Truth Essay Essay Example for Free

Truth Essay Essay The writer Oscar Wilde once said that â€Å"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. † Wilde claims that truth is hardly wholesome and unadulterated, but rather tainted, or polluted. Wilde also states how truth is never straightforward and effortless. Truth could come with questions, ambiguous feelings, and abstract thoughts. Three pieces of literature exemplify Oscar Wilde’s quote about truth. In The â€Å"Allegory of the Cave† by Plato, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, and â€Å"Dover Beach† by Matthew Arnold the concept of a vague, confusing, and tainted truth is depicted widely throughout the works of literature. In â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave† Plato uses the theme of appearance versus reality to portray his perspective on truth. In this piece of literature men lay restrained underground in a cave with no way out. In their cave reality is â€Å"nothing but the shadows of those artificial objects. † The man’s life, his reality, his truth, is based among shadows cast on the walls by the fire burning behind them. They know nothing else to be true. Therefore, it may appear that the truth for these men is very simple and pure, staring them right in the face, the shadows. When one man is freed from his shackles and forced to look into the light for the first time, what he thought was reality was fictitious now. He has become enlightened in a way and breaks away from using his five scenes that he used in the physical world of the cave. The man starts to have faith, believing in something even if you can’t see it, and he looks inside to his immortal soul. He starts to reach this higher level of existence that no one in the cave is experiencing because they are trapped in a false reality guided by scenes and not by intuition. What was once pure is now tainted with his true beliefs. He realizes that physical objects aren’t real at all. Only the idea of that object is real, and forms of the object are only imperfect. Going back into the cave only leads to darkness because he doesn’t believe in this false reality anymore. The other men in the cave would become agitated that one person is defacing and berating their beliefs without any proof that his reality exist. They would kill him. Literary techniques greatly help illustrate the meaning of the quote to the short story. Along with theme, symbolism is vital to portray Plato’s idea of truth. The cave in the story signifies a huge covering of the real truth, a barrier from reaching that higher plane of existence. The shadows denote the idea of what appears to be reality, what one perceives reality to be based only the physical, materialist aspect and not the spiritual one. The darkness that Plato refers to in the short story signifies the men’s narrow-mindedness with their mind set on the bodily world focusing on the external appearances and not true nature. Lastly, the sun represents the form of goodness. Plato quotes, â€Å"once it is perceived, the conclusion must follow that, for all things, this is the cause of whatever is right and good; in the visible world it gives birth to light and the lord of light, while it is itself sovereign in the intelligible world and the parent of intelligence and truth. † Since the whole short story is an allegory, everything is symbolic. The story can represent Plato’s life. Early in his life, before he was taught, he sees what reality is by senses. After the famous philosopher, Socrates, taught him, he became enlightened and started to form his own ideas of reality that contradicted the common beliefs. Thus, he was deeply criticized for holding these beliefs that were unexplainable. The rest of the Greeks were like the men in the cave, living in a false reality, while he was the one man who escaped and became enlightened. Don Quixote is another story that helps exemplify the quote by Wilde. Cervantes depicts Quixote as a person who lost his mind from reading too many books. Cervantes uses symbols to get the truth across. Books represent the importance of fiction and literature in everyday life. Books instruct and inform the ignorant people and provide an imaginative outlet for characters with otherwise dull lives, like Quixote. Quixote’s hand- made visor on his helmet denotes the idea of alienation from his physical world by hiding his face. Everybody he encounters on his journey thinks he is totally irrational and insane. Cervantes brings the theme of appearance versus reality into the light. It appears that Don Quixote is living a false, ridiculous reality, but he creates this new reality based on his actual world and this dream world he is living. Therefore, truth isn’t pure or simple; it becomes a mixture of his plain life and his ideal life. While it may appear that he has no real purpose, in reality he is enlightened and helps raise the level of society by changing their old beliefs. He starts to live in this ideal world of his. He doesn’t want to be fettered by society. He transforms this mundane reality into something better, based on books he read about the ancient chivalry that doesn’t present any reality. Thus, another theme is present, morality. His view is totally different then a person stuck in the physical world. Contradicting morals, at times, can lead to an impasse making truth that much harder to establish. Quixote believes his morals are true while the others are wrong. It appears in Quixote’s odyssey that he is crazy and foolish like when he comes across an inn. Cervantes states, â€Å"when he caught sight of the inn, it at once became a castle with its four turrets and its pinnacles of gleaming silver†¦and then a swineherd came along†¦he gave a blast on his horn to bring them together. † Characterization plays a role in portraying the quote. Quixote has good intentions but this ideal world challenges the world which the majority of the people think is reality. He tries to be noble and knight like but he receives no sympathy or compassion for his actions. He makes the matter worse at times because he lives in this ideal world. When he encounters a farmer beating his servant, he tries to intervene but makes it is to no avail. When he leaves, the farmer continues to beat the servant because he is even angrier. When Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panzo, come across windmills, Quixote reacts by saying, â€Å"you see there before you, some thirty or more lawless giants with whom I mean to do battle. I shall deprive them of their lives, and with the spoils from this encounter we shall begin to enrich ourselves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Therefore, his perception of truth is not simple; it is cursed with constant conflicts with the parallel reality he is living beside. â€Å"Dover Beach† also illustrates the meaning of the quote. Matthew Arnold shows the meaning of Wilde’s quote by also using the theme of appearance verses reality, mood, free verse, and imagery. The poem starts off with a peaceful, tranquil scene with â€Å"sweet is the night air! Only, from the long line of spray, where the sea meets the moon-blanched land†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Arnold invites the reader to journey into what appears to be true and clear. If one rises above and becomes more spiritually connected, he would see the true reality of the beach. The mood changes to sadness by stating, â€Å"But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating, to the breath of the night wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world. † Adjectives like drear, melancholy, and sadness indicate a shift in Arnold’s attitude. The true reality appears. People are stuck in this physical world during the Industrial Revolution and are moving away from the spiritual world. Arnold uses the image of the Sea of Faith and how it was once â€Å"at the full and round earth’s shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. † Now the sea is withdrawing because people do not believe in what they can’t see. They only want to believe what is physically in front of them. Plato’s idea of people being stuck in a physical world is displayed in the poem. Even at the end, Arnold suggests that being honest means that this false reality is not real at all. The world has neither joy, love, light, peace, certitude, nor help for pain. Arnold creates an even more dismal mood by revealing what is really reality. The truth can be very hard and unclear considering that most people ignore it to live their happy, tranquil, fabricated life. Images like the calm sea, the tranquil bay, the moon-blanched land, land of dreams show the innocence of this untruthful world. The shift in mood occurs when images are brought to life. Images like ignorant armies clashing, the turbid ebb and flow of human misery, the roar of the ocean, and the eternal note of sadness all portray what true appearance of reality. Free verse also explains the meaning of the poem. Free verse is written with no set pattern followed from stanza to stanza, or from line to line. The lengths of lines and stanzas can vary. Arnold uses free verse to bring out the true nature and reality of the world, imitating the irregular ebb and flow of waves on the beach and using irregular rhyme pattern. Thus representing how truth is hard to follow, and never simple. â€Å"Dover Beach†, Don Quixote, and â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave† all depict how the truth is never pure and simple. All three pieces indicates a theme of the appearance, false reality, and the reality, internal and deeper meaning in life. This false appearance, coupled with the greed and ignorance, according to Plato, of the physical world, denotes the fact that truth is polluted, and difficult to obtain. The truth appears one way but one has to search for what is really the truth. All three works of literature epitomize the accurate meaning of truth.