It is not Zeus who is the most important God!
During the time when the play was written, the most important and most powerful God in Athens was considered as being Zeus, the deity who had power over everyone and everything. When Strepsiades goes to Socrates, he learns, ironically, that Zeus is not the most powerful God, not even by far, but rather that the Clouds in front of them are the chief power ruling over every person living on earth. This remark was even more ironical for the people of the time who listened to play, considering how Zeus was most likely the God worshiped by the majority.
Nature calls!
Ater Socrates finished his prayer addressed to the clouds, he turns towards Strepsiades and asks him if he heard the sound of the Gods. Strepsiades agrees he did hear the sound of the Gods but that he became so frightened, he feels the need to defecate. His remark is presented in an ironic manner, considering the solemn nature of the event.
I forgot my traveling cap!
During Strepsiades initiation ritual, Socrates performed a prayer, invoking the Clouds to come and settle themselves over Strepsiades and give him their wisdom. This scene is supposed to have a great importance for Strepsiades, being the moment he is initiated as one of Socrates’s disciples. In that moment however, Strepsiades interrupts Socrates to tell him that he does not have a cap to protect him from the rain which will surely come. This scene is presented in a comic and also ironic manner, showing just how little Strepsiades cared about the initiation ritual.
Going to school but not for your own good
In an attempt to solve his financial problems, Strepsiades decides to send his son to one of the philosophical schools in Athens. At first, Strepsiades tries to convince his son how this is for his own good, how the things he will learn will help him in life. He also claims that the son will learn law and how to deal with lawsuits, thus getting rid of the debtors the father gathered over the years. Thus, ironically, the ultimate motive for sending the soon to school is not to have him educated, but to profit from him and have more money and wealth.
These debts will fall one your shoulders!
Strepsiades is an old man, well aware of just how close his to his death. He spends most of his time thinking about the debt he accumulated over the years and which will be inevitably inherited by his own son. Strepsiades tries to make his son aware of this while also doing everything he can to reduce the amount of money owned. His son on the other hand, is not interested at all by the debt he will inherit and lives just as he did until then. When he questions one night his father while he can’t sleep, Strepsiades reminds him, ironically, that while he will die and thus will be free of any debt, his son will continue to have to pay for it and thus should not criticize his father for thinking about ways to repay it.
