Interpersonal communication is a process of exchanging information between two or more people; the information shared can be either an idea, a feeling, or an emotion. In this process, information sharing is through non-verbal and verbal methods. These sharing information methods generally include voice, face-to talks, facial expressions, and sharing information through gestures and body language. An individual's effectiveness in transferring this information to others determines their interpersonal communication; those with higher interpersonal skills can communicate and interact effectively with others such as family members, friends, society, and workmates. In movies and TV-series, these aspects of interpersonal skills are always incorporated and used as tools for educating the audience, drawing comparisons, and making the audience think. It is from the audience can identify the defining factors of a given character. In this case, we will explore language as an aspect of interpersonal commutation skills based on the 2008 film The Dark Knight .
The movie The Dark Knight is movies based on the batman comics and is in sequence with the initially released film Batman Begins released in 2005. Framing in the film depicts Gotham city during its hard times when the city was full of corruption, making differentiating between good and evil a challenge. The movie also presents two main characters working as counterparts, one a hero in Batman and the other the Joker, a renowned villain from the Batman comics. Heath Ledger plays the role of the Joker in the movie. His performance as the Joker received worldwide recognition because of how the character joker presents himself in the movie through his interpersonal communication skills and how he uses language to present himself. It is actually because of the Joker's interpersonal skills the film became and the most talked-about film even to date, considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
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Language To Express Our Ideas
One important feature of interpersonal communication and especially through language is conveying implicit meanings and ideas in simple ways others can easily understand the use of language to make meanings, which can be easily understood by those involved and therefore easily interpreted without deep analysis. For instance, in the bank heist scene, the Joker says, "what does not kill you makes you stronger" (Netflix, 2008) . Although the statement is a corruption of Nietzsche's known proverb, the Joker intentionally switches the wordings replacing stronger with stranger to simply and conveys the proverb's meaning in a simple to allow the audience to determine his real situation in life. Because it is known that proverbs require some aspects of analysis to understand their meaning, the Joker manipulates this proverb to allow the audience to get under his skin and understand his situation. He easily lets the audience know that his mental and physical condition was because of some life events that do not kill you but rather leave you scared. A clear lesson on interpersonal communication from this scene is the use of complex language. Individuals should avoid using complex language or parts of speech requiring intensive analysis to be understood. This may discourage other people involved in communication or even lose interest in communicating with you.
Conflict Management
Conflicts are common in our societies, be it on at work, at home, in schools, or with good communication skills. Especially in expressive language, we easily, calmly, and promptly resolve a conflict. Conflict resolution in softening stressful resolution is not easy; we have to master the art and have all the required interpersonal communication skills to manage such situations. In the movie, these skills exist in the Joker. The movie and probably the most talked-about scene are on the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker. In the scene, the Joker is under arrest, and even several attempts by the police to interrogate him do not speak. This forces the police to send Batman to the interrogation room. In the interrogation rooms, conflict and confrontation arise between the protagonist and the antagonist. Joker ridicules Batman making him aggravated, and start a physical fight with the Joker when Joker asks him about the whereabouts of missing Rachel and Dent. However, this is a tactic of the Joker of resolving conflicts, because he is handcuffed, he wants others to see the evil in Batman, whom many see as a hero ( Hämäläinen, 2019) . Joker's word choice aggravates Batman further and makes him angrier because he knows when he releases the information quickly, he will be arrested. This arrest will prevent him from his plan of escaping; therefore, this is a tactic to buy time and get out of conflict.
Recognizing Our Traits From Comparisons
Interpersonal communication is also important in individuals because it is the tool others use to recognize our characters and abilities. Language is a very important aspect as far as personal recognition is concerned because it is from what we say others draw references to us. In the movie, just from what he says in most cases, the audience perceives the Joker as a liar and a criminal. For instance, take two scenes when the Joker explains why he has the scars on his face. The first scene is when Gambol places a bounty on Joker's head. Joker presents himself through the pretense that he is dead and attacks Gambol; during the scene, he explains that the scars were due to knife bruises he received from his drunkard dad. In the second scene, he explains he did them by himself with a razor. These contracting scenes establish the Joker is a liar and an untrustworthy person.
References
Hämäläinen, P. (2019). “I’m just a dog chasing cars”: an analysis of the Joker’s rhetorical devices and identity in the movie The Dark Knight. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/62945/1/URN%3ANBN%3Afi%3Ajyu-201902251630.pdf
Netflix. (2008). Netflix [Video]. Netflix - Watch TV Shows Online, Watch Movies Online. https://www.netflix.com/watch/70079583?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cf71f305c9a3cf9f2a1579a6ae98400fdf34d007d%3A64cd1fb723bc5af5c682541067d73c64cf33ffdf%2Cf71f305c9a3cf9f2a1579a6ae98400fdf34d007d%3A64cd1fb723bc5af5c682541067d73c64cf33ffdf%2Cunknown%2C Reference
