The Significance of Life Annabelle Toler-Scott 12th Grade

In both the Tempest and the Dialogues of Plato, the protagonists, Prospero and Socrates, make references to dreams and death, often correlating them to each other. These similarities are evident in two specific quotes, one from each work, which I will explore in this investigation. This correlation is not unusual in literature, but for their time the idea was unpopular, mainly due to the stronghold religion had on society. Correlating the two leads to the question, if life is but a dream, does it have any value? In this investigation I ask the question, does death remove the significance of a life from the world? How do the characters of Socrates and Prospero view this idea?

The quote I begin with is from The Tempest:

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep[1]."

Prospero begins by comparing the "actors" to spirits, then...