Page - 95 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

Shadows of the Bat | 95www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 75–104 ture”, Bruce Wayne declares at his fundraising party.46 Dent is Gotham’s shining white knight, a hero with a face that eventually could suspend the need for a masked Dark Knight. Behind this façade, however, lies a second face – two-face. Dent’s flaw is his moral intransigency. In his monochrome worldview, good and evil are so widely separated that the self-righteous attorney cannot connect to his darker side, which erupts in occasional outbursts and acts of desperation. Dent’s case alludes to the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), robert Louis stevenson’s famous examination of human nature’s duality. Like Jekyll, Dent tries at all costs to hide his evil other, because he does not recognize it as part of his own self. therefore, all it takes is a “little push” from the Joker and harvey’s world is turned upside down. Deprived of the love of his life and left with serious physical and mental injuries, his moral bigotry is gruesomely writ- ten in his face in the figure of the Janus-like Two-Face. After his departure from good, the only consistent option left to him is to join with evil: “Either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”47 46 The Dark Knight (2008), 00:43:27–00:43:31. 47 The Dark Knight (2008), 00:20:01–00:20:05. Fig. 21: This downloadable wallpaper from The Dark Knight’s (2008) official website showcases the film’s use of the face as an image of its underlying theme of duality. http://thedarkknight.warnerbros. com/dvdsite/media/images/downloads/TDK04_1600x1200.jpg [accessed 19 September 2016].