Annie Havlicek English II Dr. Bonnie Mccandless 19 March 2003 Not Quite Risen There are several connections between the characters and story line of the film Gladiator and Plato’s philosophy, and according to this philosophy the film does not effectively support the theme “A Hero Will Rise.” There are many parallels between this philosophy and the journey of Maximus throughout the entire movie. Perhaps clearest parallels are those that can be drawn from reading Plato’s The Simile of the Cave, and then analyzing the various transitions and settings that the character of Maximus encounters. In the beginning of the movie we are presented with dark scenes. They are not only dark in the literal sense but in the figurative sense as well. The scenes are literally dark because sunlight is not used for any of the lighting.
In every scenes Maximus is presented in the only lighting used is that of firelight. The battle scene of the German hoards takes place on a very dim and cloudy evening, and the scene is illuminated by the torches of the soldiers and burning debris. The following setting is the military’s tents at night, which is illuminated by candles and oil lamps. The scenes in which Maximus talks to Commodus; the discussions of Lucilla with Commodus, Maximus, and Marcus Aurelius; the murder of the king; and Commodus’s offering of his hand to Maximus all take place in dim lighting that is conducive to many shadows. The viewer is left with an erie feeling of foreboding danger.
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Human beings are physical objects, according to Hobbes, sophisticated machines all of whose functions and activities can be described and explained in purely mechanistic terms. Even thought itself, therefore, must be understood as an instance of the physical operation of the human body. Sensation, for example, involves a series of mechanical processes operating within the human nervous system, by ...
The scenes are figuratively dark due to the bloodshed, cruelty, and dishonesty that are thickly laced into the plot. Many close parallels can be drawn between these opening scenes and the beginning of Plato’s The Simile of the Cave. The first paragraph of the simile describes a group of prisoners held captive in a very dark cave. “Imagine an underground chamber like a cave, with a long entrance open to the daylight and as wide as the cave. In this chamber are men who have been prisoners here since they were children, their legs and necks being fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads.” The only images that these prisoners can see is shadows of people and animals cast onto a curtain by firelight.
Because these prisoners know of nothing else, they assume these shadows are reality. This is an allegory for people who live in disillusion. The fire represents human ignorance and the shadows represent the false things people mistake for reality. They only see and therefore only understand the shadows of reality.
Plato believed that these individuals were only concerned with petty human affairs and were unfit to govern or lead the community. Maximus is also living in a world of false appearances and false ideals. He fights for an ideal of Rome, yet as he will later discover this is a false ideal. Commodus’s ‘friendly’ discussion with Maximus and the senators is also hardly an accurate depiction of the truth. Commodus hates these men, and they in return, plan and scheme of ways to remove him from power.
Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and brother of Commodus, plays to whomever she is in the presence of. When she is with her brother she is tender to him and concerned for his well being. Later in the movie it is revealed that she is also working against him. Commodus pretends to have great love and concern for his father, yet he only desires his throne. A major scene in the beginning is actually the murder of the king by his son. Nothing in these first encounters is what it appears.
These scenes are just shadows of Maximus’s reality. He is ignorant to the truth. A pivotal transition for Maximus takes place shortly after the death of the king. He refuses to be loyal to Commodus; in the movie it appears that he suspects foul play. In return Commodus has his wife and son brutality murdered and then orders for the death of Maximus. Maximus escapes and although he is badly injured, he flees home as fast as he can.
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He finds there that his darkest nightmare has been realized. He finds is crops burned, his house destroyed and the bodies of his wife and child burned and hung. He then loses consciousness and we see him being taken through the desert with a large caravan. He slowly slips in and out of consciousness throughout the duration of the journey and finally comes to once they reach their destination. These scenes visually take us from darkness to a bright and stinging light.
Maximus is confronted by soldiers in a dark tent scene and is told that he is to die and his family is to be murdered as well. He is taken to a dark and misty place in a forest. The scenes are still in shadows, giving the viewer a dark and damp feeling. Maximus escapes from his assassins and flees home. This scene takes us into the hot and oppressive desert. The sunlight is so intense that it seems to sting and burn.
The scene in which Maximus returns home is also bathed in light, even though its an extremely tragic scene. We are forced to fully take in every detail of the horrific scene. During Maximus’s journey with the caravan he is back in the desert and the same harsh and painful light beats down upon him. These various scenes can be compared to the prisoner’s escape from the dark cave of ignorance, and his painful adjustment to the sunlight. Plato is saying here that the transition from seeing and focusing on the true reality of life can be painful after being concerned with the illusions of petty human concerns. Maximus is also coming out of his cave of illusions.
He is beginning to realize that the politics of Rome are not as just as he previously assumed and he is seeing the situation as it really is. This is extremely uncomfortable and even tragic for him. His ideals of the nobility and light of Rome are shattered as he sees the mangled bodies of his beloved family. In his simile Plato mentions that the prisoner must first must look at reflections of objects, then at the objects themselves, and later the sky and moon. Finally the prisoner will be able to look directly at the sun and reason that the sun is responsible for the changing of seasons. Plato used the looking at reflections, objects, and the sky to represent the acquiring of intelligence and reasoning.
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The tragedy, Julius Ceaser, by William Shakespeare surfaces an interesting idea. The main character Brutus, has the tragic flaw of being too idealistic. That in itself, is perfectly harmless, but as with everything there is a point of excess. His excessive idealism brought down not only him, but the people around him. To begin with, idealism is the concept of acting according to what you as ...
Plato relates the sun to goodness,” … the final thing to be perceived in the intelligible region, and perceived only with difficulty, is the form of the good; once seen, it is inferred to be responsible for whatever is right and valuable in anything, producing in the region light and the source of light, and being in the intelligible region itself controlling source of truth and intelligence.” At this point in the movie Maximus is the prisoner looking at reflections and objects and has yet to gaze directly at the sun. He has yet to learn the full truth. As the movie progresses Maximus continues to gain reason and knowledge, and is very often shown in scenes of blinding light. Light pours through the windows of the room when Maximus learns that he can win his freedom and travel to Rome. Light floods the arenas where Maximus fights, and he learns the nature of the human mob.
He learns how to not only entertain but how to influence the roaring crowds. The city of Rome is shown in blinding light when Maximus and the gladiators are brought to fight. Maximus had never previously been to Rome and his eyes are finally open to all that Rome is. The colosseum is bathed in light as Maximus meets and reveals himself to the Commodus. he has not only learned how to stay alive, but also how to make the mob collectively desire for him to live.
Maximus has undergone a complete transition through his journey. He has come from being an simple farmer to a gladiator who knows the politics of Rome and the ways of it’s mob. He has gained knowledge and reason. Yet sadly this prisoner never gets to gaze at the sun. The hate he carries for Commodus and the pain from losing his wife and child prevent him from ever fully being able to reach Plato’s sun of goodness. He kills Commodus to avenge their deaths.
He is aware that the death of this wicked man is in the best interest of Rome as well, but revenge is what kept him going and was his primary motive. Plato would have considered revenge to be a human affair. Revenge and the need for it are results of human anger rather than intelligent thought and reasoning. As he comes face to face with Commodus he does not cool ponder the consequences that killing Commodus will have on the community and whether or not he is acting in a just matter.
The Essay on Plato And The Cave
After reading Platos cave several times, I learned that every time I read it I gained a completely different interpretation. You can relate all of the different symbols to any aspect of life, and still have a clear understanding of what Plato is talking about. My first interpretation of the cave was, the world as the cave. The world is a cave to most of society. We are chained to the wall, because ...
Maximus’s emotions take over his sense of reasoning, and therefore he cannot fit Plato’s lofty ideal of a hero and leader. He has let his heart, rather then his head, determine his course of action.
