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The Ideas Of Christopher Nolan's Allegory Of The Cave

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In the seventh book of his most famous work The Republic, Plato describes a tale popularly known as the Allegory of the Cave. This tale depicts a cave where many prisoners are chained and live in the dark with a single blaring fire in the distance. The tale prompts the character Glaucon, a fellow philosopher, to imagine there are shadows cast by fake creatures. The prisoners are not sure of what is real and what is not; only of the reality of the dark cave. However, there is more to life then living in the cave. Once one of the men sees the light, they will slowly learn to embrace the new reality of sunlight. The idea of the Allegory of the Cave and other ideals of Socrates, while centuries old, continue appear in today’s literature and media. Award winning film director Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy is filled with the philosophies of Plato and Socrates. The third installment of the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, makes an almost exact illustration of the Allegory of the Cave and how it affects current society. In the films, Batman is portrayed as “philosophy king”-like figure who has symbolically escaped the cave and been exposed to the …show more content…

Socrates explains that these enlightened individuals have this desire because they know that the city would be less just if they refrained from rule.
In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman seems to be living a lie. Alfred (his butler) wants to see Batman move on from a life of crime-fighting into a simple reality with a wife and kids. Batman however is torn between two realities and must make a choice; choose a life of crime fighting or another reality in which he is happy. The only problem is Batman knows the city of Gotham needs him. Batman is still stuck in the "dark" as he is unsure of himself and his reality. He knows the light is better than the dark but the dark is calling his name. (Hence the dark

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