Judgment and the Joker: The Relationship Between Moral Nihilism and Law and Order in Joker.

Abstract

This research focuses on Todd Phillip’s 2019 film, Joker, in which the main antagonist, Arthur Fleck, is analyzed through the philosophical lens of Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of Moral Nihilism. The researcher used peer-reviewed academic sources to gain an understanding of the predetermined relationship between Moral Nihilism and the disturbance of Law and Order. A qualitative thematic content analysis was conducted to analyze the presence of disturbed Law and Order and Moral Nihilism in scenes throughout Joker through the coding categories of amoralism, moral subjectivism, egoism, lack of attachment to consequences, lack of empathy, violence/destruction, riots, and lack of political control, which were determined through extensive preliminary research. The collected scenes from both the researcher and cocoder were then analyzed for interrater reliability. After following through with the selected methodology, it was determined that in Joker, both Moral Nihilism and a disturbance of Law and Order were present. It can be concluded that Nihilism and Law and Order are not a direct cause and effect relationship but are mutually reinforcing of one another as time progresses as both Arthur Fleck and the city of Gotham fell into chaos simultaneously throughout this specific film.