In both Oedipus the King and The Matrix each character experiences a moment of unawareness and deception. Each character learns the truth of their reality and can no longer be ignorant to it. They take moral action and learn to live with the agonizing truth they have discovered.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is given away to a messenger to so that he can be killed. Oedipus's parents were told by a prophet that their new born son was to kill his father and marry his mother. The King, Oedipus’s father sent his child to be killed. The messenger then left Oedipus to die. Oedipus was then rescued by a Sheppard and lived. Many years later he met a man on the road and ended up killing him. This man was his father, Oedipus didn’t know that. He later married Jocasta who was his mother and lived forever happy. Oedipus was unaware that he had just killed his father and married his mother. He was happy. Later on Oedipus was told by a prophet that he was really married to his mother. A important line from Oedipus the King that shares Oedipus’s emotions after figuring out the truth are "As I listen, my queen, my thoughts went reaching out and touched on memories that make me shudder..."Oedipus was so overwhelmed with the truth he blinded himself. All this time he was unaware that he was living a horrific and painful reality.
In the Matrix Neo believes the world he’s living in is reality. He later then is exposed to the truth; he realizes that the matrix is a huge computer program. Neo wants to discover what reality is, what the real world is. When he sees reality, he sees it’s a world full of pain and deceit. The difference between Neo and Oedipus is Neo chooses to stay in the world of pain, though he was blinded to this reality for so long, he chooses to stay and live in it. Oedipus had no choice but to live in this reality.
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