Guide to Sections CriticaLink | Plato: Phaedrus | Guide to
Sections 234 D - 237 A Socrates: It's a miracle, my friend. I'm
in ecstasy. Socrates claims to have been swept up in Phaedrus's
enthusiasm for Lysias's speech. Even this sarcastic praise of
Lysias's skill reinforces the theme of the seductive--and
potentially dangerous--power of language. Socrates's
disagreement with Phaedrus on the merits of the speech
introduces the question of what criteria we should use to judge
a rhetorical performance. Socrates distinguishes between the
formal qualities of a speech--the style, diction, and
arrangement of the material--and its substance and
appropriateness for the occasion. The separation of form and
function is fundamental to a number of critical approaches, some
of which are primarily concerned with the language and
structures of the text itself, while others focus on the text's
social and historical context and the impact of its reception.
The study of rhetoric in the ancient world (and in ours)
accommodates b