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The Dark Night Madness Analysis

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Throughout Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Night” societies struggle with madness is showcased through each character’s struggle with madness and their confrontations with chaos. The role of madness is to hold a mirror up to society to show it that its sense of morality and sanity is an illusion. This is shown in the film specifically through the characters of Harvey Dent, The Joker, and The Batman. Harvey, at the start is the epitome of morality firmly on the side of sanity and order. Joker, however, is the epitome of madness and chaos. These two characters at first glance appear to be complete opposites but as the madness seeps in the line between order and chaos becomes blurred. Batman, however, appears to be in the middle having a …show more content…

Batman choses wrong Rachel dies and half of Harvey’s face is melted off. After this incident Harvey begins to see the madness and the cruel reality of the world. And yet he hasn’t been completely exposed to chaos he doesn’t fully realize what the madness is he requires another push. The final realization comes from a final confrontation with the Joker while he is still recovering in the hospital. In order to get Dent to fall fully into chaos the Joker must expose the falseness of society. “Nobody panics when things go according to plan even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press a gangbanger will get shot or a truckload of soldiers will be blowing up nobody panics…because it’s all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then, everyone loses their minds!” This speech from the joker is what wakes Dent up to the realization that society’s morality and sanity that he was the champion of is only an illusion. A lie told to keep everyone happy in their little bubble so they don’t freak out and become like the Joker once they realize that the society they love requires horrific events like wars and crimes to unify that society against a common enemy so it doesn’t rip itself apart. For the first time Harvey Dent sees the cruelty and chaos in the world and comes to the conclusion that “…the only morality in a cruel world is chance, unbiased, unprejudiced, fair.” Through the mirror of madness Harvey has realised that

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