Comparing Plato's Allegory And The Matrix

Many films of the modern era are influenced by greek philosophy. Plato’s allegroy of the cave being one of the more popular choices. Been present in films such as Wall-e, Chicken Run, and but in the event of The Matrix its no longer a pleasant allusion to the original media its down right plagiarism.

As Morpheus says, “Welcome to the desert of the real.” In apocalyptic fashion, the real world of The Matrix is a desolate post-apocalyptic nihilism where machines have taken over and enslaved humans as battery pods, where they are cloned and grown in vats. The quote of Baudrillard is appropriate as well due to the film’s focus on simulated reality. Because western civilization and modernity as a whole have rejected meaning and objectivity (based

In the Matrix, a similar situation occurs when Neo is being held in a liquid chamber attached to a large pillar, which the machines use to harvest his heat in order to power them. Between Plato’s allegory and the Matrix, you can see that both people in both stories (prisoner and Neo) are brought from their caves and into the light to seek their true

In Plato’s cave story, prisoners are restrained in such a way that they cannot observe anything other than a blank wall before them. Behind them is a fire that projects shadows onto the cave wall. Men on scaffolds use puppets to cast further shadows and the reverberation of sound in the cave makes it sound as though all the sound is coming from the shadows. The only perception these prisoners have are the shadows on the wall.The Matrix likewise artificially limits the terms of reality for its characters. The Matrix (the system not the movie itself) is a digital prison of shared consciousness and while the deception is more elaborate than Plato’s cave, the effect is the same. The prisoners’ sense of reality is controlled. Every aspect of it is merely a simulated reality, smoke and mirrors used to make people feel what is going on is all there is. No one in the system is aware of it unless they are awoken or told about it, and even then they have trouble believing it. Neo is drenched in the mundanity and feels there is something more but has no evidence to support that. His life is as a prisoner in Plato’s cave, only seeing what he is allowed to see and altogether unaware of a greater reality.

When the prisoner observes the fire, it is blinding, overwhelming. The prisoner would not be likely to accept this as reality and prefer to return to the shadows he was comfortable with before. In The Matrix we can