Mimesis

Mimesis is a Greek word that means imitation. It was a popular art theory back in the days of Plato. It comes from Plato’s most famous work; The Republic. In The Republic there is a story about mimesis. It called The Allegory of the Cave. In the story there is a group of prisoners. They cannot move nor leave because they are shackled by their necks. There is a huge fire ;however, the shadows of the people that pass behind them are the only things they can see. The shadows are the prisoner’s idea of reality, however they cannot see what is making the shadows. Above them there is a scaffold. The prisoners can only see the shadows that the scaffold is making. If one prisoner says “OH! I see what’s coming next” he is considered intelligent because he can predict what’s coming next. Imagine that one of these prisoners is freed. He would see the reality. He would be a philosopher. Forms are the ones creating the shadows in our real world. Everything that surrounds us is changeable. In reality where we cannot see there is a true Form everything is an imitation. According to Plato there is a Form for everything. A Form with capital F is the initial stage of  something such as beauty and symmetry. Art itself is and imitation of an imitation.