Breaking Free in The Matrix
Eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins his infamous discourse The Social Contract by stating, "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they." Both Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" from The Republic and the Wachowski Brothers' hit film The Matrix discuss man's efforts on his journey towards illumination to break free of his chains and then liberate others imprisoned. While definite connections exist between the allegory and The Matrix, Plato and the Wachowski Brothers present different paths that one may take to achieve that end. The Matrix utilizes the symbolic figure of a hero, Nietzsche's Übermensch, who through fate acquires the responsibility of enlightening all, while Plato presents an individual journey in which others may act as guides but one attains enlightenment through one's desire for knowledge.
Throughout The Matrix, the Wachowski Brothers insert obvious hints of unusual skills that separate Neo from the other rebels. The film tells the story of the search for "the One" who will free the human race from its enslavement by the machines. "The One" possesses unique abilities and can manipulate the Matrix in ways that no other human has been able. Despite Neo's claim that "I'm nobody," he exhibits more "superhuman" qualities as the film progresses. Tank indicates, "He's a machine," able to spend hours learning kung fu, and Mouse notices while Neo fights Morpheus that "his neural kinetics are way above normal." Ironically at the beginning of the movie Neo's boss reprimands him for tardiness, saying, "You think you are special, th...
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Plato and the Wachowski Brothers' interpretations of the course to enlightenment differ greatly in their perspectives. As the Übermensch, Neo must challenge the ingrained values of society, wake the sleeping human race, and free it from the grasp of the Matrix. Plato dismisses Nietzsche's idea and instead describes a path similar to that of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, who realizes that an enlightened one cannot enlighten others but merely lead the way. While sporadically man still follows the Übermensch, Plato's process has entered society's mainstream, serving as the most frequently traveled path to enlightenment.
Sources Cited
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2000.
The Matrix. Dir. The Wachowski Brothers. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne. Videocassette. Warner Home Video, 1999.
Let me briefly explain a simplified plot of The Matrix. The story centers around a computer-generated world that has been created to hide the truth from humans. In this world people are kept in slavery without their knowledge. This world is designed to simulate the peak of human civilization which had been destroyed by nuclear war. The majority of the world's population is oblivious to the fact that their world is digital rather than real, and they continue living out their daily lives without questioning their reality. The main character, Neo, is a matrix-bound human who knows that something is not right with the world he lives in, and is eager to learn the truth. He is offered the truth from a character named Morpheus, who proclaims that Neo is “the One” (chosen one) who will eventually destroy the Matrix, thereby setting the humans “free.” For this to happen, Neo must first overcome the Sentient Program agents who can jump into anyone's digital body. They are the Gate Keepers and hold the keys to The Matrix.
A race of ancient beings hold the only weapon capable of destroying an interstellar force of pure evil that emerges every 5000 years. This weapon happens to be a young woman named LeeLoo, the career launching point for indie actress Mila Jovovich, who was recently genetically re-built with a 3D printer (how eerily relevant) and proceeds to crash into the hover-taxi of special forces veteran Korben Dallas played by exploding movie star Bruce Willis. With the comedy relief of Chris Tucker playing out-of-control radio DJ Ruby Rohd and a mish-mash of influences from 1970's and '80's graphic magazine Heavy Metal, the cult hit Blade Runner, and of course Star Wars is laden throughout The Fifth Element but the story itself is holy original and a wonderful experience.The Matrix changed cinema forever and it's influence can be seen in almost any action movie made today. A Star Wars for the digital age, The Matrix launched Keanu Reeves to super-stardom for his portrayal of Neo, an ordinary computer hacker who learns that he may be the savior of mankind. With the old wizard mentor Morpheus played by Laurence Fishborne guiding Neo through "The desert of the Real" this movie truly captures the imagination during the beginning of the Digital Age, introduces many interesting philosophical questions, and remains a cinematic classic to this
In the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, Oedipus is exhilarated as he hears things that he wants to hear, but is agitated and angry when things that are unpleasant to him rush into his ear, resulting in the punishment of the ones who informs him, even though that the information is reality. This issue also has happened today, where some powerful people avoid confronting reality by stopping those ones who express their opinions using cruel methods. One example may be the upcoming Winter Olympics in Canada. This issue is caused by the hierarchy of both times and the relationship within the hierarchy.
The protagonist Thomas Anderson in the series is one of billions of humans connected to the Matrix, he is a quiet programmer for the "respectable software company" Metacortex. Thomas Anderson is the character in the movie whose later alias becomes “Neo”. Which an anagram for “the one” a name that is most profound parallel to the Bible. Coincidence I think not. Neo is the Christ-figure in The Matrix who is sent to liberate men from their fallen and enslaved state Zion that is the last human city on earth, paralleling the Zion of the Bible. Morpheus and other believers herald him as the “One.” Neo or Christ sets humans free from the matrix or sin as agent Smith who in terms is Satan. Neo has a resurrection scene at the end of the first installment of The Matrix. In this scene Smith kills him, and his coming back to life serves as a testament to his power, and sets the stage for Neo’s final sacrifice at the end of the third movie. It is the scene at the end of the trilogy when Neo makes his Christ-like death. After this sacrifice, Neo is lifted into the sky, the same way one might describe Christ’s resurrection. Neo's performance was so good that famous hollywood director Quienten
“[Othello] Why? Who are you? [Desdemona] Your wife, my lord. Your true and loyal wife.”( Act 4, Scene 2). Desdemona from Othello embodies what most would believe to be the perfect woman. She is loyal and trusting, innocent and pure, and her inner beauty is only matched by her outer experience. Her somewhat naïve personality however, leaves her exposed to the more worldly individuals, those who have learned how to take advantage of others through experience. What initially attracts many to Desdemona proves to be her downfall, and her
The movie "Matrix" is drawn from an image created almost twenty-four hundred years ago by the greek philosopher, Plato in his work, ''Allegory of the Cave''.The Matrix is a 1999 American-Australian film written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. Plato, the creator of the Allegory of the Cave was a famous philosopher who was taught by the father of philosophy Socrates. Plato was explaining the perciption of reality from others views to his disciple Aristotle. The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave share a simmilar relationship where both views the perciption of reality, but the Matrix is a revised modern perciption of the cave. In this comparison essay I am going to explain the similarities and deifferences that the Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave shares.In the Matrix, the main character,Neo,is trapped in a false reality created by AI (artificial intelligence), where as in Plato's Allegory of the Cave a prisoner is able to grasp the reality of the cave and the real life. One can see many similarities and differences in the film and the allegory. The most important similarity was between the film and the Allegory is the perception of reality.Another simmilarity that the movie Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave shares is that both Neo and the Freed man are prisoners to a system. The most important difference was that Neo never actually lived and experienced anything, but the freed man actually lived and experinced life.
Emilia, one of only three female characters in Shakespeare’s Othello, plays a vital role both thematically and in the advancement of the play’s plot. Although her blind loyalty to her husband turns the wheels of this tragedy, it is not a static quality throughout it. When examining the gender roles in the world of this play, the change in Emilia’s allegiances, which determine her actions, reveals the divergence between duty and integrity for women. Throughout most of the play, Emilia is loyal to a fault. She remains subservient to Iago until her duty to him causes her to betray the one she has to her friend and mistress, Desdemona. After becoming cognizant of her involvement in Iago’s villainy, Emilia abandons all loyalty she previously held to patriarchal forces and is motivated exclusively by morality and dedication to Desdemona.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained people inside and a wall where they can only see shadow illusions, which they believe is reality. Outside the cave, there is “light” and “truth.” One chained person is released into the “light,” which is uncomfortable at first, because of how bright the “light” or “truth” is however, once he adjusts, he realizes the outer world is the “truth” or reality and the cave is a shadow of reality. He pities the ones in the cave, still lost in the darkness yet, when he tries to make them see reality, their ignorance overpowers them and they kill the enlightened one out of fear and confusion. This is the kind of society, full of puppet-handlers, the narrator Sylvia in “The Lesson” dwells in and the author, Toni Cade Bambara, depicts Sylvia as being freed from the chains of ignorant society. Bambara’s released prisoner, Miss Moore, is the one to free Sylvia and the other chained prisoners and exposes them to the “light,” which is the unequal distribution of wealth and the “truth,” which is educating youth on economic inequality so the freed prisoners can learn to change their society’s shadow of reality.
...n against machine in a noticeably strained battle, but they also despise that the humans are more machine like than they ponder, and that the machine possesses human qualities as well. The humans, for their part, are as persistently compelled as machines. The incredible fighting skills and superhuman strength of the character seem to put them in machine type category. It showed how dependent man and machine actually are, or might be. One terror of fake intelligence is that technology will trap us in level of dependency. It emphasized the idea that artificial intelligence enslaves the human race. With the time we people are also becoming slaves of the machines that we have created. In time people will be so dependent on machines that they can no longer survive without them. This is the implicit idea of the film matrix, idea which hardly people would have noticed.
In the movie The Matrix we find a character by the name of Neo and his struggle adapting to the truth...to reality. This story is closely similar to an ancient Greek text written by Plato called "The Allegory of the Cave." Now both stories are different but the ideas are basically the same. Both Stories have key points that can be analyzed and related to one another almost exactly. There is no doubt that The Matrix was based off Greek philosophy. The idea of freeing your mind or soul as even stated in "The Allegory of the Cave" is a well known idea connecting to Greek philosophy. The Matrix is more futuristic and scientific than "The Cave" but it's the same Idea. Neo is trapped in a false reality created by a computer program that was created by machines that took over the planet. Now the story of course has many themes such as Man vs. Machine, Good vs. Evil, and our favorite Reality vs. Illusion. Neo is unplugged from the matrix and learns the truth and becomes "the one" who is to save the humans from their machine oppressors. "The Cave" is similar in that it has humans trapped in a cave and chained up to only face one direction. The "puppeteers" then make shadows against the wall the humans face using the fire from the outside as a light source. One big difference is that "The Cave" is about two philosophers conversing about the cave as one explains what needs to happen and that the prisoners must free their souls to find truth. The Matrix is the actions of what the philosopher describes actually happening. The comparing of the two stories will show how things said in "The Cave" are the same as in The Matrix, of course with the exception that one is futuristic ...
All through history, the role of women and their place in the general public has tremendously changed. William Shakespeare’s Othello was established during a time period where the role of women and their collective value were downgraded in the Venetian and Elizabethan era. During the Venetian era women were dominated by their sexual orientation. The Venetian era had a patriarchal society. In a patriarchal society, the father is the head of the household and men have authority over women and children. During the Elizabethan era the conduct toward women was vicious. Women were considered second class citizens. Males only consider women as possession, who is obligated to remain submissive and meek. Additionally, women are expected to be quiet, obedient to male figures, and chaste. Women were either considered a good wife or a whore. There are only three women in Othello; Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. Desdemona is the passive wife of Othello who has a quite idealistic take on life and marriage. Emilia is the cynical, perceptive women who seem to have a bitter take on her marriage to Iago. Bianca is portrayed as the whore of the play, and she has relations with Cassio. Although, each woman varies in roles and personality, they all had a common trait; they lived in a patriarchal society and suffered together. Each of them live in a society where it was ideal to think women were psychologically and physiologically inferior to men, however in reality each of them knew their role in society.
The Shakespearean classic work Othello enchants the readers mind through the tragic love story of the witty and cunning soldier Othello and the charming and powerful Desdemona. The continuous reinforcement of their tragedy is molded by the gender roles present in the play, particularly those of Bianca, Desdemona, and Emilia. Although the men are important within the outcome of the play, mainly Iago and Othello, the women take a more subtle, yet effective approach in manipulating the work through their personalities. Bianca is a woman of self-esteem and sexual power while Desdemona is the keeper of Othello’s heart and handkerchief, never once denouncing him, even her death. Emilia subtly represents that women are just as powerful, if not more,
The Matrix is a sci-fi action film about a computer hacker named Neo that has been brought into another world deemed “the matrix.” The Matrix is a prime example of cinematography. The film uses many different types of cinematography such as mise-en-scene, special effects, and camera shots to make it interesting and entertaining to the audience guiding their attention to the important aspects of the film.
Forced by predominant men in Elizabethan society, women conform to a facade based on an socioeconomic status rather than character. As expected, women in William Shakespeare’s Othello demonstrate obedience in their behavior in accordance with a man’s expectations. Throughout this tragic play the once formidable Othello, becomes crazed with jealousy based on his ensign 's puppet master. Determined to murder his wife, Desdemona, because of her alleged infidelity, Othello fights against being a cuckold. Critical in Venetian society, Desdemona’s reputation no where compares to her husband’s reputation, which demonstrates a woman’s status as subordinate to men including servants and paramours. William Shakespeare reveals the influential males in a woman 's life govern the way the world
Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave.