The Clouds

Describe Strepsiades’s goals and motivations in the play. Does Aristophanes portray Strepsiades as sympathetic? Does he ever come to understand the error of his ways?

Discuss some of the naturalistic discoveries of Socrates, Chaerephon, and the students of the Thinkery. How do these discoveries illustrate the ideas that Aristophanes considered dangerous and attributed to contemporary intellectuals such as Socrates and the sophists?

How does Aristophanes weave comedy with serious subject matter? Pick three to five quotes from the text to illustrate your argument.

Who are the Clouds? Why do they turn against Socrates and the Thinkery at the end of the play?

Compare and contrast the Socrates of Aristophanes’s Clouds with Socrates as he is represented in the works of Plato and Xenophon. In what ways is Aristophanes’s depiction of Socrates different from what we find in Plato and Xenophon? In what ways is it similar?

Who are Right and Wrong? Compare and contrast the different philosophies they present in their agon.

In what ways does Pheidippides’s education at the Thinkery transform his character? Do his values change as well as his behavior? Use examples from the text to justify your argument.

How is Strepsiades “punished” for his actions? How do the Clouds ensure that he receives this punishment?