts because of its ability to influence people with morally corrupting themes. Plato's Republic is a dialogue
about justice, man, and society which was written around 375 BC. It is one of the most well-known book and
historically important works of philosophy and political theory in the world. Specifically, the Book X is the
final chapter of Plato’s Republic. In this chapter, Socrates reiterates that he wishes to justify his reasoning in
greater detail why he was satisfied with the fact that poetry has been banned from the State. Socrates uses the
metaphor of a bed to explain how phenomena arise on three levels in the universe. There are three artists
involved in the creation of the three beds: God, the carpenter, and the painter. The true maker or founder of the
bed is said to be God. To put it another way, he is the natural author of all that exists in this universe. He
created everything through a natural process. The carpenter, on the other hand, is the one who builds the bed
by copying it. The painter's job is to alter the appearance of objects or beds, he is a "imitator" of what God
has created. Since he only modified the exterior of the bed, the painter cannot be called a bed maker or
craftsman. The logic about imitator and creator is an analogy that was used to refer to whether poetical
imitation is good or bad.
 Socrates would only allow "hymns to the gods and praises to famous men" as poetry in the State.
On the other hand, poetry, especially musical verse, is pleasurable and serves neither reality nor the
state, but rather the opposite. It is said that even the people who possess the most noble souls can be
corrupted by the power of poetry. “And the same object appears straight when looked at out of the
water, and crooked when in the water; and the concave becomes convex, owing to the illusion about
colours to which the sight is liable. Thus every sort of confusion is revealed within us; and this is that
weakness of the human mind on which the art of conjuring and of deceiving by light and shadow and
other ingenious devices imposes, having an effect upon us like magic.” This line is a metaphor on how
poetry affects the reader’s mind. By reading a piece of poetry, we are internalizing its contents,
message, or meaning and somehow sways us into thinking and acting like the author of that poetry. It
can make us feel different emotions and feelings like sympathizing with people who grieves, laugh at
certain times, and the likes. By indulging ourselves with these emotions, we have evolved into the
different characters we have seen on stage or read about in poetry. Through this, it is clear that poetry is
a dangerous tool in the society and must be banned.
 
 In the book, it talks about how Plato engaged a way of scholarly debate that continues to the present
days. It is said that Plato’s ideas were gradually and succeeding adapted to be practice with censorship to the
arts on the things they manifest in theme where it is morally corruptive “send the wrong message”. It only
means that all the way Plato perceived arts are being used and adapted by many artists, scholars, and various
schools of criticism. But then they adapted the ideas quite oppositely in a way that they believe that arts must
be maintained apolitical and essentially amoral where it is not viewed of any censorships to consider.

There are some criticisms regarding Plato’s pronouncement on having an advance aesthetic criticism.
He wants to remove any form of entertainment in criticism. In his time poets are seen as good moral teachers
based on his systems of thought. Simultaneously, we should not disregard the way that the Republic and a few
of Plato's different exchanges are penetrated with clever and sporadically vindictive references to writers,
Dionysia's, and different sorts of "stage business," as when Socrates says that Aeschylus' depiction of
Agamemnon, champion of Troy, is that of an overall who obviously couldn't check his own two feet. Also, we
can't limit the plain actuality that Socrates respects routine theatergoers (Dionysia's) with doubt and a specific
level of hatred.
 In any case, there is no uncertainty that Plato's colleagues saw Homer and his
individual artists as a wellspring of good direction; the Greeks cited the Iliad and
Odyssey as every now and again and with as much intensity as certain Christians quote
the Book of scriptures.
Barely any scholars since Plato's day concur with his hypothesis of the emotional
expressions. Plato's own student, Aristotle, progressed a substantially more point by
point examination of verse and dramatization than Plato's. In any case, had Plato lived
to peruse Aristotle's Poetics, he absolutely may have couldn't help contradicting its
hypothesis on much similar bases as he moved toward human expressions and
specialists he excuses from the Ideal State.
 
 
0
1
 On Plato’s The Republic, Book X
1. In explaining his views on representation, Socrates uses
as his example the making of a bed. what does he mean
when he says that there are” three different kinds of
bed?” who are the three different makers of those beds
Anne which is furthest removed from the “real" Bed?
what is this real bed?
 For us, the “three different kinds of bed” were used as an example to

01 explain the existence of a creator or God in this world. In the making of the
three beds, there are also three artists behind it which are God, carpenter, and
the painter. God is said to be the real maker or creator of the bed. In other
words, he is the natural author of everything this world has to offer. He made
the things in a natural process of creation. God is known and considered to be
the real maker of the real bed and creator of all things that exists around us.
The creator of everything that we consider as part of the heaven and earth
itself. The second one that was mentioned was the carpenter which is also
pertained to as a maker of the bed. The carpenter on the other hand is the
maker of the bed by imitating what God has made in which he is also
considered as a craftsman.
 The last one mentioned is the painter. The painter was not

01 considered as a maker or creator but an imitator for he will only imitate

what the other one makes before him. The painter’s role is to change the
appearance of the things or bed into which makes him an “imitator” of
what God has made. The painter cannot be considered as a maker of a
bed or craftsman since he only changed the bed on the outside. The
lesson here is that there is a creator of a real bed and what the painter and
craftsman made was only an imitation of the appearance of the bed and
therefore these people do not make what is real but making a similar one
to it. The real bed in the story is the bed that God has made.
02
On Plato’s The Republic, Book X
●2. How does Socrates criticize Homer and the other
poets? for example how is imitative poet's product like”
illusory painting” and “sorcery?” what part of human
nature do poetry in such practices appeal? Summarize
Socrates’ criticism of poetics imitation?
02
Based on what we had read Socrates criticize homer and other poets due
to their seduction and distortion of what is the truth about life through the use
of poetry. He also said that these other poets are more focused on aesthetics
and reference on the portrayals of gods that leads the peoples mind away
from the truth itself, the morals and philosophical grounds which he believes
people needs to have. He also said that Homer and other poets’ way aren’t
morally uplifting that only creates a baleful effect.
Socrates also adds how dangerous homer and other poets uses their
strategy. The more poetic they are the more dangerous it is to the citizen.
02
Insert answer
03
 On Plato’s The Republic, Book X
3. How much hope thus Plato offer us that poetry may
be saved from complete banishment? What kinds of
poetry might Socrates permit in his Republic? what
would have to be demonstrate that before he would
permit poetry “designed merely to give pleasure" in his
in his taste?
●Plato is famous for having banished poetry and poets from the ideal city of the Republic but he did no such
thing. On the contrary, poetry – the right sort of poetry – will be a pervasive presence in the society he
describes. Yes, he did banish Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes – the greatest names of
Greek literature. But not because they were poets. He banished them because they produced the wrong sort of
poetry. To rebut Plato’s critique of poetry, what is needed is not a defense of poetry, but a defense of the
freedom of poets to write as, and what, they wish.
●No big problem, you may think but suppose poetry was not the minority pursuit it has become in Britain
today. Suppose it was the most popular form of entertainment available, the nearest equivalent to our mass
media. That is not far from the truth about the world in which Plato wrote the Republic. The Athenian
democracy, audience for much of the poetry Plato objected to, accepted that it was their responsibility to
ensure the quality of the poetry funded by the state. In modern terms, they thought that democracy should
care about whether the mass media encourage the right sorts of values. Do we want Rupert Murdoch to
determine the overall quality of the culture? Should money decide everything? If not, what can we do about
it?
●Plato was no democrat and had no qualms about proposing Soviet-style control from above, by those who know
best. But democrats who reject such authoritarian solutions may still learn from Plato’s disturbing presentation of
the problem. What he is chiefly talking about is the words and music by which the culture is transmitted from one
generation to the next. Tragedy and comedy were performed before a crowd of 14,000 people at the Great
Dionysia and other civic festivals. We hear of 20,000 people attending a recital of Homer. Then there are hymns
sung at religious ceremonies and songs at feasts or private symposia. Forget about reading T.S. Eliot to yourself
in bed. Our subject is the words and music you hear at social gatherings, large and small. Think pubs and cafés,
karaoke, football matches, the last night of the Proms. Think Morning Service at the village church, carols from
King’s College Cambridge, Elton John singing to the nation from Westminster Abbey. Think popular music in
general and, when Plato brings in a parallel from the visual arts, forget the Tate Gallery and recall the
advertisements that surround us everywhere. Above all, think about the way all this is distributed to us by
television, the omnipresent medium at work in every home. What Plato is discussing in the Republic when he
talks about poetry is how to control the influences that shape the culture in which the young grow up. How to
ensure that what he calls the ethos of society is as ideal as possible. Even as adults, none of us is immune.
●Books II-III of the Republic present Plato’s proposals for reforming the culture in a carefully arranged sequence of stages. The first stage
concentrates on the content of musical poetry, the last on its material and social setting – with special reference to the symposium or
drinking party. In between come various other elements of poetic performance. This sequence of stages is not a sequence of independent
topics. Each should be thought of as one layer among others in the analysis of a single cultural phenomenon: the performance of poetry
with music (and sometimes dance as well).

●From time to time the discussion touches on a non-musical topic, be it nursery tales or the content of the visual arts. But the central
thread is the performance of musical poetry at a social gathering. This for Plato is the main vehicle of cultural transmission. This is what
he is trying to get right when he designs a musical education for the warrior class in the ideal city – the Guards, as they are called, from
whose ranks a select few wills go on to become philosopher rulers. All else is subordinate.

●One further preliminary. Plato is well aware that what he has to say will shock and appeal his readers, then as now. His proposals for the
ideal city amount to a complete reconstruction of Greek culture as it existed in his day. What motivates the proposals is his profound
understanding of the many subtle ways in which the ethos of a society forms the souls who grow up in it. If you shudder at the
authoritarianism of his program, remember that shudder when the newspapers next debate whether bad behavior in schools is the fault of
parents or teachers. As if parents and teachers were anything but a tiny facet of the total culture of our time. Either grasp the nettle of
devising democratic alternatives to Plato’s authoritarianism, or stop bleating.
●Plato’s first charge, and perhaps the most shocking to ancient readers, is that, from Homer onwards, poetry has been
full of lies about the gods. The entire religious and mythological tradition stands condemned for blasphemy. It is like
someone today proposing to ban the Bible and all reference to Biblical stories, because the Bible presents a wrong
picture of divinity. None of the stories of God’s dealings with humankind can be true; and even if some of them were
true, they are morally unsuitable for young ears.

●And what is unsuitable for ears is unsuitable for eyes as well. Stories it is wrong to sing, like the battle of gods and
giants, must not be represented in embroidery. This is no joke. Plato’s readers would think at once of the colossal,
embroidered robe (πέπλος) carried in procession at the festival of the Panathenaea. The robe showed the battle of
gods and giants, spotlighting the victory of Athena over the giant Enceladus. A ban on such embroidery is a stake
through the heart of Athenian religion and Athenian civic identity. Though Socrates does not stop to mention it, the
censorship of embroidery will inevitably extend to painting and sculpture. The battle of gods and giants will be
removed from the carved metopes of the Parthenon (currently on display in the British Museum). In the ideal city,
the religious content of the visual arts will be as restricted as that of poetry and music.
●How much Greek literature would survive enforcement of the following norms? (1) Divinity, being good, is not responsible for everything that
occurs, only for the good. So, gods never lead mortals into crime. (2) Divinity is simple, unchanging, and hates falsehood and deception. So, gods
never appear in disguise to mortals, never send misleading dreams or signs. (3) Hades is not the dreadful place the poets describe. So, a good man
finds no great cause for grief in the death of himself, his friend, or his son. (4) Heroes are admirable role-models for the young. So, they never
indulge in lamentation, mirth, or lying (save for high purposes of state), impertinence to their commanders or arrogance towards gods and men,
sexual passion or rape, longing for food and drink, or greed for wealth; nor, mutatis mutandis, should any such thing be attributed to the gods.
Finally, (5) the moral argument of the Republic itself, when completed, will prove that it is justice, not injustice, that makes one happy. So, no poet
may depict a happy villain or a virtuous person in misery. Under this regime very little of the Greek literature we know would remain intact, and
much of the art would disappear.

●Nearly all the poetry cited in the Republic so far will be banned. Many of the themes of the earlier discussion came from poetry, because poetry
articulates the values and beliefs of the culture. In Book I, Cephalus recounts how, when old age comes and death is near, one begins to take seriously
the stories about Hades and the terrors it holds for wrongdoers. In a society with no Bible or canonical sacred text, the chief source for these stories is
poetry. Conversely, it is poets like Pindar who hold out the hope of a pleasant afterlife for those who have lived in justice and piety. On the other
hand, a major theme of Adeimantus’ speech at the beginning of Book II is the way the poets instill in the young a wrong attitude towards justice,
because they praise it for its contingent consequences rather than its intrinsic value. Justice, the poets say, is a real sweat in this life, much harder and
less pleasant than injustice (provided you can get away with it). It is only in the very long run that justice pays: the poet Musaeus, for example,
promises the righteous that their afterlife will be an unending symposium, as if the ultimate reward for virtue was eternal intoxication. But at the
same time his teaching is that the wicked can always bribe the gods with sacrifices and festivals to let them off. None of this is compatible with the
norms that Socrates has now put before us.
●To begin with, however, Socrates speaks as if he is merely purging the culture of certain objectionable features. He
asks Homer and the other poets not to be angry if he and Adeimantus expunge all the passages that breach the norms.
He takes the scissors to Aeschylus but implies that tragedy (cleaned up by himself) will still be performed. At this
stage, Plato is concerned only with the content of the arts, especially their religious content. Like many later (and
earlier) religious reformers, he will have his new orthodoxy, utterly different from traditional Greek religion,
rigorously enforced throughout the society. The next stage of the discussion, concerned with the manner of poetic
performance, will justify banishing Homer and the tragedians altogether.

●But already it is clear that the norms for art in the ideal city will reshape the whole culture. Students of Plato are
sometimes told they need not be shocked by the censorship advocated in Republic II-III, because its target is the
education of young Guards, and any responsible parent today keeps watch on the entertainment and reading-matter
of young children. The proposals are made for the sake of the young. But Plato’s insight is that if you are concerned
about the souls of the young, it is no good simply laying down rules for parents and teachers, or agreeing to keep sex
and violence off the TV screen until after 9 p.m. His conclusion: for the sake of the young, the entire culture must be
purged.
Thank you
for
listening!