Socrates wrote:Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light,
The epigraph for
Flowers for Algernon is from Plato’s
Republic, from Book 7, the Allegory of the Cave. It is worth reading Republic Chapter Seven in full
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.8.vii.html because it seems that much of the inspiration for
Flowers for Algernon can be found in it, for example in Socrates’ comment that ”certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.”
Starting with this first quoted sentence, it is obviously true that we can’t see when we are dazzled by going from the dark into the glare of sunlight, or equally when we shift from brightness into dark without giving our eyes time to adjust. The allegory here is the challenge for Charlie to adjust first from dark to light, as he is transformed from moron to genius, and then, if the experiment fails, from light back to dark.
Socrates wrote:which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye;
Plato’s concept of the ‘mind’s eye’ is remarkably difficult for many people to understand. Intelligence is the sense of the mind, and relies on logic, reason and acuity of mental perception. This is a major theme in philosophy, since many people have wrongly assumed that when Plato talks about ideas (forms) he is suggesting that somehow spiritual entities are material, when in fact his perception with the mind’s eye is purely conceptual. Socrates is saying that intelligence can be dazzled as easily as sight can.
Socrates wrote:and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh;
Here we find one of the great themes of Flowers for Algernon, how we can treat morons with dignity. Unfortunately, mental defects can be more crippling than blindness.
Socrates wrote: he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
This is a further fascinating dilemma which touches on another great theme, emotional intelligence. Plato is asking if someone like Charlie’s strangeness is due to mental superiority or inferiority, and implying that it can be difficult to tell.
Socrates wrote: And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other;
The implication is that enlightenment produces happiness while darkness produces suffering, a very Buddhist line of thought.
Socrates wrote: or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.
From the start, this line from Plato in the epigraph indicates the potential tragedy in
Flowers for Algernon, that what can be given could also be taken away, and that the medical experiment to increase Charlie’s intelligence will result in the floral wreath of mourning.