The Dark Knight and Heart of Darkness Essay

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The Dark Knight and Heart of Darkness both portray different and similar concepts of light and dark. These concepts show things such as selfish desires, chaos and anarchy, as well as hope in some cases. Darkness is portrayed differently throughout both the film and the novel. Both the novel and the film show that light and dark conflict against each other. In both texts, there are contradictions in the light, which shows the true darkness. In The Dark Knight, Batman is a hero that saves the city however he is a vigilante and takes the law into his own hands. As well as saving the city, Batman destroys it at the same time, even if it is unintentional. We can see this in the car chase scene. The Joker also kills a few people at the expense of Batman as Batman would not reveal himself. This links with Heart of Darkness because in Heart of Darkness, it says ‘Light as order, civilisation, knowledge and dark as without rules, wild. It shows the conflicting nature of man – Not all that is light is good. They also say that they are for civilisation when in fact they’re really there for ivory, and they want to kill the savages. We can see this in Kurtz’s report too when he says ‘exterminate all the brutes’ at the end of it. Unlike Batman, this is intentional which shows the dark side of colonialism; however they both have the same concept. This shows light and dark in both characters in both texts. In both texts, masks are used as disguises. The masks in The Dark Knight are used to hide Batman’s and The Joker’s identities. The director uses the technique of costume to showcase the chaos and anarchy going on. The Joker uses hidden identity to cause panic and mayhem throughout the city and cause destruction and anarchy in Gotham City as well as to fuel his selfish desires, and to ‘watch the world burn.’ This links with the Heart of Darkness, as the masks are used as

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