Morpheus

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Morpheus Trinity Smith Cypher

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Morpheus as John the Baptist
“It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. What truth? You are a slave, Neo.”
- Morpheus⁵

Morpheus is the captain of the futuristic ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. He plays a father figure role to all of his crew and is responsible for helping Trinity, Neo, and most of the other characters from the Matrix. This character believes very strongly in the prophecy and the Oracle’s predictions and has spent his entire life looking for mankind’s savior. As discussed before, Neo was born of a ‘virgin birth’ as he was torn from the machine ‘womb’ and thrust into the real. It was Morpheus who saved him from his prison, possibly giving him the persona of God. As Mary was impregnated by a spiritual force and a baby was brought onto Earth by ‘unnatural’ means God, so was Neo by Morpheus. This allegory of the Lord does not continue much further however, as Morpheus begins to take a more prominent role as John the Baptist.

"As far as Morpheus and his relation to the Jesus story, the character might be seen to represent Christ’s cousin, John the Baptist. John the Baptist announced the coming of Jesus and, in fact, baptized him. Upon baptism, God identified Jesus as his son (Mt 3:13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Lk 3:21-22, Jn 1:29-34).

Morpheus actually baptizes Neo into his new identity. Think of the scene when Neo is first freed from the Matrix at the beginning of the first movie. Neo is actually dumped into water, where Morpheus then lifts him up. The image of a child being lifted up from a baptismal bath (rather roughly perhaps) is brought to mind".¹⁰

John the Baptist also plays a role in the "Fourth Gospel to be a witness to
Jesus, a witness to the light. John downplays his own importance and makes it clear that his only duty is to make way for the coming of Jesus."¹¹ This is very similar to Morpheus's role in the later part of the movie, even to the point of sacrificing himself to Neo can continue and fulfill the prophecy. Morpheus also predicts finding Neo and has neverending faith in his belief that he is, infact, the One. This follows John's other role as the announcer of the coming Savior and his unwavering certainty.