So much, then, for the discussion of the content of stories admissible to the ideal state; what of the forms the stories may take? Some stories are simple narratives (the storyteller tells the story from one point of view), but some stories are representational, for example, plays and dramas, in which the characters imitate the speeches and actions of both good and bad men and women; this imitation is said to be mimesis. These mimetic forms of stories also must be expunged from the state. Our Guardians are to be trained in temperance and to imitate the good at all times, and sometimes we see children copying the bad words and actions they have observed on stage, and it follows that this, too, does no good for the state. Some children who adopt bad roles and role-playing mature into adults who continue to play "bad actors" throughout their lives, whether wittingly or not. Even a pretense of the bad is too close to a lack of virtue itself; besides, however entertaining it may be, it serves no useful function. So dramatic and representational literature ought to be banned from the state.
At this juncture in the conversation, Socrates considers the forms of music, with its aspects of melody, harmony, verse, rhythm, and so on, to which the Guardians might be exposed. These various forms of ancient Greek music, he argues, elicit various emotional reactions from the audience, and some of them may be said to encourage intemperance. Some forms of song, for example, seem to be concerned with the pains of unrequited love; others seem to celebrate the pleasures of drunkenness and to encourage drunkenness. Since these and other examples seem to encourage intemperance, surely they should be banned because they encourage "relaxation" when most of all we require our Guardians to be vigilant. But if there are types of music that are warlike and that encourage endurance in the face of adversity, or are prayerful and function as praise to God in the preservation of the state, they should be retained for their useful function for the state. And, Socrates continues, just as certain harmonies should be banned and others retained, so should the musical instruments that produce them be allowed or disallowed under our superintendence.
So it is, Socrates argues, that the future Guardians of the state will be trained in the beautiful and the good in their childhood, and, as they mature, they will recognize and value these qualities and thus retain their virtue.
