The Oracle is a fictional character in
''The Matrix'' franchise. She was created by
The Wachowskis
Lana Wachowski (born June 21, 1965, formerly known as Larry Wachowski) and Lilly Wachowski (born December 29, 1967, formerly known as Andy Wachowski) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans ...
, and portrayed by
Gloria Foster in the first
and second film
and
Mary Alice
Mary Alice Smith (December 3, 1936 – July 27, 2022), known professionally as Mary Alice, was an American television, film, and stage actress. Alice was known for her roles as Leticia "Lettie" Bostic on the sitcom ''A Different World'' (1987 ...
in the third film.
The character also appears in the video game ''
Enter the Matrix'' and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ''
The Matrix Online
''The Matrix Online'' (abbreviated as ''MxO'') was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially developed by Monolith Productions and later, a few months after launch, by Sony Online Entertainment. It was advertised as a ...
''.
Character history
In the first film, the Oracle is depicted as a cheerful old lady who smokes cigarettes and bakes cookies. She possesses the power of
foresight, which she uses to advise and guide the humans attempting to fight
the Matrix. Later, she is revealed to be a
sapient
Sapient means to be able to reflect on memories, and or possessing wisdom and may refer to:
* Brian Sapient, co-founder of atheist activist group Rational Response Squad
* SAPIENT, a scholarship programme
* Publicis Sapient, a digital consulting f ...
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
who is integral to the very nature of the Matrix itself.
The Oracle is played by
Gloria Foster in ''
The Matrix'' and ''The Matrix Reloaded'', and by
Mary Alice
Mary Alice Smith (December 3, 1936 – July 27, 2022), known professionally as Mary Alice, was an American television, film, and stage actress. Alice was known for her roles as Leticia "Lettie" Bostic on the sitcom ''A Different World'' (1987 ...
in ''
The Matrix Revolutions
''The Matrix Revolutions'' is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the third installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, released six months following ''The Matrix Reloaded''. The film stars ...
''
[ and '' Enter the Matrix'', one of the franchise's video games. In reality, Mary Alice played the Oracle because Gloria Foster died of complications from ]diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
before her role in ''Matrix Revolutions'' was shot. In ''The Matrix Revolutions'' and ''Enter the Matrix'', it is explained that Kamala and Rama Kandra, the parents of Sati, traded with the Merovingian, giving the Oracle's termination code in exchange for their daughter's passage into the Matrix as an Exile via the Trainman.
Neo meets the Oracle in two different locations over the course of the film series. In ''The Matrix'', he finds her in an apartment filled with various "potentials"—children whose ability to control their surroundings suggests that they may be The One. During ''Reloaded'', he returns to the apartment only to find it empty, then later finds her waiting for him in a paved courtyard between city buildings. She has with her a purse filled with candies that resemble the red pill Neo took to free himself from the Matrix. In ''Revolutions'', the two meet in the kitchen of the apartment, sometime after Morpheus and Trinity seek her advice in the living room.
In the first film, Agent Smith revealed that the first Matrix was a failure because it was too perfect for humans to accept. This has been revealed in ''The Matrix Online'' continuity as the ''Paradise'' version of the Matrix. The Architect confirms this (and his own responsibility for its creation) in the second film, adding that he also created a second failed Matrix based on human history and nature (as he perceived it without the Oracle), which has come to be known as the ''Nightmare'' version of the Matrix. By including the Oracle, whose investigations into the human psyche yielded the answer to creating a functional simulation that humans would accept, a stable System was created with the third version of the Matrix, while the Prophecy of the One made to ensure its continuity in cycles.
In ''The Matrix Reloaded'' and ''The Matrix Revolutions'', the Oracle succeeds in unbalancing the Matrix (seeing the simultaneous rise of both Neo and Smith) to the extent that it is almost destroyed. In doing so, she manages to bring about a resolution in which the machines and the humans can coexist in peace. The Architect tells her she "played a very dangerous game" helping the humans (or, more accurately, creating Smith with the ability to duplicate himself without limit, like a cancer, both inside the Matrix and within the larger machine world and creating Neo—the only thing with the potential to contain Smith), to which she replies that "change always is angerous. The Architect also promises to the Oracle that the humans desiring to be free from the Matrix will gain their freedom as part of the peacemaking between the humans and the machines. When asked whether Neo will return, she says she suspects that they will see him again, indicating that he may still be alive, that he may be reincarnated, or most probably, that Neo is part human and part software and the software part of Neo continues on.
In between the events of ''The Matrix Revolutions'' and '' The Matrix Resurrections'', the Oracle is one of many programs who is purged by the Machines before the new Matrix is uploaded. Niobe later tells a resurrected Neo that the last message that they received from her was that a new power was rising. Despite this, the Oracle still appears in ''The Matrix Resurrections'' in the form of flashbacks.
Character analysis
Whether the Oracle's power of prediction is deterministic
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
or not is a concept given much treatment in all three films. She herself claims that she lacks the ability to see past her own choice, explaining that no one, including herself, can see past a choice they do not understand. It becomes clear in the films that her power cannot be used to predict the ultimate consequences of Neo
Neo or NEO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional entities
* Neo (''The Matrix''), the alias of Thomas Anderson, a hacker and the protagonist of the Matrix film series
* Neo (''Marvel Comics'' species), a fictional race of superhumans
* ...
, who possesses free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
when he defies the Architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
.
Her power of foresight, on the other hand, is probably not a foresight based on knowledge of a pre-determined future, but rather a calculation; The Architect revealed the Oracle to be "a program designed to investigate the human psyche"; thus, allowing the Matrix to become more accustomed for the majority of the human population to accept. She exhibits a trait for predicting events directly relevant to the nature and/or programming of the Matrix, and natural human responses according to her knowledge of them; this is most clear in her prediction of Neo's choice between Morpheus' life and his own. While the Oracle knew that the Agents would be searching for Morpheus as he was searching for 'the One', and seeing Cypher's actions and reactions (such as his conversation with Agent Smith), she predicted the most likely event. Another example is her prediction about Neo's choice in the second movie, ''The Matrix Reloaded
''The Matrix Reloaded'' is a 2003 American science-fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is a sequel to ''The Matrix'' (1999) and the second installment in the ''Matrix'' film series. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laure ...
''; she had existed throughout five versions, and regardless of the One's ability to exhibit free will, she had experienced a series of events that had and would occur and push the One to the Source.
In ''Revolutions'', the Oracle hints at her true purpose, which is to bring imbalance to the equations that form the Matrix. In this purpose she is opposed to her counterpart, the Architect, whose goal is to balance those same equations.
As the Architect explains in ''Reloaded'', he and the Oracle have very different roles to play in maintaining the stability of the Matrix. The Oracle spreads a prophecy of The One's final victory over the machines, and those humans who choose to follow this belief are allowed to disconnect from the system voluntarily. They create the real-world settlement of Zion
Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Names ...
; when its population grows large enough to become a threat to the Matrix's stability, the Architect takes action. He launches a machine offensive campaign to destroy Zion and reunite The One with the Source, rebooting the Matrix and keeping control over the humans for one more cycle. When Neo and the Architect meet, this cycle is about to complete its sixth repetition.
This Yin-Yang
Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and ya ...
relationship is a form of balance between opposing forces, so it becomes obvious that the Architect and the Oracle are the two balancing forces of the Matrix itself: the fallible human factor and the logic of the machines. This idea is even hinted in the films as the Oracle is wearing yin-yang earrings throughout the third film. This process of balance between opposing forces is even more realized in the conflict between Smith and Neo at the end of the third ''Matrix'' movie, wherein they annihilate one another, suggesting a collision between matter
In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic partic ...
and anti-matter
In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioacti ...
.
The Oracle is discussed by sociologist Matthew Hughey
Matthew Windust Hughey is an American sociologist known for his work on race and racism. He is Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he is also an adjunct faculty member in the Africana Studies Institute; American Studies ...
as an example of the Magical Negro stock character. He writes that the Matrix is mostly presented as a "clean and bright" city full of white people, but when Neo is brought to the Oracle, who sets him on his path to becoming a hero, she is shown to be chain-smoking and baking cookies—which marks her as a stereotypical " welfare queen". According to Tani Dianca Sanchez
Tani may refer to:
*Tani (letter), a letter in the Georgian scripts
*Tani people, a group of tribes in Arunachal Pradesh, India
*Tani languages, a group of languages spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, India
* Maiani language, also known as Tani, a langu ...
, the personification of the Oracle by a black woman, who is robbed of her essence and existence by Agent Smith yet ultimately survives his destruction, is a rare reference in mainstream media to womanist theories of black women as liberators and saviors through their own suffering. Sanchez writes that while the Oracle embodies aspects of the black mammy
A mammy is a U.S. historical stereotype depicting black women who work in a white family and nurse the family's children. The fictionalized mammy character is often visualized as a larger-sized, dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality ...
stereotype in caring for white children, she ultimately represents "a radical transformation of Western denigration of black women" by acting as an othermother and teacher who challenges Western ideals of feminine beauty and wisdom; by suggesting a connection between the ancient Greek oracles and black cultures, the character also undermines traditional assumptions that white, Western culture developed independently of other cultures and races. Nicola Rehling writes that in opposition to the Architect's espousal of fate and inevitability, the Oracle introduces choice into the Matrix and "complicates the association of cyberspace with normative white masculinity" through her nature as a sentient computer program.
See also
* Oracle
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word '' ...
* Precognition
* Prediction
A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecast, is a statement about a future event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There is no universal agreement about the exact ...
* Prophecy
In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...
* Simulated reality
The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live i ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oracle
The Matrix (franchise) characters
Black characters in films
Fictional prophets
Fictional artificial intelligences
Fictional African-American people
Fictional characters with precognition
Film characters introduced in 1999
Fictional revolutionaries
Female characters in film