Synopsis
The Allegory of the Cave is a surrealistic example depicted by Plato in his Republic (514a–520a), to compare the effect of education and the lack of it on our personal nature. And also, it is how Plato illustrates his conception of the nature of truth.
Act 1
Plato describes a group of prisoners who have been chained to a wall, unable to move or turn their heads in any directions. They have been in this position from birth. In their back there is a fire and some puppeteers moving back and forth, presenting a show.
The prisoners are watching the show. But, they can only see some shadows projected on the blank wall in front of them, by the fire and the puppeteers moving back and forth between the fire and the prisoners. These shadows are the prisoners’ reality, as they have never seen anything else. The prisoners mistake appearance for reality.
Act 2
A prisoner is freed and dragged outside of the cave. Because he lived all his life in the dark, he is blinded by the light of the sun. And he resists being led outside. But, eventually, his eyes slowly adjust to the light of the sun. And then he realizes that the things he saw (the shadows inside the cave), were merely shadows of real things and that life outside of the cave is far better than his previous life in chains.
Act 3
The prisoner ventures back into the cave in an effort to tell his story and free the other inmates. But the prisoners in the cave ridicule him and refuse to be led out. They only know the world inside the cave.
Symbolism
The prisoner who escapes from the cave is like the philosopher who is beginning to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all, for he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the manufactured reality that is the shadows seen by the prisoners.
The sun (outside the cave) is analogous to the fire (inside the cave). The sun produces a vision of reality while the fire produces only shadows of reality.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia:
The cave represents the superficial world for the prisoners.
The chains that prevent the prisoners from leaving the cave represent ignorance, meaning the chains are stopping them from learning the truth.
The shadows that cast on the walls of the cave represent the superficial truth, which is an illusion that the prisoners see in the cave.
The freed prisoner represents those in society who see the physical world for the illusion that it is.
The sun that is glaring the eyes of the prisoners represents the real truth of the actual world.
The prisoners in the cave are people who have not been tutored in the Theory of the Forms.
Related Posts
Other blog posts of interest: Plato’s Dystopia, Plato’s Academia, Plato and Justice, Plato’s Imitation Theory, The Republic Lead subjects, Plato’s Regimes, Art as Imitation, Duality in Plato’s Republic, Plato and Art, Dystopia Connotations, Utopia Connotations, What is Utopia, Plato’s Republic, Who was Plato, Plato’s Visual Utopia book
Featured image, “Allegory of the Cave” – an Illustration by Daniel Heller.
