The Matrix: The Allegory Of The Cave

The works of various different philosophers, such as Baudrillard and Descartes, have influenced the making of the movie The Matrix. However, the work of Plato, can be seen on having the largest impact on the movie. The Matrix has several instances where it parallels Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave; although the biggest parallel can be seen within the character of Neo. The image of the prisoner who escaped from the cave in “The Allegory of the Cave” can be seen as having an influence on the Wachowski sibling’s character Neo from The Matrix. In “The Allegory of the Cave” a group of humans are imprisoned in a cave where they believed that reality was the shadows that were cast upon the cave wall. These prisoners can be compared to the humans in The Matrix. These people were living in the matrix and did not see what reality truly was; instead they only saw what the machines programed the matrix to show them. Just like the cave has people casting shadows, the matrix has agents controlling “reality”. Resembling the prisoner who broke free from the cave, Neo broke free from the matrix. The prisoner who escaped the cave “[suffered] sharp pains, the glare [distressed] him, and he [was] unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows” (Plato). Neo experienced this after taking the red pill that was offered to him by Morpheus. He – understandably – initially struggled to understand his new surroundings outside of the matrix. Morpheus tries to help Neo cope by telling him, “I didn’t say it would be easy…I just said it would be the truth.” In The Matrix there were two worlds. The first world was the true world …show more content…
As later proven in the second and third part of the trilogy, Neo continues to try to succeed and destroy the matrix. This follows the path that the released prisoner from “The Allegory of the Cave” is supposed to