After reading both Life is a Dream and The Allegory of the Cave, I began to consider both the benefits and consequences of revealing reality to those immersed in a virtual realm. People can either shield themselves from knowledge by rejecting reality and clinging to their illusions, or they can adjust their schemas and embrace enlightenment. Despite having this option, do people have the innate tendency to flee back to the safety of their ignorance? In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates states, “if someone forced [the prisoner] to look into the glare of the fire, would his eyes not hurt him, and would he not then turn away and flee [back] to that which he is capable of looking at?” The prisoner would ultimately prefer enlightenment once he became accustomed to light, but his immediate instinct would be to flee. Indeed, exposing people to a reality that contradicts their own understanding of the world often triggers a defensive response.

In Life is a Dream, Segismund readily accepts that his experience as king was a dream in act II, perhaps because the knowledge of his true identity and the injustice of his imprisonment would only exacerbate his suffering. Indeed, Basil states, “For once he’s found out who he is,/ what could console him in his pain?”(1132-1133), suggesting that knowing the truth would only worsen his experience as a prisoner. Clarion, who was imprisoned for his knowledge, also offers a negative aspect of enlightenment when he states, “But if my knowledge means sure death,/ What will my ignorance lead to?” (2190-2191). Therefore, is blissful ignorance more appealing than knowledge that augments suffering?

Plato seems to suggest that people should always prefer knowledge over ignorance. In The Allegory of the Cave, the freed prisoner gets to view the beauty of the world as it naturally exists once he becomes accustomed to the sunlight. Socrates states, “If he again recalled his first dwelling, and the ‘knowing’ that passes as the norm there, and the people with whom he once was chained, don’t you think he would consider himself lucky because of the transformation that had happened and by contrast, feel sorry for them?” However, Socrates assumes that the outside world is more appealing than the cave. What if the prisoner instead emerged to a war-torn landscape, filled with violence and terror?  Would the prisoner not revert to the safety of the cave? Without hope to improve one’s circumstance, what would lead someone to choose the reality of pain and suffering over ignorance?