Let me start with something that shouldn’t be controversial. The Joker is Evil.
If I ask you why, you might say because he is a murderous psychopath, and while I would argue that the terms murderous and psychopathic are judgement and diagnoses which only a Judge and Doctor can make, it is of course fiction so l do encourage you to judge and diagnose.

But first let’s inspect the murder charge. The Joker is a killer, he is good at killing and he enjoys it and is experience to the extent of having a preferred weapon. He also encourages others to do it. Murder though is unlawful killing. The Joker is a self-declared anarchist not only through self professed beliefs, but though very deliberate actions. The Joker is an insurgent that is actively trying to remove the Government of Gotham, and is therefore in war with the Government, it is far more interesting to see how he would stand up as a war criminal.

I am sure Doctors would describe him as a psychopath, which even if you don’t really know the true definition of the diagnosis, you do know it is a mental condition and therefore you probably assume he should be locked up.

But let do a quick psychoanalysis.
What do we actually know about the Joker’s past in The Dark Knight?
We think we know how he got his smile, but then realize that he uses his captives curiosity against them. Telling them jokes designed to provoke both empathy, terror and hopelessness for his captives.
We know he decided to become the Joker after Bruce Wayne became Batman.
We know that he has no government record when he became the Joker. So he has either been a model citizen throughout the most hormonal and emotional years of a young man’s life, or hacked the government systems.

It is far easier for the model citizen to assume he hacked the government systems than to entertain that maybe up until Batman he was just like you and maybe even a better citizen. But if you think about it logically, while the Joker has a very deliberate attention to detail when it comes to his appearance, for the same reason Batman does. If an active anarchist with very little self interest, had the ability to remove his government records, he would also remove everyone else’s records at the same time.

So who is the Joker? If anyone who reads this post and even entertains the idea about becoming a Joker, please read on. A key tenet of the Joker is clear open and public communication, he lets his intentions known ahead of time when dealing with the public and gives people a clear unambiguous choice often with a deadline allowing the Government an opportunity to stop him. In the Joker’s opinion, the only way you can bring about anarchy is by directly confronting the individual with the choices they have to make if they want to have power over their own life while showing the people at the same time how powerless and useless the Government is at protecting them. The Joker forces the individual to choose between their own agency or the Governments.

How is he represented in the movie?
Some might argue he is the perfect villain or he is perfect insanity.
I argue he is the perfect man.
He cares about his appearance and understands that other people will react to him, accordingly.
He has enough strength to casually subdue men who rule by strength, while doing humorous magic tricks to earn their cohorts bemused respect.
The opening scene is a testament to his creativity and ability to relate to the individual showing them they are special and important to him, and to lend him their unquestioning trust.
He is a man of action, he has an agenda, based on firm beliefs and convictions which he is working towards.
The way the movie pan’s out, it can look like he predicted everything, but he is a self confessed agent of chaos that gives people choice and the opportunity to stop him.
He has an incredible understanding of the motivations of government officials and criminals, which allows him to accurately predict their actions most of the time.
He understands that chaos means anything can happen and therefore plans for most possibilities.
When the Government became proactive rather than reactive, they caught him. However, he had an escape plan that would have been in place from the very start.
He is a good business man and a good negotiator, he knows what he is worth and people have no problem paying him for his services.
He has no care for money or material possessions and only takes what he needs.
He is selfless and willing to die for what he believes in.
He also accepts that nature is cruel and does not let fear of unfortunate luck restrict his actions.
He is a man of his word and follows through on his threats.
He is a teacher, he seeks to show humanity what it really is, and understands the individual better than the average man understands them self.
He always enjoys his work, taking pot shots at armored vans with pistols while he waits for the real fun to begin.
He fails, but doesn’t let it defeat him – you can see the frustration when Jim Gordon jumps in front of a bullet that wasn’t meant for him.
He even apologizes in his own way and seeks forgiveness or due punishment, when he unexpectedly plays a part in the death of Rachel Dawes. – While Rachel did work for the Government, it is clear the Joker didn’t really expect her to die. She is the only non-combatant to die due to the Joker in the movie. (I would argue the Judge relies on combatants to enforce the rulings and therefore is indirectly a combatant).
He is learning and adaptable – He does not have a complete understanding of the human psyche, for example he was surprised in the boat scene. The innocent people knew what the correct choice was, which was demonstrated through democratic vote. However, no individual on the boat could bring themselves to kill the convicted criminals that had been terrorizing the City for years. They had been coddled by their government so much that no individual on that boat could defend themselves or the other innocents in a simple life or death scenario that required a twist of a key to act. This is despite it being both a carnal and democratic requirement if any individual had the ability to act.
He understands what God is and in turn loathes himself, welcoming and even wishing for his end. But he understands he has a purpose and knows that ending his life is not his decision to make.
Finally, the Joker understand that the issue at hand is so complex, he will be misunderstood and misrepresented and no one will even try to understand him. He understands the emotional reaction to the issue, but seeks to empower the people to break free from their fear not by looking outward but inward. He does this by trying to force the people into action by trying to force them to make simple but tough decisions.

So now that we know the Joker is arguably the perfect man, is he really an anarchist?.
I don’t think he is. He just hates Batman and everything he is.

People need hope, and they found it in the symbol of Batman. He provided progress, and shows them that there may be a better way.
Batman could be anywhere at anytime, he enforces judgment through catching criminals and leaving them for the Police to find. He is anonymous. He has financial and technological power that is beyond the reach of every other citizen in Gotham and its local government. He harnesses fear, and deliberately disorientates even his allies by disappearing mid conversation. He doesn’t care if you like him or not. He is also a vigilante, and believes through his benevolence and self imposed morals, he is above the law.

Batman is a symbol of a god, but in reality he is just a extremely privileged and flawed man in a suit. Anyone who plays god is dangerous. That is why the Joker hates him, seeking to destroy him and any system that supports him.

If the Bruce Wayne really believed in the symbol for what it is, he would believe that anyone can become Batman and fight for justice, making Batman even more omnipotent. But Batman doesn’t like his impersonators because they kill due to the fact that they are commoners that are less skilled and have less technology. We all long for a world free from death, but it is ignorant to believe we can create one and in turn work towards one. To not kill is a position of extreme privilege and ignorance. It is ironic that the only thing in this movie that we see damaging Batman, and in turn the only thing he shows fear of, is an animal of nature and man’s best friend.

So if Batman doesn’t believe in the symbol he created, what does he believe in? In this movie, to me it appears all Batman really wants to do is justify his existence. The Joker openly states that he will stop if Batman reveals his identity.

In my opinion the best joke the Joker pulls is killing the lesser Batman, painting his face as the Jokers and dressing him back up in their inferior Batman suits. Sending the ironically funny message to Batman that he is really just a inferior version of the Joker pretending to be a god. Unfortunately, Batman didn’t get the joke.

Why is Batman not the perfect man? He is ignorant to the feelings of those he loves and even choose not to save the one he loved due to an unfounded faith in another man. All the Joker wanted was for Batman to abandon his self-righteous ideals by killing someone, preferably himself, or quitting. In the end, the Joker got caught because Batman had the help of an omniscient power (Morgan Freeman), this was only made possible by violating innocent people’s privacy. By this stage the Joker didn’t care about being caught, people were starting to realize that in the pursuit of ideals they were making the problem worse. The Joker knew that his cause was bigger than one man. It was an absolute. In the end, Batman did break his one rule and killed Harvey Dent. Harvey was another idealistic flawed man who held closely the belief that he made his own luck. Once faced with reality that no man is truly completely in control of his destiny and must rely on other flawed men. He decided to seek justice, by following in the Joker’s foot steps and showing them how naive they had become. But instead of grappling with the complexity of an appropriate response, he chose to leave it up to equal chance with the options of complete forgiveness or death. The Joker knew the odds and would constantly play them putting himself and innocent people in danger to manipulate the situation to his advantage. What he never did was decide that an innocent should either die or live, and leave the decision up to equal odds. This is why the Joker failed to get himself killed, but succeeded in revealing that both an idol and a man playing god, are ultimately corruptible will fail and betray the very core beliefs that they think separates them.

So the Joker is Evil. He is the perfect man. But the reason the Joker is the Hero in this story is because he shows us what happens when we go outside the law and play god. Evil is an absolute condition of man, because man is not God.

So who was the Joker before Batman? It’s fiction so we can write whatever we want. If I was to write his prequel, it would be boring. He would be a good honest cop that tolerated his corrupt cohort and was married to a psychologist. They loved each other, and helped each other to perfect their craft, and through their shared perspective of Gotham, came to understand the true nature of man and their place in the world. He would be ordinary like any policeman. |Because he dealt with ordinary criminals, and ordinary government officials.

And then came Batman.

The Dark Knight is a story that reflects the tragic dichotomy of the human condition. We all love it for different reasons, but maybe we never knew why.

The true tragedy of this story of course, is that in the end the man who became the Joker, Heath Ledger did indeed die. His posthumous Academy Award, can attest to his perfection of the characterization.

The Joker knew how to exist in Gotham City, but he had no idea how to exist in a real western civilized society. He sought help, and was provided drugs that he had little to no experience with, from a Doctor that had probably never taken them himself.

We all know what happened, but who is to blame, the drug, the drug dealer, or the person seeking it in order to assist with the reality of life?

Disclaimer: I am looking at this movie in complete isolation of the entire DC Universe. I understand that most western men have probably at one stage in their life said “I am Batman”. We like him because we know his story, we feel his pain and share his desires. We imagine if we were in his shoes we would do the exact same thing.

The Joker is the same, we just don’t know his story.

The Christopher Nolan Trilogy is the story of man.
Batman Begins: A story of tragedy and rehabilitation through a dedication to the pursuits of personal perfection and the reduction of evil.
The Dark Knight: A complete war against evil and losing a key part of yourself in the process.
The Dark Knight Rises: Accepting humility and being content with oneself and the world through a union with an equal and worthy adversary.

Originally published on facebook.com on 16th December 2018