Absolutely Brilliant example of the mind

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2020)

Joker is a powerful social critique of our perception towards mental health (how would we react if someone started laughing uncontrollably in the street?), but it can also be seen as an absurdist perspective on free will. Arthur's fatal flaw is not the hubris of Odysseus, or the ambition like Macbeth, but the simple and relatable need to discover why he was born, and for others to notice his existence. He achieves both of these things in the film, but the symbolic death of "Arthur" with the killing of his mother and rebirth of the comedic "Joker", occurs from a catalytic reaction with society, rather than as an agent of his own destiny.
In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human inability to find any in a purposeless, meaningless or chaotic and irrational universe. In the film, this conflict reaches its culmination when Arthur embraces his involuntary laughter as his real self, and finally understands the "joke". Life itself. It's a joke for absurdists. As he says in the film, comedy is subjective.
When he accepts who he is, he is finally seen by others, and becomes a symbol of chaos and anarchy in a grotesque parody of the superhero. But crucially, this is not something he chooses to become, it's something he is forced into becoming because of his genetics, his environment, and his mother. Arthur ultimately sees life as a comedy - as absurd - because he loses belief in free will. And that actually makes him a classic tragic figure. Arthur wanted to bring laughter and happiness into the world, but was always going to be the killer called the Joker.