Illusion & Reality

25/02/2022

An Illusion is the saving lie, the lie or veil behind which a man may take shelter to protect himself from collapsing under the pressures of Reality. The illusion might give comfort, but it is also ‘inability or unwillingness to see “things as they are”. In other words, portraying false reality is an illusion and sometimes it is acceptance of limitations which is called ”realism”.

The word Idealism stands for Reality as it is, without a veil being thrown over it. We all are stuck or torn between Illusion and Reality. Our mind lives in the subjective world where plans, wishes, and dreams exist; but actually and physically we are living in the world of objective reality which we can not always understand fully.

Everything that exists is ‘Reality’ whether it is inside our mind, in our thoughts, or outside our body. Reality is of 2 types, one is ”apparent, physical or visible” and the second is ‘ultimate, without physical existence’. Apparent or visible Reality is having physical existence whereas the ”ultimate” is inside our mind, thoughts and it is also based on our ‘belief/faith”, which surely exists but can’t be touched, seen, or observed with our “2 external eyes”.

To recognize the difficult nature of Reality, everyone mostly struggles to identify and differentiate between Illusion and Reality. Sometimes, someone reaches its depth and sometimes fails to understand and just travels from one Illusion to the other. Illusions always attract the human mind which is according to his wishes.

“Human brain” is full of limitations having no direct coordination with Reality. Such limitations depend on ‘senses’ and allow a perception to identify or see a small portion of Reality which sometimes proves to be the ‘front side’ of an Illusion.

Scientific research and ideas can be approximations to reality, but these can not be the real representation of ‘Reality’. So,’ Theory’ and ‘Reality’ are not always together.

Ibsen, an antiromantic playwright and the father of modern drama, shows his realism and presents social issues, concrete problems, human misery, and tragedy in his tragic-comic play “The Wild Duck”. The play is a symbolic study of the contrast between “Illusion & Reality” and “Idealism & Realism”. Ibsen says ;

“The sole object of life is human good and if truth brings misery, it is vicious”

We should try to know how to live in the actual world and how to adjust one’s ideals to the actual life. Illusions are necessary to happiness and the claims of the ideal may create unexpected complications.