Diotima delivers the final word in Plato’s Symposium. She is a mysterious, brilliant woman who has the ability to even stop a disease. She is a mysterious figure, a brilliant woman with the power to stop a plague. She has the answer for the night’s big question. She defines love.

Diotima’s argument is reflected in every speech she has given on love until then, so the reader can also build to it like her characters. The truth can stand alone. We don’t need to have an understanding of Agathon’s pompous nonsense. The reader will bounce from one thinker to another. He will, if he is an attentive reader, try to reconcile these contradictions, identify the similarities and, eventually, (if Plato is any good), he might want a final, unambiguous explanation. Diotima gives us the answer to this desire in her discourse on love. The reader is now able fully understand it, as he has been engaged.

Diotima would be the culmination if the Symposium was an orgy. The buildup involves a carefully arranged series of inferior speech that builds on itself. Phaedrus begins the evening with Love being called “the most powerful god” in gaining virtue and blessing. (180B). Pausanias then gives Love more power. He explains that love can be both “vulgar” and “compelling,” requiring a lover’s attention to virtue. (185B). Plato interrupts with Aristophanes’s “bad-case of hiccups,” which (185C), reminds us of how casual the setting is. This suggests that, despite the characters’ utter abstractions, they remain bound to the everyday reality of our lives. Eryximachus speaks next. Eryximachus then speaks.

Plato moves on to more general ideas. Agathon’s use of “the beauty” of god to introduce the notion that love and beauty are linked introduces us to the concept of love. Agathon concludes this half of the speeches on the nature of love by asking him a question.

Socrates says that it was Diotima who brought together the various theories. She differentiates between the world of matter and the world of spirit, homosexual love and heterosexual, as well the love a person has for their body, from the love they have for beauty. She develops an argument that is irrefutable, leading to the definition of love as the desire to experience beauty in its most absolute and natural form. Philosophy can help one achieve this. She does not agree with the speakers, but praises the act of philosophical thought. Philosophy is just the love for wisdom. Plato’s form and content are inextricably connected. Love dictated how the speeches progressed, and the Symposium’s structure. Plato is a philosopher, just like his characters. He shows that truth can be found through the development he has carefully crafted.

However, the symposium does not finish on a note so high. Alcibiades’ comical hysteria comes as a contrast to Diotima’s focused, serious lecture. He is a better character than Diotima. He has a lot of emotion. He is struggling with a personal paradox: “[Socrates] traps me…and makes me confess that my political life is a complete waste of time.” This is due to the same experience the reader will have after Diotima’s address: “…my spirit, or my heart, or whatever it is you call it…has been struck and bit by philosophy.” This is because Plato wants to show that the reader is left at that point in Symposium by placing him there. We’re a little confused and shaken, but we are enthusiastic. We are left in the same situation as Alcibiades by Symposium. Plato’s carefully placed Alcibiades is not separate from what he actually says. Both structure and content are interconnected.

The Symposium is a much larger structure than the scene of the gathering itself. Plato begins the story by introducing us to Apollodorus. Apollodorus heard the story first from Aristodemus. Aristodemus heard it from Phoenix. Plato, who is the author of all of these characters is also aware of this fact. He tells us that Symposium begins with a story about a narrative of another story. The story is a perfect example of what happens when something is repeated too many times. Especially with Socrates. Apollodorus even comes close to worshiping him. Plato then takes us up, gradually, to Diotima’s Beauty discourse. Understanding “Beauty” means understanding perfect form. The reader is now brought from the chaos of the Fourth Generation Story to the Platonic Idea by philosophy. Here, again, meaning and structure meet.

The Symposium is a clear advocate of philosophizing. Plato’s argument must be convincing if he is to succeed. The reader should be able to understand the merits and the reasons for the arguments. Plato does the first by using the speeches of characters. The second is done through their placement in a story. The Symposium is so compelling because of its unity.