Symbolism In The Allegory Of The Cave

His body isn’t ready for the direct sunlight and his mind cannot comprehend the world in comparison to what he felt he knew. In time, the man is able to see that all of the previously “known” information he had was completely false but also that he must start a different journey in order to find himself as the way of life he was previously use to, in which guessing was the way of judging knowledge, is ineffective and useless to him now. Finally, the prisoner returns to the cave with a new base of knowledge. He tried to share this information with his fellow prisoners but after hearing about his travels and that they were in fact wrong the prisoned men said to him that “up he went and down he came without eyes, and that it was better to not even think of ascending” ("The Simile of the Cave." Republic, 1974) . He is then met with resistance in offering them help and freedom from their binds. They threaten “if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender and put him to death”, it is as if they feel that his “loss of sight” is death to them and they are perfectly happy with the information that they know to be true ("The Simile of the Cave." Republic, 1974) .

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

I had an experience that each represents the symbol towards the Allegory of the Cave. My childhood was mostly in Jamaica where I lived with my father for two to three years. I can relate to the symbols from the "Allegory of the Cave".

There are four specific symbols in the cave allegory; the prisoners, the roadway, the fire and the sun. the prisoners represents people and philosophers of the real world.

Imagery used by Plato as part of his writing style of allegory examines the shadows of the cave as ideas offered at surface level. Plato is showing people are there to believe what is given to them because they do not know anything else to be true. The shadows are explained, as “truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (Plato 450). Shadows are a brilliant use of imagery because they resemble something dark, indescribable, and hard to recognize. This helps support Plato’s argument because the truth can only be seen at the basic level without any complex details; it is just known to be true. His philosophy is that people can only see beyond the surface if they have to capability to do so and believe, what others think is crazy.

The drawings that appear repeatedly as you research into the many interpretations of Plato’s words create a signified representation based on the signifiers Plato escribed in his writings – the words he used. The existence of such a variety of images, from different times, drawn in different ways, for different reasons, all depicting the same scenario but with different views on the cave Plato describes in his dialogue with Socrates, is testament the existence of the metaphysical world. All the images are different, yet all have a certain caveness, atmosphere of a cave, which makes them undoubtedly the visual depictions of Plato’s theory of

In Plato's “The Cave” shows us a group of prisoners chained to face a wall. A fire behind them casts shadows on the wall their facing of a variety of different things however they can not see what they truly are. The prisoners only reality is the shadows and the sound they associate with these shadows. They truly have no understanding of what happening other than what they see on the wall and what they hear. This distorted view of the world

In The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates and Glaucon are conversing. Socrates asks Glaucon to image a cave, where prisoners are kept and have been kept since their childhood. They are each tied up so they cannot move, not even their necks to look behind them. They are forced to look at the wall in front of them. Behind them are a fire and a walk way behind the fire where people can walk on. The people on the walk way are making shadows of human and animal forms, including others objects as well. The prisoners have no idea that what is behind them is only an illusion. One of the prisoners is released from the chains and the fire blinds his eyes when he turns around. Once they adjust, he notices that the shadows are not real. He is then brought outside and the sun burns his eyes worse than the fire did. The prisoner’s eyes adjust and what he sees is unbelievable to him. He sees outside, the sun, the clouds, the grass, his reflection and so much more. When he returns to tell

In his allegory of the cave, Plato describes a scenario in which chained-up prisoners in a cave understand the reality of their world by observing the shadows on a cave wall. Unable to turn around, what seems to be reality are but cast shadows of puppets meant to deceive the prisoners. In the allegory, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to leave the cave. On his way out, he sees the fire, he sees the puppets, and then he sees the sun. Blinded by the sunlight, he could only stare down to view the shadows cast onto the floor. He gradually looks up to see the reflections of objects and people in the water and then the objects and people themselves. Angered and aware of reality, the freed prisoner begins to understand illusion

In chapter 7 of Plato's book The Republic, Socrates describes the importance and benefits of education and philosophy. He makes specific points and examples to show that without growing humanity would suffer. Also, Socrates also shows how one man learning can change a whole group of people. Socrates proves that education opens the eyes of many and he does that by using the allegory of the cave. Socrates describes the allegory of the cave by describing a story about a group of prisoners that have lived in a dark cave their whole lives.

In Plato’s essay, “Allegory of The Cave” Plato creates a story about three prisoners in a cave, through this he further makes his point that without knowledge our view of the truth is askew. Plato explains that the three hostages have been shackled in the dark cave their whole lives unable to see the real world. The only piece of actuality they can see are shadows of people crossing in front of the opening of the cave. These figures can drive anyone insane without having any real truth to what the images could be. Without any awareness of the real world just outside of the cave they are forced to adapt and therefore accept their own reality. Plato goes on to say that, “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (122). The obscurities are significant because they are the only apprehension the prisoners have, they have nothing to compare it to. The actuality of it to the captives is something other than the truth would be outside of the cave. The forms on the wall are only just shadows, but to them that is everything they have ever known. Plato through his legend portrays

Once one of the prisoner’s is released, he is forced to look at the fire and the objects that once made up his perceived reality, and realizes that the new images he is made to acknowledge are now the accepted forms of reality.

Similar to The Symposium, the cave allegory also has a reference to a Form. At the last stage of the prisoner's climb to the top of the cave, he sees the sun and observes the Form of Good. Since he was recently unaware of the Form of Good, he has reached a higher understanding, just like the boy from The Symposium.

Being trapped down in that cave, the men are only exposed to the shadows of things because “there are people alongside the [screen] carrying multifarious artifacts that project above it--statues of people and other animals…” (514c). The men in this cave are learning what animals are and people are by looking at these shadows. Because of this, “the prisoners would take for true reality is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts” (515c). They would learn what a bird was from seeing a shadow of a bird and what a cup was by seeing of a shadow of a cup.

Socrates describes people in a cave since birth, bound so they can only see what is in front of them. There are shadows and sounds that can be observed but the source is unknown. Socrates says in 515c, “…such men would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things.” Their reality is limited by their experience. Then a prisoner is freed from the bonds and is forced to look at the fire and the statues that were used to cast the shadows on the walls. He is overwhelmed by the revelations and learns that the shadows were not the reality.