Charmides

Core Ideas

Desire

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Core Ideas Desire

Like Lysis, Charmides is framed on both ends by an erotic situation: Socrates is awestruck by and irresistibly attracted to the famous beauty, Charmides (see "Historical Context for Charmides" in the "Plato, Socrates, & Background on Charmides" essay for more details on male/male love in Hellenistic society). The pull of desire is very strong here: Socrates feels a "wild-beast appetite" for Charmides, and is nearly struck dumb with nervousness when the young man finally comes over to speak to him. At the end of the dialogue, a curious exchange occurs in which Charmides both agrees to become Socrates's devoted pupil and tells him, "Do not resist me."

The exchange seems to highlight the curious play of dominance and submission that desire injects into the dialogue, even as the return of the desired object (Charmides) into the dialogue seems to rejuvenate the promise of philosophy. In fact, the desire of an older man for a younger one was not separate, in ancient Athens, from a desire and duty to impart wisdom to the youth—this blend of the lover/beloved and teacher/student relationships frames Socrates's interaction with attractive young interlocutors like Lysis or Charmides. In any case, this dense network of interpersonal emotions and relations contrasts rather starkly with the fairly strict philosophical conversation (between Socrates and Critias, while Charmides remains silent) that occupies the middle sections of the dialogue. The contrast seems largely to balance out any assignment of value to one side or the other: the pure relationship of two men pursuing knowledge comes across both as an escape from base desire, but also as a dead end.