Allegory Of The Cave

An allegory is a story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. Plato uses this tool to portray his theory of Forms. This idea is illustrated in the Allegory of the Cave.

The allegory is about a big cave connected to the outside world by a passage long enough to prevent any daylight from entering. Facing the far wall, with their backs to the entrance, is a row of prisoners. Their limbs are chained and so are their necks, meaning that they cannot see one another, or even themselves. All they are able to see is a wall in front of them.The prisoners have been here since birth, therefore don’t know anything better than this; this is their reality. In the cave there is also a bright

This is displayed in the story as the cave itself. The latter represents the separation of the world of attractions from the world of forms. He believed that we are enclosed inside a world of shadows and that the real world is hidden from us. Just like the prisoners in his allegorical cave, we are trapped in a world of illusion. We mistake all these shadows for reality, but have no intentions of knowing that we are being fooled. A Form is what a thing is, Forms for Plato are unchanging and eternal. Objects in this world imitate a Form which exists in the real world. We are able to recognise Forms as we are born with a slight recollection of them from our previous existence in the world of Forms. There is an inner part of us, the soul, that never changes. It is eternal and was connected with the world of Forms before it became tied down by a body, which is represented by the allegorical chains. Plato’s conclusion on the world of Forms is that it is a world of ideas not senses, where there are perfect forms of the things we see on earth.

In comparison to the world of Forms, the world of appearances is constantly changing. Plato’s thoughts on the nature of reality are that our world is not the same as it was three years, hours, or even seconds ago. Each individual is always changing, ideas pass in and out our minds and cells are constantly renewing themselves. This is connected to the allegory through the shadows. Shadows are never permanent and are forever moving and changing. So we rely on our senses to understand it all. Plato was therefore sure that the real world is outside the one we live