river that never changed, but he also saw an island with three trees. The trees and island represent the brothers alone and secluded in their cell. This caused great pain for him for it brought back his hope for freedom that he had had before his brothers deaths, but the knowledge that he had been in prison for a long time and had no idea when he would get out, if he would ever get out. He accepts all of this and just decides to accept the situation and learned to love despair.In the midst of this poor mans despair, a bird had come to visit him, representing hopes grasp on him. He had just finished explaining how nothing existed to him but silence, and a stirless breath / Which neither was of life or death. Then all of a sudden a sound broke the silence and it was certainly a stirring breath of life. The birds song had stopped momentarily and then began again because it shows that even though the hope or struggle for freedom can be hindered shortly, it will begin again. The birds song caused the prisoner to regain his senses that he blocked out. It caused the walls to close in again, reminding the man not to accept to the cell, but to continue to hope for freedom. Both the bird and the island make the man realize that the cell is not where he belongs, and that he should not accept his location and become numb to beauty.However, the lake which surrounds the prison, symbolic of death, holds the prisoner back from freeing himself to hope for better things to come. The waves add to the effect of the dungeon by causing what the prisoner said a double dungeon and a living grave. If he was ever to get out of his cell and beyond the prison walls, he would have to swim a body of water that was a thousand feet in depth. He is cut off from the land and the rest of the world by Lake Leman. The cell was underneath the water causing not only an enclosure but a feeling of being buried, as you would be buried in the ground after death. W...
