Nate Wikol
9/13/15
LIB 100
The Apology: Gadfly
Gadfly is someone who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or a fly that bites livestock, especially a horsefly, warble fly, or bot fly. He refers to himself as a gadfly because just as a gadfly disturbs a horse and prevents it from becoming sluggish and going to sleep, Socrates stirs up conversations around the city and prevents people from becoming carless and narrow minded. Gadflies are also annoying and Socrates describes himself as annoying because he argues with them. A quote says “You might easily be annoyed with me as people are when they are aroused from a doze, and strike out at me; as if convinced by Anytus you could easily kill me, and then you could sleep on for the rest of your days, unless the god, in his care for you, sent you someone else” (Plato 71). So basically everybody hates him because he tells others things they don’t want to hear and makes them question the opinions they had already come to know. Society needs gadflies to keep the city from becoming sluggish and narrow minded. Greek society would be injured by his absence because without him there are no gadflies so the city would become very narrow minded. In my opinion our society most definitely needs gadflies because if there is nobody to question what society says then we have no other choice but to believe it and never truly see the other side when in fact what society says could be wrong. Gadflies sometimes use humor because it pleasures the audience.
Oscar Wilde- Was one of many writers to be imprisoned for their writings that said things that went against the status quo. There were even some writers that were sentenced to death. He Wrote the Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). He also wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris but it was refused a license for England due to the absolute prohibition of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unfazed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early...