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The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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Journey to ultimate
heart of the darkness none is more explosive than the homicidal nemesis named
Joker, Introduce in 1940, The Joker has been featured in hundreds of comics and
cartoons and 4 live action films. The Joker
character is inspired by Victor Hugo’s hero Gwynplaine in the 1928 film
adaptation The Man Who Laugh. Despite of involved in so many comics, cartoons
and live action films, his motive on those stories has been surprisingly the
same. It represents an extreme version of reaction we have all felt on the
daily basis. There are a lot explanation for something that made the Joker as
he is. once involved in tragedy into chemical pool has been the most consistent back
story of the Joker.
Unlike another villains on DC Comics where somehow they have been becoming the criminal because
a lot of reasonable motivation such as to gain wealth or gain power or the some
form of revenge, the Joker has unique, brutal and not the normal motivation. |
©DC Comics
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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“Most criminals are motivated by desire to gain greater wealth or gain
greater power or the exact some form of revenge, there is a clear motivation
that understandable for what’s prompting their behavior. In case of somebody
who is mentally ill you can’t necessarily predict their motivation, their motivations are not the normal ones” (Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D. Chairman of Psychiatry,
Columbia University). John Hinckley Jr. was the perfect example of Joker in the
real life, where John Hinckley Jr. who believed if he were assassinated President Ronald
Reagan Jodie Foster would fall in love with him.
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Courtessy: videomega.eu
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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The Killing Joke story
in 1986,The Joker lost his entire family and making him a villain who lost
humanity after ‘one bad day’ where he failed as stand-up comic, informed of the
death of his pregnant wife, and got framed by the gangster and fell into a
chemical pool. The big picture of that story itself is to turn Commissioner
Gordon into another version of himself by giving a similar bad day to prove
that everyone even the man in honor himself is just need one bad day away from
becoming the joker.
As the ultimate villain
of Batman, Joker and Batman have something in common; Both live their lives as
responses to traumatic and tragic event. How they response soon after the terrifying
tragedy. Batman reacts to his parents’ death by forcing meaning upon by battling criminals which looks reasonable for
him as a dark vigilante. Meanwhile, the response of the Joker led him equal
passion to embrace meaninglessness in different way. According to the French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sarte, ‘recognizing the meaninglessness
of existence forces us to realize that we are responsible for creating our own
meaning’.
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©DC Comics
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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©Warner Brothers
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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In the dark night the
fighting between Joker and Batman had taken to the ultimate level, Joker is the
logical response to character like Batman, because batman has the all ability
to fight crime. They are dark reflection for each other who operates outside of
the social norm, they are both highly talented and highly gifted of what they
do so they have a lot in common. Every Ying
has a Yang. Batman is very tactical
and logical, using his mind to solve problem of crimes and the Joker is
complete leading Lunatic. The appearance of Batman fighting crimes makes him as
the Vigilante. Meanwhile, the Joker has been becoming Batman's antithesis.
Batman says
philosophically we can acknowledge an imperfect world, we have to step outside
of social norms but that doesn’t make the social norms meaningless. The Joker
says the presence of random injustice means that there is no justice. The fact
that innocence can be destroyed means there is no innocence so your life is a
joke now when someone says your life is a joke. That philosophy shows that
Joker is the premise of The Batman existence. This is much more deep idea because
the rivalry between Joker and Batman is not only display of Fights, punches or
gunshots. This is the ultimate philosophical conflict.
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©Warner Brothers
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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In the other term, the
Joker presence is caused by the presence of Batman. The joker is Batman’s fault.
His action of wiping out the criminals creates another kind of criminal with a
new kind of form and a lot more chaos. But, this is a natural term in the
society when something is extremely good there are something extremely bad to
create a new balance in the society. According to the French sociologist Jean
Baudrillard in book titled The Transparency
of Evil, he said: “All liberation
affects good and evil equally. The liberation of morals and minds entails
crimes and catastrophes. The liberation of law and pleasure leads inevitably to
the liberation of crime”
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Courtessy: firstworld.com
The Joker: Philosophy and Psychology of The Ultimate Lunatic Villain
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Both Batman and the Joker try to convince each other. Batman convinces the Joker to accept conventional morality, while the Joker tries to seduce Batman into abandoning it. 1989 Batman movie was the moment when Batman and the Joker gave birth to each other. The Joker was described as Jack Napier the mob who killed Bruce Wayne’s parent then they met several years later Bruce Wayne became Batman and met Jack Napier. He throw Jack Napier down into chemical bath and the Joker was "born".
Philosophically Joker tries to seduce Batman and others to abandoning their morals foundations and do something they never see themselves doing by corrupting their principle of goodness, when other villain fighting good with their evil way or another way, Joker destroys the good itself. Meanwhile his unclear background and psychologically his mental is ill making his motivation and his action are not the normal ones.
Philosophically Joker tries to seduce Batman and others to abandoning their morals foundations and do something they never see themselves doing by corrupting their principle of goodness, when other villain fighting good with their evil way or another way, Joker destroys the good itself. Meanwhile his unclear background and psychologically his mental is ill making his motivation and his action are not the normal ones.
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