Plato's Symposium: Before Christ To The Modern World

Before Christ to the Modern World

Revisions are imperative for understanding the complexity of older texts. The class has looked at multiple texts, revisions of these texts, and have discussed why these revisions have been made. Recently, the class read the Symposium, a philosophical debate about love between six men set in 416 BC. Modern society has manipulated and warped this story into a well-known rock and roll musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This essay will be comparing and contrasting the novel to the movie using Aristophanes story about being broken, lover beloved relationships, as well as answering the question; How has the Symposium changed to the well-known movie it is today? Plato’s Symposium looks at love from the different

In Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hedwig (formerly known as Hansel), struggles with being a transgender and not knowing who they are. Originally, Hansel (male) fell in love with Luther, who said he could rescue Hansel from his country, but only if he changed his gender and name. Hansel agreed and before he knew it, he became Hedwig. The musical talks about Hedwig’s struggles in trying to find her ‘other half’. After Luther leaves her, Hedwig sings about her experience. In her song Tear me Down, Hedwig expresses her struggles as an outsider. She sings “Down the middle of the city of Berlin/The world was divided by a cold war.” (Mitchell). Hedwig is the Berlin wall in her life. Everything about her is divided, her gender, love, and her position in politics. She was taken from her home on one side of the wall and placed on the other as a different person. Consequently, as the movie progresses, Hedwig tells the story of her search for her soul mate. The audience learns quickly that Hedwig has similar views to Aristophanes in her song The Origin of Love. “They had two sets of arms./They had two sets of legs./They had two faces peering/Out of one giant head.” (Mitchell). These words are similar to the Greek philosophers’ story about round people. They too had two arms, two legs, and were round. Hedwig continues in her song, mentioning how the gods split them: “And he let out a laugh,/Said, “I’ll split them right

There was a clear lover, beloved relationship happening between the two, but they had never kissed, let alone had sex. Tommy wanted Hedwig for her knowledge in music, and once he had it, Tommy left. This is another connection between the Symposium and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Earlier in the movie, Luther left Hedwig for a younger boy, as they did traditionally in the Symposium. However, the relationship between Tommy and Hedwig was more like the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades. Alcibiades wanted knowledge from Socrates in exchange for love. In Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Tommy wanted fame and he needed Hedwig to teach him how to get for it. Contrary to the book, Hedwig DID break and teach Tommy about music. Consequently, he stole her music and fame and left without giving her anything in return. Hedwig sings about this in her song Wicked Little Town. “You know you can follow my voice/Through the dark turns and noise/Of this wicked little town” (Mitchell). This line is representative of the teacher/student relationship of Tommy and Hedwig. Like in Greek times, older men would teach their beloveds, generally younger men, their wisdom. This relationship is clear between Hedwig and Tommy, the lover and