Ethics In John Milton's Paradise Lost And The Matrix

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Jane Addams once said “[a]ction indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics”. This quote is seen throughout two complex medias: John Milton’s Paradise Lost and the film “The Matrix”. In Paradise Lost, Eve, a woman who is tempted by Satan, faces a difficult decision between eating from a tree that gives her knowledge or staying loyal to God. In “The Matrix”, Neo, the main character that converts to the Matrix, must face the hard choice between experience the real world or continuing living in the fake world. Similarly, these two are given the option to experience knowledge since they have lived in a world where knowledge is nonexistent. Many questions and assumptions arise through examining their choice to accept the consequences knowledge has. Through analyzing the comparisons between Neo and Eve, I would personally choose knowledge/the red pill because pleasure is not the key to a successful life and happiness is one of the biggest solutions to a satisfying life. Societal implications suggest that pleasure is the ultimate goal of life, however, through Neo’s daring…show more content…
The simplest answer to this question is to turn to ethics and examine what exactly is worth giving up to discover the ultimate goal. It can be argued exactly who in these works are considered the protagonist, but overall their reasonings are relatively good because they turn to their ethics. If Eve and Neo did not turn to their morality, it would be harder to find any good in them. Since these characters turned to their ethics, it inspires me to turn to my ethics so I can make the correct decision in difficult situations. Through examining the two characters, I realized that I must ask myself the broader question, which reveals the good in me, which would lead me to take the red pill/eat from the tree of
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