The film, The Dark Knight depicts an incredible embodiment of Psychoanalytic and Semiotic theories. It also reflects fragments of the screen-spectator relationship and unconscious fears within society.
This movie replicates the structure of the mind according to Freud, and represents the following components within it: the preconscious, the conscious and the unconscious (Cherry 2016).
The characters of the film are used in this construction, and thus play an essential role in its entire narrative.
There is a much bigger framework embedded within this film. Within this piece, I aim to expose the subliminal and highlight the underlined.
The city of Gotham, filmed in Chicago, takes on a dark and urban look. This accurately represents the reality of things in a city well known for its crime and terror.
I also find it interesting that Nolan decided to turn Batman’s fictional city into something real. His choice of location, Chicago, is a symbol of everything Nolan attempted to embody in the film. The city of Chicago shares a fine connection with the depicted city of Gotham in The Dark Knight. This is due to the amount of crime and violence in the city (Rozas 2009).
Specific colours are used in the grading of this film, as symbols of meaning within the text. Most of the film is in blue colour. This is used in representing the active presence of isolation within the city of Gotham. Nolan paints a cold atmosphere where cold-hearted acts take place in. This also depicts the presence of sadness and grief within the city. This atmosphere creates the need for characters such as Harvey Dent and Batman.
I believe a mutual relationship between myself and the film was created during multiple scenes. Batman is faced with difficult challenges during the film. The most memorable for me is when he has to choose between saving the life of Harvey Dent, and therefore rescuing his city and upholding his mantle as Batman, or saving Rachel, his love interest, and satisfying the emotional needs of Bruce Wayne.
On a personal level, I feel like I relate to this struggle on a daily basis, as I am faced with multiple choices every day, and left pondering, what aspect of my identity I should please. Emmanuel, the Masters student who has academic commitments and deadlines to face, or Manny, the dreamer; the guy who refuses to rest until he is doing what truly makes him happy outside of the classroom.
In a similar fashion to Bruce/ Batman, I have friends and loved ones waiting on my choice, as it affects them too. It is this identification and awareness from the spectator that gives meaning to the images on the screen (Schneider nd).
In this film, the Joker challenges order and exposes the hypocrisy of the ‘sane’ and ‘civilised’. In his interrogation scene with Batman, he says… ‘You’ll see, I’ll show you, that when the chips are down, these uh… civilized people, they’ll eat each other’.
The Joker points out a common hypocritical act, practised by many members of society. He argues that, although people have their beliefs and ideas of good and bad, they would forsake them in uncomfortable situations, and play it safe instead; abandoning the very same morals they vowed to live by.
This reflects an important unconscious intent of man. I, as a human being would also ignore my ideology if my life was threatened, but would still look down on the Joker as an evil person. The Joker exposes this bias and highlights that, deep down in the unconscious, we are all not so different from each other.
The most notable cultural anxiety experimented on, in this film, from my observation, is the postmodern fear of terror. Because of terrorist acts such as the September 11 attacks, the fear of horror from this unknown ‘other’ has undoubtedly been drilled into postmodern societies of so called ‘first world’ countries.
Mediums of expression such as films have capitalised on this collective memory and ‘regurgitated’ it to the public.
Deflem (2010: 29) argues that, questions such as ‘how the world is structured, what is valuable and unworthy, who is good and who is bad, and which kinds of actions are wrong or right’ are asserted in media texts. The terrorist occurrences have since triggered fear of anyone who looks different to most people in the United States of America. I do not find it coincidental that, the mob bosses in this film are represented as either non-American or a racial minority, with the joker being the only exception, because he is represented as an intelligent antagonist. This representation reflects the unconscious perception of the ‘other’ as ‘foreign’ by a handful of people.
The Dark Knight details the surrealist performance of representing the ‘unconscious’ using images. This is made possible through the mixture of film with ‘real life’.
Elements of psychoanalysis are adopted in the framework of this film.
Nolan depicts Freud’s structures of personality, which include: the id, the ego, and the super ego (McLeod 2007). These traits are reflected in the following main characters within the film:
The Joker
As his name implies, he is an unserious character who represents himself as selfish, needy, unconscious and operating solely on the ‘Pleasure Principle’. He represents the ‘id’ personality. Freud describes the id as ‘the completely unconscious, irrational component of personality that seeks immediate satisfaction of instinctual urges and drives’ (Hockenbury and Hockenbury 2005: 3).
In the film, he can be seen walking into a meeting with the mob bosses of Gotham, laughing and cracking jokes yet killing somebody in the process. His personality also stayed the same all through the film, connoting that, the id is the most dominant personality type within society.
Although he has unconscious desires of happiness, in seeing his visions come to pass, this feeling is often disguised as something dark and evil.
His belief in iconoclasm cements his position as id in this film. The Joker has a hunger for anarchy. In his hospital scene with Dent, he suggests to him: ‘Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos’. This goes in line with Freud’s description of the id as chaotic (1933: 73).
Harvey Dent, Two – Face
This character is an accurate representative of the Ego. Freud defines the Ego as ‘that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world’ (1923: 25). In the film, Harvey Dent was portrayed as a nearly perfect and incorruptible character until his encounter with the Joker, which saw him transition into the alternative side of him; Two Face.
In this film, Dent was portrayed as a strong-willed individual who was very composed and articulate in his dealings. This created difficulties for him, as he was always expected to be the strong individual his city needed him to be.
Dent is faced with emotional trauma after he loses his girlfriend, Rachel to an explosion. The Id capitalises on this unfortunate event and attempts to work out his agenda using the Ego.
He is a reflection of the conscious side of human beings, as his actions are very much altered by present occurrences around him.
Dent reflects the realistic aspect of us humans, and is filled with hate and a strong desire to avenge the death of his loved one.
Rennison argues that, the ego responds to the world and adjusts to reality (2001: 39).
After his encounter with the Joker, Dent was fully motivated to forsake everything he previously stood for in order to achieve his needs (which at the time was revenge).
Batman
This character represents the righteous aspect of the human being and is only concerned about doing nothing but the right thing(s). Batman embodies the Superego personality type. This is shown in his ever-existing desire to protect his city from harm, fight against injustice and abide by his moral values.
In this film, Batman abides by the Reality Principle, as he tries his utmost best to stay in check, and ensure that his actions remain socially and morally appropriate. In accordance to Freud’s system, the Super-Ego strives to radiate cultural norms in a selfless manner (Siegfried 2014). He embodies the preconscious side of human beings, because his morals are always on guard with him in his consciousness.
At the end of the film, Batman proved to be truly ‘righteous’, as he decided to take the blame for the actions of Harvey Dent, and have people hate him instead, all in hopes of giving his city, Gotham a sense of hope.
The actions of The Joker, Harvey Dent and Batman all work together to reflect the presence of the preconscious, conscious and unconscious within society.
Bibliography
Cherry, K. (2016) ‘The Conscious and Unconscious Mind: The Structure of the Mind According to Freud’ [online] available from <https://www.verywell.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-2795946> [2nd March 2017].
Deflem, M. (2010) Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control. Emerald Group Publishing Limited: Bingley.
Freud, S. (1923) The Ego and the Id. W. W. Norton & Company: Vienna.
Freud, S. (1933) New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud). W. W. Norton & Company: Vienna.
Hockenbury, D., Hockenbury, S. (2005) Psychology. Worth Publishers: New York.
McLeod, S. (2007) ‘Id, Ego and Super Ego’ [online] available from <http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html> [2nd March 2017].
Rennison, N. (2001) Freud and Psychoanalysis: The Pocket Essential Guide. Chichester: Summerdale Publishers Ltd.
Rozas, A. (2009) ‘Chicago had 509 homicides in 2008: Homicides rose nearly 15 percent and overall crime rose 3 to 4 percent’ [online] available from <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-01-02/news/0901010175_1_police-supt-jody-weis-crime> [5 May 2017].
Siegfried, W. (2014) ‘The Formation and Structure of the Human Psyche Id, Ego, and Super-Ego – The Dynamic (Libidinal) and Static Unconsciousness, Sublimation, and the Social Dimension of Identity Formation’ [online] available from <http://www.fau.edu/athenenoctua/pdfs/William%20Siegfried.pdf> [1st May 2017].
Schneider, M. (nd) ‘Identification: Spectator Identification with Narrative Film’ [online] available from <http://lovingthecinema.blogspot.co.uk/p/identification.html> [5th May 2017].
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