NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
"Oedipus The King" - A Story That Transcends Generations There is an abyss of millenniums between the story of Oedipus the King which took place in Ancient Greece and the Matrix which should never take place in reality unless the humanity stops existing as the society of Homo sapiens. The story of Oedipus the King narrated by the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles and the threatening warning the Matrix though being parted by millenniums show that the problems which are vitally important for the mankind in general terms remain the same. This is an optimistic indication showing that the human nature has not been affected by the achievements of the science and technology. Both masterpieces show that the humanistic nature of a man has not changed.
Both pieces of art are focused to the same topic, the humans fate and its role in shaping ones destiny (Oedipus the King) or the destiny of the entire humanity (The Matrix). Both masterpieces call people not to dissolve their moral values in the collisions of the historical development; they are both appealing to people not to loose their dignity and freedom. The tragedy Oedipus the King by Sophocles takes place in the ancient Thebes. The topics of the fate and the prophecy are in the centre of the play. There are some common problems revealed in both masterpieces and the blindness of the destiny is the main one. Oedipus is subordinate to the circumstances taking place in his life and is not able to change anything because the curse of his father Laius has been transferred to Oedipus.
The theme of the prophecy and inability to resist it could be traced throughout the play. At his birth he was prophesied that he would kill his father. The entire play by Sophocles is the play on the irony of fate. The Greeks did not expect justice from their Gods. Even on heavens the holy dynasties were changeable. The Greeks were concerned only of not angering and praising the Gods.
That was the Greece piety 1. The Greek society was free. The Greeks were free but fated and their freedom depended upon their fate only. One of the main ideas of the play is the search of a justice. The fate shapes the destiny, but if it is unjust who is guilty for this? Oedipus is suffering not because he is guilty but because of his fate.
This idea of the irrevocability of the fate resembles the relations of the Morpheus rebels with the matrix agents (The Matrix) who are created undetectable. People may try to escape from the soldiers of the matrix which is the gloomy fate of the humanity. Oedipus killed his father under strange circumstances being unaware that Laius was his father. The fate plays cruel tricks with Oedipus when he marries Jocasta without knowing that she was his mother. This is another terrible joke of the fate.
The play of Sophocles is the story of search of the Oedipus identity and the never ending question which is vitally important for him, Who am I? He is not a sinner because the fate puts him in the situations from which he can not find the way out. The plague epidemic made people apply to their king because he once succeeded to save them from a disaster. The main paradox of the play is that a man is free but he is under the fate which may do anything with the person, so the humans freedom is restricted by his fate which is in its turn restricted by nothing and the fate itself is the divine intent The irony of fate is manifested in the Oedipus desire to know the truth of the murderer through the blind seer Teiresias who named him a murderer. Teiresias is a blind prophet who knows the truth and Oedipus is a seeing person who is blind to recognize the Gods Providence. The prophecies play the key role in the play.
Under the influence of the prophecies Oedipus swears to punish the murderers of his father and tries to identify the murderers of his father and this is also the aspiration to find his own identity. The fate of Oedipus is generalized by the brilliant playwright and the author applies the tragedy of Oedipus to the entire mankind. If such a noble ruler as Oedipus is exposed to the fates collision then nobody is secured from similar tricks of the fate. Oedipus discounts the power of the oracles and values the power of truths. The irony of the play is that the truth of the oracles and the researches of Oedipus lead to the same result thus confirming the supremacy of fate. The most important question arising while watching the Matrix by Wachowski brothers is if the matrix is possible in reality.
It is very difficult to give a single meaning answer, but the warning is impressive. The Matrix shows what consequence the achievements of the mankind may bring if it gets out of control. The Matrix indicates that the technical progress may lead to a fatal paradox when the creators have to combat the community of machines they created. The Matrix is the warning movie on the future but we may observe certain indications of the Matrix which people have already succeeded to create. The Internet is capturing our consciousness and becomes some kind of the matrix to hide in from the everyday problems.
The ugly community of the future ruled by the inhuman new order with its agents, inhuman laws and totalitarianism has already occurred in our recent history. The Nazi Germany attempted to establish the new order similar to that of the matrix with the God chosen elite, faceless mass of the rest of the people and the concentration camps to manage the ordinary population of the paradise for the God chosen Aryans. The totalitarian communist regimes attempted to create the global communist matrix with the same tiny faceless parts of the huge ideological machine which were called the communism builders and who were supposed to create the paradise by means of the global proletarian revolution. Communism, Nazism, extreme nationalism and other inhuman philosophies were aimed to create their own Matrix in which people would obey the laws of the matrix. The most dangerous threat which may bring such philosophies is that the matrix is managed by itself. The matrix has been created by the people, got out of their control and develops according to its own laws; it is a self sufficient system.
The matrix and its half human, half machine agents are invented by people. There are no any leaders or rulers heading the matrix, it is just an uncontrolled disaster which has been created by the collective knowledge of the mankind. There are no any cultural values within the matrix. The authors confirm the truth once more, the society neglecting the cultural and spiritual values can not be human. Still The Matrix is more optimistic regarding the fate than the ancient Greek play, there is a hero who may resist the matrix which is the fate itself. The optimism of the Matrix is that the hero successfully resists the fate of the entire mankind while Oedipus can not resist the blows of his personal fate.
The Matrix is not just a science fiction but a philosophical warning and the battle between the matrix and the brave people headed by Morpheus is the battle to revive the spiritual values of the mankind. The Matrix is not the film of the future society but an appeal to the contemporaries to appreciate and preserve the human values. The movie sounds like the threatening prophecy. The action takes place in two parallel realities which are intervened. Moreover, the heroes are fighting virtually while they exist physically. They get their wounds virtually but these wounds affect their physical state through their spiritual perception of the virtual reality, or it is better to say the unreality.
The movie is about the searches of the human being, how we distinguish real from unreal, how we define who we are and what our place in the universe is. The matrix is an illusion, a by-product of the artificial intellect, but this by-product got out of control and becomes dominating. The people of the matrix as well as Oedipus in the ancient play are looking for their identity which has been lost somewhere between their virtual and physical existence within the matrix. Neo is the only one capable of inflicting damage on the AI (artificial intellect) system and free the people who have their minds enslaved, but for this to be accomplished he must break free the boundaries within his mind 2.
It is the Neos mission to destroy the matrix and to liberate the people; he is Messiah coming to the world of the matrix. Neo does not have a choice and he takes his mission as it is. He is not the strongest or the most experienced among the rebels headed by Morpheus but his mission is presented as his fate to liberate the people. The success of the Matrix is defined by its philosophic content. In case with Neo one may observe the free will vs. fate debate 3.
The motives of Karma are clearly observed in the matrix which is a hyper reality created by the human intellect. The Matrix is a prophetic movie. As soon as we are able to create the matrix in the form of movie we are able to create the matrix in reality. People are able to create the new worlds and we are only in the Nature who can do this. We are creating the new environments and their electronic or virtual nature does not make people any less real, and there's nothing wrong with artificial environments merely because they " re artificially created 4. The problem of the matrix is not in its virtual or artificial nature but in the moral nature of its creators, i.
e. people. Our entire world has been artificially created by people according to our vision and perception. People forget about the natural law dominance and develop the sovereigns (governments according to Hobbes) who violate the natural law sending them to risk their lives because prior to that they initiate the wars. People develop the matrix which becomes the prison thus contradicting the natural law and the fact that people create this prison for themselves is the worst one.
People are not free in their consciousness and they need the matrix to manage, (i. e. restrict) their freedom to make them comfortable. If there is no prison for us we need to create it because the prison is an attribute of our reality.
This is the greatest paradox of the human development; our social and technical progress restricts our freedom. According to Morpheus the Matrix is a prison for your mind. The creators of the movie use the Ancient Greek terms to create the parallel with the Ancient Greek history. Thus the character of Oracle is similar to that from the ancient Greek legend. She gives Neo the choice either to save his life or that of Morpheus. In the Greek legend the king Leonidas was put before the choice by Oracle of saving his own life or saving the city.
Thus, ultimately, Neo's choice was the same as that of Leonidas: his own life, or the fate of a city 5. The Matrix is the futuristic movie according to the plot but it is real warning and appeal to people to re-evaluate their moral values. The environments we have created should not start controlling us and it is crucially that all elements of our environment like our sovereigns, scientists, politicians and the military should be controlled by us and this control is the essence of democracy. We may make a conclusion that the matrix may become real when we fail to follow the democratic principles. Two masterpieces are parted by the millenniums, but they have common features. First of all it is the role of fate in the human development.
The Matrix shows the possible result of the technological development. While watching the movie it may seem that the matrix is not the peoples product but that of the fate. We may either believe in god or not; we may be atheists but no one can deny the role of fate in the development of the humanity. When scientists invented the nuclear reaction they did not think of the consequence it may bring. They were moved by the scientific curiosity and the fate has led them both to an inexhaustible source of the cheap energy and to the most destructive weapon.
It is unlikely that the Matrix has been invented originally as self sufficient human dignity pressing machine, but the fate made it as it is in the movie. Bibliography The Matrix, available at web retrieved 3. 04. 2005 The Matrix, Wikipedia, available at web retrieved 3. 04. 2005 David A. Wheeler, Man as the World-Builder, available at web retrieved 3. 04. 2005 Maureen C. Howard, Sophocles Oedipus the King, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, available at web retrieved 3. 04. 2005 Citation Maureen C. Howard Wikipedia David A. Wheeler Wikipedia Maureen C.
Howard
Free research essays on topics related to: oedipus the king, moral values, story of oedipus, spiritual values, ancient greek
Research essay sample on Oedipus The King A Story That Transcends Generations
