Introduction
Shakespeare belonged to the literary age of Renaissance which means the revival of
knowledge; covering from 1500 to 1660. Before the age of revival, literature
was being ducked in religion. Scientific discoveries were rare. With the
arrival of the sixteen century, Greek literature had been translated into the English
language. Which played a key role in the scientific advancements of England and
Western Europe. Neoplatonism is a philosophical term which involves The Academy
of Plato in which Aristotle and other scholars used to discuss new
philosophical ideas especially about mysticism under the philosophical
patronage of Plato.
Symposium
The Republic is the most renowned and influential work by Plato in which he
discusses the role of justice in kingship and politics. But there is another
work which caught the attention of western people is Symposium. The book
remained untouched until it was translated by Marsilio Ficino in Latin. Reports
indicate that Shakespeare might have read the Symposium. The book spanned on love
and the motives behind this passion as a dialogue between renowned philosophers
and a comic dramatist in a banquet. Their discussion holds a close resemblances
with the themes presented in The Sonnets.
Pausanias
The discussion at the banquet begins with a legal expert, Pausanias. He
differentiates between common love and spiritual love through the reference
with Greek goddess, Aphrodite. The first Aphrodite was the daughter of Uranus
and was born without a mother. She believed in spiritual love as a connection
between the two souls. The formal Aphrodite (Venus) was the daughter of Zeus and
Titaness and she advocated in favour of common love as a connection of two
bodies.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, represented spiritual love in his sonnets as
the inner beauty of the "constant heart":
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart
Aristophanes
Aristophanes, a famous comic playwright, narrated a comical instance of love in human beings. In early times, there were three genders of those double-bodied
humans, all-male, all-female and androgynous (half male and half female). They
were so powerful that they warmed the battlefield against the Lord of Thunder
and Zeus chopped them in half. It is said that they have been finding their
other half to emerge again as complete creatures. But this uniformity was based
upon the soul, not on the body. That is why when a person falls in love with someone, he
feels the uniformity of souls as has been illustrated in Shakespeare's Sonnet
number 42:
But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;
Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.
Shakespeare considers he and his Fair Youth as one soul emerged in two body. If his Dark Lady deserts him and joins his friend then she has already joined Shakespeare in the garb of Fair Youth.
Agathon
The third participant in scholarly discussion portrays the vision of Cupid on
love. To love someone is an uphill task and must be performed justly, politely,
courageously and wisely. Shakespeare was a man of lofty heart, for he loved
Dark Lady and Fair Youth without creating any distinctions between them. He
courageously asked his Dark Lady about her desertion yet he was answered coldly
by her. Even they left him knowingly, but he forgave them entirely.
Diotima
Socrates discloses Diotima's views on love. But her identity was shrouded in the mystery of being either a prophetess or a philosopher. She said that love was
neither a god nor a passion; it was a daemon which divided gods and humans.
Love needs creativity and creativity is beauty. But beauty 'holds in perfection
for a little moment', then it vanishes. Diotima says beauty can be foreverised
through the birth of body or soul. But the bod is mortal and soul is immortal
and Shakespeare uses his pen to mortalise his love:
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
Consummation of Soul
Manifestly, the concept of being "the One spiritually" has been portrayed through the scholarly
dialogues of notable philosophers of Greece in Symposium. Shakespeare followed
the Neoplatonic love throughout his life and in his sonnets. Authentic love is
not the consummation of two bodies: it is consummation and uniformity of souls.
Consummation of bodies is temporal but the uniformity of souls lasts forever.
Source
- Lectures of Sir Mohsin Ghani
