Can we really know when we are in love? Buzzers, fireworks, and confetti cannons generally don't follow the harmonic sound of horns and violins that signal the appearance of an attraction. Can we really describe love? Adding to the difficulty of describing an emotion is the limitation of a single four-letter word in English to explain all the different forms. In Plato's Symposium, Socrates and a group of Greek men gathered to celebrate the poet Agathon's victory in his first dramatic competition decide to forgo drinking games for a colloquy, a discussion on love. Unsurprisingly, it is Socrates who offers the best description of love, but not before everyone else involved has had a chance to express their views. Socrates' speech follows that of Agathon, whose eulogy was greeted with thunderous applause. Before beginning his own, Socrates compliments his comrade's speech by saying: "Must not I and anyone else be at a loss after such a fair and varied speech?" Even if the rest wasn't so wonderful, that last bit, who wouldn't be stunned to hear the beauty of his words and phrases?' » (Plato 27). This particular line foreshadows Socrates' method of discussion: he will ask questions, as the Socratic method did, in search of the best possible answer, or wisdom, in this case, of the best description of love. By following this procedure, Socrates is able to criticize the previous arguments while using their strengths juxtaposed with his knowledge and views to form a more universal and correct description of love. On Agathon's views on love and its links to beauty and necessity, Socrates manages to expose his predecessor's faults by questioning Agathon middle of paper ......makes him look like a clown and this makes his ideas difficult to consider seriously. Agathon's fine and fanciful words are typical of a playwright and are narrow-minded because he and Phaedra are young and hold that love is for the young exclusively, a notion that Socrates completely refuted. Can you really know when you're in love? Can we really describe love, or even define it? Plato's Symposium proves that the task is difficult, perhaps even beyond mortal means, although the challenge is well met by Socrates. Nonetheless, human beings struggle to quantify and qualify love, dividing its many forms into sections and attempting to discover what it all means for the mind, body, and soul. At the end of the journey, everyone must understand that love cannot be universally defined, nor given to an image and a legend that would serve as a model for all humanity; it must be felt, lived and built throughout life..