"The Clouds" by Aristophanes is a humorous play from ancient Greece that makes fun of the philosopher Socrates and his followers, the Sophists. The story is about Strepsiades, a dad drowning in debt because of his spendthrift son. To avoid paying what he owes, Strepsiades wants his son to learn from Socrates how to twist arguments and get away with anything. The play kicks off with Strepsiades wide awake and stressed about his debts, which makes him want to find a way to get his son to go to Socrates' school, where they teach how to make weak arguments sound strong. This creates funny tension between old-fashioned values and the sneaky tricks of the new thinkers. The back-and-forth between father and son shows how Strepsiades misses the simpler days, while his son loves the fancy life, highlighting the play's bigger message about how society is getting worse because of tricky arguments and bad education.
The Clouds
By Aristophanes
A desperate father sends his son to a questionable school to learn how to cheat his way out of debt, leading to chaos and laughter.
Summary
About the AuthorAristophanes was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
Aristophanes was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
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