Character Clues

Character Analysis

Dialogue

Since this is a play, we get the lion's share of our information about the characters from the dialogue. Take, for example, when Better Argument criticizes Worse Argument's methods for educating young people, saying,

"You've made the younger generation uninterested in education. / Just wait until the Athenians / find out what fools you've made of them!" (916-918)

You get the vibe here that Worse Argument might not be the most moral dude and/or the best teacher, since he's making "fools" of his students and making them less interested in education. We're pretty sure that getting your students less interested in learning is a teaching no-no. Anyway, through Better Argument's statement here, we get a negative view of Worse Argument.

Family Life

We can tell a lot about father-and-son duo Strepsiades and Pheidippides by the way they interact. Strepsiades comes off as weak when he lets his son drive him into piles of gambling debts and then can't even convince him (at first) to help him get out of the hole. Pheidippides, meanwhile, looks like a total jerk when he finally does learn how to argue his way out of his father's debts because he puts those skills toward justifying his right to beat him up.

Yes, Pheidippides actually beats his father… so, that kind of tells you everything you need to know about him, right? Family relationships are key to figuring out these two dudes' core qualities.

Personification

Better Argument and Worse Argument are personifications of two different schools of thought: a "better" school of philosophy that values tradition, physical activity, and respect for the older generation, and a newly minted "worse" school that emphasizes using rhetoric as a tool of persuasion to get what you want… regardless of how moral it is. As characters, these two arguments go against each other and talk up their respective philosophies.

Actions

We covered some of this ground in "Family Life," but it bears repeating that Pheidippides's willingness to beat his father (and then use rhetoric to justify his actions) makes us think he's not a super great guy. Also, we can tell a lot about Strepsiades by the fact that he decides to solve his debt problems by cheating the creditors (rather than finding a way to pay them). Actions definitely speak louder than words with that pair.