Thinking Outside the Box

At first glance Plato's "Allegory of a Cave" and  Sartre's "No Exit" seem like completely different stories. One being about prisoners in a cave the other about people in Hell. However at a closer look, you can see striking similarities. These include that both stories are told through dialogue between characters and that the prisoners in the cave and the prisoners in hell are both "kept in the dark" of what is happening outside their cave/second empire drawing room. In the cave, the prisoners are somewhat afraid to leave the cave. In "No Exit", Garcin  is given the chance to leave, the door opens and he can leave but he decides to stay, much like the prisoners wanting to stay in the cave afraid of being blinded by the light. Both of the writings have an allegory that covers the story. "No Exit"'s allegory is that "Hell is other people" and this is shown throughout the play by the characters tormenting each other in Hell while the devil has nothing to do with the tormenting just the other people in the room.
The Cave's allegory is that society has put chains on us for what knowledge is good and which is bad, however these chains have been on us so long and from the beginning that even when we are given the chance to break free we don't want to .