Where your fear is, There is your task...

The Hidden Depth of The Dark Knight Trilogy

rise what is it that separates the Dark

Knight trilogy from the rest of the

superhero genre part of it has something

to do with the excellent acting

performances meaningful dialogue and an

unusually dark take on the story of a

beloved comic book hero still in my mind

it's the compelling interior Journey

that Bruce Wayne embarked on that makes

us revisit these great films again and

again over the years from a deeply

traumatized young boy to a fully

integrated man we see what one must pass

through in order to achieve such a

transformation throughout this video we

will explore in depth what steps must be

taken for this conversion to take

place there's a reason why this prison

Despair

is the worst hell

Earth the pit a Flawless symbol of

Despair one is it first adamant about

reaching the top and experiencing the

freedom that lies there until failure

after failure cements them at the bottom

where they remain accustomed to the

depressing reality that is the pit this

is where we encounter Bruce along with

the other prisoners he has just about

accepted his fate despite his best

efforts he has fallen short his will

though strong has gotten him

nowhere at first confident in his

strength to make the jump he quickly

realizes that it isn't like anything

he's faced up to this point

something he can't achieve through sheer

will and discipline alone which so far

has proven to be enough he has just

about given up but then he hears the

revelatory words that awaken him from

his depressed state without the Rope

then fear will find you

The Fall

again for us to more thoroughly

understand Bruce's predicament and its

resolution we must step back and take a

closer look at the earlier parts of the

hero's life the trilogy begins with

Bruce's symbolic fall from the garden

this allegory quickly becomes reality as

not long after he experiences the death

of his parents faced with his own

nakedness and insufficiency that

remained hidden under the protection of

his parents young Bruce must somehow

process this newfound trauma which he

does so by guilt and shame as only a

child can do you still feel responsible

for your parents death my anger

outweighs my guilt the guilt slowly

grows into resentment and the desire for

Revenge

A Stroke of Luck prevents Bruce from

acting on his vindictiveness and ruining

his life only after learning about the

reality of Gotham's criminal underworld

and Rachel's disappointment in him does

Bruce finally decide to rise above his

self-centered bitterness an attempt to

bring Justice to the Gotham his parents

helped build but also confront the pain

that lies within

him his search leads him halfway across

A Path

the world but without proper guidance he

becomes becomes increasingly lost

intending to understand the Criminal

Mind only to become one himself much

needed guidance comes about through the

man of Raz Al goul Raz Al goul confronts

Bruce with his lost State offering Bruce

a path a way out of his endless cycle of

purposefully locking himself up to

quench his desire to fight Injustice by

brawling with imprisoned criminals

arising from the unconscious need to

resolve his guilt which has been

suppressed are you so desperate to fight

criminals that you lock yourself in to

take them on one a time a sort of

addiction this pattern of behavior we

find in Bruce is not far removed from

that which we experience in our everyday

lives our addictions are usually nothing

more than an avoidance of something deep

within us addiction constitutes any

unwanted behavior that keeps repeating

itself we attempt to resolve this inner

pain by trying to defeat our exterior

addictions in a sense we would rather

continue facing our addictions day in

and day out than face the greater

problems within us whatever your

original intentions you have become

truly

lost when faced with the truth Bruce at

first denies the seriousness of his

current state he cynically dismisses Raz

Al goul and his offer but deep down

Bruce is aware that something isn't

right and has no choice but to Humble

himself the thought of discovering what

he is truly looking for is simply too

intriguing what was I looking

for only you can know that come

The True Self

Bruce's interior Journey Begins RZ Al

goul teaches him how to master his fears

and face the truth that Lies Beneath his

uncontrolled anger you have learned to

bury your guilt with anger I will teach

you to confront it and to face the truth

this is achieved through discipline and

strength of will Bruce eventually

conquers his childhood fear of bats the

guilt and resentment arising from his

parents death seem to have been defeated

also but as we'll see soon enough that

is not entirely the case instead

he learns to compensate for his

inability to save his parents by

fighting crime and serving

Justice once again suppressing the pain

from his childhood similarly Raz Al Gul

deals with his Pain by seeking Vengeance

under the guise of providing True

Justice Bruce's fear of bats served as a

sort of defense mechanism to avoid

facing up to the darker more terrifying

elements of his unconscious self what

you really fear is inside

yourself in psychological terms it can

be interpreted as a screen or cover

memory a consciously acceptable memory

unwittingly used to cover or screen out

an Associated experience which would be

painful or unacceptable if called to

mind when viewed through a symbolic or

religious lens the bats depict Bruce's

attempt to cover up his nakedness and

vulnerability stemming from his symbolic

fall from the garden into original sin

during childhood just as Adam and Eve

put on garments of skin to hide their

nakedness from God so does Bruce by

putting on his suit and becoming Batman

and escape from having to experience his

imperfections and weaknesses which are

part of his authentic self if we observe

our own lives we may notice these same

patterns many of the skills behaviors

and accomplishments we have obtained

through conquering our fears or by some

other manner we use to mask our

inadequacies in order to avoid

confronting them this can include small

everyday situations like how we

communicate with others or larger

Pursuits such as our professional

choices at times motivated by our

inordinate search for success and money

to disguise our

insufficiencies like Bruce every day we

put on our mask which hides what we

truly are worth noting is the

billionaire playboy Persona Bruce

consciously acts out to satisfy the

public eye and to avoid suspicion while

the Batman mask helps hide his

inadequacies from himself the

billionaire playboy role conceals these

same deficiencies from the scrutiny of

others Bruce's authentic character

almost solely comes to light in his

conversations with Alfred who serves as

his voice of conscience guiding Bruce

through the Maze of his unconscious and

moral self but Thomas Wayne helping

others wasn't about proving anything to

anyone including himself in a sense the

remainder of the trilogy revolves around

Bruce's journey of slowly coming to

terms with his true self and letting go

of the false identity of

Batman Wayne returns to Gotham where we

The Tower of Babel

see him play out his inner Battles by

fighting the city's villains and

criminals his ideals are noble but

underneath they are at times motivated

by his selfish inclination to hold on to

the past in the hope that he may revive

it this can be seen in his relationship

with Rachel but also in his attempt to

save the city and Salvage his parents

Legacy both emerge from his unconscious

desire to return to the Blissful state

from his childhood before his parents

death and he almost achieves this razal

ghoul is defeated the crime bosses are

scared to come out at night and he has

found a man in Harvey Dent who isn't

afraid to lock the criminals up this

means soon he can hang up his Batman

suit and live happily ever after with

Rachel knowing his city is safe as he

has brought True Justice to Gotham in a

sense avenging his parents' death

unfortunately the return to Paradise

isn't so

simple The Joker personifying chaos

undermines Bruce's attempt to bring

order to Gotham and in his own life it's

the story of the Tower of Babel when we

attempt to reach heaven on our terms we

inevit

fail uncovering to us how little control

we have over how the future will

unfold nonetheless if we humbly accept

these failures of ours to reach Paradise

we begin to slowly learn how to alter

the way we perceive the troubles and

Fortunes in our everyday lives by

finding ourselves we encounter freedom

from that which we have no control over

enabling us to trust in the flow of

Divine Providence Bruce's efforts to

manipulate reality to his Advantage

backfire The Joker embodies the force

that brings the tower tumbling down he

is precisely what he calls himself I'm

an agent of chaos inverting the

established order which has become

overreaching and turning everyone's

plans or schemes on their head this is

presented on a collective scale but also

more importantly through Bruce's inner

struggles he begins to question whether

Batman is truly a Force for good or has

brought more evil instead Bruce starts

to realize that his actions as Batman

weren't entirely altruistic nonetheless

his decision to admit defeat and give up

his role as Batman isn't the way forward

either though the identity of Batman

serves as Bruce's mask it is still

necessary for his interior

transformation only by accepting and

properly integrating the shadow side of

his character can he ReDiscover his true

self forsaking the responsibility he has

brought upon himself is simply another

avoidance it's a matter of balance

believing in your abilities and enduring

till the end but also remaining humble

by knowing your limits Bruce eventually

has no choice but to endure would you

have me do endure Master Wayne take it

he performs acts of self-sacrifice to

save the people of Gotham and in turn

nears a genuine conversion to a real man

I killed those people that's what I can

be no no you can't you're not

nevertheless he isn't quite ready and

neither is Gotham Bruce and Gordon con

cocked a lie about Harvey Dent's death

it may seem selfless on Bruce's part for

Batman to take the blame but that Witch

is built on a lie can't and will not

survive tell us Mr

Facing Your Deepest Fear

Wayne what to do you

fear 8 years pass and we find Bruce

depressed and longing for death he

struggles to accept the past especially

Rachel's death living under the illusion

that she loved him instead of Harvey his

unconscious dream of bringing about his

own Paradise has died with Rachel while

the 8 years of Peace he has brought

Gotham is about to come crumbling down

uncovering his lie but Bruce's true

problems were never to be solved by

bringing Justice to Gotham or finding

love with Rachel the depressed state he

has found himself in and his previously

incessant need to save Gotham are in a

way two sides of the same coin both

serve as a mechanism to avoid his true

inner pain he simply can't live a normal

life he is either caught up in the drama

of fighting criminals or adopts a Deus

mindset hoping for things to go bad

again so he can once more enter into the

obsessive cycle of proving himself

worthy it's all part of living sir but

you're not living you're just waiting

hoping that things to go bad again for

better or worse he returns as Batman he

helps Bane Escape by turning the

Limelight on himself but denies it when

Alfred confronts him about it Alfred

also reveals to him Rachel's true

feelings for Bruce from a letter he

burnt to spare Bruce the pain

this destroys his world and the excuse

he used to not move along with his life

after Rachel's death as he was convinced

she loved him maybe it's time we all

stop trying to outsmart the truth and

let it have its day Alfred and Bruce cut

ties Bruce fights with Bane alone who

cripples him Bane takes over the city

and holds it hostage by turning Wayne

industry's Fusion reactor into a

decaying neutron bomb while also

revealing to the citizens the lie about

Harvey Dent bringing about Anarchy for

the little time they have left before

the bomb goes

off you don't fear that you welcome it

Bane decides to spare Bruce's life and

instead takes him to the prison where

Bane was born intending to torture not

Bruce's Body but his

soul there Bruce must watch his City

slowly implode as he rots in the

seemingly inescapable pit his only way

of making it out a jump that only a

child has made it's here that Bruce

finally makes his long avoided

transformation

faced with the destruction of all he

holds dear he attempts everything to

make the jump and escape the pit hoping

to preserve his old self and the false

reality it has constructed he is at

first convinced that he can succeed by

sheer will alone as it has proven to be

enough so many times before despite

being warned otherwise he says the leap

to Freedom is not about strength for us

to grasp this scene entirely we must

accept its deep symbolic undertone the

jump is not so much physical as it is

spiritual my soul is as ready to escape

as my body fear is why you f Bruce

learns this the hard way or maybe the

only way as after falling short one too

many times he loses hope deeming the

jump

impossible his usual methods of dealing

with troubles have failed him he can no

longer rely on the strength of his body

and will rather he must look deeper

within himself to find the answer it's

to this hidden part part of Bruce's

being his soul that the old man takes

him survival is the spirit the

son Bruce wakes from a dream of his fall

into the well a continuation of the

nightmare he had at the beginning of the

first movie before starting his journey

did you have

dream

nightmare that dream ended with a swarm

of bats consuming him as mentioned

earlier the bats only served as a cover

for a fear Bruce has avoided up to now

Bruce at last relives the Dreadful

feeling of insufficiency and isolation

he had suffered as a child but also the

love from his father as he rescues him

something Bruce's conscious self had

forgotten until now this awakens him in

a significantly more frantic manner than

his first nightmare indicating that his

latter dream contained his true fear now

Bruce is open to hearing the old man's

wise words he guides Bruce in expressing

his deepest

fear I fear dying in

here while my city burns his City Gotham

can be construed as a metaphor for his

own self through attempting to save

Gotham he longed to bring himself

salvation and solve his painful past he

in fact most fears he will lose himself

but only by letting his false egoic self

die can he truly find

himself all of his infantile attachments

to his parents and his past his defense

mechanisms and illusion of control must

be laid to waste only then will he find

what he has been seeking all along how

can this be done without the Rope then

fear will find you again a true Leap of

Faith with no safety rope is necessary

then fear will find him again or in

other words those fears which have been

suppressed can reach the surface as his

defenses will have been

shattered those unresolved fears can

then be faced and properly integrated

Bruce accepts his fate he knows what he

must do and it isn't easy one bit

luckily he's not alone and has the

support of his fellow prisoners but in

the end it's him and him alone that must

make the leap to

freedom and in that moment when he has

his back pressed against the wall with

no way to escape and no one to help him

with the threat of falling into the

abyss below him all he can do

is jump

The Kingdom of Heaven

death resurrection and eventual

Ascension that is the essence of Bruce

Wayne's journey and it's what each of us

are called to not only once in our lives

but every day every day there are

opportunities for such realities to play

out fortunately we aren't alone on this

path we are accompanied by by those

around us who experience similar

struggles together with Grace from God

himself we possess all that is necessary

to discover what our heart most desires

each day we must try our best and search

for the pearl of great price and when

you believe that you've given at your

all and you've just about lost all hope

and you feel as though naked before God

and the world

then you just might return to the Garden

from where you came