The Mind of the Joker: An In-Depth Analysis
Arthur Fleck is the titular villainous protagonist of the 2019 movie “Joker” by Todd Phillips. His character is played by Joaquin Phoenix. The movie tells about the life of a man who dreams about being a comedian, but as time goes by, he goes mad and becomes a psychopathic murderer. This story shows the consequences of the lack of love and acceptance in one’s life and also gives a view of a dysfunctional system where one cannot receive enough support and care. A spine-tingling human drama, immersed in the everydayness of realism, shows how important it is to feed our needs. In the movie, we have a chance to experience Arthur’s gradual transition during which he creates his alter-ego and changes into the eponymous Joker. He lives in a world where there is no place for alterity and emotions. This is a story about the fate of a human who desperately fights for uniqueness.
“Joker” is a case study of a man who has been accompanied by tragic events since early childhood. The scathes he experienced as a child have contributed to the development of his mental disorder and social issues. Throughout his life, Arthur suffers rejection and incomprehension from the society he lives in. His rough youth, violence, and neglect on the part of his parents make him wonder who he is more and more often. Arthur’s life changes when he gets a gun from one of his co-workers. Negative thoughts, tensions, and evil intentions, although suppressed by now, emerge from the chaos of Artur’s thoughts. The internal transition starts. The man feels as if he could take matters into his own hands by resisting the world that rejected him. The growing feeling of self-efficacy is accompanied by enormous fear. Unsatisfied self-needs, not enough support from his close ones, discrimination, and indifference coming from the outside world all intensify Arthur’s hostility which he inefficiently tries to crush. The symptoms are even more potentiated due to the restriction of the availability of the drugs prescribed to him. Day by day, Joker controls his impulsivity and anger more and more. Gradually, he becomes malevolent toward the city he lives in. The ambivalent feeling between what he should and what he wants makes him lose control over what is right and wrong.
The actual moment of Arthur’s inner transition is when he finds one of the letters to his father that his mother wrote and decides to find him. When he finally succeeds, his potential father denies the kinship’s speculations. Arthur’s words Please Dad, show me some warmth and decency, his stubborn attempts to contact him, and the constant disallowing of the truth bring our attention to the growing frustration inside him. During a further search for his roots, Arthur visits the mental hospital where the social worker denies him access to his mum’s documents. He immediately loses his temper, pulls the acts from the man’s hand, and flees. The secrets hidden in the papers make him experience rejection and betrayal again – this time from the only good left in his life, his mother. The moment of truth about being adopted is crucial for understanding the psyche of this character. Lonely, unemployed, socially excluded man, from the victim, becomes the hunter. He gets rid of everything that has been connected to the soul of Arthur Fleck. A soul which the depressed protagonist doesn’t see the future for anymore. Traumatic events from his past, lies, and the loss of major constructs, on which his life has been based, become the dynamism for getting rid of the inner conflicts and ambivalence and in the end, changing the hierarchy of his goals and values. The sense of continuity in Arthur’s life breaks whereby he doesn’t know who he is and where he comes from anymore. The change is enhanced by the growing Joker’s admiration among the local Gotham City community that rebels against the dysfunctional system. From the chaos, Joker emerges. An insane human, who becomes a hero totally by accident. A picture and a mask of a hurt man, seeking the meaning of life. He is no longer afraid of the change and its bad consequences because he becomes evil himself. Joker is authentic, autonomic, and finally can call himself perfect, someone who belongs. Imitatively integrated, Joker’s negative identity is based on hostility against the world.
Joker’s character evokes fringe emotions. Some of us admire him and some of us fear him. He is a symbol of the rebellion against the system that at first sight is powerful but as we look closely, is filled with pain and agony. The psychopath is trapped in his false beliefs and attempts to become a comedian. Joker is most importantly a mask under which an enormous pain and suffering hides. The pain from a mentally sick man who couldn’t get help from anyone around him. Joker has become trapped in aggression and rejection. He has been hurting people around him as well as himself. He is led by revenge and unforgiven harm. He remembers exactly who was laughing at him, didn’t believe in his dreams, or didn’t respect his neurological issues. When revenge and aggression took control over his actions, nothing stopped him from killing his bullies or co-workers and what is even worse, he didn’t hesitate to choke his mother to death. Joker has been through so much evil that no sanction or punishment would work on him. His psyche has been crushed and so has his ability to build healthy relationships. Unstable feelings about his status and problems with defining his place in the social hierarchy could be the result of how much his identity was broken in his childhood. He has not met anyone in his life who could give him hope and love. Someone who would help him adapt to the chaos outside and prevent him from all the mistakes he has made.
The history in the movie tells us about a madman, sometimes called a psychopath. It is really important to remember that we cannot just say that he is evil as most of his misery seems to be linked with his neurological and psychotic problems as well as with his traumatic childhood. Joker is an unpredictable and chaotic character. His actions are often devoid of logic and cohesion, motivated by chaos and greed. He unremorsefully uses violence and manipulation to reach his goals. However, despite his madness, Joker often shows how intelligent and clever he is. He can read people and use their weaknesses and emotions to manipulate them. Joker’s character is clear evidence of how a lack of support and love can break a human being. Maybe if he had met true, unconditional love on his path, everything would have been different.
About the author:
Hi! My name is Olivia and I am a Health Psychology student from Poland. I am a Team Member of the current EFPSA Research Programme Team. I am really interested in clinical psychology and neuropsychology as well as multicultural research. Besides my university, you can find me in the stable, spending time with my lovely horse that I adore so much. I am a really active person, love nature – I’m totally a water person – and enjoy my morning coffee every day. Hope to hear from you all!