The prisoner returns to the cave to share with the other prisoners what he has learned. Plato calls this journey “the turning around of the soul”. The journey that the prisoner took was one of education because the prisoner learned that there was more than just what he could see in the cave. In the movie Dear Frankie, Frankie is the prisoner in the cave and his mother is the one who is showing him the images, although she is only doing so to protect Frankie from the truth that is father abused him. I think that Frankie’s mother should have told him the truth about his father or protected him a different way, instead of lying that his father was writing him.
Sometimes animals, birds, people and other objects passed by the entrance of the cave casting a shadow on the wall inside the cave. The prisoners could see the shadows on the wall and mistakenly viewed them as reality. However, one prisoner broke free from the chains and escaped from the cave. When he reached the outside, he was distressed and blinded by the sunlight as he had never seen this type of light before. For the first time he saw the real world and knew that what he was seeing far beyond the shadows from the cave.
Plato uses the description of “Darkness” to possibly imply there are false realities that we each have and uses “sunlight” to stand for being enlightened by the “new world”, which is what the released prisoner was to experience. The “cave” is referred to as the “little world” that they are living in. I feel as if it is just a small part of the world that they know V/S the Larger world they should explore They are not free because they don’t know what experiences is outside the cave. They have been sheltered and not allowed to see for themselves what life can really be. The “shackles” are like a symbol of how they all have this same way of living and thinking.
There are human beings in a dark cave, bound by chains and facing the wall; they see only shadows of themselves and the shadows that are shown to them by other human beings behind them. They have been there since birth, so what they see on the wall in front of them is what they perceive as reality. However, one is finally set free from his chains and thus is able to see the real reality; he is able to see the world as it exists not as it is shown to them. He sees the shadows, then reflections, then objects themselves, then the stars and the moon, and finally sunlight, which symbolises the actual nature of things or the truth. After having set eyes on the sun, this man cannot go back to the cave, to the dark, and see the world as he used to before he started contemplating the truth.
THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE The following is an excerpt from Plato’s dialogue called “The Republic.” In this section of the dialogue called the “Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates creates an allegory to help illustrate his theory of knowledge. “Now then,” Socrates said, “let me tell you a story about ignorance and education which will explain the condition of man’s nature. Imagine that there is an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light. In this cave men have been chained from birth, fettered by the neck and legs so they cannot move. They cannot turn their heads around; they can only look forward at the wall of the cave.
Behind the prisoners is a low wall, a walkway and a large fire that lights up the cave. Every once in a while, people walk across the walkway carrying objects and because the walkway is in front of the fire, it causes shadows to be cast against the wall in front of the prisoners – just like shadow puppets. They associate the sounds made by the people casting the shadows against the wall of the cave with the shadow itself because they know nothing better. This is the only reality they have ever known. The prisoners represent ignorant, less educated people who have not yet opened their minds to the philosophical truth – the intelligible realm.
A prisoner from the cave (Socrates) escapes. He struggles and gets covered in blood. This represents the struggle of the journey too see true perfection. The man makes it out the cave, however he cannot see much as his eyes have to adjust to the light. Once they have adjusted he see's the world of the forms, he tells the other prisoners but they dont believe him and simply think he is crazy.
Poe provides no explanation of why he is there or for what he has been arrested. Before him are seven tall white candles on a table, and, as they melt, his hopes of survival also diminish. He is condemned to death and finds himself in a pitch black compartment. At first the prisoner thinks that he is locked in a tomb, but he discovers that he is in a cell. He decides to explore the cell by placing a hem from his robe against a wall so he can count the paces around the room; however, he faints before being able to measure the whole perimeter.
Behind the prisoners there is a fire and the shadows were cast on the wall, which are the only thing the prisoners could see. As a result, they imagine the reality by the shadows and become their beliefs. Then one prisoner gets out the cave, and walks outside to the real world. The bright light from the sun shocked him initially, but later on he learns about the concept of the world, and finally recognizes the sun is the ultimate truth. I believe there are similarities to our learning process, for instance, when I studied chemistry at the high school, many chemical formula and equations which I found very difficult to understand.
We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. We see the cup that can be broken, the shadows of ourselves. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles, but the process is painful. When the cave slaves (ourselves) climb from the cave (perceive and understand ideas), we see the world for how it should be. We see that ideas are eternal and perfect, even though the physical world crumbles.