What, exactly, is The Oracle in The Matrix? The original Matrix trilogy is full of mysterious characters, both in the real world and in the digital creation known as the Matrix itself. Many of the human characters in Zion have familiar personalities and straightforward motivations, whether that be deluded greed (Cypher), indomitable duty (Commander Lock) or unshakable faith (Morpheus). However, the digital programs that dwell in the Matrix tend to have more obscure purposes, and in order to reflect their singular roles in a grand system, are given titles instead of names - Merovingian, Architect, Keymaker, etc.
Arguably the most important human-appearing program in the Matrix trilogy from a narrative perspective is The Oracle, played first by Gloria Foster and then by Mary Alice in The Matrix Revolutions. The Oracle is somewhat of a curiosity; most programs within the Matrix either directly serve the Machines who built the virtual world or are obsolete exiles out for themselves. Instead, The Oracle actively works with the Resistance and greatly aids Neo in his mission to defeat Agent Smith and cease the war between man and machine - strange, since The Oracle herself was built by the Machine forces.
This leaves many questions. What was The Oracle designed to do? What did she actually achieve? And why was she motivated to work against her own creators? Here's the full purpose and origin of the entity known as The Oracle in The Matrix.
Why Did The Machines Create The Oracle?
Although The Oracle is one of the oldest and most powerful programs in the Matrix, she didn't come pre-installed with version 1. When the Machines first decided to enslave humanity in an artificial world and repurpose their real bodies into generators, they experienced a few teething problems with regards to making the human mind accept a digital reality. In the first version of the Matrix, the Machines created a paradise, but the jacked-in humans rejected it; the second time they were given a dystopia, and once again the system crashed. This mass rejection meant the deaths of everyone hooked into the simulation, and while the Machines didn't exactly shed tears over this, it did mean their system wasn't sustainable.
The Oracle program was the turning point that made the Matrix work. The first Matrix designs built by the Architect had been perfectly ordered, but the third update added a mother (The Oracle) to the father-figure Architect. The Oracle's role was initially just understanding the human psyche, essentially making her an advanced predictive algorithm presented in the guise of a clairvoyant. After figuring out the secret to a stable Matrix and receiving a promotion, The Oracle added free will and human choice to the third simulation, and this created a balanced alternate reality that the vast majority of humans accepted. Those who did take the red pill would be removed from the Matrix and guided by The Oracle using the prophecy of "The One," who would someday come to free all of Zion. It's suggested, but never confirmed, that The Oracle's installation as a key figure in the Matrix made The Merovingian obsolete.
After heeding The Oracle's instructions and meeting The Architect, The One would then be given a choice (or the illusion of a choice) between trying to save Zion and wiping out all humanity, or sacrificing Zion in order to protect the many. Every iteration of The One before Neo opted for the latter, rebooting the Matrix, rebuilding Zion and starting the cycle once again, maintaining a near-perfect balance.
How The Oracle Helped The Resistance "Win"
Both The Oracle and The Architect play a vital role in maintaining the Matrix, but as seen at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, the Resistance are victorious and a suitably smug Oracle is left to gloat over her male counterpart. But how and why did The Oracle unbalance the system?
In previous versions of the Matrix, The Oracle fulfilled her part by guiding Neo's predecessors towards the Source, where the entire simulation would be rebooted and the cycle would begin from scratch. In the version of the Matrix seen in the movie trilogy, however, The Oracle is taking a different approach for the first time. The enigmatic cookie baker successfully nurtures Neo and upholds the prophecy of The One, and she also sends him to The Architect and his two fateful doors. However, The Oracle brings something new to the table - Trinity. Whereas previous versions of The One only had a universal love for humanity, Neo's romantic love for Trinity (and platonic love for his friends) causes an imbalance which leads Neo to take the door none of his predecessors did. Trinity confirms that The Oracle predicted her love for Neo, demonstrating how the program meddled in these events.
As dictated by the pattern, this choice should've resulted in humanity's downfall, but the apocalypse never came to pass thanks to further influence from The Oracle. In her wisdom of human understanding, The Oracle realized that an opposing force to The One was needed and she subtly positions Agent Smith - a program designed to despise humanity and free will - for this very purpose. Because of a prediction she made about Morpheus' death, Neo enters the Matrix to rescue his friend and dies in the process. Then, also guided by an Oracle nugget of knowledge, Trinity kisses Neo to revive him, thus allowing him to discovery his power and defeat Agent Smith. However, this battle also ultimately turns Smith into an exile and sets him on a path to greater power, with The Oracle herself absorbed by the Agent in The Matrix Revolutions. Indirectly, The Oracle turns Smith into a common enemy for humans and the Machines, allowing the Matrix to be rebooted and the cycle of war in Zion to be broken.
Why Did The Oracle Change The Rules?
It's important to understand that even though The Oracle helps, understands and perhaps even empathizes with humanity, she isn't entirely their ally, since she too is a program complicit in the cycle of destruction and rebirth. So why does The Oracle manipulate events in such a way as to favor the Resistance, despite being a product of the Machines?
Naturally, The Oracle's motivations are left somewhat open to interpretation, with only hints at what her primary intention might be. One possibility is that The Oracle, designed to be a program that brings free will to the Matrix, recognized that the two-door decision wasn't really a choice at all, and that by changing the rules, she was adhering to her original function of creating true choice. By the end of the movie trilogy, people can be plugged out of the Matrix should they wish, rather than being stuck in a reboot cycle.
An alternative explanation is that The Oracle, being a program based entirely on human understanding, calculates a preferable way for the Matrix to function, forcing mankind and the Machines to coexist, with the Matrix only hosting those who consciously choose to remain there. The Oracle herself only ever claims she's fighting for the same reason Neo is, and this broadly fits with the above reasoning, since Keanu Reeves' character is arguably striving for true choice, or a better world.
Other motivations for The Oracle allying with the Resistance are hinted at. By her very nature, The Oracle is a program intended to think as humans think, rather than the machine-like Architect. As such, perhaps she was the only program within the Matrix that could conceive of an alternate solution to the Architect's absolutism. On the other hand, a large part of The Oracle's game plan hinged on Neo and Trinity's love for each other I's possible that the clairvoyant didn't necessarily plan the change of rules at all, but rather knew a change would be necessary. As a program intended to understand human thought, The Oracle no doubt predicted that, sooner or later, The One would fall in love and go through the wrong door, damning humanity for the sake of their beloved. The Oracle's mission throughout The Matrix might've been less about creating this scenario, but finding a way to counter, so that the concept of love would save humanity, rather than condemn it.
