Plato's The Allegory of the Cave and Salvador Dali's Painting The Persistence of Memory

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Recommended: analyse the artwork: The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali,1931. Oil on canvas

Reality for everyone is different, and anyone can interpret it in many different ways. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and Salvador Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” show us how reality can be perceived as something else. The way one see’s reality can be totally wrong to what reality really is. So, what does reality mean? Living in a world with shadows, ideas transcending the physical world, and believing that knowledge comes from what is seen and heard can confuse what reality is perceived as.
Humans live in a world that is filled with shadows. And just like the men in the cave shadows can be our only proof of reality. And to a certain point believe that shadows are al that there is in this world. However, should one believe that shadows are the only proof of reality? For the men in the cave shadows were the only thing that they knew to be reality. The men in the cave even admitted it: “Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave” (868). The men thought that everyone else was like them, sitting down and watching shadows pass by; and that was reality. In Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” there are clocks with shadows behind them or they are being cover by them. This can be represented as the clocks being time and reality, the shadows covering them can represent that time and reality is false. Also in the painting one can notice that a big shadow covers most of the land in the painting; meaning that the idea of land (reality) is fake and can be something else. Both the shadows on the wall in the cave and behind the clocks in the painting represent a false perception of the truth.
“If curiosity kille...

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...he physical world, and believing that knowledge comes from what is seen and heard can confuse what reality is perceived as. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and Salvador Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” show us how realities can be confusing and turn out to be something different. However, each and every one has a reality of his or her, to which they believe is true. If so, hopefully that reality is rational.

Works Cited

Black, H. 2013. a quote by Holly Black. [online] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/259646-if-curiosity-killed-the-cat-it-was-satisfaction-that-brought [Accessed: 15 Nov 2013].
Dali, Salvador. “The Persistance of Memory.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print
Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print

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