The Matrix and Plato: Allegory and Symbols

In the Matrix, whole human species is trapped in a false reality created by a

computer program. The program was created by machines that took over the
planet. Just as the prisoners in the cave, our protagonist Neo is packed in one of
the millions of pods where machines harvest his body's heat to power
themselves. Neither him nor the people in the matrix realize that they are
prisoners; they are completely unaware the reality. The Matrix has clearly
intended references, not only to Descartes and Plato but also to the Bible and
Buddhism and to Orwell. But the most central to the overall framework of the
film is adapted from Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The Matrix mirrors Plato's
allegory almost exactly in structure. However its storyline is different and
complex to enable effective adaptation of it to be a modern sci-fi movie.
A central theme in Plato's allegory of cave (inspired by his teacher Socrates'
philosophy) is the idea of human's limitations in knowledge- “…how far our
nature is enlightened or unenlightened.” The basis of Socratic wisdom is
recognizing one's limits of understanding and then working toward breaking
those limits.
Neo, like a chained prisoner in the cave is visited by Morpheus. The name
‘Morpheus’ also has Greek origin as the God of dreams, who visits in dreams in
a human form. Morpheus here had escaped the illusion of the Matrix and now is
in the search of ‘The One’, which he believes who Neo is meant to be. Though
Neo is in a dream state bound in a machine, he is still willing to listen to
Morpheus, challenging the programming of the Matrix. It can be referred to the
Platonic thought that the soul have had direct knowledge of the Forms before
this present life. However, we have forgotten them at the birth. But that
knowledge can be recollected through the relentless striving of knowledge, as it
is ingrained in the soul. It might be possible that the first of the humans who
escaped the Matrix are the one who was after this knowledge of self. But why
this need arrived in the first place? In the Matrix, a person is given all the
illusions of the real world. In fact, in a cave a chained man can see the chains,
but in the Matrix the person cannot. Here comes the role of Morpheus or
Socrates as the Midwife to deliver that ingrained knowledge.
Further, realising the true nature of the world is not that easy. Even if with the
help, one just cannot withstand the full might of the truth at once. The person
who escapes the cave is first pained and blinded by the Light outside. The
shining sun is just too must to bear for a person who has been in the perpetual
darkness all this time. He would want to run back to the shadows, the darkness
of the cave, where though in ignorance, he was not in distress. But, one who can
withstand that pain, after some time can see the real world. He can witness the
true Beauty, Truth and the Good.
Similarly, in the film the prisoners are so thoroughly trapped in their ignorance
and so convinced of the reality of the shadows in the cave, that they would have
a very difficult time believing their liberators. They would in fact at first resent
being freed and want nothing more than to return to their ignorance.
When Neo is freed – “unplugged” and taken out of the matrix to face “the desert
of the real,” like Socrates’ prisoners, he’s “pained and dazzled” and asks, “Why
do my eyes hurt?” and Morpheus, very Socratically, answers, “Because you’ve
never used them before.” To leave the matrix is to make the journey out of the
cave. It is to leave the shadows of ignorance behind and experience reality
however harsh it may be. Neo has made that journey, and he has a hard time
believing what Morpheus is showing him, just as Socrates claims the prisoners
in the cave would.
This also begs the question that how do we know that the “reality” outside the
cave in in fact the real one? How can Neo be sure that the real world he has
been woken up to is not another simulation? How can Morpheus be sure that
Neo is in fact the One? This is exactly what Plato is trying to say through his
allegory of cave that we cannot rely on our senses and feelings. They can and do
deceive us. In the Matrix this certainty and knowledge is based on subjective
intuition- a gut feeling. Oracle, another character in the movie compares it with
love that can only be felt. It is unlike Plato, whose knowledge is rational
understanding of the a priori and therefore objective. Perhaps, this dilemma
makes the character Cypher think that machine cannot be defeated, that it is
better to live inside the Matrix then outside facing the full heat of the sun, the
eternal truth.
The quest for knowledge for Socrates begins with “knowing thyself”, Plato also
takes his master’s message. It is a journey which we take through the life. We
may escape one cave but can enter another. We may never know that we are in
fact in a cave. We are all the Neos but we also are our own Morpheus. We must
break those chains of ignorance, escape the cave, and take that heat and pain of
knowledge. At least that’s what Plato tell us.