Platonism in Shelly: The views here are based mainly on L. Winstanley essay on ‘Platonism in Shelley. Shelley was by nature one of the most studious of all English poets; from his Oxford days onwards Greek was his favourite reading and for Plato he had natural affinity of mind.
The ideas which Shelley borrows from Plato may be divided into four groups
(1) General religious and philosophic ideas Shelley’s religious system is, speaking generally, rather Greek and Platonic than Christian or Biblical. Shelley was one of those to whom the Hebraic ideal appears naturally repugnant, his antipathy to it being as innate as Milton’s sympathy. He disliked narrow mindedness and exclusiveness; he disliked all kinds of formalism; he had the Greek detestation of priest-craft; severity of all kinds he abhorred; and severity in morals appeared to him a contradiction in terms. He not only disliked Hebraism but he was bitterly opposed to Christianity.
It was in this sense no doubt—because he hated established religions—that Shelley called himself and atheist, but the whole structure of his mind was essentially religious. His religion was, however, Platonic both in its excellence and in its defects. Shelley like Plato believes in a supreme power; it is beyond and above the world but also within, at once immanent and transcendent; it works from within the world, struggling with the obstructions of matter, transforming matter and moulding it to its will. Like Plato Shelley is vividly conscious of the unity of the world and of all life, and the underlying spirit, though it reveals, itself in many forms, is everywhere and essentially the same:—
The One remains, the many change and pass! (Adonais)
It is immanent in the world and yet transcendent, it is that power
Which wields the world with never wearied love Sustains it from beneath and kindles it above.
(Adonais)
Shelley, like Plato, celebrates this spirit in many different ways sometimes as the supreme Love, sometimes as the supreme Beauty, sometimes as the supreme Wisdom, sometimes as the supreme Liberty.
As is the case with Plato, Shelley’s conception of the Supreme is much less anthropomorphic and personal than the God of the Bible. Again, both Plato and Shelley lay hold of the idea of Deity largely from the aesthetic side. (Vide Hymn to Intellectual Beauty).
Like Plato Shelley, too, believed in the immortality of the soul and its pre-existence and reincarnation
(2) Cosmic Speculations. In the Timacus Plato teaches that the entire universe is the self-evolution of an absolute intelligence; thinking in accordance with the laws of its own perfections it creates and animates the universes. All parts of this universe are inspired by their own intelligence : the sun is the visible embodiment of the supreme spirit; the planets are all divine or under the guidance of divine spirits; (Plato speaks of the soul of the seven plants : the Earth also is a divine being. Shelley has embodied all these conceptions in his poetry. (Vide Hymn to Apollo and Prometheus Unbound; the latter is full of Platonic imagery concerning the soul of the Earth and the soul of the planets).
(3) Social and Political ideas. With regard to man’s nature and general position in society, Shelley again shows certain resemblances to Plato. Shelley, like Plato, is conscious of dualism. In his Prometheus Unbound it forms the leading idea. Prometheus is the soul of man, his mind, noble and suffering; in Jupiter is exemplified the baser side of man, his lusts and concupiscence, his errors of mind and his sins of body. Besides, Shelley’s general conception of society is essentially Greek; it consists of voluntary rule over voluntary subjects.
(4) The Theory of Love. Shelley’s conception of love is essentially Platonic. Plato’s distinctive teachings on this subject have depended mainly upon two circumstances: his philosophy of beauty and the extraordinarily high position which he ascribes to love as an inspiration in human life. Beauty has such an enormous power over men, because, according to Plato, they have previously beheld it in the heaven-world and, since sight is the keenest of the bodily senses, they are more powerfully stirred by beauty than by anything else; beholding it they are rapt beyond themselves and henceforward consumed with exalted desire. Such a vision is described many a time in Shelley. In Alastor the hero receives the revelation of an ideal beauty, like nothing upon earth; henceforth he pursues it through the world and perishes in the vain efforts to attain it.
Plato says that love is a principle which extends through all nature; it rules over all things, divine as well as human. This kind of cosmic love is described in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, where it pervades all the elements, extending form the greatest of things to the least. The Sensitive Plant, again, is a poem full of Platonic ideas; a cosmic love is evident in all parts of nature, and individualizes itself in the individual flowers. In Epipsychidion, however, we have Shelley’s fullest expression of the Platonic theory of love; large portions of the poem are almost a paraphrase of the Phaedrus. Emilia is a winged soul soaring over the darkness of earth; she is an incarnation of a brighter beauty descending from a lovelier and more wonderful world. She is the mirror which reflects most brightly the glory of the unseen world. The beauty of her mind is far greater than the beauty of her body, which is only reflection; she is an image of the eternal beauty.
