There are many distinct themes continued throughout The Dark Knight, but two of the most prominent examples are the role of fortune and false goods, as well as good always prevailing at the end of the day. The two protagonists in this movie are Harvey Dent and Batman, who together fight the evil forces of the Joker and the mob. The Joker’s goal is to turn Gotham against itself, bring chaos to the city, and to drag heroes like the Batman and Harvey Dent down to his level. Due to these major opposing forces and desires, there are large battles that ensue and cause much destruction, and many innocent lives to be lost. The Joker attacks people in the system one by one until he has Harvey as a target, and attempts to corrupt him. This is because …show more content…
For example, Boethius is sad because of being removed from his temporal goods as a result of being jailed on trumped up charges. These goods such as the power from his office, and the fame he gets for being a public figure, and away from the wealth he has been accumulating which brought him happiness. Comparably, Harvey Dent experiences some of the same things. He enjoys these false goods such as the attainment of power from being the district attorney, being in love with Rachel, and the fame from being the white knight of Gotham. However, achieving all of these brings him no closer to being truly happy or self-sufficient. It is not until after speaking with Lady Philosophy in the cell that Boethius realizes that the goods he was pursuing were false goods, and that true happiness does not lie within them. Rather it lies with the one true Good that is all encompassing instead of individual …show more content…
But how is this possible when God allows the wicked to have power and control over the innocent? In the situations faced by Batman in The Dark Knight, and Boethius in The Consolation of Philosophy, both characters question why is there is no intervention by God to protect the innocent from the wicked? Boethius’ wonder stems from his disbelief that God could let something like this happen regarding his imprisonment on false trumped up charges. He says to Lady Philosophy, “… it is almost monstrous that every wicked man accomplishes his plot against the innocent, while God looks on” (Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, pp. 20). For Batman he questions how there can be a world without any morality or order to it, where criminals run free without punishment, terrorizing the innocent citizens. It is not until the end of the book that this original question can be answered. Lady Philosophy tells Boethius that there is a happiness that all humans naturally desire, as it is part of our very nature. This happiness is the true Good. In good people there is both the will and the power, these are used together to make successful actions towards happiness. Wicked people have the will to become good, as it is in their human nature, but they lack the power to attain this happiness. This is because they search for happiness down the wrong channels. Therefore, good men are
Clive Barker, the author of The Thief of Always, writes a fantasy about Harvey(the main character) taken into into a place full of illusions. Soon he finds out that there was this horrible Hood that had taken his precious time and almost has eaten his soul. So, Harvey then tries to destroy this evil Hood who ends up to be the oh so perfect house. Hood is evil and different ways he is evil. There are many things that makes someone or something truly evil. Hood is ultimately evil. These are the things that make him who or what he is. Evil is significant to most stories because that is the major conflict. The antagonist, Hood, does a really good job of being the bad guy. Usually it’s a person who is has some kind of kindness inside,
“A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended.” Behind all the action in The Dark Knight Rises is an important portrayal of crime and deviance in society. The superficial analysis of the plot makes The Dark Knight Rises seem like a simple hero and villain story and nothing more. However, the film expresses concepts of justice and provides an important depiction of strain theory and the labeling theory.
Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and column writer for The Guardian, explores the human need to seek for happiness and its connection to the Museum of Failures in his article Happiness is a Glass Half Empty. Burkeman’s purpose to writing this essay is to give readers a new view on how to seek happiness – embrace negativity and expect the worst. Burkeman’s use of a friendly, almost informal tone to help relate to his readers is a brilliant attempt to catch his reader’s attention and hold it, therefore enabling the delivery of logic seem almost effortless.
Interestingly, the movie puts a twist on the the true Batman origin. By having the Joker create Batman by killing Bruce’s parents, the Batman was created to avenge evil. This being said, the traumatic experience has created a hero whose definition of justice is left to the character’s moral. Traumatized, it is clear that the Batman seeks revenge not only because the Joker murdered his parents, but also for interfering with love interest Vicki Vale. By putting Vicki Vale at risk, the Batman’s traumatic experience is tested to the limits. The origins of Batman describes a hero who will not kill, yet in this movie, the Batman easily slaughters villains with a machine gun while flying his plane. A Batman who is willing to kill cannot be justified but is seen as justified to the character as a permanent way to resolve his traumatic experience with the Joker. In the climax of the movie, Batman is hanging on the edge with Vicki Vale. Instead of just saving Vicki, Batman interferes with the Joker’s escape which ultimately leads to the Joker’s death. Through Bruce’s eyes justice was the Joker’s death when he could have just saved Vicki. Although this movie was the most entertaining, it depicts a hardened character faced with the true reality of life. Not all heroes can be pure, and this movie explicitly shows this through Bruce’s actions. Notably, Bruce
Welcome to the brave New world where most decisions no longer affect your course of the future. Happiness, something we all search for in our unpredictable lives, for some, happiness comes much faster and easier, but for many others, the notion of knowing that happiness is just too far away from them ultimately causes the decision to make the only permanent escape and that is to end their life just like poor Johnny boy. Quote “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. (Aldous Huxley “Brave New World”) This is quite an interesting quote made in the book as it hints to suggest that happiness and contentment are actually quite dull. In fact, the struggle to achieve such, is much more interesting, livelier, more exciting. Their opposites like unfortunate events, disappointment and temptation are what make life passionate and spectacular.
In “The Dark Knight: An Allegory of America in the Age of Bush”, Ron Briley comparing the terrorist acts of 9/11 to one of America’s top movies, The Dark Knight Rises from the Batman series. Briley gives many different ideas of similarities and a lot of good points, but is not as clear as you would hope someone would be when trying to persuade and convince you to believe such an allegory. Briley is comparing many of the main cast in The Dark Knight to many real people who are not as great as these characters are seemed to be.
For how could God have enough power and knowledge to create and sustain the physical universe if He can 't even prevent evil? How could He be the providential governor of the world if He is unable to do what even we frequently do, namely prevent evil?” (5). This statement argues that God is not all powerful because he is unable to prevent evil in the world. Daniel Howard-Snyder then argues that: “Would a perfectly good being always prevent evil as far as he can?
Boethius was wrongfully accused of treason and imprisoned, leading him to question as to why God would allow bad things to happen to good people and how you can not be completely happy and there is never true happiness. The fear of losing happiness destroys happiness. "No man is so completely happy that something somewhere does not clash with his condition. It is the nature of human affairs to be fraught with anxiety; they never prosper perfectly and they never remain constant" Boethius (30). This quote represents the fear of losing happiness destroys happiness in my
Since they can never get the only value that matters which is happiness, any earthly power they have is not actually power at all. Therefore, evil people do not exist. To this Boethius agrees, but argues that wicked people harm the virtuous and are not punished at all. Philosophy replies to this by saying that the punishment for the wicked is their non-existence. They are punished by the deeds they do themselves.
...f money could bring happiness, then more money could bring him more happiness. Again, when money is the highest value used in determining happiness at work, other values become over shadowed or ignored. Unsatisfied values eventually reveal themselves when the money value is met. Without being content in all values, happiness at work cannot be attained. Richard Cory probably did not know how to satisfy those once hidden values and found his life very unhappy. Thinking that hard work will lead to financial success and happiness is not wrong as a value, but as Richard Cory finds out, happiness based on only money is not possible unless that value is your only value.
Batman (Christian Bale) is hoping to hand on his crime fighting duties to D.A Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) yet when Batman’s cards are on the table the twisted mastermind who goes by the name of the joker (Heath Ledger), forces the masked vigilante to go against everything he ever stood for.
...rance of success in the wicked, though it quickly proves that temporary pleasure will never compare to the eternal happiness only God can provide. The loss of his position and fame has left Boethius depressed, but the Lady reminds him of his successes and his ultimate reward.
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).
...d appear to be unrestrained and unpunished because their wickedness and the lack of true happiness that is associated with it is their punishment (Consolation of Philosophy 94). To both Augustine and Boethius, God is completely good and sovereign. However, He allows men free will and the punishment or rewards that come with these free decisions.
Both Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, had thoughts of the Principle of Utility and what it should be like. Bentham believes that the Principle of Utility depends on pain and pleasure and Mill believes that the Principle of Utility depends on higher pleasures and lower pleasures. Pain meaning evil and pleasure meaning good or greater benefits and higher pleasures meaning that action was good which would lead to a higher level of happiness and lower pleasures meaning bad which would lead to a decreasing level of happiness. Therefore, a normative ethical theory that has come through from this and it is Utilitarianism. The definition of Utilitarianism is a course of action that maximizes the total