Plato wrote the Apology as an account of Socrates' defense speech. However, Socrates had never left any works or written down anything about himself. In addition, Plato wrote the text several years after Socrates' defense, therefore, it might involve some inaccurate descriptions of the historical events. He may even make up some parts of the speech while transcribing Socrates' words. In Apology, Plato potentially expresses the intentions of Socrates at the trial. Through explaining this philosophy, challenging authority and power and waking up people, Plato shows Socrates teaching Athenian people until his last breath rather than try to convince jurymen to survive after the trial. .
Socrates is never trying to win at the trial. Before stepping in the court, he may have clearly realized the sentence after the trial. Socrates is "already advanced in years and close to death" (Apology, 38d) and he clearly knows that he won't say or do many things that Athenian people "are accustomed to hear from others" (Apology, 38e). Additionally, he understands the rumors and bad reputation he is suffering are the results of his offensive conversations with the public people with power and wealth. All of these prove that he doesn't hold too much hope to survive after the trial, and he uses the last chance he could speak in the public as his swan song. .
Socrates starts to teach Athenian people from thoroughly explaining his philosophy to the public rather than convincing jurymen. He well understands that his knowledge was just a drop in ocean and is " not wise at all" (Apology, 21b). However, he believes he is wiser than others because he is more likely know what he doesn't know while others couldn't. Socrates indicates that it is "a fine thing to be able to teach people as Gorigias of Leontini does, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis" and he never charges a fee for his teaching (Apology, 20a).