Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Joker vs Richard III: Evil in Shakespeare and Popular Culture
The movie The Dark Knight stages an epic battle between the forces of good (as represented by Batman) and the forces of evil (as represented by the Joker). Much like Richard III, the Joker is the embodiment of evil. Both characters are physically, if not emotionally deformed. Both characters scheme and deceive to gain power over others. They both are willing to use violence and murder to achieve their ends. Yet, there are also significant differences between these two characters. Do these differences make a difference? Is one of these characters a more realistic portrayal of evil? Does one of these texts demonstrate a more insightful understanding of evil, its nature, its sources, it consequences? Or chose another exemplar of evil from popular culture (such as Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs or Tony Soprano from The Sopranos or Walter White from Breaking Bad). Does the portrayal of evil differ from Shakespeare's in significant ways? Is it more or less valid than Richard III? Who understands evil better, Shakespeare or popular culture?
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I think that Walter White from Breaking Bad and Richard III have a lot in common in the tactics they use to achieve each of their goals. Walter’s goal to create his own empire of meth cooking and distributing is, in a way, a modern version of Richard trying to be the most powerful man in his country. The two are both have a tunnel-vision to what they each want. The major differences between them are the original motives each has. Walter begins his career in meth to be able to provide for his family after his lung cancer has killed him. This motive can be seen a respectable one compared to Richard’s motive which stems solely from greed. The two cross paths when it comes to getting there; they both end up killing several people and do not stop. The differences in these two characters are very important because I don’t think that Walter White was necessarily an evil person but rather a good person doing evil things by circumstance. Richard, on the other hand, was actively trying to be a villain which he says from the beginning, “I am determined to prove a villain” (1.1.30). I don’t think that one portrays evil better than the other because in this modern age, there are more ways of being evil. Breaking Bad shows a wide range of battles of good and evil through murder, deception of the law, and breaking family bonds. The only real evil aspect of Richard is murder. Walter and Richard express evil in different ways because of the difference in their times.
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ReplyDeleteI think that the Joker from The Dark Knight is a more accurate depiction of evil than Richard III. While it can definitely be argued that both characters drip with evil intentions, the circumstances surrounding the Joker's character are much more believable than those of Richard III, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the Joker achieves his goals through threats and force. He takes hostages and kills innocent people to accomplish his goals. This creates fear, and fear is a highly effective motivator. However, Richard III achieves a lot of his goals in unrealistic ways. When he is wooing Lady Anne, though his intentions and actions are evil, the plot is a stretch. Lady Anne goes from saying, "Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead" to accepting his ring and agreeing to meet up later (1.2.164). Richard has made no threats, she does not fear him; Lady Anne's change of heart comes solely from Richard's smooth-talking tongue. While both characters, Richard III and the Joker, both embody evil, I believe the Joker to be more believable and plausible because he tries to scare his enemies rather than winning them over.
I also think that the Joker is eviler than Richard III because he gets his hands dirty. The Joker personally kills several people, and tries to kill several hundred more. Richard merely orders those around him to do the killing. While it does not make him a good person, Richard is above physically taking a life. It could be argued that this is to maintain his secret, true intentions, but I believe it to be because there's a part of Richard that knows he is wrong. This is shown towards the end of the book when he has an epiphany in the form of a dream: "O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me" (5.3.191)! If you're truly evil, you don't feel guilty about what you've done. The Joker sure doesn't.
While both Richard and The Joker have questionable methods of getting what they want, I do not think that both could be described as pure evil. In my opinion, in order to be described as “pure evil”, one would have to commit terrible crimes simply for the sake of committing terrible crimes. In other words, there is no justifiable reason behind their violent acts. I still believe that acts of violence and murder are still immoral, even if there is some or little reason behind them. I just wouldn’t call these acts examples of “pure evil”. For this reason, I think that the joker is a more accurate representation of the force of evil.
ReplyDeleteWhile Richard is definitely the villain in the play Richard III, I do not think he is a perfectly accurate embodiment of what evil is because he does have an end goal. Richard wants to be king. This objective is the reason for all of his sinful acts. When Buckingham asks what they are to do with Hastings since he won’t support them, Richard responds, “Chop off his head. Something we will determine./ And look when I am king, claim thou of me/ The earldom of Hereford…” (3.2.196-8). While the act of murdering Hastings is immoral, because Hastings is hindering Richard’s ability to become king, it should not be described as evil. Also, one of the most terrible acts that Richard commits in the play has some amount of reason behind it. After he becomes king, Richard exclaims to Buckingham
“O bitter consequence
That Edward still should live “true noble prince”!
Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull.
Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead,
And I would have it suddenly performed” (4.2.17-21)
Here, Richard is ordering the murder of two innocent children. However, because there is a possibility of them threatening his right to the crown, killing them, at least from Richard’s perspective, makes some amount of sense.
On the contrary, there is no logical reason behind any of the sinful acts the Joker commits. Everything that the Joker does is really just to make people miserable. There is no end goal, except to cause the people of Gotham suffering. In this sense, the Joker is a more accurate representation of evil because he has no purpose except to be villainous. Richard, while he is definitely a bad person, is not as evil as the Joker is.
Both the Joker and Richard are the manifestation of evil in their respective stories, but each of them portray a different version of evil. The Joker is the incarnation of evil in a man, not really human. Richard portrays the humanistic side of evil, he chooses to be evil because of his desire for power.
ReplyDeleteThe Joker's character is not really human. He needs no reason to be evil, he just is. His sole purpose for existence is to be evil and bring chaos to Gotham City. The Joker is almost the devil personified, trying to reveal the demonic side of everyone. An example of this is he plants a bomb on two ships, a prison ship and a civilian ship. His gives each ship the detonator to the other ships' bomb and tells the people on each ship that if one ship is not blown up by midnight, he will detonate both bombs. The Joker wanted to show the extremes man is will to go to survive. The jokers also does not care about his survival to proove his point, he tries to have Batman kill, there by forcing Batman to break his moral code.
Richard's version of evil is more humanistic because he has a choice. He is one of the few characters in the play that is aware of the hypocrisy and moral wrongness of his actions and yet he still does them. He chooses carry out those evil acts for very human purpose, to gain more power. Unlike the Joker, who is beyond human emotion, Richard is controlled by the baser instincts. Richard is afraid of death, as can be seen how reacts to his dream in act V. This is the opposite of the Joker who openly tries to die. Richard embodies all that the Joker is trying to bring out of people.
the joker is discontent with societies' ideals
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