The Allegory of the Cave is found in Book VII of the Republic by Plato. We see that Plato's philosophy about true education, wisdom, and freedom is delineated through a conversation between Plato's brother, Glaucon, and his teacher, Socrates. I will attempt to show you that each stage of the conversation corresponds on some level to Ray Bradbury's allegory of a dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451.
Part One: Setting the Scene: The Cave and the Fire.
In this section, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave and its inhabitants. These cave-dwellers have been imprisoned since birth. They have no knowledge of anything beyond the walls of the cave, particularly the wall in front of them. These unfortunate citizens of the cave are not even allowed to turn around and to observe their surroundings. They are chained to the floor, their necks are shackled, and they have no ability to stand up.
People carrying puppets and objects pass behind these prisoners, their bodies hidden by a low wall. The puppets and objects cast shadows on the wall facing the prisoners; a fire behind the prisoners makes it possible to cast the eerie shadows that the prisoners see on the wall. The shadows are their reality.
In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury tells us about the wall to wall television screens in every home. In this dystopian world, every citizen is bombarded with mind-numbing daily programming, courtesy of a government bent on subjugating its citizens. The images these citizens see on the screens are their reality, just as the shadows constitute reality for the cave-dwellers. In the story, Montag, the protagonist, and his wife, Mildred, quarrel about putting in a fourth wall-sized screen. Montag objects to having the fourth screen because they are still making payments on the third wall-sized screen.
Mildred's petulant response is telling; she is utterly convinced that the extra screen is necessary to her happiness. However, all is not well with Mildred. She denies taking all of her sleeping pills the night before, despite Montag's argument that the bottle is empty. This brings us to Part 1 of the three stages of liberation.
Freedom Stage One.
In this stage, Socrates argues that the cave dweller would deny reality even if he was apprised of the truth of his situation. Therefore, any attempt to free the prisoner would be met with bewilderment, fear, and suspicion on the prisoner's part. He would have to endure both physical and psychological pain to acknowledge the truth of his situation. Socrates asserts that most prisoners would rather return to what they know than to endure this distressing state of affairs.
Likewise, you can see that Mildred is a prisoner in Fahrenheit 451. Her life is punctuated by a dysfunctional merry-go-round of obsessive television and radio programming. She is either seen with her TV scripts in hand, mechanically quoting her personalized lines, or sitting dutifully with her headphones.
...you had the impression that someone had turned on a washing-machine or sucked you up in a gigantic vacuum. You drowned in music and pure cacophony.
In the story, Montag finds himself frustrated at the meaningless conversations he has with his wife. The ubiquitous headphones do not inspire any emotional intimacy between friends or family members. However, Mildred is depressingly content with the status quo. Her constant reliance on sleeping pills is a metaphor for her mental and psychological incarceration.
She was an expert at lip-reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear-thimbles.
Freedom Stage Two.
In this stage, Socrates argues that the mission to save a cave-dwelling prisoner would necessitate the use of violence. One would have to violently drag the hapless prisoner out of the cave and into the open air. Why? He would fight you every step of the way. Enlightenment is one of the most frightening experiences of one's life, especially if degrading subjugation has been the norm of one's entire existence. Socrates tells Glaucon that such a prisoner freed, would respond in pain and rage. The ultimate glare of enlightenment would initially blind (and overwhelm) the prisoner.
Likewise in Mildred's situation, Montag is desperately trying to awaken his wife from her mental stupor. However, she is resistant. Her whole demeanor is characterized by denial, detachment, and a pathological lack of empathy for her husband's distress and mental agony. She shows no remorse or any discernible emotion when Montag tells her how the firemen burned up an old woman and her books. When Montag names off the 'burned copies of Dante and Swift and Marcus Aurelius,' Mildred responds with a vapid 'Wasn't he an European?'
In the end, Mildred betrays her own husband when she informs on him to the firemen. When he realizes that his wife is forever lost to him, Montag faces the bitter necessity of continuing his quest for freedom without her. This brings us to the third stage of freedom, as characterized by Socrates.
Freedom Stage Three.
In this stage, Socrates argues that, once the prisoner allows himself the opportunity to become acclimatized to his new surroundings of freedom, the desire to revert to his previous state of subjugation becomes anathema to him.
In Fahrenheit 451, Montag realizes that he wants to be free. When he discovers that his wife has betrayed him, he is consumed with grief and devastation. Even as Captain Beatty taunts him, Montag switches on the flame-thrower and burns down everything in his home. It is a catharsis of sorts for him. Notice what Captain Beatty says about books before he dies:
Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation.
This is actually a rather simplistic way of characterizing intellect; Beatty's statement was meant to be contemptuous. He wanted to demoralize Montag. However, as Montag later discovers when he joins the book enthusiasts, reality is what our intellect interprets of our surroundings. Our surroundings alone do not constitute reality. This, essentially is Plato's message in The Allegory of the Cave.
Next, we will discuss the Prisoner's Return to the Cave.
No comments:
Post a Comment