Compare And Contrast Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a work created more than two-thousand years ago. It is written in the form of a discussion between a teacher and a student about a hypothetical group of people, raised in a cave, and the way they would react to exposure to the real world. The matrix, on the other hand, was filmed only 17 years ago and is about a world dominated by computers and the people resisting them. The majority of the human population is imprisoned in a virtual reality, called the matrix, which resembles real life in every way. Though these stories are written many years apart, there are many elements that are present in both.
There are many similarities between The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
They are both based around the concept of people awakening from a shared illusion and then trying to free others from that illusion. People are trapped inside of a construct, convinced that it is real. In the matrix, people are contained inside a virtual reality, identical to the year 1999. They live their lives, day to day never aware that they are actually asleep in reality; being used to …show more content…
In both stories, the light symbolizes absolute truth. When people escape from the cave in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave they are temporarily blinded, until their eyes adjust to the light. Or symbolically, the enlightened upset until they adjust to the truth. When Neo left the Matrix his eyes were hurt by the light because he had never used them before. Just like in Plato’s Allegory of the cave, this symbolizes Neo having to adjust to the truth that he has never before seen. These are a few of the many these two works share. The Matrix intentionally referenced concepts from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. These references are known as allusions. These ideas were borrowed and put into a new form. The cave is exchanged for a world controlled by machines, and the shadows for the
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