Comparing Cave 'And Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind'

Alex Li
Knowledge vs. Ignorance
In this paper, I will examine themes presented in the reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the movie The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I will claim that both good and bad play hand in hand with knowledge and ignorance. It can be shown that knowledge is good and ignorance is bad. Also, arguing that the good in knowledge leads to liberation and rapture, which it is demonstrated in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, while the bad in ignorance leads to failure and anguish which can be proven in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
To begin with, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave states that the prisoners released from the cave were freed from ignorance and presented with new knowledge of reality. My argument is that when this happened, the new knowledge that prisoners obtained brought them liberation and rapture. I will now defend my claim by arguing that when the prisoners were inside the cave, they were chained and
ignorant. Thus, they could only see shadows and that is what they believed to be true. When they were released from the cave, they received new knowledge and learned to adjust their vision to real objects and the sunlight. Afterwards, they were able to perceive reality in its true form and they were no longer ignorant. This information suggests that when the released prisoners obtained knowledge of true reality, they were liberated and happy, which then made them pity the others who were imprisoned in the cave. They realized they were at an advantage compared to the other prisoners because they had freedom, while the others in the cave did not have. This resulted in the released prisoners returning to the cave. Therefore, they wanted to share their knowledge and liberate the rest of the prisoners for the purpose of bringing others rapture.
Although, some critics may disagree and argue that the prisoners who stayed inside the cave were rapturous with ignorance and state that the prisoners did not want to, or need to acquire knowledge to be liberated. They can assume that the prisoners in the cave were content with being ignorant and they were happy, living in a reality they presumed to be real. Given this argument, I want to state that the prisoners were captives and detached from reality, yet they chose to ignore that fact. My conclusion is that ignorance is imprisonment and imprisonment is not liberation nor rapture, so I can claim that ignorance is not liberation nor rapture. I will now defend this claim by arguing that the prisoners in the cave were imprisoned, therefore deprived of liberation and rapture. Further support of this claim comes from Robert Hugh Benson who said in Papers of a Pariah, “Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly is not freedom, except in the minds of those who prefer darkness to light and chains to liberty. The more true information we can acquire, the better for our enfranchisement.” On the other hand, if knowledge of reality is given, then freedom can be achieved. Once freedom is achieved, one can discover what genuine rapture is, and attain it.
Also, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind concluded that ignorance is not bliss and having a spotless mind does not guarantee eternal sunshine.
In fact, ignorance leads to failure and anguish. The purpose for Joel and Clementine’s memory erasing procedure was so that they could forget about each other and their past dysfunctional relationship. They wanted to be ignorant of the fact that they were in love, but ignorance caused the purpose of having their memories erased to be a failure. After the procedure, if Joel and Clementine met again for the second time and fell back in love, they would be ignorant of the fact that their relationship will result in many difficulties and eventually fail. They will make the same mistakes again, not knowing what they did wrong the first time, and become heartbroken for the second time. In the end, their ignorance will lead them to the failure of another relationship, along with feeling anguished because they will destroy their second chance to be with each
other.
Similarly, the ending of the film suggested that after Joel and Clementine had their memories of each other erased, they did meet for the second time, but they received knowledge of their past failed relationship. They knew that they had already met each other once and fell in love. With this knowledge, they still chose to stay together because they were willing to take the second chance they were given to make the second time work by learning from their previous mistakes. Further support for my claims comes from the sub-plot of the movie, where Mary Svevo, receptionist of Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, decided to erase her memories of when she had an affair with Howard. She was blissfully ignorant as she fell back in love with Howard. When she discovered that she had her memories of Howard erased, she was furious and devastated. Therefore, I can argue that she was never blissfully ignorant if she still felt love for Howard after her memory was erased. Even after the procedure, she still worked for Howard and stayed close because she wanted to be friends. All in all, when she tried to erase the knowledge of her past relationship with Howard, it only resulted in a failed friendship with him leaving her to feel anguish.
One may deny my argument and assume that if Mary never found out about the procedure being done to her, she would have stayed rapturous in ignorance. However, I can disagree and state that the knowledge Mary obtained about her past relationship with Howard brought her liberation and genuine rapture. This resulted in her quitting her job and deciding to part ways with Howard forever. Therefore, she would never be under the influence of him and she was free from her past heartache, and failed relationship. Thus, we see that Mary is able to start over, find liberation and genuine rapture.
Alex Li
Works Cited
"Full Text of "Papers of a Pariah"" Full Text of "Papers of a Pariah" N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.