It would be no exception if I say that you all must have watched The Dark Knight-and it’s obvious that you all have-then, forgetting it’s each character would be same as letting yourself be without oxygen! That is just one of the many inspiring things that the movie is remembered for. But it’s also remembered for the Joker! Batman’s true contradictor and highly mad villain (or as we assume him to be-just for the sake of being on the side of the protagonist, the Batman). Everyone knows what impact he had with all his plans and ways against the caped crusader, in the film and what he tried to make him see, in a corrupted society.
Although, we know that, in the movie whatever action the Joker commits is an unethical one from the viewpoint of morality, still watching him do those things fills you with a different energy and spirit that you feel inside yourself. Of going beyond the so-called lawful barriers and succeeding in your objective, no matter the consequences and moral grounds! Apart from the fact that he is an antagonist, there are a lot of positives that can be extracted out, being a believer of the Joker’s ways of doing things.
When it comes to philosophical aspects, the Dark Knight’s Joker is just the extreme of famous Russian-British philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s theory of Liberty of humans. In the joker’s case this liberty is wild, uncontrollable and unstoppable. Yet, there’s more to the mischievous ‘baddy’ which makes you think over his words, over and over again.
Joker doesn’t gets abide by the formation of ‘rules’, as what Batman, the dark knight does, to limit the potential impact of his actions by his own morals. He has an optimistic thinking towards the very human nature and keeps proving that, still there are people in the city of Gotham, who have not given away their humanitarian qualities for corruption and self-interests. But Joker tries to show with his every action that it’s just a mask that each individual has put on his/her face to show their morality; but as time progresses and turns odd for them, making their existence vulnerable, then all of those ‘good-moral-people’ take out this mask and show what they are inside.
The impact doesn’t cease to continue here. Even when it comes to Batman, Joker tries to convince him with his thinking, that till the time the purposes are getting fulfilled, the idol people of this society praise you for what you do for them. And as the interests get fulfilled, they just skip you like anything, and don’t get bothered of things you have done for them.
As the Joker believes by his own standards, the thought of maintaining order and peace in the society, is just another ‘getting-away’ method for those in power and who are well-off to make anything happen at their own will with a command. This arrangement and order is of no use for those who are helpless and weak. Hence, there is discrimination and partiality among these class-oriented beings.
On the other hand, Joker’s actions create a sense of ‘chaos’ and bring out effects that affect each and every individual in equal proportion, doing no discrimination on the basis of status, class and order. His strength is his fearlessness which makes him infinitely powerful as a force which would stop at nothing for creating havoc and disturbance. Here, he manages to give a lesson that people who are stuck with trivial, ethical and introspective mindsets and unnecessary moral rules, without having any better results for themselves; those are the ones who get stabbed by their own well-wishers! And, in the dark knight, Batman is the one, on whom this situation fits in, appropriately. Batman too, is an unstoppable and one powerful image of an individual, but the one who gets affected by emotions of social norms. And this is where, Joker somewhere exceeds him in terms of not being confused and complicated regarding what to do and what not to.
