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Ring Of Power In Plato's Republic

Decent Essays

In Plato’s Republic, many stories are used as allusions and metaphors to describe the issues being discussed. One of these stories is known as the “Ring of Gyges”, which focuses on a ring with the power to turn the wearer invisible. This story has many similarities to the Ring of Power in The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit, which also grants the ability to turn invisible. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the “Ring of Gyges” and the events surrounding the Ring of Power in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. The Ring of Gyges is found when “a violent thunderstorm and an earthquake broke open a chasm in the ground” (38). The Ring of Power is also found within the ground, by a curious Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. This occurs when Bilbo is lost within the goblin city, when he runs into the deformed Gollum. In the other story, the ring is found on, “a corpse, which seemed to be of more than human size” (38). Gollum, the ring bearer prior to Bilbo Baggins is much smaller than the average human, due to his ancestry as Riversfolk and the powers of the ring, which make his soul less just, and power thirsty. The Ring of Gyges is found by a “shepherd in the service of the ruler of Lydia” (38), who can be considered a person of lowly status. On the other hand, Bilbo is a Hobbit, a creature that is considered lowly, and …show more content…

The Ring of Power automatically turns the wearer invisible, if they decide to wear it. Once Bilbo discovers the power of the ring, he uses it for increasingly unjust deeds. Originally, he only uses it to escape the villainous creature Gollum, but he finally uses it to steal the Arkenstone from a dragon. Gyges only uses the ring for heinous deeds, such as when he, “seduced the king’s wife, attacked the king with her help, killed him, and in this way took over his kingdom”

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