“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
If Spider-man acts as a depiction of America as we are, and Iron Man is a discussion of our socio-economic influence throughout the world, then Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece The Dark Knight is a Freudian psychoanalysis of America’s deepest motivations as we enter the new millennia. The juxtaposition of the three primary characters of the Joker, the Batman, and Harvey Dent - both in accord and in conflict with one another - mirrors the deepest motivations of America as a nation.
The Joker, as imagined in Nolan’s film, is the embodiment of the Freudian id. He is a visceral depiction of impulse without limitation – a voice working not in language, but in symbols. His symbols are seen in the crimes he commits. Throughout the film, the Joker gives dozens of excuses for his actions – but none of them are true. The Joker tells Gambol that he was abused by his father; he tells the Mob he wants money; he tells Rachel Dawes that he was rejected by his wife; he tells Batman that he’s doing it to expose hypocrisy. The truth is simply that the Joker commits robbery, assault, murder, and acts of terrorism for one simple reason: he enjoys it. Throughout The Dark Knight, the only true statement that the Joker speaks is, in the midst of several acts of unspeakable violence, when says “I like this job. I like it. I like it.” This is the horrible truth of the Joker: he enjoys violence. The reasons he gives for his crimes are not reasons, at all; they are excuses.
What is most frightening about the Joker is that his twisted psyche is not all uncommon, and while he is a fictional character, there are unfortunately too many actual psychopaths and sociopaths alive in the world today. America is currently embroiled in a War on Terror with a group of homicidal maniacs who offer similar excuses: they murder women, children, and civilians, offering up the excuses of religion or the occupation of Palestine or the presence of non-Muslim troops in Saudi Arabia. But it is important to remember that these are just that: excuses. They are not reasons. There is no good reason to behead a journalist or a cell phone salesman. There is no good reason to fly a commercial airplane into an office building. There is no good reason to murder a young girl for going to school. As Tony Blair stated three days after the terror attacks on 9-11:
What happened in the United States on Tuesday was an act of wickedness for which there can never be justification. Whatever the cause, whatever the perversion of religious feeling, whatever the political belief, to inflict such terror on the world, to take the lives of so many innocent and defenceless men, women, and children, can never ever be justified.
If Spider-man acts as a depiction of America as we are, and Iron Man is a discussion of our socio-economic influence throughout the world, then Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece The Dark Knight is a Freudian psychoanalysis of America’s deepest motivations as we enter the new millennia. The juxtaposition of the three primary characters of the Joker, the Batman, and Harvey Dent - both in accord and in conflict with one another - mirrors the deepest motivations of America as a nation.
The Joker, as imagined in Nolan’s film, is the embodiment of the Freudian id. He is a visceral depiction of impulse without limitation – a voice working not in language, but in symbols. His symbols are seen in the crimes he commits. Throughout the film, the Joker gives dozens of excuses for his actions – but none of them are true. The Joker tells Gambol that he was abused by his father; he tells the Mob he wants money; he tells Rachel Dawes that he was rejected by his wife; he tells Batman that he’s doing it to expose hypocrisy. The truth is simply that the Joker commits robbery, assault, murder, and acts of terrorism for one simple reason: he enjoys it. Throughout The Dark Knight, the only true statement that the Joker speaks is, in the midst of several acts of unspeakable violence, when says “I like this job. I like it. I like it.” This is the horrible truth of the Joker: he enjoys violence. The reasons he gives for his crimes are not reasons, at all; they are excuses.
What is most frightening about the Joker is that his twisted psyche is not all uncommon, and while he is a fictional character, there are unfortunately too many actual psychopaths and sociopaths alive in the world today. America is currently embroiled in a War on Terror with a group of homicidal maniacs who offer similar excuses: they murder women, children, and civilians, offering up the excuses of religion or the occupation of Palestine or the presence of non-Muslim troops in Saudi Arabia. But it is important to remember that these are just that: excuses. They are not reasons. There is no good reason to behead a journalist or a cell phone salesman. There is no good reason to fly a commercial airplane into an office building. There is no good reason to murder a young girl for going to school. As Tony Blair stated three days after the terror attacks on 9-11:
What happened in the United States on Tuesday was an act of wickedness for which there can never be justification. Whatever the cause, whatever the perversion of religious feeling, whatever the political belief, to inflict such terror on the world, to take the lives of so many innocent and defenceless men, women, and children, can never ever be justified.
To most Americans, there is only one proper reaction to such violence: to fight back. Like Peter Parker learns in his transformation to Spider-man, and Tony Stark to Iron Man, NOT fighting back is unacceptable. The most basic tenet of belief in each of these films, and in American moral philosophy, is the adage of Edmund Burke that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” This sentiment is echoed by the character of Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins when she asks Bruce Wayne “What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?” So Batman is the conscious effort – the Freudian ego – acting in opposition to the id of the Joker. Not that Batman does not contain elements of violence. He releases his libidinous violent energies in a sublimated and barely controlled manner against the forces he sees as evil. In Nolan’s film, we watch Batman drop a mob boss off a fire escape; we see him mercilessly beat the Joker in an attempt to gain information (as Jim Gordon reassures his men, nervously, that Batman is “under control”); we watch him pummel entire armies of gangsters to a pulp. However, Batman contains elements of both violent impulse and self-control. Unlike the Joker, who “lives without rules”, the Batman has a single rule: he will not commit murder. Andrew Klavan comments that "Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell" (Klavan, 2008). Batman forms the central ego of the psychologic triumvirate within The Dark Knight. He is the balance between the id of the Joker, and the superego as represented by Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent.
At the beginning of The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent is Gotham’s white knight. He is also, however, a cautionary tale. The Joker’s true enemy in The Dark Knight is not Batman; it is Harvey Dent - just as the id is not truly at war with the ego, but rather the superego. Batman, as the ego, is caught in the battle between these two forces. What is most interesting about this film, however, and most telling in its commentary about America, is Harvey Dent’s transformation from upstanding attorney into the villainous Two-Face. If the Joker is the antithesis of American values –death and destruction without compunction or remorse, or even motivation – and Batman is America as we are forced to act out of necessity – violent and brutal, but only when necessary – then Harvey Dent is the character we aspire to be. He lives within the rule of law. He is popular. He is handsome. He is righteous. He is also easily destroyed. As soon as Dent’s loved ones are threatened, it is all too easy for him to toss aside the rules and regulations which he previously upheld. Because Dent has to live within his set of legal rules, he cannot fight the Joker effectively. The moment Harvey Dent breaks the law, each of the criminals he has put behind bars will be free. So Dent sees a simple choice –fight by the rules and lose all he loves, or become just as brutal as his enemy. And this is what America fears, and must constantly face. In a world after 9-11, it is all too easy to set aside morality, to abrogate our deepest mores and convictions in an attempt to save innocent lives. But in doing so, we risk losing the very nobility to which we aspire – we become entirely too much like those we fight and despise.
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