The Joker is a character study in form of a single dialogue. If you are reading a story in the words of the author, it can't go beyond the limits of knowledge of the author. But a dialogue can. Suppose you read a dialogue from a drunk person. The words actually spoken would be mispronounced and even in writing, they can be spelled in a phonetic way to create a tone of the situation in the reader's mind. The Joker consists of the same idea. The dialogue is being delivered by a mentally unstable person who would speak on basis of his present mentality. Thus in some situations which go beyond the reader's normal mindset, for Joker these are normal.
The First paragraph in itself declares to the reader that Joker is mentally unstable. In the first chapter, it is an introduction to our character. Now to maintain the mystery of this character his name is never revealed and even in some areas of the story, he proves the reader wrong about what they thought about him till then. After the first paragraph, it's the description of his father's job as a clown. Now, this was an important aspect as, Joker needs to be a criminal in the future and he can be in any form, but why only a clown? that is answered here. He is always passionate to make the world laugh or in the sense be a clown. But his father is always against this. Thus making a clown as a forbidden fruit for him.
Next comes the story of the laugh. Being small and filled with innocence Joker is told that his laugh can melt people which he uses later in the story to melt those who bully him or disregard him. He had at this age created an algorithm in his mind to save himself just by a laugh. Till this point, he is being kept in a safe zone from the evils of society by his family. For example in the point where his father slaps him for wearing his material. He is protecting him from society's humiliation. His parents give him validations and act as a shield from society.
At the point where his parents die, that shield breaks, and he is exposed to society. This turning point in his life is the 'one bad day' in his story. At such a young age he faces the evils of society and the true picture of people around him who refuse to help him at the hour of need. Even his innocence is proven by his laugh which he learns now was useless in the cruel world. At a small age he gets known to the society, and it's evils, this breaks the childhood in that kid.
Next is the point where he is taken into the custody of crime and evil when he befriends Gab who takes him to Bob. At this segment, he will be exposed to mental illness and would descend into it. Bob tortures a small kid ruthlessly and pressurizes him to laugh create a mental pressure which makes him scroll into madness and fear. And this happens for years which fills anger in him for the world which was never willing to save him. 'The laugh grew weaker' these words actually mean that the innocence in him was dying, and creeping into darkness. Till now, he had been exposed to a harsh society, killed his innocence, and has descended into madness. The killing of Bob might be disturbing but puts an impact on the reader about how ruthless Joker has become from all this.
In the prison. He gets beaten up, feels lonely, feels frightened, simply all those experiences which would finish the brightness and colors from his life. Coming out of that he is willing to give his life a second chance. He is willing to give society a second chance by pursuing his career as a clown.
Now, this clown has two sides. One which is actually willing to entertain people, and the other one which a mentally ill evil guy. Both can't live together making him creepy and complex mentally. From here comes the 'serious' self in him. He does a job to be assumed as a normal guy but fails when his boss fires him.
Coming out he realizes his purpose which is being evil and unkind to the society which took everything from him. At this point, his mentality is to take revenge. And he will not remove clown makeup because he likes wearing it. He does his second murder killing Gab using Gab's own gun. He takes revenge on a betrayal. Till now, he has realized that killing people satisfies him and makes him happy. And he would continue doing this. This is something he uses as a full-time job.
A full-time job according to him as a clown who kills people. The normal self of him is still competing with his ill self. Which he refers to as 'Serious'. To kill the Serious self he questions himself and goes to his previous boss to kill him and ask the answer about his seriousness.
Now, the climax of the story is a test for Joker's final self. Till the end, he has won over the last piece of his normal self and converted himself completely into a devil. And the scar smile suggests the idea that he is no more serious, in other sense, no more normal. And the test is fulfilled when he kills his boss and his wife in front of their son leaving their son helpless, the same way he was left in the beginning. This proves that he has become so ruthless in the end that now he doesn't care about this happening. Making him into an entire Joker.
The point where he says that he could feel the pain of the kid, but actually he doesn't, gives a sense to the reader that he is not sure about his emotions. Or either, he was lying all this time in the story. A confused reader. Was the whole story a lie or a setup story that Joker uses to irritate his prey? let's keep it a mystery.
Now a question might arise in the reader's mind who is known to DC universe that the kid who was left helpless in the end could have been Bruce Wayne, but his father was not a Clown contractor. That is why the name of Joker's boss is not revealed in the story to keep it as a mystery and a sense of confusion in the reader's head.
Alternate Ending:-
Joker was supposed to kill the parents at the end and then go to look for the kid in the house threatening him singing a poem loudly about clowns. And in the end, when he would finally find the kid, he would have done nothing but scratched his cheeks with glass pieces to put a smile on his face making him another joker.
But! then there was no point in showing Joker's inner battle with himself to kill his normal self over the devil in him. And also the kid should be left helpless with broken glass pieces at his place so, that he could use it for himself. And the confusion of the kid being Bruce Wayne could have also been finished. Thus this ending wasn't used. A question also arises in the head of the reader that Bruce's parents were killed in an Ally. But, this one was killed at home. The answer is, he is Joker, who is reciting the story. He would use plenty of fiction to prove one point. He can twist the reality on his own and tell lies, which is a part of his personality's aspect.
I hope, you enjoyed the three Chapters of 'THE JOKER'. Do comment your thoughts on it.
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