The Joker Analysis

The Joker has been represented in two films in the last 30 years, Batman (1989) played by Jack Nicholson and The Dark Knight (2008) played by Heath Ledger. Batman’s director Tim Burton gave Nicholson’s Joker an identity outside the Joker persona: an identity that effects his motivations and the overall tone of the film as being filled with revenge. In contrast, The Dark Knight’s director Christopher Nolan focuses on the mental connection between Ledger’s Joker and Batman (Christian Bale) through juxtaposing Joker’s anarchy to Batman’s morality. The motivations behind each portrayal are reflected in the way their respective personas were created. Nicholson’s motivation is all about revenge against Batman (Michael Keaton), Grissom (Jack Palance),

and the city that made him into the Joker: Ledger’s motivation is about breaking the psyche of the city that made the existence of his persona possible through inflicting chaos.
The approaches of each Joker towards Batman are influenced by the way each persona was created. Nicholson’s Joker was created through a physical altercation with Batman where he falls into a tub of acid. Ledger’s Joker was created by the very existence of Batman as he becomes the antithesis of everything Batman represents. Ledger’s portrayal revolves around the fight for Gotham’s soul through combating Batman’s morals with full-blown chaos. He can’t exist without Batman, in fact, without Batman he would have no purpose. Nicholson’s Joker sees Batman as an obstacle that is trying to get in his way of taking over Gotham. He prides himself on societal status such as power rather than creating chaos for Gotham. The want for materialistic items by Nicholson’s Joker goes back to the presence of an identity outside the Joker persona. The audience views Nicholson’s portrayal as more human than monster in contrast to Ledger’s portrayal which comes across as a monster with no empathy, no motivations besides the quest for chaos. Ledger’s motivation is perfectly described by Alfred (Michael Cane), “"Some men aren't looking for something logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn” (Nolan, The Dark Knight).
Burton makes Nicholson’s Joker become essentially the mob boss of Gotham toying with the audiences of 1980’s fear of the mob’s ability to physical touch your daily life. Nolan makes Ledger’s Joker becomes Gotham’s version of a terrorist with no motivations besides the allure of creating chaos. Ledger’s role as a terrorist comes no clearer than when he blows up the hospital because as he puts it “I’m agent of chaos” (Nolan The Dark Knight). The audiences of today have a fear of the unknown and what they can’t understand. Ledger’s Joker embodies this very notion of something we can’t understand or define: he just wants to watch the world burn. Mario Rodriguez in his article “Physiognomy and Freakery: The Joker On Film” explores how the two Joker portrayals represent societies’ fear and anxieties, “In the 1980s, which saw the rise of neoliberalism, the Joker embodied anxiety surrounding America's inner cities. In the post-9/11 era, he represents anxiety regarding new global cities and the threat of terrorism, institutional evil, and mental illness.” (Physiognomy and Freakery: The Joker On Film) This belief of Rodriguez coincides with the idea that the motivations from each Joker come from their respective connections with Batman.
Their motivations even reflect themselves in the parallel scenes in each movie such as when Joker kidnaps Batman’s love interest, in Batman it’s Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and in The Dark Knight it’s Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Nicholson’s Joker kidnaps Vicki as a way to prove his power over Batman after he supposedly kills him: he wants to take everything Batman ever had to fully enact his revenge. Ledger’s kidnaps Rachel along with Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as a part of a scheme to morally corrupt Batman making him choose between Gotham’s future and his own. Nicholson’s Joker is on a course of self-justification of his now encompassing persona and position as Joker/mob boss of Gotham. This all goes back to Burton’s decision to align an identity with the persona of the Joker. This “Jack Napier” has needs and wants besides creating the chaos that the Joker represents in the comics and what Ledger’s version embodies. Nicholson’s Joker quest for revenge is on full display right after he kills his former boss Grissom and looks down at a newspaper that mentions Batman exploits against the mob and he says “Winged freak terrorizes… wait till they get a load of me“(Burton Batman). This scene outlines his revenge filled goal that Gotham and Batman will pay for what they made him become. In comparison, Ledger’s version wants nothing besides anarchy along with showing the world that Batman is exactly same kind of freak that he is.
Ledger’s Joker wants so badly for Batman to break his moral code that he actively tries to make Batman kill him, even on multiple occasions asking Batman to do it: he wants Batman to embrace the freak that Joker is fully committed to and sees in Batman.

His mental connection with Batman comes out in full force in the interrogation scene with Batman after the before mentioned kidnapping, a point Rodriguez mentions in his article “The interrogation scene with Batman exemplifies this point, when the Joker responds to Batman's claim that he is "garbage who kills for money" by saying "you're just a freak like me!" (Physiognomy and Freakery: The Joker On Film). Ledger’s Joker looks at Batman as just like him and he later destroys the insult that Batman throws at him in this scene, when he burns his half of the mob money. This is a major difference between the two portrayals of Joker as Nicholson’s version is trying to kill Batman instead of worrying about some moral code. This difference is a consequence of Nicholson’s character having the identity of Jack Napier, that he has connection outside the villain-superhero feud between the two: a connection exists to the man inside of Batman, Bruce Wayne. Therefore, Batman becomes a revenge film from both sides as Batman is looking to avenge his parent’s death at the hands of Jack Napier/Joker while Joker is on a quest to kill Batman to repay him for his role in making him the

Joker.
Another use of a parallel scene in both movies that reflects the motivations of each character perfectly is when Batman comes at Joker in a moving vehicle, it’s a motorcycle in The Dark Knight and in Batman it’s the bat plane. Both Jokers know Batman won’t kill them but Ledger’s version doesn’t take advantage of this as he knows if he kills him his existence won’t have a purpose anymore: his war against societies morals would be over. Nicholson’s version does the exact opposite being fueled by the revenge Burton created he aims his gun at the bat plane and knocks it out of the sky thinking he killed Batman. Ledger’s version uses this scene to try to find out who Batman really is, after Batman falls from the bike, he leans over to take off Batman’s mask, of course failing to do so. This action by Ledger’s Joker gives us a full indication of his quest: he has no interest in killing his enemy just corrupting him. This want to corrupt Batman goes so far, as mentioned before, he wants Batman to kill him, he’s heard saying “Come on come on I want you do it, hit me” (Nolan The Dark Knight). Ledger wants Batman to give into the freak that society has labeled him. Society in The Dark Knight views Batman as a sort of safety net, pointed out in the article, “‘I Think You and I Are Destined to Do This Forever”, “Batman takes over when the threat of the Joker or crime surpasses society’s ability to defend itself” (Nichols, 242). This idea is something Ledger’s Joker plays on when he tells Batman that he will never be a member of society, just a freak on the outside looking in.
The physical connection between Nicholson’s Joker and Keaton’s Batman made the revenge need to win out on either side to have a feeling of closure for the revenge based film.

However, in The Dark Knight the audience didn’t need a death for closure as the film was a physiological thriller about a clash between the morals of Batman and the antithesis of those morals in the chaos of Ledger’s Joker. Nolan chooses to have the fight for Gotham’s soul to decide the winner and not have a fight to the death. Batman’s refusal to give into the corruption Ledger’s Joker is constantly forcing on his psyche is described in detail in Vilja Johnson’s article “'It's What You Do that Defines You:' Christopher Nolan's Batman as Moral Philosopher”. Johnson focuses on their last encounter in The Dark Knight to demonstrate this “When Batman pushes the Joker off of himself and over the building's edge, he could justify the death as self-defense, and yet he chooses to save the falling villain at the last moment” ('It's What You Do that Defines You:' Christopher Nolan's Batman as Moral Philosopher”). Nolan’s decision to keep the connection between Ledger’s version and Batman mental made this a possible outcome for film in a way Burton’s Batman didn’t. Nicholson’s Joker had no choice but to die to allow Keaton’s Batman to have a closure in his parent’s death that Bale’s Batman gained in Nolan’s first film Batman Begins with Joe Chill’s

death.
The connections of each Joker to their respective Batman guides each film toward its final conclusion. Burton’s Batman focuses on the revenge of Jack Napier/Joker against Batman for making him become this monster and Batman’s revenge against Joker’s act of killing his parents. This revenge based film is derived from one physical altercation at the beginning between then Jack Napier and Batman when the fateful fall into the tub of acid takes place. Every event from that movement on in the film is an effect of that physical altercation between Joker and Batman. Burton bases Joker’s motivations around the revenge he wants against Batman who created his Joker persona. Burton’s placement of Jack Napier in the film made it necessary for it to end in a death. Nolan’s The Dark Knight focuses on the difference in the philosophies of each character, Batman’s morality and the anarchy of Joker. Ledger’s Joker’s motivations come for a metaphysical connection to Batman that makes him feel the need to push Batman to his level of “freak”. This connection of Ledger’s Joker to Batman is one of creation through the very idea of Batman existence among society. Ledger’s Joker took advantage of a world that allowed an entity like Batman to exist, and he can’t exist outside that world. His realization of that fact makes the killing Batman unfathomable but the idea of corrupting him to his level enticing. Both portrayals are a product of the way they were created by Batman. Ledger’s through a mental connection of being the antithesis of Batman’s morality. Nicholson’s through a physical connection of getting dropped into a vat of acid making him seek revenge on the bat of Gotham city.