Mental Illness In The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is one of the best iterations of Batman since the concept of Batman first came into being in 1939; the film offers easy to digest bites of philosophy and a deeper look into human nature. Despite the film's success and acclaim, what does The Dark Knight say about society's views on mental illness? The film presents a sensationalized portrayal of mental illness and depicts criminals as people that are meant to be feared; that people with mental illness are dangerous and violent. This message has a damaging effect on the population's view of mental illness, and people that struggle with it themselves. The Dark Knight is the highest grossing Batman film since the first Batman movie (ironically named Batman: The Movie) in 1966 and won the award "Movie of the Year" from AFI Awards. The movie offers all of the elements someone could

The Joker holds people hostage, terrorizes the city, and pits people against each other for his own personal pleasure. In a scene in The Dark Knight, the Joker is depicted pouring gasoline on a pile of money and setting it on fire (possibly as a nod back to the quote from Alfred). As a representation of pure chaos, the Joker's character is the

For example, people with schizophrenia can be psychotic or non-psychotic. In addition, the four main types of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, and residual schizophrenia. The conclusion could be drawn from the Joker's portrayal of schizophrenia that schizophrenics are deranged and violent, however, the symptoms of schizophrenia exclude any mention of violent tendencies. The main symptoms of schizophrenia are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior. The Joker is delusional, but that should not imply