What better to represent a wishful impulse than the forbidden fruit itself?

The story of Adam of Eve is essential to each of the Abrahamic beliefs, which include Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Though the image of the bitten apple appeals to the Christian narrative, this annotation will consider the nuances of the Islamic discourse. Adam and Eve were created in heaven– everything was available to them, however, they were not to approach Shajarat Ul-Khold, the tree of immortality. Some curiosity and desire later, they transgress by eating from the tree, which was their own wishful impulse, and as a result, they are brought down to Earth. 

In a nutshell, In “The Black Cat” the protagonist has his own wishful impulses, in the form of hurting his cat. Eventually he begins to entertain these impulses, which leads to his transgression of hanging his cat from a tree in his yard (The Black Cat). Here we have the protagonist’s transgression, as well as Adam and Eve’s transgression. As what seems to end up being a consequence, another cat makes its way into the life of the protagonist. While the protagonist wants to do good by this cat at first, his old impulses eventually return, and they grow worse (The Black Cat). What follows is a complete disconnect of the protagonist by a “demoniacal rage” wherein he murders his wife, and as the story wraps up we see a psychotic character that the protagonist has become (The Black Cat). 

If this degradation of character, which begins from a now seemingly meaningless annoyance to a cat, can be considered a punishment of its own sort, that acts out by destroying the protagonist and leaves him to incriminate himself, is this not a punishment that would have been the result of acting on a wishful impulse? If so, then there are parallels that can be drawn between the overarching theme of acting on your wishful impulses and the consequences it can have on your person, which is the case of the protagonist, or on your status, which is the case of Adam and Eve. 

When “Joker” was released in 2019, it was a success and crave for psychology nerds, but not so much for actual DC fans. This annotation though, will dive into the psychology side of things from a Psycho-analytical lens. 

The image to the left is from the climax of the movie, when Arthur murders talk show host “Murray” on live television. In the build-up to this moment, Murray uses Arthur’s attempt at stand-up comedy as a punchline on his show. However, Murray also invites Arthur unto the show, which Arthur agrees to. While on the show, Arthur goes off track and confesses to a crime and goes on one of those villain speeches that makes the audience go “he has a point though.”

Though there were various indications throughout the film that Arthur was mentally unstable, he calls it out himself when he confesses to murdering two businessmen, though he blames being crazy on his environment. Murray decides to challenge Arthur’s ideas, which eventually leads to his murder. Here, Freudian concepts can be explored. Freud argues that when an individual does not act on their wishful impulses, those urges continue to press the individual until fulfilled. 

Perhaps Arthur’s wishful impulse is to inflict harm, as was done to him throughout the movie.  Murray made himself a target for this by publicly humiliating Arthur. It’s important to consider the deep betrayal Arthur felt since it was his idol that betrayed him. 

Upon killing Murray, Arthur, disturbingly enough, appears liberated from his grievances, as he laughs off his actions, and seems to no longer be distraught by his condition  In one of the movie’s ending scenes, Arthur goes through some sort of rebirth, he recognizes the rebellions taking place because of his actions, and cements his new persona as the Joker by performing his symbolic dance, drawing a crimson smile on his face, and flaunting at the protestors.

Referring back to the idea of a wishful impulse, it does make sense for Arthur to have been battling some form of destructive urge. The film starts off with Arthur’s lousy boss. As the movie progresses, we come to find out that Arthur was sexually assaulted by his adopted mother’s boyfriend. His mother also tells him his father is Thomas Wayne, who abandoned them, poor and helpless, which was a lie. While it’s damaging enough to grow up with the perception that your father had left you, it’s even worse to find out that the man who had actually left you was not who you were told it was. These factors cause him to entertain suicide at least twice; once when he shuts himself in his fridge, and another when he cocks a gun at his throat in the dressing room at Murray’s. However, when Murray plays Arthur’s comedy skit on his show, Arthur’s destructive impulse becomes targeted at Murray. Though, his suicidal tendency may also have acted as a resistance up to a certain point, which would make sense of his dressing room act. However, Murray’s challenging demeanor triggered Arthur into acting on that destructive impulse and kill Murray. In alignment with Freud’s ideas, Arthur’s self-destructive tendency and his pain fades after acting on his wishful impulse, which the end of the movie so symbolically depicts.