ipl-logo

Examples Of Irony In The Matrix

1141 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Use of Dramatic Irony in 'The Matrix

Irony In The Matrix
"Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony" - Morpheus, the Matrix.This quote is an example of one of the most important topics in The Matrix which was made in 1999 by Andy and Lana Wachowski. The Wachowski’s use irony effectively in the text to attempt to provoke some of our deepest thoughts that we have encountered throughout life. They use theories from some of the most established philosophers who try to link the real world with ‘hyper real’ worlds.
The central theme of The Matrix relates to Neo’s realisation that the apparently ‘real’ world he inhabits is nothing more than a façade- a mere ‘neural interactive simulation’ created by artificially …show more content…

This role reversal has resulted in artificially intelligent technology taking advantage of the hubris of their creators in order to subvert their control and become the ruling class. In the ‘Desert of the real’ scene, Morpheus describes to Neo how man’s creation of Artificial Intelligence, or ‘AI’, destroyed mankind. Mankind’s hubris resulted in ‘marvell[ing] at [his] own magnificence’ and ‘celebration’ before his downfall. This is a classic example of dramatic irony, as humans were unaware that their actions would result in the demise of their world as they knew it. Morpheus then goes on to portray the invention of AI as a process of ‘[giving] birth’. This is an ironic reversal of the usual connotations of ‘birth’ as positive, natural and regenerative, into the reality of life under the control of the machines, where the process of birth has been destroyed by mechanisation and humans are instead grown in ‘endless fields’. The control of machines over mankind has resulted in a reversed state of ‘slavery’ developing between the humans and the machines. Neo in the ‘Pill scene’ answers Morpheus’ question about whether he believes in fate in the negative, declaring: ‘I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life’. This is another example of irony, as Neo is at this point unaware of the total lack of control he actually exercises over his destiny. Morpheus enlightens Neo about the reason for his feeling that there is ‘something wrong with the world’. Morpheus states to Neo that the matrix was created to ‘blind you from the truth’. This is an ironic reference to the hubris which was the main cause of man-kinds termination of power. Morpheus than tries to express to Neo that him and the rest of civilisation are‘ slave[s]’ and that they were ‘born into bondage’ and that the matrix is ‘a prison

Show More
Related
389 Words | 2 Pages

One rainy night, a girl name Sarah is home alone babysitting her baby brother Toby. She can not calm him, so she wishes that the goblins would come and take her baby brother. She hears silence and goes into his room to find that he is not there but a goblin king instead. He tells her she has 13 hours to complete the Labyrinth before Toby, her brother, becomes one of them. The author of Labyrinth, Jim Henson, uses the literary device irony to create surprise by using dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony.

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

This relates to the “The Allegory of the Cave”, because Neo lived in ignorance his whole life not knowing his reality was not the only one. In The Matrix, Morpheus and his team find in the matrix Neo and help him escape the agents to safety. Morpheus gives Neo a choice, come with him into the real world or live in ignorance. The choice is simplified into blue pill and a red pill.

Read More
859 Words | 4 Pages

Harvard Writer, Nicholas Carr, in his Advocacy article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Describes the altering effects of the internet and search engines on our brains. Carr´s purpose is to get the reader aware of the impact the internet has on our everyday life. He adopts a informative tone in order to appeal emotionally and logically to his audience. Carr begins his advocacy for the internet by acknowledging that in ¨A Space Odyssey¨ when they rely too much on Artificial Intelligence it could get a human killed, in this example the supercomputer HAL almost drifted astronaut Dave Bowman into a deep space death by the malfunctioning machine; Showing that the astronaut is superior than a machine. He appeals to the emotion of sadness by admitting that “I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something has been tinkering with my brain” he is “not thinking the way i used to.”

Read More
213 Words | 1 Pages

Firstly a great example of irony would be Miss Gates. Miss Gates plays the role of scouts teacher in to kill a mocking bird, she lectures her students on Hitler’s doings and how persecuted millions of Jews. She says she doesn’t understand what the Jews did to Hitler that gave him the right to slaughter and persecute them. Miss Gates vilifies Hitler for targeting one ethnic group and compares the American society with Germanys. “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody.

Read More
881 Words | 4 Pages

The television series Shameless depicts a dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher who is a single father of six children in which he spends most of his days on drugs and having misadventures while his kids learn to take care of themselves and survive with doing petty jobs to keep their house. Among the many characters are Fiona, Carl, and Frank. Fiona is the main protagonist who is like the mother of the family and maintains the family afloat but the other siblings have to do their part in the household. Carl is the second youngest boy in the family who has struggles with fitting in society and tries to find who he is by being apart of different groups. In season six, episode three of the series, each characters uses satirical and comedic devices to address social issues of poverty, society, and parenthood that is shown through verbal irony, dramatic irony and understatement.

Read More
820 Words | 4 Pages

In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “The Duty of Civil Disobedience”, he achieves his purpose of sparking inquiry in the American public about their government and encouraging them to speak out on what they surmise as morally unfitting. He obtains his purpose through the use of metaphor and through the act of persistently asking questions throughout the essay to engage the brain to ponder on what their government is actually doing. In order to make the public ponder on how their government runs and actually treats them as citizens, he metaphorically references machines. He sparks inquiry by using metaphors to compare humans to machines.

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

Storms make trees grow deeper roots. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird Scout is friends with Dill and her brother Jem. Dill only comes by in the summer, when they are all hanging around they love to play games about how weird Boo Radley is or they try to sneak over to his house and mess around with him. But they don’t realize that later he may be their savoir. Scout learns to look at all situation’s through others' perspectives through messing with Boo Radley and the house he lives in which shows that everyone is unique in their own ways.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

An example of irony can be seen in one of Miss Gates' lessons about democracy and dictatorship. She says "Over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,". It is ironic that she can recognize the persecution of the jews, yet cannot recognize the persecution that happens in her own country- the persecution of the African-Americans.

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses irony to help the reader understand the way the United States could take a horrifying turn by 2081 if worldwide equality was implemented. One example of irony that the author uses is the education and IQ level of the people, which is lower than the government. The government can then control human beings with higher IQ and stronger built by giving them handicaps. Hazel and George are two representations of the two types of people in

Read More
1446 Words | 6 Pages

Irony is often used in literature to illustrate certain situations to the audience. In some pieces of literature that might be pointing out an unjust system, in others that might be to add a comedic effect, but whatever situation the author wants to illustrate, irony is very beneficial. Through small and witty, one-liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different situations, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have a corrupt dystopian society. Through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience.

Read More
223 Words | 1 Pages

A logical fallacy in the video "The Matrix" would be that when the people become aware and stop buying animal products from corporate machines that the corporate machines would still continue to wretch the world to earn more money. While there are some people that would continue to buy the corporate machine's product, there is no certainty that in ten years they will still seek to make more money even with the popularity of cheaper prices weakened. People assume that the corporations will continue to practice animal cruelty, that does not necessarily mean that they will. There is no hard evidence to prove that the corporations will even still be in business if more people become aware of the animal cruelty. The cartoon is describing the huge

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is an example of how archetypal irony can shape an entire work. Gregor Samsa our main character is not concerned at all with his own personal wellbeing when he awakes to discover this twist. He is concerned with the inconvenience that it may have on those around him. Even through his death we see the truth behind those who he is most concerned with, which in itself is ironic. Irony is first seen when a man wakes up to find that a cruel twist of fate has turned him into a giant beetle.

Read More
233 Words | 1 Pages

Irony is the most powerful literary device used in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. First, a good example of irony in the story is “They were burdened with sashweights sand bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (P,2 Line, 11-13) This quote is Ironic as it tells how this system was designed to hide beauty, yet beauty was still shown by the amount of restraints on the person. Second, another good example of irony is, “The spectacles were intended to make him not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

As regular people we know that when we damage someone we love, we try to find redemption in any way possible. Fear, pride and many other factors play in the act of doing what is considered to be morally right. In Khaled Husseini’s The Kite Runner, the protagonist, Amir, deals with a situation where he is confronted by deciding weather to help a dear friend or ignore a harsh situation. All of this leads to the author using symbolism, irony and imagery. Irony is found in many ways of literature, and the book The Kite Runner is one of them.

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

The Matrix features an apocalyptic future where artificial intelligence has enslaved humans to use them to produce energy. To do this, each human is placed in a cell where their bodies are used to create electricity while the mind of the person is downloaded into a simulated universe called the matrix. This computer simulation is completely indistinguishable from reality for most humans in the movie. This concept raises an interesting epistemological question: How can one know whether or not they are experiencing reality or a simulation so similar that they have been tricked to think it is reality? To explore this question, one must focus on the protagonist, Neo, and how he discovered he had been dreaming the world he was living in.

Read More

More about Examples Of Irony In The Matrix

Related Topics

Open Document