Phaedrus Response

Although it is not a point that Socrates makes during his critique of Lysias’ speech, the concept of audience is a key to comparing the speech to those of Socrates. In addition to the repetition and other rhetorical faults mentioned by Socrates, the lack of consistency with regard to audience also contributes to the relative inferiority of the speech. Though a piece of rhetoric may have many audiences, intended or otherwise, for the most part orators can accommodate for the fact that their auditors are going to vary from one another. The problem with Lysias’ speech is not that he doesn’t have a clear view of his audience, but rather he has a clear view of a few possible auditors, which he cannot seem to address within the same speech. At first the speech appears to address a general public on the topic of whether to prefer lovers or nonlovers, but this quickly shifts to addressing a “you” which can be read as either the beloved or the lover at various times, but not both at once. For example, while he talks about the public opinion about one’s love, it is clearly addressed to those men who have taken lovers. Later, however, in the midst of the continuing tirade against lovers, Lysias makes a more surprising shift in audience. As he is wrapping up the speech he shifts from offering advice to those in the position to take a lover (as he spends much of the piece doing), to addressing not only lovers, but what seems to be a specific lover, perhaps Phaedrus himself (141-142).

Socrates, too, addresses a variety of people and other beings, but with both his speeches he does not restrict himself by targeting a specific subgroup or individual (although, of course, the only physical audience is Phaedrus). To do so would amount to alienating, and possibly confusing, segments of the audiences. In addition to encouraging Phaedrus to define the terms of the argument and keep repetition to a minimum, Socrates demonstrates the value of consistency when considering to whom you are speaking.

Work Cited

Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. H. N. Fowler. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. Ed. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford, 2001. 138-168.