How Shadows Affect our Perception: Using Plato to Understand Nosferatu Anonymous College

In both life and forms of art, shadows can alter the way the human eye visualizes objects and are representative of fear and mystery. Shadows are used as a device in literature and film to alter the audience’s perception of what is real and what is artificial. In Book VII of Plato’s Republic, shadows are utilized to emphasize a significant, deeper meaning in the “Allegory of the Cave” (Plato 186-202). The horror film, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, written and directed by Werner Herzog presents shadows and darkness in many different ways throughout the film to set a mysterious, fearful mood for the audience and hide Count Dracula’s reality (Herzog 1979). In both works, shadows are used as symbols, metaphors, and masks that hide reality.

Shadows illustrate the juxtaposition between light and dark, good and evil, as well as ignorance and education. In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato presents a story about prisoners that have been kept in a cave for their entire lives. The prisoners are unable to see anything beyond the images that are projected onto the wall from the fire. Those individuals had never experienced the outside world, and therefore had no idea that the shadows that they were seeing, were not real. When someone has...