► “The Allegory of the Cave and the Analogy of the divided line”: The analogy of the Sun (Excerpt of Plato´s “Republic”). They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free. The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of his findings. Finally, he is able to behold the sun, which is the main source of knowledge. He is then able to look at the stars and moon by night and finally he is able to look upon the sun.
![the cave plato the cave plato](https://miro.medium.com/max/797/1*hwatXSU4lxZRhIBsLH6WVA.jpeg)
Next he can see the reflections of things in water and later is able to see things themselves. He begins to understand this world. He is first able to see only shadows of things. As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view of reality was wrong. He is shocked at the world he notices outside the cave and does not believe it can be real. One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave. If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would praise him as the most clever. Plato suggests that the prisoners would begin a ‘game’ of guessing which shadow would appear next. As they had never seen the real objects ever before, they believe that the shadows of objects are real objects. Such prisoners wou ld mistake appearance for reality. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them.
![the cave plato the cave plato](https://greekreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Illustration_of_The_Allegory_of_the_Cave_from_Platos_Republic_Credit_wikimedia_CC4.jpg)
►The prisoners, the cave and the shadows: ►Description: “The Allegory of the Cave”: Here is an illustration based on the whole description of the Cave: The puppeteers are just people outside the cave walk along this walkway, who presumably carry things on their heads including animals, plants, wood and stone. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. All they can see is the wall of the cave.
![the cave plato the cave plato](https://i1.wp.com/mygestaltherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/cave-01.png)
In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. This allegory is presented after the analogy of the sun (507b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–513e). Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is written as a dialogue between Plato’s teacher Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon at the beginning of “The Republic” Book VII (514a–520a).