Breaking the Fourth Wall

Basically, enlightenment is being aware of self-existence. In the middle age, European people believed what church told them. They used to live with dogmas and accepted knowledge. After enlightenment age people broke their bounds and started to think. They started to live with their own ideas. This  idea of enlightenment cannot be limited by real people and real worlds. Middle age people, who are ruled by government and church, can be likened to fictional characters what are controlled by writers.  There is an action called “breaking the fourth wall”. Breaking the fourth wall is used when a fictional character thinks about its existence. In another words, breaking the fourth wall is enlightenment of a fictional character. Why cannot people enlighten while fictional characters can?