The Matrix

Plato’s allegory of the cave is a symbol/metaphor for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. The ideas that we think and are set on, becomes our reality even if it may not be the truth. Plato’s allegory of the cave is an extended metaphor about prisoners who mistake sensory knowledge for the truth. Plato claimed that knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that it cannot be the ‘truth’. He says that most humans live in world of shadows, where we don’t see the ‘reality’ of ideas, which is the ultimate form, the reason and the truth.
In the theory by Plato the cave represents the people that believe knowledge comes from our senses, what we hear and see in the world. The cave is to show that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a ‘cave’ of misunderstanding.
The shadows represent the perceptions of people who believe empirical knowledge ensures true knowledge. If they believe what they see is the truth, then they are merely seeing the shadow of the truth.
The game in the theory represents how one person can be a master when they have ‘empirical knowledge’. He is saying that, that person is not actually a master and doesn’t actually know anything at all. The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside of the senses. The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge. His intellectual journey represents a philosopher’s journey when finding truth and wisdom. The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are sccared of knowing philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.
Plato’s allegory of the cave relates to the quote because in The Matrix Neo can be seen as the escaped prisoner of the cave who has obtained knowledge of the outside world which is the true form of the world. When he asks “I cannot go back, can I ?” It means that there is no turning back for him even if he wants to, as he now knows what the real