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| This guy would have been hell of a mayor |
Penguin and Batman are very different characters and yet,
the stories of their lives show striking resemblance with each other. Batman’s
parents were shot dead by bandits right in front of his eyes when he was only a
kid, and Penguin was abandoned by his own parents at birth due to the
disfigurement of his hands. Bruce Wayne and Oswald Cobblepot both seek an
outlet, a way to compensate themselves for the trauma they’ve experienced in
their childhood, and try to achieve their goals through their alter ego, Batman
and Penguin. Each of those alter ego represents the hidden, dark side of their
true selves, and the times they wear their ‘masks’ are the times they struggle
to find an answer to that one simple question that everyone has: “Who am I?”
While both Bruce and Oswald are on the quest for finding
their true nature, the trajectory of their ‘career’ turns out to be quite
different. Batman serves as the ‘dark knight’ of Gotham, fighting criminals in
the dark alleys of the city, trying to prevent heinous crimes that devoured his
entire life. On the other hand, Penguin tries to impose the pain he suffered
onto other people by drowning all the first-born child of Gotham in the sewers.
As can be seen, the conflict in Batman Returns arises from two people with
different mentality dealing with similar problems. Batman tries to prevent
others from suffering what he had been through, but Penguin wants people to
suffer the same fate that he was forced to suffer. The conflict between Penguin and Batman may seem like any
other hero vs. villain story, but the fact that they both have similar, if not
almost identical, underlying personal traumas makes their binary opposition all
the more interesting.
As mentioned, Batman and Penguin carries out their
introspective journey in very different ways. Batman is more focused on getting
self-satisfaction through fighting crime, when Penguin constantly seeks
approval from other people. For example, when Penguin sabotaged Batman, the
citizens of Gotham starts turning against the caped hero. However, Batman does
not actively try to redeem his public image, because he knows that his way of
introspection lies within fighting crimes and preventing tragedies, and not
within the love he gets from the people. On the other hand, Penguin seeks
praise and approval from the public, and this becomes immediately apparent when
he stages the saving of mayor’s baby to rise as Gotham’s ‘hero’. This clearly
shows his desire for love and attention, especially since he was abandoned
since he was a baby.
It is Batman and Penguin’s difference in personality created
by similar life story that brings about the interesting conflict that occurs in
the movie. If both of them were like either of them, such interesting story
would not have been created.
What you said about Batman and the Penguin is completely true. I agree that the movie would not be as interesting if both Batman and the Penguin cared how Gotham perceived them or did not care about Gotham’s opinion. It would just be a story filled with drama and the death. The film also shows how different two people who had a somewhat similar childhood could turn out very different. It could be argued that Batman had Alfred to look after him, but the Penguin had several penguins as well as several comrades from the circus with him. You can also see the Penguin’s need for approval when Batman alters the sound and the citizens immediately turn on him. He is shocked, surprised and utterly confused. He even seemed a bit hurt when Gotham’s citizens begin to throw vegetables at him. Batman did not seek the approval of Gotham’s citizens; he only leveled the Penguin’s playing field.
ReplyDelete-Chrishell L. Lennox
Eventually the Penguin doesn't care about whether or not he gets approval from the people. Towards the end of the movie, after his downfall on stage when Batman alters and blocks the frequency of his speech to the people of Gotham, he is bitter that his image as the misunderstood good guy is blown; however, at that point there is a change in him, and it is clear that he no longer cares about acceptance, but just pure revenge. I believe this revenge comes once again from a sense of abandonment, first by his parents, then by the people who supported him as mayor before Batman ruined his image.
ReplyDelete-Summer Balbero
Batman is an interesting and complex character, and as we see in Batman Returns, so is the Penguin. I agree that their similarities make for an interesting movie. It’s funny, Batman tends to fight villains that have similar problems as he does. The Joker had a split personality, and so did Batman; the Penguin was abandoned and so was Batman. I think that this factor, the fact that Batman battles villains much like himself, make the Batman legacy more enticing for fans. It interest the audience more when you see a problem, such as abandonment, played out in two different ways: the “good” through Batman’s crime fighting and the “bad” through Penguin’s destruction. The fact that one simple decision could have changed Batman into the villain he is fighting keeps us on the edge, wondering if at any moment, Batman will fall off that thin rope he’s walking between being a caped vigilante and a corrupted criminal.
ReplyDelete-Allison Davis
Penguin and Batman’s similarity is a really cool way of creating a tension between the characters. It takes a brilliant writer to take the classic good vs. evil and give it a fresh flair, and Tim Burton accomplishes this perfectly. I love when the good and the evil are so similar. It sort of reminds me of Star Wars, since Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father. When they have such similarity, the conflict gains more depth. It is more than just “bad guy fights good guy yay.” As with Penguin and Batman, it adds depth because Batman understands the pain of losing a parent to the point where he knows that something is wrong with penguin long before anyone else does. They also both have a total identity crisis. They don’t know who they are deep in their core, so they express it behind their masks.
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