The Misplaced Identification

The 92^nd Oscar-winning movie Joker（2019）tells a story of the mentally ill comedian Arthur who gradually degenerated to the opposite of the mainstream society and triggered the riots in Gotham City.Because of various stimulus,the cowardly protagonist Arthur Fleck brutally kills six people,including his mother,which makes him eventually become“Joker”,the spiritual leader of criminals championed by the Gotham City rioters.By narrating Arthur’s life experience,the film shows the process of Arthur’s going mad and his struggle,which presents the audience with the mental changes of a marginal person.From the perspective of the imaginary identification and the symbolic identification in Lacanian psychoanalysis,this thesis,focusing on the struggle of Arthur’s spiritual space,deems that symbolic identification is superior to the imaginary identification;however,due to the wall of language,Arthur’s guessing of the intentions is misplaced,making Arthur trapped in the vague desire of the Other,in other words,the symbolic order;consequently,he subtly shapes himself in accordance with the wishes of others and achieve unity with the anti-rich image given to him,which eventually leads to his losing himself in the name of Joker.The thesis is divided into three parts to study the changes in Arthur’s spiritual space:The first part explores the establishment and enforcement of Arthur’s imaginary identification and its resistance to the symbolic identification,and clarifies that imaginary identification is subject to symbolic identification.The second part,from the perspective of Arthur himself,others,and social order,explores the trammel caused by the symbolic identification,which gives a reasonable excuse for Arthur’s powerlessness and confusion in the process of pursuing the symbolic identification.The third part,starting from the wall of language,explains the reason why Arthur could not be indeed recognized and his confusion on the true desires of the Other;even worse,Arthur loses himself and regards the wishes of the protesters as the desire of the Other,thereby becoming the leader of the anti-rich movement that he doesn’t intend to be.From the above-mentioned three parts,it is concluded that Arthur intends to achieve his effort to reach the symbolic identification and the desire of the Other by gaining the approval of the small other around him.Still,due to the existence of the language wall,his expectations are in vain.