Batman Dark Knight Ideologies

“You can't kill me without becoming like me,” stated the Joker, a DC Comics fictional

Another common thing that the Joker does is that he attempts to conceal the true reasons for his actions. In other words, the Joker uses defense mechanisms to distance himself from reality as a means to protect himself from the horrid things he has done (Friedman & Schustack, 2009). He demonstrates the specific defence mechanism of rationalization and he does this by trying to justify murdering Harvey Dent's, a pivotal character to the film's plot, girlfriend. He explains to Dent that her death was not his fault and he does such things (i.e., killing innocent people) to show others how pathetic they are for believing that they have control in their lives “ “ (De La Noy & Nolan,

Batman contradicts his morals while he is fighting the mutant leader and when he is about to shoot him he stops himself with “though that means crossing a line I drew for myself thirty years ago”. While Batman did not kill the mutant leader, earlier on Batman shoots a mutant grunt with a machine gun and faded blood is splattered behind the criminal holding a baby captive (Miller, 64). Later on in the novel Batman says to the joker “a gun is a coward’s weapon, a liars weapon” (Miller, 149). Batman has power to stick to his morals, to take on the evil of Gotham City, and to make the decision to deliver justice no matter whose side of the law he is. However, in the novel he has clearly stated that killing someone crosses his morals and that he despises guns yet he uses them to kill criminals. Batman crosses his golden rule of not killing criminals and shows that he will go above his own moral code of justice.

The Joker was once seen as a comical criminal who committed ridiculously silly crimes, such as spreading laughing gas throughout Gotham City. However, after the reinvention of Batman, The Joker was transformed into a grave and terrorizing character. Continuing the course of the new personality given to The Joker, writer Alan Moore and artist Brian Bolland created a graphic novel called The Killing Joke, “a much more complex, darker, and ultimately, frightening story” (Wooldridge) which tells one of the origins of The Joker since The Joker himself is unsure of his true inception. However, this particular graphic novel “isn’t about how the Joker came to be, it’s an examination of

The Dark Knight (2008), directed by Christopher Nolan, demonstrates the idea of good versus evil. Batman is known as the protagonist, and Joker is known as the ultimate villain. The representation of crime in the film is seen from the actions of both characters. The film essentially depicts the act of deviance meaning, “behaviour that violates social norms, including laws”. In normality the government would have the greatest amount of power, but in the Gotham city, power is complex. There is minimal structure of law and order in Gotham city due to powerful people like Batman and the Joker. Citizens of Gotham city can no longer fight for themselves in a world filled with supernatural powers. Therefore, the only hope that citizens have rest in the hands of Batman. Although Batman attempts to save Gotham city from Joker’s criminal intentions. Batman, however, also plays a role in deviant activity while attempting to catch the Joker. Realistically, Batman violates the moral code due to destructive behaviour, and putting the lives of citizens at harm. He does not care for social norms, nor whether his acts are of legality. He is devoted to combat organized crime with Harvey Dent, a district attorney in Gotham city. Batman is in fact, the definition of crime, he understands but does not abide to individual rights and social contracts which make up the rule of law. In addition, the man behind Batman, Bruce Wayne also portrays a form of deviance by disguising himself as Batman.

An example of this is in the opening sequence, he torments many people, by putting grenades in their mouths to stop them from talking. He has no remorse for anything he does, to anyone. Another example, in this scene, is when he sits with the owner of the bank. After putting a grenade in his mouth also, too stop him from talking back, making him vulnerable and uncomfortable. Camera angles is one technique that helps develops this characteristic as it is a low angle tilt, to show that The Joker is superior and a dominant figure in this scene. The angle almost is intended to be a view point from the bank owner. Which makes the bank owner to feel vulnerable. In this shot, Lighting is also a very effective technique that shows his minimal. The lighting is dark, only exposing half of his face, this gives the feeling of fear and distress. Also, to add to this characteristic of minimal empathy, dialogue is another effective technique. The Joker says, “What doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger.” Almost in confident hysterics The Joker walks off with the peg to the fake grenade in the bankers mouth. This develops his character as a criminal with minimal empathy and lack of moral, as he doesn't care about conforming to society.

The Joker has no alter ego. He walks around the way he is with his deformed face full of scars and in some versions, with his bright colored hair and bleached skin, always with that maniac, chilling laughter which always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He has no personal agenda to all the brutality he inflicts, no thirst for revenge or materialistic goals made him reach this point. He lives to dismantle the codes the society lives by and all he hopes for is to rip apart the expected codes of morality, so the people can then be free of any faith, any belief of right or wrong. He creates situations for the people of his town

The fourth question asks why there are differences between The Joker and the rest of us. “Freud would argue that different people develop in differing environments and had different childhood experiences” (Psychoanalysis of The Joker). The reason The Joker is different from all of us is his complicated past. Due to unknown childhood experiences, he never developed a superego.

Throughout “The Dark Knight” by Christopher Nolan crime and deviance is seen throughout the film. Crime and deviance in The Dark Knight has two faces as society accepts crime for those whose are helping them and at the same time punishes those who are punished. Society in Gotham accepts crime when the Batman commits it to help for the betterment of society; however, crime is not accepted when it is committed by mob bosses, gangs, criminal cops, and most importantly through the joker. The forms of deviancy/crime which are seen throughout the film is the Labeling Approach, Human Rights Approach, and Human Diversity Approach.

The opening scene starts off with five small-time criminals working under the devious mastermind that is the Joker. The dark,

Batman: The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan is non-stop action thriller that continually did the unexpected. The film is based off of the original Batman comic book but additionally changes the perception of the everyday world as good to naturally bad. Throughout the movie, Batman stands for honesty and goodness while the Joker is a symbolism of chaos and evil. Both sides are forced to make quick-witted decisions in order to stop the opposing vigilante from doing his desired work. The citizens of Gotham are put in the heart of this circumstance and feel obligated to go against their values to stop the chaos. Numerous people habitually pursue their dreams and values but often become blinded from their

The artistic representation of the Batman myth is an important cultural artifact of our time because it represents modern society's thirst for heroic ideals in popular entertainment. Since his creation, readers and viewers have admired Batman's unique ability to battle villainy, transcend the law and administer justice. As cultivators of the noir genre in film as well as in literature, Americans have always identified with this enigmatic hero, who exists on the margins of society and yet represents one of the largest corporations in the world. The evolution of Batman in particular and the superhero genre in general (from comic book to television to film and back again) has seen in the latest adaptation from Christopher Nolan's Batman revamp a veritable tilting point for the character once known as the World's Greatest Detective. This paper will analyze why Batman is an important cultural artifact of our day, how he came into being, what he means for society, and how he will be treated in the future.

Batman’s character is based on his will to fight for justice. Batman relates to the modern law through the unique ways in which he uses his intellectual abilities to reason. His reasoning provides insight about ‘true justice’ by operating externally to

First of all, there is an argument as to where he actually came from. Different movies and comics have had different points of view. There is no back-story for his character. "The Joker has always had a durable history of crime, of course,

This personality can help him to find the ways to complete whatever he thinks that it is important. For instance, Batman is catching the criminals continuously as this is what he wanted to do when he started to be Batman. Batman is a rule-oriented person. This can be good because Batman would not easy to be seduced by any person with any offer as he barely break his own rules. Hence, Batman is considered as a thoughtful person as he would think about any possible consequences before he takes any action. And yet, this may become his weakness. It is because he would be inflexible in his life whenever he is facing problems and situations. For example, a few people died because of Batman indirectly. It is because he could not fulfill the Joker’s request which he has to show his real face to the public. He suffered and almost surrender to the