“You Are Mad, And Gone The Wrong Way. You Take

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "“You Are Mad, And Gone The Wrong Way. You Take." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	“You Are Mad, And Gone The Wrong Way. You Take
# of Words	1325
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.3

“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 at
will.  The definition of ignorance can be grasped by analyzing
Plato’s concept of “Simile of the Cave”.  Ignorance is depicted as
the 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 of
the 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 archai.  As the journey through the cave
to the outside world is analyzed, one can evidently see the prisoner
rise above ignorance by trying to seek the truth (in the world of
archai). Knowing that the prisoner learned many truths, it is valid
to say that he is becoming wiser.  By the time the emancipated
prisoner reaches and becomes content in the world of archai (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 the
prisoners.  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-philosopher
as insane, due to him jabber of concepts that they have never heard
of within their lifetime on the bench.  Clearly, ig...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22