This is the only reality the prisoners know even though it is only shadows. Sitting in darkness with the false light of the fire they do not realize that this existence is wrong or lacking. It is merely existence; they know no other or offer any complaint. The main point of the “Allegory of the Cave” is to give an example of the way we all live our lives. Plato represents earth’s inhabitants as seeing what we think is reality, as being only the shadow of true reality.
They see only reflections and shadows. These reflections and shadows are all the prisoners know of the world outside the cave. They only see what is chosen for them to see. In the matrix the two worlds are far less continuous with one another. The real world is extremely a dystopia, and the people that live in the Matrix are entirely cut off from this reality.
“The Caves in Our World” In the story, “The Allegory of the Cave,” there are prisoners chained in a cave who have never seen the outside world, but only distorted views of people and the objects they carry along the wall behind the prisoners. In one sense, the cave could be seen as the darkness that people live in when they do not know Jesus. They live in a dark world, where the fire is Satan, who lies and distorts peoples’ views of things by casting the shadows on the wall. People who do not know Jesus are tempted and lied to by Satan. He makes it near impossible for those people to see the truth spoken by the Bible.
In this cave, there are several prisoners who are shackled so that they may only look forward. Being in this cave for as long as they can remember, this appears normal to them and does not even think looking backwards is possible. A bonfire is placed behind the prisoners and even farther is a pathway leading out of the cave. Objects are moved in between the bonfire and the prisoners, casting shadows of the object on the wall in front of the prisoners. When the prisoners see these shadows, they name the object, as if they were real, and not just a mere shadow.
Plato’s Analogy Of The Cave The prisoners represent the ignorant, narrow minded society. They have no understanding of anything other than what they see. Their chains hold them back from the truth and they can only understand when they are released. The shadows fool the prisoners in to not seeing things in their true form, making them misinterpret what they see. The fire represents the truth to the narrow minded.
Behind them, out of their view is a walkway on which people walk across holding objects above them. Behind this walkway there is a fire which then produces light, which shines onto the objects and produces shadows on the wall that the prisoners are facing. These prisoners have never been into the outside world and the only things that they see, other than each other, are the shadows on the wall. Within the analogy Plato explains that one prisoner is dragged out of the cave, blinded by the light and then realises that the cave was not all there is in the world. They see different surroundings and actual objects, not just shadows and of course they are stunned.
Only true reality can be found in the world of forms, in which everything is unchanging. Plato’s analogy is set in a cave, the cave is meant to represent the physical world, from which people only see what Plato describes to be an illusion. The prisoners within the cave know of nothing but what they have seen for all their lives. Behind the prisoners are a low wall and a walkway, in the walkway a fire burns, every now and then people walk past the fire carrying objects that reflect into the cave as shadows. The prisoners see the shadows and think that what they see is reality, like we think about our world now.
Explain Plato’s analogy of the cave [25] Plato’s analogy of the cave describes some people who are prisoners and they are only able to see one wall of the cave. Behind them was a lit fire which gave light to be able to cast shadows onto the wall that the prisoners were facing. These shadows were cast by puppeteers who were behind a wall and held things up to tell stories to the prisoners via the wall. One prisoner is forced out of the cave, where he has been his whole life, to see the ‘real’ world. He finds out, after adjusting to the new sunlight, that the shadows were just representations of real objects and that the shadows he had believed to be real objects were in fact not.
Explain Plato’s Analogy of the cave (25) The Analogy of the cave is one of the most famous passages in Platos Republic. It is one of three similes that Plato uses to illustrate his theory of Forms. The Cave in which Plato describes is allegorical, which means that every element of the story has hidden symbolic meaning to the individual person. Plato uses the story to illustrate his theory of the World Of Forms although each individual debate on how to interpret elements of this analogy. Plato begins his analogy with a cave; the cave is said to represent the empirical world that we see and hear around us.
In Republic book VII Plato explains his analogy of the cave. Plato uses the analogy to help explain his ideological role in the two worlds which are the World of Forms and the Physical world. Plato states that the analogy would inform others how the World of Sense participate nothing but an illusion, therefore the true realism would be found in the everlasting World of Forms. Plato’s illation begins in a cave. The cave symbolises the World of Sense, a figure of captives are tired by their ankles and necks so that they are unable to change direction.