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| "Sometimes, I just kill myself." - Joker |
“Jack? Jack is dead. You can call me… Joker! And as you can
see, I’m a lot happier!” This uncanny quote comes from the very illustrious
Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman. Jack Napier,
his character before the Joker, was working alongside his boss, Carl Grissom.
Things took a turn for the worst when Grissom discovered that his lover Alicia
was having an affair with Napier. Cunningly, Grissom set Napier up to be killed
by police officers after sending him to Axis Chemicals to collect evidence.
However, with Batman’s interference, the plan flopped. Napier killed a police
officer, but he himself took a bullet straight through his cheeks. This resulted
in Napier falling into a large vat of chemicals, thus transforming him into the
lively Joker. Green hair, white skin, and rosy lips are only a couple of characteristics
that describe this newly-created ego. Deeply affected by his unfavorable
appearance, Joker began to become a bit hysterical and delusional. Seeking
revenge, he killed Carl Grissom. Jealous of the press Batman kept receiving,
Joker decided to outdo the “hero” by killing individuals left and right. He
took over the domain previously-ran by Grissom. Killing off some of the
employees and innocent individuals, the Joker invariably continued on with his deceptive
antics until his unfortunate downfall at the end due to Batman.
The top priority of the Joker was to kill everyone, and he was
definitely successful. These first few instances portray Jack Napier as a trickster
even before transforming into the Joker because he disrupted the order in
Grissom’s life by cheating with Alicia and in the police officer’s life by
killing him. Not too long after the incident, the vengeful Joker took the life
of Carl Grissom. Burton played into this trickery by having the Joker kill
individuals in a comical fashion: utilizing joy buzzers, gas-filled balloons,
etc. Burton also made the Joker incredibly funny, never failing to leave any
situation/occasion with an awkward smile or frenzied laugh. He was not depicted
as “dark” like a typical trickster. Jack gave the character personality. One
could also say that Joker was somewhat of a clown.
Akeem, I really enjoyed reading your opinions on Jack Napier as a trickster character. I like that you point out the fact the Jack was a trickster even before he became the over the top murderer that is the Joker. This shows that the Joker is a true trickster character because it is in his character. Before his face deforming accident, he was a sneaky criminal, messing around with his boss's girlfriend. I like that you point this fact out because I forgot about it. The Joker is the ultimate trickster, its in his blood to mess with people, he messes with all of Gotham city! I believe that showing how greedy and vulnerable Gotham is a critique on society. Tim Burton gets his point across by portraying the Joker in the way that he did.
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