
Throughout all of history, art has been prevalent all throughout the world. For thousands of years, humans have continuously interpreted works of art as they see. One of the many famous works that has been continuously debated about over the decades is “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali. Its unique composition and surreal elements have made this work subject to much debate. The components this painting possesses, such as the melting and distorted clocked amongst the barren landscape, help to accentuate its appeal to those who have viewed it over time. These elements, such as the composition of the painting, the environment that this painting takes place in, and the objects such as the melted clocks, help to contribute to the deeper meanings. These meanings range from the concept of time within a dream state, to the slipping grasp humans have on the concept of time. 

While it is easy to be drawn to the clocks when first viewing this painting, it is still important to pay attention to the rest of the painting besides those focal points. There is still much to be learned when you delve deeper into the painting. Besides the distorted clocks lies the bleak and barren landscape accentuated by the surrounding river and mountains in the background. Though it is easy to find the landscape unimportant, it helps to define the deeper message of this painting. While the landscape looks mostly normal, besides a bit barren, its normality is what helps to set the basis for the one of the themes of this painting. This landscape looks totally normal and legitimate, like one could go to this scene realistically if they wanted. But the normality of the landscape clashes with the absurdity of the melting clocks. Now instead of seeming like a normal landscape, these extra elements help to give it a dream like essence, so much so that this painting can be seen as being taken place within someone’s dreams, such as Dali’s. One of the ways that this ties in with the overall concept of how time is portrayed in this painting is showing the uselessness of time within our subconscious. Time is such a hard concept that our lives are constantly revolving around. It sticks with us day to day and influences everything we do. The way Dali paired this otherwise normal landscape with the melting clocks puts the viewer of the painting in the dream like state. When we are in a dream state is when time does not matter. The very thing that influences us day to day becomes meaningless as soon as we delve into our subconscious. I believe that the addition of the normal landscape as opposed to a more absurd one reiterates the dream state that this painting portray. That is why I think that the landscape aspects of this painting are important to contributing to the overall message of the concept of time in this work. The desolateness of the landscape can also be significant to another meaning as well. The barren life surrounding by the clocks can be portrayed as time sucking the life out of the environment around it. This is further refuted by elements such as the dead, barren tree branch supporting one of the clocks. While time does not literally kill the world around it, time can often feel like it is sucking the life out of the world around us as we try our best to manage it throughout our lives. With the desolate landscape surrounding the clocks I believe that it also contributes to another unique message about how the burdens of time can often feel like it is draining the world around us. 

Other than the landscape, the main focal point of this painting is the melting clocks scattered around. They are in various states of disarray, propped up against different objects. Three of them are melting, while a pocket watch covered in ants also appears in the corner. Though one might see them as just distorted versions of the clocks, their appearance is not just peculiar. Rather, their appearances hold a deeper meaning for the painting that affects it as a whole. The clocks being represented as if they were decaying is a direct reflection of how time is being portrayed in this painting. While it can be a representation of how time is not consistent when in a dream state, as stated before, it can also be seen as the futility of time in our own real lives. The melting and decaying of the clocks can be seen as a reflection of our own futile grasp on human’s concept of time. The way that I believe this idea is portrayed is that the clocks in the painting are representative of how a person who has lived a long life may feel about time. As humans grow older it is easy for time to get distorted. Even only a few years can completely change views on how time is experienced. With the more life we have lived, the more the concept of time gets blurred and distorted, just as the clocks in the painting are. The more we experience the concept of time, the more unfamiliar and twisted it can become within one’s view. From personal experience, even though I am still young, it is easy for me to lose grasp on time. Even within the past few years, though it has not been much time in the long run, it is easy to see how the concept of time from me personally has changed compared to how I viewed time only a year or two ago. There are often moments in life where time seems to be an alien concept. I feel like the melted clocks can be a portrayal of those moments when we pause to reflect on past events, when we try to make sense of the time that has passed in our heads only for it to become a blur. This meaning seems like a possible idea that Dali was trying to express through the use of these unusual clocks. Their unique composition presents many different possible meanings to be interpreted. Not only does time drain the world around us, but as we grow older, it also is a drain on our own lives as well. Another way this idea is conveyed is through the ants that are crawling on the pocket watch. Just as ants are attracted to decaying food, these ants are drawn to the decay of time.

Overall, “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali holds many more complex meanings than what meets the eye. While it is easy to get lost in the abnormal qualities of the painting, if you look at each element a little more closely it is easy to see that each aspect of this painting weaves a deeper meaning than what lies on the surface. From the barren landscape that the painting takes place in and how that can represent a multitude of things such as a dream sequence or as a metaphor for the draining effects of time, to the distorted clocks and their messages of how fragile human’s grasp on time can be, these elements only scratch the surface of the multitude of different meanings this painting can possess. Overall, through this painting’s unique structure including the melting clocks surrounded by a landscape devoid of life, this painting works to convey varying meanings of time and its effects on not only one’s personal life, but also how it impacts the entire world around us. 
