Dark Knight Psychoanalysis

According to Jacques Lacan, human beings have a stage called “the mirror stage.” During this stage, Lacan says it is “the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image” (442). In other words, when an infant knows that he/she has a self. The problem occurs afterwards, when there is an anxiety between the self and the thing we see in the mirror. According to Lacan, these images or symbols that we are transformed into are affected by the systems around us. For example, language, rules, social order, and systems are constructed in society. As humans, we struggle to fit these systems. In a popular film, The Dark Knight, principles of self and the anxiety between ourselves is very evident. The Joker and Batman have almost contradicting roles and dissimilar values, but the hero of the story has the struggles that the villain does not.

To begin with, it is important to understand the movie itself. The movie centers around three main characters, two of which will be talked about extensively. This essay will focus on Batman (and Bruce Wayne) and The Joker. The movie is ultimately about The Joker, a clown costumed lunatic, spreading mayhem through Gotham in an attempt to disarm Batman, a super vigilante. Batman is all-powerful against most criminals, but struggles to keep the town in order when The Joker completely hijacks the city. He steals, kills, and destroys parts of a town that was seemingly ready to forget it’s criminal past. The Joker turns the prominent future of Gotham, District Attorney Harvey Dent, into a psychotic killer. Dent ends up dying in attempt to seek revenge on, essentially, the social order (in the case, the police system).

First, it’s important to focus on The Joker and his place in society. According to Lacan, everyone fits into a system that is constructed by themselves and society. However, The Joker goes completely against the grain. He says “You have all these rules and you think they’ll save you…The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules….” The Joker continues later by saying “Schemers try to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.” One last quote that sums up his ideas about culture and society is “Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.” The Joker is a perfect example of the antithesis to social order. According to Lacan, he completely subverts the anxiety between the system of society and his psychological self. His self doesn’t care about the rules of society, how they are constructed, or the social order that results from it.

On the other side, is The Joker’s arch-nemesis, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman. Bruce Wayne is a normal guy on a quest to rid Gotham of crime. His motivation stems from brutal murder of his parents when he was younger. As an observer, you see that Batman is the good guy in all of this. However, Joker doesn’t see much of a difference between him and Batman, saying, “To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper!” Throughout the film, Bruce struggles realizing that he may not be the hero that he once thought he was. He remarks “People are dying…today I found out what Batman can’t do. He can’t endure this.” At the conclusion of the film, Batman is forced to take the fall for the death of Harvey Dent, in order to keep Gotham from falling back into a culture of crime. He realizes that he must be the one to take the fall, saying, “You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that’s what needs to happen.” Batman is clearly struggling like Lacan would expect. There is clearly anxiety between what Bruce, or Batman, sees of himself compared to society. He was trying to eliminate crime, but instead had to create it. In the end, he had to take the fall for it as well, looking like the villain to Gotham for killing their future, Harvey Dent.

In closing, it’s important to realize that Lacan focused on the inner self within society and culture. There is a definite difference between how you see yourself in a mirror and your actual self. Society may construct how you are supposed to act, but there is a gap between how you are supposed to act and how you do act. In The Dark Knight, the issue becomes very evident. The Joker does his best to deconstruct society and causes society’s hero, Batman, to become a type of villain himself.