Over two thousand year ago, the philosopher Plato illustrated man’s search for knowledge and truth in his book “The Republic” with a parable of sorts. He compared this search to a group of men chained since birth in a deep cave. They can’t even move their heads to see each other or a way out of this cave. They can only hear each other’s voices. A fire burning at the entrance of the cave casts shadows that move on the back of the cave. These shadows seem to talk, since they can hear voices, but they can’t see any other people. These shadows are all that is real to them, because it’s all they know.
In Plato’s allegory, one of the men is freed, and forced towards the entrance of the cave. The movements are uncomfortable and new, and suddenly all perceived reality has changed. The man struggles to accept the newness, and may even deny this new reality, even though others are explaining that the shadows he had accepted before were mere illusions, and that he could see clearer now.
Dragged even further into the light of the sun, the former prisoner, eyes dazzled by the light of the sun, slowly readjusts to his new environment. What would he think about going back into the cave? Would he want to? If he did try to bring other prisoners out of the cave, would they thank him or think he had lost his mind?
This theme of emerging from one apparent reality to another has captivated human imagination since the time of Plato’s cave allegory of the search for truth, and is reflected in many stories and film through the years. Here are some modern stories with similarities to Plato’s allegory:
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Dante’s main character is similar to the man in Plato’s cave. He finds himself suddenly thrust into a strange world where he cannot move on his own without bringing great danger to himself. A guide appears, and guides him through Hell down to the deepest level, and then up again through all the levels of Purgatory and Paradise. At each level his character is mindful of bringing this cautionary knowledge of the next world back to mankind, as is a possibility in Plato’s allegory, but again we must wonder how this information will be received. This masterwork of Dante Alligheri still retains the painful but compelling power of man’s journey in finding the ultimate truth of his existence.
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
This is also a Christian allegory of its own, and tells of man’s journey through this life and on to the next, illustrating the possible pitfalls and dangers on the way to finding God (or a Christian’s version of final truth). The main character, appropriately named Christian, is sick with agony, uncomfortable in his cave. A book he’s reading predicts the ultimate destruction, also less-than-subtly named “City of Destruction”. The book acts as his first wrenching step out of the cave. A bag on his back holds the heavy weight of his sins, like the chains that hold Plato’s fictional man to the cave. Then Evangelist appears, telling him to enter in by the wicket gate and begin his journey to the Celestial City. Despite the struggles of those he is leaving behind to keep him there, he runs off. Some follow him briefly, only to return to the city, calling him mad. Though he never returns to his cave personally, his example influences his wife and family to leave their cave also, and to struggle to the Celestial City as well.
Paradise Lost by John Milton
An interesting Christian twist on the Plato allegory, in that it highlights that allegory both from Satan’s point of view, as well as Adam and Eve’s. Satan is forced out of heaven for his attempt to dethrone God, and begins plotting and gathering allies for another assault. Adam and Eve are created and dwell in a paradise, but then comes the Fall, and they are thrust out into a new world in which they must learn to struggle and survive.
Wizard of Oz
Dorothy is a young everygirl. Her version of Plato’s cave is a drab little farm in Kansas, where things are always a certain way. A cyclone rips her from her old life and deposits her in a new place called Oz, where things, people and creatures are very different. In this story, Dorothy is trying to get back to the comforts of her Plato cave, but once she arrives, everyone rejects her story, and considers that she has only been dreaming. It’s ultimately unclear whether she was only dreaming or whether it was a real, but it’s clear that she has been changed by her experience.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Blanche brings her Plato cave with her, wherever she goes. She moves in with her sister Stella and her brutish brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski. She determines to lie to herself and others about whom and what she truly is, in order to stay comfortable in her cave. Finally Stanley violently rips away her illusions, and Blanche is blinded by the truth in the light of day. She descends into madness, a futile attempt to return to the cave where she can feel good about herself, and we as the readers or audience can clearly see Blanche’s weakness in denying the knowledge she received.
Equus by Peter Shaffer
Interestingly enough, this is Plato’s allegory of the cave from the perspective of the one doing the dragging. Dr. Martin Dysart, a child psychologist, is drawn into a case of a young man who has blinded some horses. The boy, named Alan Strang, has a lot of sexual and religious confusion arising from his upbringing. He begins to fixate on horses, to the point of worship and sexual desire. Dr. Dysart enters into this cave with Alan, and is at the end reluctant to remove him from the cave at all, because it’s his view that he has no greater knowledge or truth to offer Alan in the sun, and so leaves him with his cave reality.
Hobbit (and the Lord of the Rings to a lesser extent)
Bilbo Baggins is the classic reluctant hero of Plato’s allegory. He’s a simple Hobbit, which is a shortish humanoid creature, who is practical and has no desire whatsoever for adventure. Into his life one day swoops the wizard Gandalf and a baker’s dozen of dwarves, who require his services as a burglar. Despite his irritation and many protests, he is swept away into a world unlike anything he’s ever known, involving elves, dwarves, men and dragons, wars and a magic ring that figures more prominently in Tolkien’s sequel to the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings. Bilbo’s practicality actually becomes a great asset to his dwarf companions, as he helps them find their ancient treasure and rescue it from the dragon Smaug. Still, he doesn’t embrace all that he finds out in the sun, such as a meaningless war. When he returns to his home, he is significantly changes, and can no longer live as a regular Hobbit.
Bilbo’s nephew Frodo becomes the next Hobbit whisked away out of his Hobbit home (literally a cave in this case) in the Lord of the Rings, but he doesn’t fight it as his uncle did. Frodo’s journey out of the cave is much more taxing, and inflicts permanent wounds. For Frodo, there is no returning with satisfaction to life in the cave, as his friends and allies do.
The Matrix series
This one is the most obvious Plato comparison in modern film history. It’s the Plato’s cave myth with black leather and super cool special effects. Our everyday reality is actually an illusion created by computers called the Matrix. A computer programmer named Thomas Anderson tries to learn what the Matrix is, and discovers that his ultimate reality is very different from his day-to-day life. He embraces the knowledge he learns as he leaves his cave, becoming Neo, and leading the fight to end the rule of machines over humanity.
Harry Potter series
Probably the most well-known worldwide story with similarities to Plato’s allegory. Harry grows up in a miserable home in England, with no idea of where he came from or who he is. He just knows he’s a little different. Suddenly, on his eleventh birthday, a letter from a school of witchcraft and wizardry shows up in the mail. Uncle Vernon fights to keep Harry in the cave, but there’s no way Harry can avoid his ultimate destiny. Once Hagrid shows up for him, the cave is history, and Harry certainly doesn’t fight leaving the cave.
Harry learns more and more about who he is and where he came from, and we learn about this phenomenal parallel world that exists, so close to humans but never completely discernable to the non-magic folk, or Muggles. Harry returns to the Dursleys at the end of every book, but their hold on him is less and less until he grows up, rejects the Plato cave entirely and goes out to take his place in the sun (the magical world).
Twilight
The Twilight stories are similar to the Harry Potter series, and also loosely follow Plato’s allegory story. Bella, a young girl from Arizona moves to Washington State to live with her estranged father. At school, she meets an attractive young man who turns out to be a vampire. Bella is not reluctantly dragged into knowledge as the everyman in Plato’s allengory, but pursues Edward and his life with a passion for Edward and the parallel world in which he lives. It is Edward who is reluctant to bring her into the sun, so to speak, because he knows she will never be able to return to the cave (in this case, the human world) and he’s afraid she will hate him for it. Far from it. She rejects her human life entirely for the chance to live with Edward in this new world.
Plato’s allegory of the cave has intrigued writers and audiences for thousands of years, and continues to echo through many classic and modern works.
