“Everyone is just awful these days,” says Arthur Fleck with a sneering grin of his red lips to talk show host Murray Franklin. “It’s enough to drive anyone crazy.”
And as Fleck completes his final transformation into the Joker with the murder of Franklin just moments later, it’s clear that sanity is no longer something he desires to possess.
One of the major themes that Todd Phillips’ “Joker” wrestles with is the matter of accountability. It ultimately doesn’t take a position on the matter because the film has no desire to say anything meaningful about anything. Nor should we expect it to do so; the Joker is a man characterized by his nihilism and indifference. It’s only fitting that his own story should be so as well.
But make no mistake: even though Fleck claims that he “doesn’t believe in anything,” he does believe in a “truth” that is very much aligned with the comic book Joker- all it takes is “one bad day” to drive a person insane. He believes that because of his untreated mental illnesses and the cruelty that he has suffered throughout his life, he is ultimately justified in the carnage and chaos he creates.
“What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? I’ll tell you what you get!” the Joker screams in rage at Franklin before shooting him in the head. “You get what you f—ing deserve!”
Of course, Fleck’s “ideology,” if you can call it that, is sobering when we are confronted by the carnage and chaos of our own world. How many times have we wondered endlessly why a kid committed a mass shooting at his school only to find out that they were bullied or suffered intense neglect in different areas of their lives?
No matter how you view the matter of accountability, it goes without saying that people who commit mass murders and other similar heinous actions are almost never healthy, well-adjusted individuals. They are damaged and broken people in desperate need of help.
But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t ultimately responsible for their actions.
To be sure, Fleck’s cruel mistreatment and untreated mental illness should inspire some empathy in us as he descends into the madness of the Joker. When he writes in his journal that “the worst part about having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don’t,” that should be heartbreaking to a Christ-follower. After all, Christ called us to care for the least of these.
However, Fleck’s transformation into the Joker was never inevitable. He was not a passive participant in his embrace of evil; he chose to act on his resentments and succumb to his hatred. He was unable to find happiness in trying to be “normal” and instead found joy in inflicting pain and chaos on those whom he deemed had prevented him from being happy.
And he never understood where he could have found true joy.
Although she was likely an abusive and neglectful woman, Fleck’s mother Penny was definitely right about one thing: Arthur was put on the earth to spread joy and laughter. Of course, he did completely fail in his single attempt at stand-up comedy, mainly due to his condition that causes uncontrollable laughter. But that doesn’t matter- he’s not that type of funny. Fleck’s true gift was his passion and love for children.
For all of the suffering and neglect he had endured throughout his life that prevented him from being “normal,” Fleck still had been given a passion by God for bringing joy to children. Fleck could have brought glory to his Creator in doing so.
And he could have found joy in understanding that while he had never found the love and acceptance he had always desired in the cruel and merciless world, he could have found it in the love and grace of Jesus Christ. He longed for a father that didn’t care if he lived or died in Thomas Wayne, when there was always a Father who was willing to die for him.
But Arthur Fleck doesn’t choose love or grace. Instead, he chooses hatred, vengeance and indifference. And when the Joker smears his own blood into a sneering grin across his face as he maniacally dances to the tune of his own destruction, his fate is sealed forever.
His choice – and it was always his choice – has been made.
