Theme Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

284 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Plato Allegory of the cave - Themes

he main theme of Plato’s allegory of the cave is that we humans tend not to understand the true reality of our world. We think that we understand what we are looking at and sensing in our world, but we really just perceive shadows of the true forms of the things that make up the world. In the allegory of the cave, prisoners are chained in such a way that they can only see the back wall of their cave. They see shadows on the wall of the cave that are cast by objects being moved between a large fire behind them and the wall in front of them. Because they can only see the wall, they do not know that the objects on the wall are just shadows. They think the objects on the wall are the real things. For example, if they saw the shadow of a man,

Show More
Related

  • Plato's 'Allegory Of The Cave'

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” explains his beliefs on education of one’s soul and the core of the way they shape themselves. The rhetorical devices that Plato represents inside of his story explains how much freedom is worth in this world. The deeper meaning inside of what Plato describes can further be found out once a reader realizes the type of rhetorical devices are being used. For example, Plato portrays prisoners being locked inside of a cave without a way out. These prisoners never got to see the outside world, yet he mentions they “see shadows” which explains they are only able to catch a glimpse of reality from the outside. Plato’s use of imagery gives us a mental picture on the tease we may feel to notice reality but not be able to experience it. In reality, we do not value freedom as much as we are supposed to. We seem to not see the world as he sees it. With the help of personification, Plato uses human like characteristics to describe non-living things to give

    Read More

  • Allegory Of The Cave Essay

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    But as his eyes gradually began to focus to the light, he would begin to see images more clearly. The light enables the prisoner to see the true image and not just the shadow of the image. If this prisoner was to go back to the cave, he would find that it would be impossible to conform back to his old world. At first he would not be able to identify shadows because his eyes would not yet be adjusted to the darkness in the cave. If the returning prisoner were to tell the other prisoners about the light and that their shadows were not real images, they would not believe him and would accuse him of trying to disrupt their way of life. Finally, since the prisoner could no longer fit in, the others would be forced to kill him. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what humans perceive as reality. For example, Plato would argue that ideas go beyond the physical world. Think of a cup. That

    Read More

  • Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

    2260 Words  | 5 Pages

    Plato’s concept of The Allegory of the Cave is an idea based on his theory of forms. The theory argues that our knowledge of reality/forms is not real knowledge; only our knowledge of these forms can be considered as real knowledge. The Allegory of the Cave is a conversation between Glaucon and Socrates. Socrates explained the cave to Glaucon. There’s a group of prisoners who are bound by chains on their hands, legs, and even neck....

    Read More

  • Exploring Change in The Allegory of the Cave, and The Myth of Sisyphus

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Allegory of the Cave is a parable that demonstrates how humans are afraid of change and what they do not know.  In this work, Plato suggests a situation in which men are living in an underground cave.  The one entrance is located near the top and there, a burning fire casts shadow.  The men of the cave are chained so that they can only see the wall and cannot turn around.  When objects pass by it creates a shadow on the wall.  The shadows are the only thing they can see and therefore is the only thing they know to exist (747).  Somehow one of them gets loose and wanders outside the cave (748).  When he gets out, he is astonished at what he finds.  He comes back in to tell the others about what he saw.  The other men think he is mad and plot to kill him (749).  This illustrates how fear, inherent in the primitive nature of man, only serves to promote his ignorance.

    Read More

  • Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Harrison Bergeron

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato described a group of people that have lived their lives confined to a cave, tied to a pole making them face a wall. On this wall you could only see shadows of what was going on behind you, and from that they misperceived shadows from reality. One day, one of the inhabitants broke free and was able to leave the cave, only to be shocked by what “true reality” was outside of the cave and what was different from the shadows he saw on the cave wall. He was so excited that he wanted to go back into the cave and basically enlightened the other prisoners about what he saw,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Plato's Cave Allegory

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Cave Allegory was Plato’s attempt to compare what he called “the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature”. Plato had another Greek philosopher by the name of Socrates describe a group of people who lived

    Read More

  • Imagery In Plato's 'Allegory Of The Cave'

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

        In Plato’s story “Allegory Of the Cave” there are a group of prisoners that have been chained in a dark cave their whole life not being able to turn back at all. The only contact they have with the outside world is seeing the shadows of the things that pass behind them. Then one prisoner becomes free and is able to explore the outside world. When the freed prisoner steps outside for the first time in his life the beaming sun blinds him but then gets used to the sun and is amazed by everything not being just a shadow. The freed prisoner tried to go back with the other prisoners and elaborate the outside world but was not used to the dark and had a hard time explaining to him. The other prisoners thought

    Read More

  • Understanding Of Life In Plato's Story 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Plato 's story "The Allegory of the cave" men are stuck in this cave with their backs turned away from the light, until one day a man turns towards the light and learns for himself what the light is about. The man than explores and begins to educate himself on everything and anything, he then tries to take everything he has learned back down to the cave to get his fellow cave members to step out and learn what the light is all about. The metaphor that Plato 's places in this story is how the cave is represents the human mind and the light represents the understanding of life

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Allegory Of The Cave

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    The complex portrait of the cave and subsequent narrative of the person escaping the cave serve the purpose of explaining the text in a very detailed way, while still remaining metaphorical. These components can be seen as the interlinking examples of the text, which explains why Plato’s allegory is a logical portrayal of the human condition. Socrates writes of the prisoners, “such men would hold that truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things.” This is applicable to the people in the cave, as they hold the shadows to be reality, but also human beings. The metaphor in this instance is that the shadows are what realities we see, distorted and controlled by the powers that

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Tlato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    As people, we tend to believe everything we see. Do we ever take the time to stop and think about what is around us? Is it reality, or are we being deceived? Reality is not necessarily what is in front of us, or what is presented to us. The environment that we are placed or brought up has a great impact on what we perceive to be the truth or perceive to be reality. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most significant attempts to explain the nature of reality. The cave represents the prisoners, also known as the people. They are trapped inside of a cave. They are presented with shadows of figures, and they perceive that to be reality. The cave can be used as a

    Read More

  • The Allegory Of The Cave And The Apology By Plato

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    In "The Allegory of the Cave," prisoners in a cave are forced to watch shadows as people behind them are forced to accept these shadows as reality -- "To them... the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. One prisoner, however, is released, and stumbles into the real world, containing more depth and complexity than they had ever known. At first, the prisoner will be pained at the bright, piercing light, but will eventually recover. According to Plato, the freed prisoner is then obligated to return to the shadows of the cave, to inform the shackled prisoners left behind of the real world. The prisoners, however, will not believe the freed prisoner, and may even go as afra s to kill him for such "lies" contrary to their "reality." The pursuit of the truth is, therefor, a painstaking but rewarding process. According to Plato, the physical world is a world of sight, one that lacks meaning if left alone. Only those who manage to break into the sunlight from the cave will ascend to the intellectual world. The prisoners in the shadows only know of the dull physical world, while those who ascend into the sunlight learn of the spiritual world, and are exposed to the first hints of truth. The soul ascends upward into the realm of goodness and of the truth, where "... souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell.." The pursuit of goodness and of the truth, then, improves the soul, as the soul desires to be elevated to a higher state of knowledge and morality. Caring for the self and the soul involves freeing the shackles of the physical world and ascending to the "... world of knowledge... the universal author of all things beautiful and right... and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual..." The soul yearns to dwell in a world of morality and knowledge, and only the pursuit of

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Plato's 'Allegory Of The Cave'

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a divergent approach to the idea of human life and the defects that are riveted to it. His specific use of diction married with his deeply rooted use of symbolism suggest a question that often eludes the minds of man: How can we decipher between ‘shadows’ and ‘images’ in a ‘dark cave’ whilst deprived of all mobility by ‘chains?” The answer is simple, free oneself from the ‘chains’ that hold us bound and turn to face the ‘light.’ However, in the allegory, though the ‘chains’ are breakable the ‘light’ at first sight is painful to to the prisoner's ‘eyes’ and they would rather just stay ‘chained’ in the cave looking at shadows because that is what's comfortable, familiar, convenient and easy. The principle being:

    Read More

  • Plato And Francis Bacon And Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Plato’s Allegory of the cave is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon and its main purpose, as Plato states is to, “show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.”(Plato) The dialogue includes a group of prisoners who are captive in a cave and chained down, only with the ability to stare straight at a wall. This wall, with the help of a fire, walkway, and people carrying different artifacts and making sounds, create a shadow and false perception of what is real. This concept here is one of the fundamental issues that Plato brings up in the reading. “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” (Plato). These prisoners, being stuck in this cave their entire life have no other option but to believe what they see on the wall to be true. If they were to experience a real representation of the outside world they would find it implausible and hard to understand. “When any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up a...

    Read More

  • Plato's Cave

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    The basic premise of Plato's allegory of the cave is to depict the nature of the human being, where true reality is hidden, false images and information are perceived as reality. In the allegory Plato tells a story about a man put on a Gnostics path. Prisoners seating in a cave with their legs and necks chained down since childhood, in such way that they cannot move or see each other, only look into the shadows on the wall in front of them; not realizing they have three-dimensional bodies. These images are of men and animals, carried by an unseen men on the background. Now imagine one of the prisoners is liberated into the light, the Gnostic path will become painful and difficult, but slowly his eyes will begin to accommodate what he sees and his fundamentalist view about the world will begin to change; he sees everything through an anarchic thinking and reasons. When he returns into the cave, his fellow prisoners will not recognize him or understand anything he says because he has develop a new senses and capability of perception. This is the representation of the human nature, we live in a cave with false perception of reality that we've been told since childhood, but we must realize that these present perception are incomplete.

    Read More

  • Allegory Of The Cave Essay

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Allegory of the Cave Socrates describes to Glaucon a situation in which there are a number of prisoners are shackled by their arms and legs to the wall inside of a cave. The prisoners are unable turn their heads and as a result they are only able to see what is directly in front of them. The prisoners of the cave are able to hear noises, and see shadows, which were casted upon the wall in front of them by a fire burning behind them in the cave. The prisoners were restricted to only these observations.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

Open Document