Harleen Quinzel Character Traits

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Although her love interest, the Joker, believes that life is a joke and should be viewed as such, Harleen Quinzel’s life is anything but funny. She was first created as a simple character by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm and was meant to be a one time appearance as the Joker’s sidekick in the episode “Joker’s Favor” in Batman: The Animated Series. Fans quickly fell in love with her playfully charming characteristics so she was soon developed into a deeply complex character with a past and a storyline. Unfortunately, her lovable persona serves mainly as a cover up for the true trauma beneath her surface. In reality, abusive and damaged relationships have deeply scarred her. They left her with many layers of desire, confusion, and evil to tarnish the good within.
Harleen Quinzel began on a positive path, but a lack of support in her life allowed her to quickly derail from the life that she was after. She grew up in a home filled with classic evil and general disgust. Her father was a malicious man. He seduced women in their weakest moments and tricked …show more content…

She attended Gotham City University, under a gymnastics scholarship, with the intent of getting a degree from their psychology program. Displaying her deceitful side, the comic Mad Love implies that she would be sleeping, or at least flirting, her way through university when the comic states, “Never mind that she didn’t want to get it done by studying” (Dini 19). This quote was accompanied by a smirking Harley exiting a professor's office with a newly written “A+” on her thesis paper. It is likely that her seeking after professors was not only an easy way to receive high grades, but also a reflection of her “daddy problems”. Harley’s father never gave her the attention she needed, resulting in her sleeping with older men to compensate. Harley always internalizes the results of the relationships in her life and changes her lifestyle and attitude

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