ABSTRACT
Whether directed at individuals or human types, satire often overlaps with other literary forms which are not necessarily satirical in themselves. These include fables, short stories with a moral purpose, often featuring animals or inanimate objects, and allegories, in which a story or description is intended to be read on at least two different levels, with the surface meaning suggesting another. In The Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (c. 427–347 BCE), the limitations of human understanding are discussed by imagining a group of prisoners in a cave whose knowledge of the outside world is limited to the shadows they can see on the wall of the cave. Should one of them get out, he will at first be blinded by the sunlight, but will gradually attain a knowledge of the reality behind the shadows. If he returns to the cave, on the other hand, he will have become unaccustomed to the darkness, and because he now appears to see worse than the others, they will refuse to believe the truth of his reports of the real world outside the cave. As a result, the one who had ventured outside might well prefer to remain there. Plato used the allegory to argue that, in an ideal state, those who had achieved a higher degree of knowledge should be 19compelled, if necessary, to return among those who were still ignorant, and to improve their condition by governing them. Those who did not want to do this were, Plato claimed, precisely those who ought to be rulers, since those who wanted to rule should not be allowed to do so because they would only be seeking advantages for themselves. While this offers both a general argument about the human condition and a suggestion for its improvement, this sort of allegory would not normally be classed as satire.
