Then he took the herd, which now seemed to be going backwards, and hid them in a cave. One by one he began to pull the hooves from the cows' feet and reattach them in reverse order. His goal was to steal the cattle of his half-brother Apollo. He is always a trickster, a character living constantly in the margins.First Gods Olympian Gods Demigods & Spirits Monsters Greek Heroes Ancient Greece Ancient Theatre Games Myths about Hermes, the Messenger of the gods Hermes and the Cattle of Apollo Hermes was known to be a cunning trickster, stealing things from the other gods and hiding them in incredible places!īack when Hermes was just a toddler, he once left his cradle and set out on an adventurous journey to Pieria, in Northern Greece. But the Joker is always the Joker, he has no other personality, no other name and therefore, no place in society whatsoever. He has a company, a family, and most importantly, a place in society. However, at the end of the day, Batman comes home and lives a double life as the millionaire Bruce Wayne. This lack of a place in society is something that he shares with Batman. He is a complete outsider, which keeps him apart but gives him a peripheral view of sorts from which he can intervene at any moment and with any excuse. But there is one way in which he can affect society: he is the “agent of chaos,” he introduces disorder in society. In one of Heath Ledger’s most famous speeches as the Joker, this topic is directly addressed: “Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order and everything becomes chaos, I’m an agent of chaos.” As with the figure of the clown, the Joker does not seem to have a role in society, there is no way in which he can fit in. As Rudin explains, tricksters and clowns are in charge of bringing disorder into society to define order and maintain it. As explained before, the trickster participates in society but does not belong to it, and something very similar happens with the clown: “He cannot be identified with any of the known roles of his contemporary social order, but he is immediately recognised he is deliberately outlandish and yet undoubtedly familiar” (Zucker, 1954). The Joker-clown relation could not be more specific, as well as the relation between the clown and the figure of the trickster. Visually, some clown features in the Joker’s typical characterisation can definitely be appreciated: a pale white face with his signature grin, green hair, purple suit, and his favourite weapons are those which look like toys. His creators in DC were inspired by Conrad Veidt’s portrayal in the film The Man Who Laughs (1928), based on Victor Hugo’s novel, where the audience follows the story of a clown who was very sad, but had a constant smile on his face. These characteristics fit perfectly with the different manifestations of the trickster in different mythologies all over the world.Īnother key element that connects the Joker with the trickster is his identification as a clown. This situates it in a place in between, it interacts with humans but is not integrated into society it seems to be a character operating in the margins. It works outside of society, which gives it the perfect place to act as it wishes and satisfies its desires without being subjected to societal norms. The marginal character of the trickster seems to be a key element in the significance of this mythological figure in human culture. he is usually regarded as funny and humorous (Alanka, 2015, p. he has a creative and innovative character 4. he is a marginal figure and shows a contradictory temperament 2. Doty extracted a list of characteristics for the figure of the trickster using Hermes/Mercury as a prototype: 1. A very clear example of a trickster figure in western culture is that of Hermes, the Olympian god son of Zeus, also known as Mercury in Roman mythology. The trickster is a shapeshifter, who is able to transform into animals or people, and it is closely related to laughter and humour, so much so that sometimes it is hard to distinguish if the audience is supposed to laugh at it or with it (Rudin, 1956, p. It is in Native American cultures where the most famous, and perhaps the oldest representation of a trickster figure can be found, usually related to an animal like a coyote, a raven, or a spider.
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