Allegory / Matrix? Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and the Matrix are similar in many ways, that in which both stories revolve around human beings living in an unrealistic manner and not knowing the truth of the world that we all live in. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we read a story about prisoners who live in a cave, and are forced to stare at the wall in front of them due to having their bodies chained to a wall. All they are able to see is the shadows that project onto the wall in front of them, the prisoners then begin to believe that the shadows in which they see on a day to day basis are the real world. Until one prisoner breaks free and discovers what truly is on the outside of that cave, his eyes are opened to a whole new world and at first he is in disbelief of what he is seeing, and of course his fellow prisoners do not believe the man, and think he is crazy because they are blinded by the fake images of the real world.
The Matrix is a computer generated program to protect humans from the truth of the world’s reality. The Matrix is a dream world, built to keep us under control. Humans are all used as batteries, and the machine feeds off of the humans’ body heat and energy, they just don’t see it because of the dream world in which they live in. Until one man, Neo is contacted by Morphias, who soon opens Neo’s eyes to the real world, and shows him just how the Matrix works. Neo at first is in disbelief, he thinks everything is a dream, until he takes the blue pill, and after that he never goes back into the dream world. In the Allegory of the Cave, Socrates says, “here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.” (p1) Once the chains are off, or once they are taken out of dream world, what will happen? Will they be confused and feel pain? Yes, of course they will. “…and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him that what he saw before was an illusion.”(p7)
Just like the people walking down the street, the people in the cave are completely oblivious to the truth; neither of them knows any better, they only know what they see. Socrates states, “To them the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” (p6) What they see is life as they know it, and they are completely happy living on life as it is. They are comfortable with their surroundings, and if someone decides to pull the plug, like in the Matrix, they then get out of their comfort zone and are no longer happy. That’s why the Matrix exists, to keep the people “under control”.
The Matrix is defiantly a modern day interpretation of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Both relate to society, the real world, and the dream world. Everyone has their own interpretation of the world, and the way they live in it. Once we are subjected to the truth behind what we see, we can never go back.