Touching the Real: Neo’s development from fragmented to “The One” in The Matrix

     In their 1999 film, The Matrix, the Wachowskis present a journey narrative which parallels the development of the individual in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. At the beginning of the film, Neo is defined by everyone around him, and he accepts his identity from the mouths of others. Throughout the course of the film, he undergoes a radical transformation of self-identity, brought on through a series of traumas, eventually coming to believe himself to be “The One,’’ a belief that saves him in the end.

Key Scene:

            Lacanian principles are best exemplified in the film when Neo is first loaded into the digital “construct” aboard the Nebuchadnezzar. Upon being loaded into it, he appears exactly as he did when he was in trapped the matrix. Here, we get to see how Neo views himself.  He still sees himself through the mask of his old self, even though his true body is nothing like what the matrix had him believe. Morpheus then explains the present situation, making his point dramatically by manifesting the nightmare landscape of the Earth in its current state. As he does so, he exclaims “Welcome to the desert of The Real” (The Matrix, 1999). This is a direct reference to Lacan’s Real, the concept of truth, separate from how we perceive the world. It is what exists when our abilities to perceive are stripped away, which is what happens to Neo following this explanation from Morpheus. Neo touches the Lacanian Real as he is shown this, as all his constructions of how the world is, the symbols and images he used to perceive, are ripped away from him. He is no longer a computer programmer or an underground hacker. He is an infant in a world completely new to him, and from this broken state he will have to construct a new self-identity.

Reaction:

            While I have seen this film many times, this viewing finally convinced me that the film really is the cinematic masterpiece others claim it to be. In the past, I viewed this film casually and without deep thought. Seeing it through the lens of Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory has opened up the puzzle box, and I can see a deeper and more intense meaning in the film than I have before.

            What I see now is a film about becoming and self-fulfillment, a film that metaphorically treats an important journey of self-discovery in peoples’ lives. Neo’s transformation from “living two lives” and searching desperately for meaning shows his initial uncertainty of who he is, but by the end of the film we see him confidently standing and gazing into the face of the real, having built a new identity out of the fragmented one presented to him in the matrix. Maybe it is this desire in myself to reach self-fulfillment, but I find the climactic scene profound and touching, especially as Neo revives and emerges, victorious over the agents of the matrix.

Analysis:

Throughout the film, it is notable that nearly every character tries to define Neo: his corporate boss, the agents who interrogate him, and even Morpheus (the only character who does not do this is the oracle; she subtly allows him to define himself). He receives information about who he is from every other person that tries to define him, and this has led him to be fragmented in the beginning. Labels and intentions are tossed at him, and he tries to identify with them, leaving his sense of self fractured. “Lacan says that we are never going to get a stable image. We try to interpret our relation to others but there is always the possibility of misinterpretation” (Sarup, 12). This is Neo’s personal dialectic of recognition.

            Neo’s transformation from being externally defined to that of his actualized self is the true message of the film.  It provides us an insight into the accelerated development of the self. Just before Neo is first removed from the matrix, he is looking into a mirror. The mirror is fragmented and broken, but it slowly begins to reform as one piece. This is a symbolic representation of Lacan’s mirror stage, which is defines one as “the succession of phantasies that extends from a fragmented body image to a form of it’s totality that I shall call orthopaedic…” (Lacan, 1114). Neo is watching his symbolic and imaginary reality slip away as he experiences his true self for the first time, as an infant being born into a new world and fitted with new structures and rules. He no longer sees himself as a fragmented person with various identities, but as the one, real person underneath: a fresh, new slate that has not yet seen the world.

           While Morpheus and Trinity try to impart to Neo that he is “The One,” it is impossible for him to be the one if he does not recognize it in himself. Neo is a slave to himself and everyone around him who tries to define who and what he is, and he cannot break those bonds until he chooses to see himself as free. This process moves forward as Neo takes on more authority over his life, like when he decides to attempt to save Morpheus from the agents, saying, “I believe I can bring him back.” It reaches completion when he dies and is resurrected. His resurrection symbolizes a breaking free and becoming of what he desires to be: the protector of what he loves, not only for the purpose of self-fulfillment. He breaks the bond established by the definitions of others, particularly those of the agents, and allows himself to be freed through clear and voluntary transformation (Sarup, 18).

            In “the desert of The Real,” Neo’s new self experiences the loss of the symbolic and imaginary structures of his pre-supposed reality. Morpheus tells him that they do not “free minds” at his age, as it has been known to cause major mental issues. Some do not know where to go after truly seeing “The Real” and collapse without the structure they previously knew. Neo is thankfully able to encounter the Real and build for himself a new symbolic structure and life better oriented to his true situation in the world. The name Neo even means “New,” which is surely a reference to his many renewing events and rebirths throughout the film.

            The Matrix, then, is not only a classic sci-fi story appreciated by many, it is also a deep journey into the Lacan’s development of the self, from realization, to trauma, to self-actualization, and the acquisition of desires.

 References:

Lacan, Jacques. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, by Vincent Leitch et al., 3rd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 1111–1117.

Sarup, Madan. “Lacan and Psychoanalysis.” An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism, by Madan Sarup, Longman, 1993, pp. 5–31.

Wachowski, Lana, and Lilly Wachowski. The Matrix. Warner Bros., 1999.