How Is Batman Portrayed In The Dark Knight Scapegoating

The film The Dark Knight explores René Girard’s theory of scapegoating with the character of Batman. According to Girard, scapegoating occurs when society is on the brink of chaos. In order to prevent this widespread violence society instead puts all of the blame for their problems onto a marginalized group or person. In a way, this keeps society from falling apart because it keeps the citizens from blaming each other and acting out violently against each other. Instead, the society unites in their hatred towards this individual or small community that is blamed for all of the problems. Lyden argues that scapegoating is also present in films and that films allow for a vicarious release of this violence. We can see that modern films are greatly increasing in violence and Lyden believes that this increase is a form of scapegoating. For example, In The Dark Knight, when we see the Joker and the mob violently killing people and setting off bombs throughout Gotham it allows the audience a cathartic release of their violent impulses. Violence in media is actually good for us because it allows us this sense of release without actually

Throughout the film, Batman and Harvey Dent are two very contrasting characters. Even though they are both fighting for a similar cause: cleaning up the streets of Gotham and keeping the citizens safe; they are both going about achieving this goal in widely different ways. Batman is a vigilante who works outside of the law to defeat the many criminals of Gotham, while Harvey Dent is the new DA and always follows the law when prosecuting criminals. Batman is the Dark Knight while Harvey is the White Knight. At the end of the film, we see Harvey’s moral compass become corrupted by The Joker and by the death of his girlfriend and he loses his mind and turns to crime. He becomes Two-Face and goes as far as to almost kill one of Commissioner Gordon’s