Analysis Of Socrates Dancer In The Dark

This is a statement made by Socrates as he was proving his point to Ion. Socrates further explained that a rhapsode must be “divinely inspired” and “possessed” to effectively perform the words of the poet. Björk, who played the lead role in the critically acclaimed film, Dancer in the Dark, is considered the rhapsode. In one interview with Björk, she was asked how she handled playing the character of Selma who was a victim of a tragic twist of fate. She expressed that playing Selma was difficult because she never had to go through what Selma did and even said that “A lot of these songs come from a painful place, but it 's not mine.” Analyzing this statement using Socrates’ perspective, one can say that Björk must have been really inspired and

Also, Björk has really gotten into the character that the audience would have seen Selma instead of her. Actors have to internalize to get into the character and be the character. They have to live the character’s life and feel what the character is supposed to feel. This proves Socrates’ argument that rhapsodes must be struck by inspiration or possession to efficaciously depict the poet’s words. Socrates also argued that the rhapsode must be knowledgeable: Björk has been in the industry since she was 11 years of age and has admitted that playing Selma was a lot of work because she had to learn how to be Selma to let the audience see Selma instead of Björk.

Dancer in the Dark is in the form of tragedy and has consistently portrayed the strong points of a tragedy according to Aristotle’s Poetics. The Plot here tells of how the protagonist, Selma, was suffering from a condition of slowly going blind and in order to save her son from the same fate, saved up money for her son’s operation. The Character, Selma, is an immigrant living in America with her son, Gene. As shown in the middle of the film, Selma went blind and was fired from her job. She decided to take the money she