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| The Joker |
Being a huge
fan of Batman, either Burton or Nolan, I have always seen the Joker character
as a classic trickster, and not just because of his name, although that was the
reason when I was little, but because of his actions. He wants to create chaos and he manipulates his surroundings and people to do what he wants, sounds like a classic trickster right? But after examining the
Joker more closely, I’m not sure if I would call him a classic trickster, maybe
an untamed trickster. When I think of a trickster, I think of a cunning
character that has a plan to get what he wants, while creating as much chaos as
possible on the way. Maybe my view of a trickster is wrong, but I think a
trickster can be seen in many ways. On the one hand, they are very smart in the
art of strategy but on the other hand, they are kind of crazy, some more than
others. That is why I think the Joker is great trickster, he is definitely a strategist, but he has more of
the crazy in him. Because his goal is to create chaos, I think that gives him
the freedom to do anything and just do what he wants when he wants.
During the entire movie he is not trying to kill everyone and create chaos, which is his ultimate. He
wants to kill some people, so he kills them by putting toxins in their skin and
hair products; but then he gets side-tracked because he wants Vicki Vale. As he
is trying to get Vicki Vale, Batman stops him, so he goes after Batman. So yes,
he has one goal, like a trickster usually does, but he gets distracted more
than once which causes him to unravel. I think Burton uses these distractions
to undermine the view of the trickster character. Showing that he is easily distracted
shows his weakness, but also shows his lack of care for life. He sees himself
as already died once, so because he escaped death, in a way, now he can do
anything that he wants. The part of him that died was his control; his voice
inside his head that told him not to do things because it would not be smart. When he becomes the Joker he is no longer limited by the bounds of human life and emotion which makes him the untamed trickster character. I
do not think the Joker’s need for chaos was demonstrated as well as it was
in Nolan’s version of Batman, but that is another thing all together.
I too thought of Joker as a different kind of trickster. I never thought of it before, but I find it a really good point, that his lack of focus kind of deviates himself from traditional tricksters. He has goals, like all tricksters do, but his lack of a one final goal makes it hard for him to successfully complete any of them. It did, in this version of Batman, cause him to unravel. I think if you compare him to the Nolan version of the Joker, he definitely seems to be less of the traditional trickster. The Nolan Joker has one set goal the entire movie, and it’s to destroy Batman so he can destroy the city. Other characters don’t easily distract him, and if he starts to become distracted he seems to just kill them so he can finish the job. It’s really interesting how the two compare, but there’s no doubt that they are tricksters.
ReplyDelete-Allison Davis