In The Matrix and Oedipus the King, characters find ignorance a happier state of being. As some of them gain the knowledge of the reality around them and painfully accept the truth, others suppress their realities and live blissfully.
In The Matrix, after Neo accepts being reborn into what has become of the world, he fights the truth and has a hard time understanding this false reality he had been living in his whole life as he looks from outside into that realm. As he begins to gain the knowledge of what is real and what is not, he begins to fall into the hope of being “the one” but when he is told that he is not ready, he questions his purpose. At the same time, we see the character Cypher, who had accepted his new fate long before Neo questioned his new reality. Although he is fully aware that The Matrix is not a real world, he compromises a deal that would wipe out his memory of the harsh reality in order to live blissfully ignorant.
In Oedipus and the King, Oedipus seeks out to find the murderer in Thebes though he is the murderer himself. Throughout the play, we find Oedipus to be ignorant and aggressive as he continuously opts the ignore the advice of the prophets and the Oracle. A series of events finally leads him to face to truth told to him by his servant, that he in fact was the one responsible for his own fathers death. In shame for the murder and insets with his mother, Oedipus blinds himself, unable to cope with the truth. "But the hand which stabbed my eyes out was mine alone. In my wretched life, why should I have eyes when nothing I would see could bring me joy? " (Line 1331). Oedipus being painfully aware of his wrongdoings, chooses to be blind to the world to live a blissful life. Like the matrix we find characters who understand the reality of the world around them and trade it for a life of ignorance and bliss.
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