Blog 4: Ignorance, Bliss, and Knowledge in Oedipus the King and The Matrix

    The Matrix and Oedipus the king both show the concepts of knowledge, Ignorance, and bliss. Everyone in this world are afraid to face the truth in one point of their lives and at times we chose to turn away and live in a world of illusions. Once we've been living in a huge lie, we are faced with the truth but if that truth is something we don't want to acknowledge we simply walk the other direction. Sooner or later we do want to be aware of all the truth and will be forced to deal with it and try the best we can through it.
    In Oedipus the king Oedipus was well known in his town and deeply respected by his people. He was care free and didn't have any worries until he was faced with the truth he terribly wanted to deny. His joy and happiness switched rapidly. To his people he was once known as great and intelligent but now they viewed him in a complete different way because of the truth. When Teiresias informs Oedipus of the truth, (540-560) Oedipus becomes furious with their conversation. He just wants Teiresias out of his sight forever and does not want to hear another word. When the prophecy is out in the open, Oedipus wants to dreadfully prevent it so he flees from his town and the truth really did destroy him completely.
    In The Matrix Neo starts off as a regular human beinng going on with his own life as a computer hacker when Morpheus comes in his path.  he suddenly has two choices. One is to stay where he has been his whole life and the other choice is to go to a world that's way more exciting and beyond any world out there. Neo and Oedipus have similarities in many ways. for instance in the beginning not knowing any of the truth, both Neo and Oedipus suspected something was going on. Oedipus asked many questions because he suspected something was going on and he was right all along. Neo also suspected the existence of the matrix as well. Another similarity is that They both suspect and both act on it. They trust their gut feeling and that brought them to the real truth. Oedipus trys to run in the other direction of the horrible truth but every step that he takes brings him closer to what the prophecy had said. All of Oedipus actions lead him to the ugly future that was already said. Even though both play and movie end differently, both characters had choices. We are all human and act on what we think is right and we choose carefully. Sometimes we make the right decisions and other times our choices bring us to a horrific ending.