Thinking about the boxes we lock our thinking in is kind of like thinking about the purpose of life. At first, the thoughts are shallow, unorganized, distracted, chained even. Since this initial spluttering of thought is unproductive, you realize that you have to move a little deeper...and think about yourself. Sometimes, us thinkers don't like what we see, and end up stuck in a rut, going around and around with the faces in the mirror, hoping that it really isn’t you peering back. Plato suggests that in order to prevent such horrible sameness is to break our chains by educating ourselves and learning how to think outside the box. Sartre's solution would be to confront the ugliest parts of ourselves and work with that to move past it. That is the main difference between the two works.
In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, there are prisoners, but those prisoners are comfortable with their limitations, and hadn’t a clue about anything beyond their reach. The cave was their wonderland of false reality, and so it was not forced. The prisoners have no concept of entrapment, and so have no pressing need to escape. However, in Sartre’s No Exit, the occupants of the room know what else is possible; they know what they’re missing, because their entombment was a direct result of leading an unsatisfactory life and then dying. The three prisoners are being punished; therefore they try even harder to escape the mental torture of facing the reality of themselves in each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment