Manipulation In The Dark Knight

The city of Gotham needs a hero- someone to protect its citizens and thwart evil-doers’ plans. In Frank Miller’s comic novel The Dark Knight Returns, a common theme of internal struggle saturates the underlying story behind the masked vigilante as he fights with the dark entity clinging to his soul. Perhaps the Joker is not the only enemy that Bruce Wayne has- are his good intentions hindered by the demon inside? Proceeding the brutal murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne’s shadow no longer holds the shape of a man but that of a monstrous creature. It is the ongoing battle between Bruce and Batman that contributes to a tantalizing story about crime fighting, justice, and finding one’s identity.

A literary convention is a specific pattern like a repetition of a word, phrase, character, or setting. They are recurring patterns in particular literary genres and are present in many novels, short stories, plays, and sonnets. There are many different literary conventions or tropes in the stories that we have read, but I am choosing to write about the film The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan. There are also many within the film, but the one that stuck out most to me was Jokers famous saying, “why so serious?”. When he says this his tone of voice is almost angry, or he may even sound mentally insane. There are two stories from where The Joker says that the saying “why so serious” originates from. The most notable one is that his father was a drunk and killed his mother. Then his father asks him “why so serious”, and decides he should have a smile, so he put a knife in his mouth and cut his face from ear to ear. This phrase and the way that he says it ends up making people of Gotham more scared then they maybe normally would be. The phrase could also mean that order will never be contained, that somehow someway chaos will always rise. I think that by the different stories about his scar, his actions throughout the film, and by his famous “why so serious?” phrase, Joker is a psychopath who is mentally deranged, yet maybe not insane, and somehow he is very intelligent. The phrase is something that occurs very frequently in the movie. It has also become a very popular saying

Smoke billows out from a Manhattan skyscraper, damaged by a fiery explosion. This could easily be a scene from 9/11, however we see Batman looking grimly on as a poster advertises the film will be released soon. Clearly this film plays on the fears of terrorism. As depicted in The Dark Knight, the Joker plays the terrorist, while Gotham’s leadership struggles to contain him. The film departs from the superhero ideals of pure good versus pure evil, showing a murky world where moral decisions have to be made in order to stop evil. Because of this, The Dark Knight seems to be an allegory for the War on Terrorism. This paper will look at how the Joker represents terrorism, while Batman represents George Bush and his administration’s War on

When I was eleven years old, I perused through the video store looking for the perfect movie to watch. Having just rented all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I needed something new to quench my thirst for action movies. The dark, mysterious cover of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight had me instantly hooked; I needed to watch it. After watching the movie for the first time, my life was never the same again.

Bruce Wayne, the Batman, leaned against one of the many high reaching, cold, damp, and rocky walls of the Batcave. Not suited up, but wearing khakis and an undershirt, he felt the cold of the wall while waiting for some crime information to process. There was a particular robbery that he could not be the first responder to. But of course, the Gotham Police are on a different level of skill in the crime-stopping field, therefore, the offenders escaped the scene.

The Joker is often understood as Batman’s antithesis, as the yang to his yin, as the agent of chaos that threatens his need for order. Thus, while they function as opposites, they are also intrinsically tied to each other. In the case of the Clown Prince of Crime, Batman’s ‘’true’’ nemesis, this Trickster like quality is relevant.

More Than Just a Comic Book The Dark Knight is more than just a comic book movie. Analyzing the movie with the different schools of thought: utilitarianism, deontology, and Kantian Ethics, proves fruitful in the search for a deeper moral meaning. The movie explores the limits of the human spirit, and aims at the implications of placing a person in a no win situation. Analyzing the story from a kantian perspective allows a viewer to obtain more from the story rather than just entertainment.

Over the years, Batman’s character had become a household name when discussing anti-heroes from the DC universe. Although not every comic book fan would consider him an anti-hero, people would still associate anger and broodiness when referring to the character of Bruce Wayne due to his apparent dark nature. Frank Miller’s the Dark Knight Returns had changed things; not just did it focus on Batman’s broody nature, but it had also expanded on the internal battles that had been the cause of the darkness and the reason for Batman’s questionable methods. Miller managed to bring needed humanity to Batman that had been missing in earlier ages. The qualities that made the Dark Knight more in touch with his humanity were; having his origin story trauma affect him until adulthood, experiencing internal psychological conflict, and possessing moral flaws.

The Dark Knight, Watchmen and Pretty Deadly vol.1 use ‘a number of key stylistic features which tend to recur in […] [trauma] narratives [;]’ such as ‘ [I]ntertextuality repetition and a dispersed or fragmented narrative voice.’ These ‘literary techniques’ for Anne Whitehead ‘[….] mirror at a formal level[,] effects of trauma.’ Miller, Moore and DeConnick use ‘[c]omic panels’ as comic veteran Scott McCloud says, to ‘fracture both time and space, offering a jagged staccato rhythm of unconnected

Batman influences many people across the city. He is the icon for heroism and for protection. People want to be Batman. He inspires other vigilantes do fight their own battles in his name and image. Not one society and community can be pure when each man takes his own justice into their own hands. Batman has become a symbol of fraud, vigilance, and fear. The Joker doesn’t want to kill the Batman, because he will die as a martyr and his symbol will live on to be symbolize justice (Ledger and Bale). Joker wants to simply put an end to Batman and his overall influence and presence in Gotham City. On the other hand, Harvey Dent would serve as a more influential martyr for Gotham. He uses Dent as a representation of how quickly a hero can become a villain. Dent becomes scarred for life and loses Rachel in the explosion, to which Batman saved him, and not Rachel due to the Jokers information on their captivity locations. Joker makes Dent a villain, psychologically tearing him apart to the point he is mentally insane with hatred, vengeance, and punishment. The insanity of his actions leaves Batman no choice but to kill Harvey. Batman is pitted against his own code of the law he abides by. He abandons his own principles which leaves himself psychologically disoriented with his purpose (Bott). He becomes a villain. He kills Harvey Dent, the man with the future and vision of Gotham. Harvey dies a martyr, and leaves Batman as the vigilante he truly is. Batman is forced to flee Gotham and disappear (Chan) (Bott), leaving his legacy to fade across the city to become almost an urban legend for eight years of time till the time place of The Dark Knight Rises. Batman lived too long to die a hero, and became the villain

As times change, so does society. Which begs the question does the evilness of the villains in The Dark Knight trilogy change and become more sinister? More specifically who is more sinister between Bane and The Joker? In this essay I will discuss what each villain did and how easily they killed.

In the film ‘The Dark Knight’ by Christopher Nolan, one of the main ideas is the complexity of morality. This means that if something seems wrong, it doesn't necessarily mean it is, it could seem wrong but in the end, just be a journey to the greater good. Batman shows many different examples of this throughout the film where he is disobeying the law but saving the day. Batman is a symbol that represents the complexity of morality. This is shown by colour and costume.

The world we live in today—a world occupied by increasing misanthropists—continues growing into, not a world of happiness and excitement, but a world of despair. In regards to despair, the frequency of people overlooking the optimism of life, freedom, and the desire to simply be content is becoming a common trend. In The Dark Knight, The Joker, being the antagonist, is depicted as a malicious, unpredictable genius—but who is he really? By completely eluding the above statements, The Joker proves to be understanding of the growing despair in the world—he takes his wit and twists pessimism into humor and absurdity in relation to his nihilistic views. Although The Joker is depicted simply as a sociopathic criminal, he is much more—not only by allowing his foil character, Batman—both equally intelligent and dangerous—to influence his behavior by relying on each other, but by shaping the future outlook on society with

Ethics is portrayed as the understanding of what people really ought to be doing, not what people are doing and why. To apply moral ethical concepts and reflections to the modern society, we will focus on the movie The Dark Knight. In the city of Gotham, Batman emerges to protect its civilians and to bring justice to those unable to follow its moral principles and laws. Viewed by some as the protector of the innocent and by others as a rampaging vigilante on a path of destruction, he continues to fight those in need of correction. When taking into consideration the contrast of Batman as a bringer of peace and Batman as a wild vigilante, one must determine the definition and comparison of justice and law.

The Dark Knight Analysis Since its release in 2008, The Dark Knight has been highly acclaimed by both movie critics and fans of the iconic Batman. But what makes this film resonate with its audiences so well? What sets The Dark Knight apart from the dozens of other existing movies filled with sensational explosions and exciting action sequences? The Dark Knight carries a sense of realism that is remarkable for a superhero movie; it also features well-developed characters such as the Joker, Bruce Wayne, and Harvey Dent. One notable feature of The Dark Knight is its realism, which it establishes with significant success in spite of the inherent impracticality of a superhero film.