The Joker For my example of a trickster I am using The Joker from the popular movie franchise by Christopher Noland “Batman Begins”. I will be using the second movie in the franchise “The Dark Knight” for my example of The Joker portrayed by actor Heath Ledger. The Joker is part of the criminal element that is part of the chief city represented in the world of Batman. Although he takes part in criminal acts within this city he was once a soldier in the armed forces and suffers from PTSD as well as other mental health problems stemming from his service. Through this dichotomy we can see that he was once an agent of justice and now acts as though he is a criminal but states himself within the movie that he is only “an agent of chaos”.
The movies
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Tricksters are both and neither argents of chaos or justice, right and wrong, yin and yang. The Joker within the Dark Knight exemplifies all aspects of what a traditional trickster is. The Joker is very anomalous to what most people would think a veteran of the armed forces is. The cookie cutter definition of what a veteran in the US is would be someone that stands up for social morals and defends the rights of the people whom he shares his country with. The Joker is very much the opposite of this and tells everyone that he is just that. He stands up for the people and organizations that do not support social norms. Throughout the movie the Joker is constantly playing tricks on people and deceiving everyone around him, it is comedic in how much deception he employs throughout his time in the story/movie. Although the movie is supposed give audiences the feeling that this could be real the Joker takes on many different disguises throughout the movie. From masked clown, to police officer, to female nurse demonstrating that no costume is too ridiculous for him. In his exchange with Harvey Dent/Two-Face the Joker tells us himself that he invents situations, albeit on a whim, showing that he is exemplifying the 4th trait of a traditional trickster. The Joker doesn’t hold anything sacred but he does show that he is a messenger of chaos. We know that mythologies have different gods that embody the qualities of chaos or directly represent chaos as their power to manipulate. It is not that much of a stretch to think that the Joker is merely acting as an agent of these gods making him a messenger of something they would hold holy and sacred to themselves. Lastly the Joker is very much a jack-of-all-trades as he has the skills to use many different weapons and explosives and even understands the inner-workings of criminal
Lewis Hyde’s book Trickster Makes This World contains an excerpt called “Slipping the Trap of Appetite” in which the first line reads, “The trickster myth derives creative intelligence from appetite.” During the time of William Bradford, separating from the Church of England by law is considered an act of treason. Bradford will become part of a group, known as the “Separatists,” who did not wish to follow the national church. This group will encounter many difficulties in their escape of religious persecution and search of freedom. William Bradford reveals the Pilgrims’ appetite for religious freedom and displays their creative intelligence in escaping persecution in his book, In of Plymouth Plantation.
Criminals are social deviants because they go against societal norms placed in law. As deviants gain attention, they will continue to be deviants. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane and Batman represent the different levels of deviance. What they did individually can be judged as deviant or not. However, on the larger scale, both of their actions were deviant when they went against the social norm of corruption.
All of these types of stories survived by being “performed in Africa, the West Indies, and the American South.” These tricksters cause disharmony, which is part of the audience’s enjoyment. The main characteristic of the trickster in these tales is “signifying,” the “ability to use cunning words to turn the powerful into dupes.” Usually, a trickster makes a contract with a dupe, but betrays him. He does this because he gets his strength by violating social boundaries. Other times, the trickster plays tricks and is caught, which leads to humiliation. Some of the stories in this section are “Why the Hare Runs Away,” “The Ant’s Burden,” and “Tricking All the Kings” In “Why the Hare Runs Away,” we know the trickster makes a contract when “it was decided” was said, and we know the trickster breaks that contract when we see “he refused.” The trickster is punished for breaking the contract by being captured by the other animals. In the story “The Ant’s Burden,” we see Anansi trying to make Kweku his dupe when “he wondered how he could fix the blame on someone else.” This tale also takes on the characteristic of a trickster’s contest because Anansi loses and, in return, is made the dupe, for which he “was condemned.” “Tricking All the Kings” is about outwitting a plantation master. Although the king seems to dominate at the beginning of the story, he is later made to be the dupe. We see him becoming the tricksters first dupe when Buh Nansi says “oh, Massa King, you mean to pitch me in that blue, blue sea…,” and we see the contract being made when the king says, “No, I wouldn’t, I’ll have you drowned.” In this story the trickster beats the dupe because the king couldn’t have done him a “better favor”
The Miller Parodies of the Knight's Tale. Miller parodies the Knight’s Tale in several different ways. He cleverly achieves this through his description of the characters. style in which the story is told and the way in which the characters conduct themselves in the tale.
As is common in Nolan's films, the leading male characters are driven by their need to get the job done. If the audience has seen others of Nolan's works, they will begin to assume that this man will be more important to the film than just a guy who pulls off a bank heist. This idea evolves through the movie with this character, The Joker, as he is definitely motivated by his desire to finish what he started. This shows when he gets worried at the end of the film when the boat of citizens fails to blow up the boat of convicts and vice versa.
To some, tricksters may only be thought of as weak figures from Native American or African American tales who are seeking an objective and find creative ways to outsmart their opponents. However, there are many accounts of people in American literature that can be compared to tricksters. Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley are two of these people. Both Equiano and Wheatley use their creative abilities in an effort to accomplish a unified goal: abolishment of slavery. In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, Olaudah Equiano emulates a trickster because he is disadvantaged in comparison to his foes (slave owners), but ends up victorious. Equiano’s actions parallel that of
Despite being from in two different time periods, Lord of the Flies by Golding and Othello by Shakespeare , Shakespeare and Golding both share a common theme of good versus evil; the characters Simon and Desdemona share the interest of purity and represent a God/Goddess while being challenged by the unholy or the evil. Jack, dark and evil character and Iago, dark and masterminded character share the characteristic of being evil or unholy. Unfortunately in both instances, evil takes over and cannot be a pure individual. The evil inside them takes over their heart but does not really control them, even in their most brutal murders, they still maintain to be themselves and not get absorbed by evil and turn insane.
‘villain’; he is a complex mix of both. In the first part of the play,
James Holmes went to see the film The Dark Night Rises. He was in the theatre for twenty minutes, left, then came back with full tactical gear on and weapons in hand. He shot smoke and gas canisters on innocent bystanders in the theatre. He then shot into the crowd. He killed twelve people and wounded another seventy people. When he was taken the police station they asked for his name. He identified himself as “The Joker,” the main villain in the movie. James Holmes clearly saw the movie and imitated the
The Joker is an important character in Batman movies. He is always shown to be a bad, evil character. However, he has secret reasons why he does what he does. If these secrets were well known he might be considered to be a popular Vigilante. He is doing this is because he wants to change Gotham City to a place that crooks can’t live and be safe from crimes and gangs, he kills evil for the greater good and uses a knife to bring forth justice because Joker did lots of things that Batman couldn’t. Do you still thinks that Joker is a bad
The Joker, Sauron, Plankton, Lord Voldemort, Kronos, Shego, and Hades are all very well-known villains in today’s world (at least in the U.S.). But, what makes them villains? A villain is made out of who the person is and what he or she does with his/her life. A villain is a person who is evil, hates people, gets even/gets revenge, is conniving and/or sneaky, a person who is manipulative, and a person who can (and does) keep up a false reputation. The character Iago, the main antagonist of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice definitely qualifies as a villain under these circumstances because he is manipulative, conniving, and keeps up a false reputation (that he’s honest and trustworthy).
Throughout the history of literature there have always been two sides to every story. There is the good side and the evil side. “Evil is the most serious of our moral problems. All over the world cruelty, greed, prejudice, and fanaticism ruin the lives of countless victims”(Kekes). Shakespeare follows this quite closely we see common victims as well as law breakers. The heroes usually have similar characteristics as one another. For example the heroes are usually brave, muscular, good looking, and fairly popular. On the other hand you have villains. Villains are usually brave as well; however they usually have some kind of deformity such as the villain in spider man. They have different beliefs than that of most other people. These are more modern villains, back in Shakespeare’s time villains were just normal people. Examples of these characters are Lago from Othello, this is a story where Lago makes a plot to take down Othello’s girl because he can’t have her so he makes a plan that will make her lover kill her. Another example of old villains is Claudius from Hamlet. Claudius is the King’s brother. Claudius secretly kills the king, takes his crown and causes a variety of problems. Last is Oberon from Mid Summer Nights Dream is Oberon. Oberon is another villain that causes problems by trying to punish his wife for her disobedience. These three characters are similar yet different. Besides the fact that they are all Shakespeare characters they are still very similar. Two ways that these characters are the same are their place in society and their talking skills, however they are different because of their motives.
A villainous mind is a closed box, unless opened nobody knows what’s inside however once opened easily visible. Similarly, a villainous character has the talent to be manipulative, prejudiced for others decisions and selfishly wanting to gain power without thinking about the affect it may have on other individuals. In Auther Miller’s The Crucible some depraved characters like Reverend Parris disrupt the peace in the society by manipulating other individuals and selfishly being greedy for power and reputation without keeping in mind the affect it may have on the society.
“As we speak of Trickster today, you must try to blow life into the image, to imagine Trickster as life energy, to allow Trickster to step out of the verbal photograph we create . . . . Because trickster stories still have power: the power to bring us to laughter, the power to baffle us, the power to make us wonder and think and, like Trickster, just keep going on” (Bright).
Commonly, a hero is considered as a representative of morality, justice and power. Also, people have various ways to evaluate their own heroes. Especially children, as they grow up, are more likely to create their heroes who are usually brave, strong, righteous and indestructible. However, villains are the opposite side of heroes, and they are evil, demoniacal and cruel. Some of those heroes would easily turn into villains when they are trying to get revenge because their hearts are filled with hatred. The play Hamlet by Shakespeare tells the tragic story of a prince avenging the death of his father. In the play, the main character Hamlet changes from a hero into a villain through his immoral and repellant actions.