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? You are mad, and gone the wrong way. You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. ? lawyer from A.
C. ? s? The Bet? Through analyzing this excerpt from the story of?
The Bet? by Anton Chekhov, one can sense the imprisoned lawyer criticizing the banker of being ignorant and insane. What exactly does it mean to be insane or ignorant? By definition, for one to be classified as insane, they would have the inability to mediate with reality attila. The definition of ignorance can be grasped by analyzing Plato?
s concept of? Simile of the Cave? . Ignorance is depicted aside lowest level or form of knowledge one can obtain. If one would want to deepen their understanding of?
The Bet? , ? Simile of the Cave? would smoothly coincide and explain the concepts of ignorance and insanity present in this story. Before comparing the two stories, we must comprehend? Simile ofthe Cave? . The journey of the prisoner from ignorance to the truth, holds deep and significant meanings.
Recalling from the story, the prisoner is forced from the realm of ignorance to guesswork, zoa, mathematica, and finally to archaic. As the journey through the cave the outside world is analyzed, one can evidently see the prisoner rise above ignorance by trying to seek the truth (in the world ofarchai). Knowing that the prisoner learned many truths, it is valid say that he is becoming wiser. By the time the emancipated prisoner reaches and becomes content in the world of archaic (truth), the guards struggle to take him back to the benches in the world of guesswork.
When the prisoner is seated back in guesswork, he explains of his findings to the other prisoners that remained on the benches during his voyage. We find that after he explains of his new findings and theories, he is classified as insane by the rest of theprisoner's. The other prisoners do not believe him, due to that they have not experienced it for themselves. The question of who the real insane and ignorant man is, now remains. Through the eyes of the prisoner-philosopher, it is the other prisoners that are insane and ignorant. Why?
It is because the prisoners are taking? falsehood for truth? (Chekhov, 375). They fail to believe that there is actually more to the world besides mere shadows upon a cave wall. Yet, the other prisoners probably classified the prisoner-philosophers insane, due to him jabber of concepts that they have never heard within their lifetime on the bench. Clearly, ignorance and insanity play a critical part of the voyage through the cave. The voyage of the young lawyer versus the journey of the prisoner-philosopher are very similar.
Within the first year of the lawyer? s imprisonment he does not accept any fine wines or tobacco, and finds entertainment by playing the piano. During the times heroes not play the piano, the guards would bring him books to read. At first he was sent novels of comedy, mystery, romance, and fantasy. By the end of the 4 year, he does not play the piano, yet he decides to start reading classics. Just as the prisoner repeatedly named shadows on the wall, the lawyer frequently read of fictional books with the same plot.
The repetitive plots may be due to the selection of the guards. Therefore, these guards are similar to the parade often that force the prisoners to see the same shadows constantly. Yet, with the amount of books that the lawyer read, the plots we rebound to be repetitive. After examining the lawyer? s status, we can figuratively say that the lawyer is still chained to the bench in thermal of guesswork. By the turn of the lawyer?
s fifth year, the lawyer has gone through a dramatic change. It is through the truth test of correspondence that makes the lawyer not want to read any more books. The lawyer is bored of reading novels and classics because the plots of each book became predictable. At this point the lawyer is found constantly crying, arguing and destroying letters that he wrote.
There are many explanations to the lawyer? s frustration. A few reasons is that the original length of time the bet was suppose toast was five years and not fifteen. Plus the bet was senseless since could only try the alternative punishment and live to talk about afterwards.
The reason that probably devastated the lawyer themes was that he was imprisoned for not committing a crime. In relating the two journeys the lawyer is finally in the realm of zoa. Like the prisoner that saw the light from the fire, the lawyer finally looks towards the fire and recognizes that he was an ignorant fool before he was ever imprisoned. During the next three years the lawyer starts to read books that contain meaning, and universal ideas. The genre of the massive volume of literary pieces he later obtained, consisted of the subjects of philosophy and history. Through coherence, the lawyer evaluates what he has read in comparison to the new works he recently examined, and decides what is the truth.
By his tenth year, the lawyer begins to read passages only from the New Testament chapter ofthe Bible. Through coherence, the lawyer once again finds many contradictions within the passages, and by pragmatic reasoning he concludes that the logic of the Bible does not work, and therefore is false. It is reasonable to state that the lawyer has reached the outer world labeled mathematica, because just he has been trying to search for genuine universal truths alike the emancipated prisoner. Later within the lawyer?
s eleventh and twelfth year he asks for books based on the history of religion and theology, and within his last years (thirteenth through fifteenth year), he requests for books natural sciences. Once again the lawyer tests the ideas through coherence, correspondence, and pragmatic reasoning. He then investigates what he has learned to find truth to form a synoptic view on issues such as life itself. As the fifteenth year ends wind that the lawyer has found happiness through seeking truth. Now must remember what happened to the prisoner-philosopher when he returned to the prisoners back in guesswork.
Analogous to the prisoner trying to tell of his discoveries, the lawyer writes alter to the banker of his? experiences? . The letter had lines reading the following: ? For fifteen years I have diligently studied earthly life I saw from there how above me lightning glimmered, cleaving clouds I touched the wings of beautiful devils preached new religions, conquered whole countries? (Chekhov, 375) The banker probably considered the lawyer as an insane man from reading those few outrageous lines. Yet let us refer back to the beginning excerpt (which is found in the letter) which reads: ? You are mad, and gone the wrong way.
You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. ? (Chekhov, 375) This statement can easily defend the lawyer from being classified as insane, due to the irregular ideas written in the letter. What the lawyer was most likely trying to show is that the banker is ignorant, and maybe even insane. How did the lawyer prove this? Among the description of the strange voyages that he supposedly experienced, wind that it is full of contradictions. An example of a discrepancy found within the letter is when the lawyer seemed to love the bookstore giving him wisdom, yet later we find that he completely despises them. The lawyer may have purposely inserted many contradictions and bizarre tales to prove to us that the banker is ignorant for believing everything in the letter makes complete sense.
The lawyer also proves to us that the banker is insane, by means that the banker will accept being ignorant in order to keep his material possessions which in this case is the money. In conclusion, from comparing the two journeys we find that ignorance comes hand in hand with insanity. The concept behind the letter the lawyer wrote is significant to the story and should be applied to our own lives. The idea that should be applied is: We should always seek the truth to prevent being fooled, therefore we must rise above ignorance. Finally, the question of who the insane and ignorant man really is, can be answered. Those that are insane are the ones that accept living stationary in ignorance, instead ongoing on the quest of seeking for the truth.
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Research essay sample on Rise Above Ignorance Classified As Insane Lawyer
