Allegory Of The Cave And Dante's Inferno

Improved Essays
Allegory of the Cave and the Inferno

In the Allegory of the Cave there were people only able to look at the cave wall and only be able to see the shadows of what people were doing. The people looking at the wall could only really see a glimpse or part of what was going on in real life. This is a form of torture because the people are chained to face the wall and this is it, they can not turn around or anything. In the inferno Dante has to go through seven different layers of hell and torture. It only gives you a slight understanding of what life could be like if it was not hell. Both these stories have torture and only allow the people to get a little bit of a taste of what life is like for the people who get to live life for the good

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    I think that the main points illustrated by Plato's Allegory of the Cave are that people only know what they experience and only choose to accept what they have experienced, people who have knowledge have a responsibility to share it and that ignorance is bliss. The men trapped in the cave demonstrate how people will only believe what they have experienced by shunning the man who tries to tell them of the outside world. They aren't willing to accept that there is more to life than the wall and shadows in front of them. Plato believes that even the world we live in may just be another wall that is blocking us from seeing the truth.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plato, a classical Greece philosopher, is a pivotal figure in the field of philosophy and political thought. What does remain of his work today continues to be influential and relevant. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundation for Western Philosophy as we know it. “The Allegory of the Cave”, from The Republic, is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon. The allegory serves as a prime example of an enduring thought experiment demonstrating a facet of human nature relevant to a number of fields in humanities today.…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The fictional story the Allegory of the Cave can be interpreted in many different ways in the modern world. The way which I will try to interpret the Allegory of the Cave is the following. The prisoners as the Greek intemperate are the iron man just as humanity in this generation. The puppeteers are the government. The shadows that the fire cast, which puppeteer's show in the walkway represents what the government wants to show the citizen or (the prisoners of society).…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Truman show directed by Peter Weir and the dialogue “Allegory the Cave” written by Plato, both represent what an individual sees as the only truth when they are controlled by the man made truth. In the Truman show, it's a show where Truman Burbank has lived his whole life being broadcasted 24 hours, living in a false world without knowing the truth . Similar to the “Allegory the Cave” in where Plato explains 2 individuals are chained to a wall since childhood and all they see is shadows by the fire, the prisoners only see the shadows as the only truth they know. Both, The Truman Show and “Allegory the Cave” demonstrate how both individuals experience the false reality and experience the same journey.…

    • 125 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My “CAVE”: Everything is Not What It Seems If people were educated properly, they would have a better perspective on things that are in front of them. Before the Common Era, Plato wrote, “The Allegory of the Cave,” in his work The Republic to expose the effect of education and the lack of it in our nature.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plato's Cave Arguments

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Plato's allegory of The Cave. There is a cave with a fire at one end a trench and wall some prisoners chained to that way and then another wall. The prisoners in this cave are chained in such a way as to force them only to have the ability to see the wall directly in front of them. On this wall, they look at the shadows of objects that they have given names and sounds too These shadows make up their only view of reality. The shadows themselves are cast by the light of the fire onto figurines and puppets being held up above the wall by people walking along the trench.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato suggests that reality may be very different from what we imagine it to be. We can see this in the novel Ubik where the inertials experience illusions rather than reality. Some people are comfortable with living in their own reality, which is based on their subjective ideas on the world. Plato believes we should all seek to escape from this “cave”, our realities, made up of false perceptions and face the harsh realities although it can cause us pain. Just like the inertials had to face the reality that they were all in half-life and that they would eventually die.…

    • 1725 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Plato 's "The Apology" and "The Allegory of the Cave" essentially provide the same message through different mediums -- the self and the soul is taken care of through the pursuit of truth, and self-criticism and self-inquiry help keep the soul in check, ensuring that the soul is being taken care of. From these two pieces, the "care" for our "soul" or our "self" means that people are obliged to become more meaningful. Caring for the self involves the highest level of morality and knowledge to the highest level as possible. People should be constantly re-examining their lives in order to improve themselves. Caring for the self involves constant self-improvement.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alisha Saxena Philosopher, Plato, in his published work, Allegory of the Cave, describes a dialogue with Glaucon about the importance of truth and human nature. This in depth discussion about reality is expanded on throughout Plato’s book, The Republic. Plato uses The Republic in order to convey how morality and virtue is of utmost importance. Plato’s purpose of Allegory of the Cave is to communicate that our perceptions of the truth are limited, and how the truth might not always be what is predicted or imagined. He further supports this purpose by using extended metaphors, intense, connotative diction, and an eloquent, questioning tone.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In recent discussions of Susan Bordos reading about woman’s pressures in society, one controversial issue has been on how women have these expectation in society that they think they have to follow, like being able to cook, be in the kitchen, look pretty, and dress a certain way to get attention. By contrast, other arguments are that men don’t have to worry about their weight, how they are supposed to be stronger, and not having to be in the kitchen or cooking. Proponents of this position emphasize that women in this world have to go off of what society thinks of them, so they have to follow this or they will not get the same attention as they would if they went on and did their own thing. In sum, the issue is whether women follow what society…

    • 1255 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Allegory Of The Cave

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Allegory of the Cave is a hypothesis put into perspective by Plato, regarding human awareness. In the short story a group of prisoners have been confined in a cavern ever since birth with no knowledge of the outside world. They are chained facing a wall unable to turn their heads. While a fire behind them gives off a faint light. Sometimes people pass by carrying figures of animals and other objects that cast shadows on the wall.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Comparison and Contrast Essay The beautiful things we physically see are beautiful only because they participate in the more general Form of Beauty. This Form of Beauty in itself is invisible, eternal, and unchanging, unlike things in our physical world that can grow old and lose their beauty . The Forms audited a world of total beauty outside time and space. The Allegory of The Cave, an ancient script, has an ideal point of view on the topic of self-awareness.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Plato’s “ Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained prisoners in front of a fire observing shadow of things. The shadows are the only “reality” they know. Outside the cave, there is “light” and the “truth”. A prisoner in the cave wanted freedom. But the prisoners could not get out.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Often times in society, people place more importance on aspects of lesser value. Instead of focusing on the impactful matters, certain people allow the mere opinions and objects of physical worth to dictate their lives and actions. This idea can be visualized in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where those dominated by public opinion are only capable of viewing a far removed, inaccurate version of reality. While this allegorical image acts as a critical reflection of civilization and various socio-political themes, it also displays other features discussed throughout Plato’s Republic, such as philosophical education, one’s movement towards enlightenment, and the “Divided Line”. With the use of numerous key symbols and metaphors, Plato further…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners are chained in darkness in a cave. They see only shadows, which they take for reality. One prisoner is freed from his chains, advances up the steep slope and walks into the sunlight where he sees the true source of heat and light. He remembers his friends in the cave and returns to tell them off he has discovered outside but prisoners did not believe him and but rather threaten him. According to Ozmon and Craver (2008), people live in "a cave of shadows and illusions, chained to our ignorance and apathy" (p. 8).…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays