Joker vs Monster Culture

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The Joker vs. Cohen’s “Monster Culture” The Joker, depicted by Heath Ledger in Batman: The Dark Knight, is a monster who is not only evil in itself, but also through others. Through out the film the Joker puts people in positions where they must kill a person or group of people, an action deemed “evil” by society, in order to save another person or group of people from being injured or killed. This desire the Joker has to prove that anyone can be made evil, if the circumstances are right, relates to one of Jeffrey Cohen’s monster theses. In Cohen’s essay “Monster Culture”, he depicts seven theses regarding the use and characteristics of monsters in our culture. The third thesis states a monster questions our system of defining things. A great example of this occurs in the scene where the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital. At the beginning of this scene the Joker’s voice is on live television, and he states that if the reporter is not killed in 60 minutes he will blow up a hospital. This leads the town to mass chaos, because the police are protecting this reporter and civilians are trying to kill him. No one ends up killing this man so the Joker blows up a hospital, but luckily all of the hospitals have been evacuated. In an effort to demonstrate miniscule difference between good and evil, the Joker, from the film Batman: The Dark Knight, attempts to manipulate others into performing tasks commonly perceived by society as evil. There are numerous instances throughout the film where the Joker questions society’s system of defining good and evil, but the scene involving the hospital is the best example. Right away in this scene the Joker tells the public on the evening news that if Coleman Reece, the anchor, is not killed within the hour that a hospital will be blown up. This relates to Cohen’s third thesis, which brings up the idea that monsters call

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