There may be various ways in which to compare and contrast Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” to Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law.” First, both may draw upon the issue of education. In Plato’s allegory, he instructs the reader that the arduous journey towards gaining knowledge only really has value if it is shared. The prisoner is dragged by an “instructor” who requires him to name objects in passing, until he begins an ascent and reaches of level where light is painful on his eyes only to move upward to gaze upon the moon and stars, until eventually reaching a plane where he contemplates the sun and what it may mean to life (Plato).

Plato argues that such a man has become enlightened and he is duty-bound to return to the remaining prisoners chained in the darkness of the cave in order to instruct them, “to share in their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not.” (Plato) People teach, others learn and hopefully communities are helped and thrive. However, the man in the Kafka story has no ambition to learn. While he had had the opportunity to pass through the gate he opted to sit on a stool his entire life until eventually dying. There is something about ego that appears to enter this story, where the man could not see passed his own self; his fears and trepidation represented by the gatekeepers, especially the third who the first gatekeeper warns is the most powerful, “I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.” (Kafka) Hence, the man learns nothing. The gatekeepers could represent keepers of knowledge, or in this case the law, who could provide the man with access to those things or issues in which he seeks. In futility he attempts to bribe the first gatekeeper, but to no avail, because bribery will not change the nature of knowledge as fact. It is only through personal experience that one gains knowledge.

The prisoner in the Plato’s allegory must be dragged and pulled in order to reach a point where he is enlightened. The experience of the prisoner might actually have been somewhat the similar for the man in Kafka’s short story. But, there would be no intervention for the man. The gatekeeper remained passive and relatively distant; there was no intention to help the man beyond providing him with a stool in which to sit on (Kafka). When referring to ego earlier in this paper, the man seems only to have one intention and that is to gain access to the law for his own purposes. Perhaps this is also a key element to his failure because of the fact that he had no intention of sharing the information, only personally benefitting from the experience. Plato challenges the prisoner to share his knowledge, or at least challenges the reader to do so. In his allegory, Plato is arguing that knowledge gained is beneficial to society, or in his words “the community.” (Plato).

Perhaps another comparison has to do with taking risks. Plato seems to be asking that upon returning would the prisoner not share his new-found intelligence in the face of certain ridicule? He appears to be indicating that regardless of the initial resistance by others who have no such knowledge the trip by the prisoner still made the risk worth it. In contrast, the prisoner remains inert, sitting on the stool. There is no effort on his part to learn anything, until before dying the gatekeeper informs him that the entry was specifically meant for him (Kafka). Neither the man, no anyone else for that matter, will learn about the law through the man’s unique perspective. The gate is reserved only for him because no one else may learn and become enlightened similarly, and it is imagined that many others have their own unique gates to walk through.

So the man is left to die, without the benefit of experiencing the lessons which awaited him if he had only passed through the entry. It would seem the man could have done so at any time, but he didn’t have the will, or the courage of his convictions in order to do so. The prisoners may be quite a bit similar to the man, save for being chained to the cave walls. They too lived without the benefit of knowledge and experience. But, if it were not for intervention, the prisoner who was exposed to education and experience would also have lived his life in the same way as all the others.