Platonic Theories In The Matrix
In Between the Lines of the Script
Some Hollywood movies have meaning behind their kung-fu choreography and explosions of violence. In the movie, The Matrix, there are a great amount of psychology meanings in between the lines of the script. The characters and plot of the movie tie in and connect with Philosopher’s theories, beliefs and scenarios. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Theory of Forms relate and differ in several ways to the psychology of The Matrix.
The 1999 science-fiction film, The Matrix, is about a computer hacker named Neo who is brought into “reality” from a dream world; this “reality” is known as The Matrix. Morpheus defies, “The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room...It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Neo is brought into the Matrix because he is believed to be “the one.” Neo’s former reality was created by machines so they could control the human population.
Plato wrote a fictional dialogue called Allegory of the Cave, which was designed to teach,
as Plato said, "our nature in its education and want of education.” The Allegory of the Cave
[1]describes a group of imprisoned individuals who live their whole lives in a cave, facing a wall.
Their hands and legs are chained together and their head is adjusted to only stare at the wall.
And all they know of the world and reality are the sounds they hear and shadows they see
cast upon the walls of the cave. Plato imagined one of the prisoners was to be released,
how would he act in the real world? If the released prisoner was shown
the objects they have seen upon the wall of the cave, they would not
recognize it because the shadow is what’s real to the prisoner, not the actual
object. The prisoner believes that the cave is reality and reality is a dream world. Socrates
states, “…is graceless and looks quite ridiculous when – with his sight still dim and before
he has gotten sufficiently accustomed to the surrounding darkness.” (Socrates). But the
prisoner would recognize the Sun and know what it is and that it gives everything,
including life and energy.
The Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix relate because Morpheus
emphasized to Neo that the reality he once lived in wasn’t real and the released prisoner
from the cave was convinced that the outside world wasn’t reality. Neo unconsciously
lived in a cave, shielded from their real world, the Matrix. And all he saw was what was
in front of him. Morpheus stated, “I promised you the truth, Neo, and the truth is that
the world you were living in was a lie.” When Neo was birthed into the Matrix; he didn’t
believe he was in their reality because everything is computer operated and their
whole world revolves around electronics, something Neo isn’t used to, even though
he is a computer hacker. The screen writers describe, ‘It is a swamp of bizarre
electronic equipment. Vines of coaxial hang and snake to and from huge monolithic
battery slabs, a black portable satellite dish and banks of little systems and
computer monitors’ (Wachowski), in their stage directions. As the released prisoner
believed that the cave was reality, and the real world was imaginary,Neo believed
that the former reality he was living was real, and the Matrix was fantasy. Until
Morpheus showed himthat the Matrix is in fact real, through belief. “You have
to let it all go, Neo. Fear...doubt...and disbelief,” states Morpheus. Allegory of the Cave
also differs from The Matrix as well. The released prisoner was let go against
his will, yet Neo was released into the Matrix by choice. But this theory is not
the only Platonic one related to the Matrix.
The Allegory of the Cave also has to do with the Theory of Forms, in the sense
that Plato believes that there are perfect and pure forms outside of this materialistic realm.
Reality isn’t perfect, so there would never be a perfectly shaped object, in the real world
there is only duplicates. Plato believes that no one would have access to the intelligible
world. Just like in Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners in the cave believe that the shadows
are real, when they are actually projections of the real thing. In “Plato’s Cave,” an article
by T.F Morris, he brings up Plato’s Analogy of the Divided Line; which is an illustrated version
of the Theory of Forms. Plato believes the universe is divided into two levels; the world of
appearances/the visible world and the intelligible world. In the visible world, the only objects
there are are visible things and images. In the mental state, there’s only belief and imagining.
In the intelligible world, the only objects there are are the good, the forms and mathematical
objects. In the mental state, there’s intelligence or knowledge and thinking.
The Theory of Forms relate to the psychology of The Matrix because the humans in the world that were once real to Neo, were only people brainwashed by the system. Morpheus says, “…most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependant on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” Just like Plato believes there’s a visible world and an intelligible world; the visible world is our world and the intelligible world is the Matrix. Morpheus states, “We are, right now, miles below the earth's surface. The only place humans can survive outside the Matrix is underground.” In the Matrix, that’s where everything is pure, just like in the intelligible world. Tank states, “Me and my brother Dozer, we are 100 percent pure…” In the visible world, people are the same thing as objects; they are the duplicates of purity that lies in the Matrix. If one is born in the Matrix or the intelligible world, one is considered pure because its that individual’s real world. The Theory of Forms also differs from The Matrix. Plato believes that in the Visible World, in people’s mental state, there is belief and imagining. But in the Matrix, that’s what their world revolved around, belief and imagining.
Plato’s Theory of Forms and Allegory of the Cave compare and contrast to The Matrix in
many ways. Nevertheless, Theory of the Forms and the analogy of the divided line would.
The Matrix isn’t actually the intelligible world, but to Morpheus and his crew, it is. It’s real life
to them. “Welcome to the real world!”
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