Batman is a hero because he mastered his shadow and his persona.
Batman is really Bruce Wayne, a wealthy businessman who personifies himself as a playboy to the Gotham City elite. Bruce Wayne is not the playboy they think he is. He is a man who fell into a well where he was attacked by bats as a child. This is referring to Jung’s theory on primordial images in the collective unconscious. We as people are not taught to be afraid of the snakes or of the dark. It is an inheritance from our earliest ancestors which is embedded in us from birth. Jung states, “Man doesn’t have to learn these fears through experiences with snakes or the dark, although such experiences may reinforce or reaffirm his predispositions.” This means that we don’t have to go through a certain incident to make us fear the dark or snakes, but if an incident does occur, it will only heighten our fear.
Bruce lost his parents at the age of 8. He had a classic Oedipus complex. Bruce’s parents took him to an opera the night they died. In this opera, there was a scene with bats; tapping into his collective unconscious. Becoming afraid, his parents left the show early where they were met by Joe Chill, their murderer. Bruce watched as his parents were killed. This is the finalization of the Oedipus complex. Bruce felt, as any child would, that his thoughts became reality. When we are children, we cry, and we get what we want. Bruce, not knowing that reality doesn’t happen that way, feels guilty in the sense that his wish for his father’s death came true. The guilt that he has is then pushed into what Jung calls the personal unconscious which becomes the bat cave.
The Essay on The Parent Trap Fear Children Life
"The Parent Trap" The sinister thing about being an overprotective parent is that we often harm the ones we are trying to protect. For the most part that ends up being our children. In "The Parent Trap," an article in Home Life magazine, Gary Thomas writes about "missing out on the best for fear of the worst." He also writes that cowardice generates from being selfish, that fear is focusing on ...
Bruce finds himself as an adult now in prison in Bhutan. He there meets Ducard who informs him of this new group of people wanting to fight for all the wrong reasons, The League of Shadows. This is part of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” At this time, Bruce is receiving “the call,” when everything he’s every known or thought he knew was about to change. He is given a hallucinogen to help him conquer his fear. In “Hero’s Journey,” this is his supernatural aid. Bruce passes Campbell’s first threshold when he fights Ducard and graduates into the League of Shadows. He is entering the unknown where he has no prior knowledge of his surrounding. Bruce is then told that he must bring down Gotham City. Refusing to be any part of it, he kills Ra’s and is taken back to Gotham by Ducard. This completes Campbell’s thought of the “belly of the whale,” where the hero leaves his current life as a follower and now begins to find his own individuality, thus being born again. Bruce is no longer the Bruce Wayne who joined The League of Shadows. He refused to become a monster and executioner. The old Bruce Wayne has died, and from the ashes of the temple in which he fought Ra’s al Ghul, Bruce Wayne, Batman, is now born.
Going back to Gotham, he comes across the model for the bat-mobile, bat suit, and the bat cave. This starts his road of trials as Batman. He, along with Alfred, perfected these models. He has found his symbol, the bat. This is Bruce now pulling his fear out of his collective unconscious. He uses the bat to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals of Gotham just as it struck fear into him. Bruce has now taken an interest in running his father’s company as a front to all that know him. He learned how to “fly.” He formed an alliance with Lieutenant Gordon, and he managed to nab Falcone in the process. He faced all of his trials, and now he would meet with his “goddess”, Rachel, his child hood friend. Meeting Rachel as Batman was the true beginning of his new found life.
Becoming Batman was not been the easiest step to take. He figures if he keeps up with the social scene, his identity as Batman will not be compromised. While his conscious is acknowledging this new social scene, his personal unconscious is battling the idea of being himself. When Bruce goes on with this persona of being this ultimate playboy, to a certain extent, his ego’s inflation allows him to start to believe that this is the life he is meant to have. While his ego suppresses the unconscious’s desire to save Gotham, Bruce begins to revert back to his fears. Here is where personal unconscious starts to come to head, and Bruce’s childhood fear comes back. This is the beginning of Campbell’s temptation where he is torn between giving up or staying on the path. At his birthday party in Wayne Manor, he learns that Ra’s al Ghul is really Ducard. At this time, Bruce allows himself to really be himself. He tells his guests how he really feels and is left to speak with Ducard/ Ra’s al Ghul by himself. He reverts back to the child scared of bats. Being left for dead in Wayne Manor after Ducard set it on fire, Alfred, the father figure to Bruce, quotes Bruce’s father, “Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.” At that point, Bruce knew that he could not let his temptation get him to quit and fail. Bruce lets the sensitive side of him or anima archetype according to psychologist Jung comes through when he has this moment with Alfred. Alfred is the father in his life, and he is showing Bruce that he still has faith in him. This is exactly what Bruce needed to keep him going. This is Campbell’s “atonement with the father.”
The Essay on Healthy fear
Fear is a feeling; it is a reaction to something we are frightened of, a natural instinct when faced with something we feel may endanger us. However, fear can be healthy and/or unhealthy; for instance, being afraid of spiders is slightly unhealthy as they can not actually do any harm but if a person is afraid of developing cancer and as a result of this they stop smoking, this is a healthy fear. ...
Recovering from the fire, Batman is now on the scene to save Gotham from Ducard’s plan to destroy the city by unleashing their biggest fears with fear gas. Batman and Ducard face off as the train is headed to Wayne Headquarters. This is the ultimate boon. Batman has defeated Ducard and saved Gotham from utter distress. Batman made it known to Ducard that he did learn one thing from him, and that was “to always watch his surroundings.”Batman has let Jung’s thought of the shadow escape and takes full control because not only must he save the city of Gotham, he must save the damsel and childhood friend, Rachel, from turmoil. Bruce is tapping into his training as Batman and takes “flight”. We can concur that Bruce has accepted his calling to save Gotham completely and will not be held back in which time Batman’s self is released.
The Essay on Character Evolution of Bruce Wayne and Batman
But as Bruce Wayne, the character not only shows inventiveness and curiosity, but as shows a more cautious approach to things, and people, that are considered close. The interaction between the personas shows through on several occasions in the movie series, but specifically in The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012), when he encourages the character of Blake to dawn a mask in order to provide ...
Batman’s self is working to full potential because he is allowing himself to stop fighting the inevitable and going with the flow. He now realizes that this is what he is meant to do and he has responsibilities to fulfill. Bruce is in the process of rebuilding Wayne Manor, and Rachel is on her way to see him. This is his time to return to the threshold. He now fully understands the life that he has and embraces it. Bruce tells her that Batman is just a symbol, and Rachel in turn tells him that Batman is who he really is and that Bruce Wayne is the “mask.” She fell in love with the Bruce Wayne that was Batman; who had the compassion that Bruce had when they were children, her childhood friend. Finally, Bruce and Batman have become one, and Bruce has learned to master both worlds. He accepts being Batman and Bruce Wayne, and he comes to terms with his love for Rachel.
At this time, there is a new villain on the loose who is leaving calling cards at the scene of the crime. Batman is on the roof looking at his symbol in the sky when he is given the “Joker” card, and he tells Lieutenant Gordon that he “will look into it.” Batman now has the freedom to live. He is free from his guilt, from his fear of bats, and now, he’s living for the present not dwelling in the past or anticipating for the future.
