The Joker and dark personalities: the Dark Triad across his representations in movies

Abstract

The Joker is one of the most relevant villains in current fiction. Transcending his role in comics and conquering box office sales with impactful movies like The Dark Knight and Joker, the Joker has impacted society with his evil schemes and clever plans to bring chaos to Gotham City. Many authors paid attention to the criticism Joker usually brings regarding society and his role within the movie, but no attention has been placed to his villain traits. This paper aims to explore the numerous versions the movies have had of him to compare them with the Dark Triad, a constellation of traits formed by three major traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, in order to discern the trait that has inspired more to build his character in movies. After studying all of his versions, they have been grouped according to this triad and it has been concluded that the Joker has mostly been depicted as a Machiavellian villain, doing anything it takes to achieve its goal, either deceiving, betraying or killing people, even if that involves being a victim of his own plan.