There are also personal issues involved in the work. The prisoner who is freed and ascents to the “real world” is then ridiculed and threatened by those who are still kept prisoner. This is a reflection of the way Socrates, (Plato's tutor and mentor,) was treated by the people of Athens as he attempted to teach them more about the world that we live in, and encouraged them to question their surroundings and not take anything at face value. Socrates was placed on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens, and was sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock.
The importance of the events leading up to Plato's establishment as a philosopher in his own right cannot be underestimated as a major influence in his works, especially the allegory of the cave.
The cave begins with a number of prisoners, chained so that they can only face a wall of the cave. Behind them, a fire burns constantly and no natural light from outside the cave can reach their prison in the depths of the cave. Between the fire and the prisoners, the captors hold models of objects, made of rock or wood. These models cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners can only see shadows on the cave wall, both of themselves and the models of the objects behind them, cast by the flickering light of the fire. Any noise which is made by the men is echoed off the surface of the cave wall, making it seem like the noise is coming directly from the shadows themselves.
The prisoners have spent their entire lives watching the shadows, and so they perceive them as reality. We know that there is far more to life than shadows on a cave wall, but the prisoners have no way of knowing, or any reason to believe, that there is more to reality that the flickering shadows cast by the fire. “To them,” Plato tells us, “truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.”
The allegory continues, one day, a single prisoner has his chains removed and is forced to walk out of the cave. His muscles hurt with each movement, and his eyes are blinded by the intense brightness of the fire which he walks towards. As he passes the fire and walks towards the daylight his eyes burn even more, and he struggles to make out objects, only being able to pick out shadows. As the man spends more time out of the cave, his eyes begin to see better. At first he begins to see shapes and outlines, then he can see reflections in water. As his sight improves even more, he can begin to see full objects, and then the moon and the stars during the nighttime and finally the sun during the day.
The freed, and “enlightened” prisoner, now able to see the “real” reality, feels sorry for the men left in captivity, and decides to return to the cave to teach them that there is more to life than the shadows on the cave wall.
Upon his arrival and the amazing revelation the man gives, the prisoners react angrily, hating to have their long-held beliefs challenged. They tell the man his journey has made him mad, and has damaged his eyes, (he no longer finds it easy to make out the shadows on the wall.)
Plato tells us that if it were possible for the prisoners to, they would kill this “troublemaker” who had returned to lecture them, and question what they held to be certain.
The allegory of the cave is strongly linked to Plato's “theory of forms,” which, at its heart, tells us that our senses cannot be trusted, they can be tricked easily. Plato tells us that true knowledge can only be acquired by thinking and reasoning, not by looking or listening.
