“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.”
The Joker is on a mission to prove that a single bad day is enough to destroy a person's mental stability. The flashbacks depict the character before the accident that turned him into the Joker, Batman’s nemesis. What’s more is that he is struggling financially because his comedy career is not bearing any fruits. This leads him to participate in a robbery at his former place of work. Consequently, as things escalate he jumps in a vat of chemical waste that physically and mentally alters him. Though his circumstance involved a chemical poisoning he attributes his lunacy to this event which he hardly remembers. Therefore he adopts an absurd view on life since to him the world is full of injustices and everyone is always on the verge of a mental breakdown.
“If I have to have a past, then I prefer it to be multiple choice.”
The Joker’s whole identity is built off a mysterious past that changes every time he narrates his life story. He emphasizes an ordeal suffered but the backstory is always different to maintain the enigma of the character. It could perhaps be due to his memory loss, the past trauma, and the mindset he adopted afterward. In either case, the Joker stresses the meaningless of life and the futility of order in a chaotic world hence the details of the past do not matter. This outlook defines every deed the Joker is known to have done that barely makes sense to the caped crusader.
“I saw that abyss you spoke about, very scary, but so tempting. I don't know how you resist it. I don't think it's humanly possible after a while. Be careful.”
The Joker is a character who stared at the abyss for too long and it stared back, something Batman, Barbara, and Commissioner Gordon also have to grapple with. Batman is constantly petrified that fighting with monsters will eventually turn him into one. In fact the Joker questions the caped crusader about the real reason he fights for justice which further breeds doubt in the hero. Batman has been on the verge of embracing true darkness by becoming a monster like his rivals. In the quotation, Barbara acknowledges the daunting experience of gazing into the abyss as it can easily consume one’s identity.
