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The Matrix: Movie Analysis

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Nineteen-ninety-nine was a great year! Not only was it the last year of the twentieth-century, but it marked the theatrical release of the Wachowski brother 's, The Matrix. The movie constantly rolls around the interior of my head whenever the question of reality comes up. A very memorable, and important, scene has Thomas Anderson, better known as Neo, having The Matrix explained to him by his soon-to-be mentor, Morpheus.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what IT is? The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over …show more content…

Plato writes in Book VII of The Republic, prisoners within a cave, and this is represented in modernity by The Matrix. The narrator of the The Republic is Socrates. He begins Book VII by describing the place in which the prisoners inhabit. They are kept chained up like some sort of rabid creature(maybe make creature plural so as to fit with "they" at the beg of the sen); "...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."1(cite) They are completely immobilized, and have been since childhood. There is a slit in the wall behind them and outside, in what we would recognize as the "real world," there is a path that people walk along at nearly all times of the day. Between the prisoners and the wall, there is(make sure it is present tense for the description of the cave) a fire; this fire serves no purpose other than to cast shadows from those outside on to the interior wall in front of the captives. Socrates likens the wall "...like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets."(cite) To the prisoners, what they see is(emphasis) reality, it is their reality. Socrates goes on to describe what would likely happen if one of the prisoners were to be freed from the depths of the cave. "... he will suffer sharp pains: the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the

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After Socrates experienced a new reality and nature, he planned on going back to the cave to persuade the prisoners to join him. He asks Glaucon if his eyes will have to readjust to the darkness of the cave after being in the sunlight. Because the prisoners were used to seeing the illusions of shadows inside of the cave, they did not want to change their perception of the world and leave their home. Socrates asks, “And if they can get hold of this person who takes it in hand to free them from their chains to lead them up, and if they could kill them, will they not actually kill him?”(Plato). Socrates is planning on freeing the prisoners from their chains and taking them out of the cave, but he questions Glaucon if the prisoners would kill him if they got the chance.

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Just like the prisoner of the Cave, Harold Crick breaks free from his chains of naivety and widens his vision to become truly enlightened. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the prisoners are described as being “chained so they cannot move, and can only see before them” (Plato 1). These chains are notable not only because they are the restriction that keeps the people

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Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.

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But, when adjusted to the sun, the prisoner can see the world as it truly is, not just as the shadows in the cave. Plato begins to explain that if the prisoner returned to the cave to explain what he saw to the other prisoners, they would simply not believe him. Truman, lives in

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The cave as a whole represents the visible realm. In the dialogue, the prisoners are chained so that they can only see what is in front of them and being depicted on the wall. “They’ve been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, with their necks and legs fettered, able to see only in front of them,” (514b). A prisoner is freed and dragged outside the cave,

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“The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is about a group of prisoners that were chained up in a cave with their backs facing the exit of the cave, unable to see what was going on in the outside world. They occasionally would see shadows on the wall and would

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“An unexamined life is a life not worth living” - Socrates. Both ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory of ‘The Cave’ develops a question of reality and how the world is perceived. This can be closely connected to one of the great Greek philosopher’s sayings where an “unexamined life is a life not worth living”. Socrates states this due to the increasing number of citizens who lived their lives without questioning the world around them. ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory explore how when the world is properly examined the outcome is a new understanding and perception of life.

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When one of the person is allowed to leave the cave and see the real world they don’t believe it. Even more when they return to the cave to tell the others. The others won’t believe the person that left because all they know is the shadows. That’s why Plato says “[…] that the true analogy for this indwelling power in the soul and the instrument whereby each of us apprehends is that of an eye that could not be converted to the light from darkness except by turning the whole body.” (Plato 750).

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In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. ”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them.

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Socrates’s allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic Book VII is an accurate depiction of how people can be blinded by what they are only allowed to see. The allegory does have relevance to our modern world. In fact, all of us as a species are still in the “cave” no matter how intelligent or enlightened we think we have become. In Plato’s Republic Book VII, Socrates depicts the scenario in a cave where there are prisoners who are fixed only being able to look at the shadows on the wall which are projections of things passing between them and the light source.

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In The Matrix, the simulated reality of the Matrix is a creation of the sentient machines, and the humans are simply experiencing an artificial reality created by the machines. This represents the idealist belief that the external world is merely a projection of the mind. In the film, this is shown through the characters who are able to manipulate the simulated reality of the Matrix through their thoughts and beliefs. For example, Morpheus, a mentor to Neo, is able to bend and shape the reality of the Matrix to his will, creating a seemingly impossible staircase in order to escape from agents of the Matrix. This concept of idealism is reflected in the quote from the film, "What is real?

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In the book Allegory of the Cave, Socrates was talking with Glaucon and he began to explain how light and darkness are found within the nature of a human. In order to provide a better explanation Socrates created an image. This image was a dark den in which many humans were chained from the hands, feet and neck since they were children. These chains kept these prisoners from moving and allowed them to see only a wall of the den. Behind them there was fire, which was the only source of light in the place.

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The high acclaimed film, The Matrix, directed by the Wachowski siblings, follows programmer Neo as he learns of a future with within a simulated reality, and joins to defeat this control. In order to effectively flow and present the plot and characters, the film is arranged with Three Act Structure, where the work is divided into three parts: Setup, Confrontation and Resolution. The opening scene hooks the audience with a dramatic run-in between Trinity and the Agents. The exposition follows, giving us our first glimpse of Neo living his “status quo” life.

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Plato tells of a group of prisoners held in a dark cave chained to the walls. These people have never stepped outside into the world and can only experience shadows that are displayed on the opposite side of the cave through the light outside of the cave. One of the slaves, now liberated steps outside of the cave and is able to experience reality, or what we can distinguish as objective truth. After returning to explain to the other what he has seen there seems to be quite a difference in opinions(Plato). In his article Plato’s Cave, T.F Morris attempts to dissect Plato’s allegory and explains his belief that “… the shadows on the wall of the cave correspond to what we call reality…(Morris 417)”

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When the enlightened prisoner returns to the cave “they all laugh at him and say he had spoiled his eyesight by going up there”(Plato __). Plato infers that society will purposely be blind to conform to society’s norms. When the escaped prisoner returns to the cave he “gets his eyes full of darkness” (Plato ___). The freed prisoner explains what the actual objects were that they were seeing were. Plato demonstrates that the ignorance and blindness to the truth is by choice.

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