Analysis of the Character of Bruce Wayne in "The Batman"

In order to understand the characteristic of Bruce Wayne, we’d have to think about his childhood life. When he was kid, he accidently fell into a deep dark well. He was attacked by a swarm of bats in the dark. Since that, he had a deep fear of the bats. Once Bruce’s parents took him for a movie, and Bruce was feared by the bats on the movie. His parents took him into the back alley through the emergency exit, and a armed mugger shot and killed his parents right in front of him. The fear of bats leads him to lose his parents. As a boy, he realized he has to learn to control his fear and be able to deal with his feeling in a peaceful way. This indicates that Bruce is in the ego stage and this is where Bruce starts the fixation. Freud describes that the ego “as an agency which intervenes in the conflict between anti-social, endogenous, sexual impulses or wishes which originate in the id, and the demands of reality which impinge in the organism from the outside” (Freud 1927: 304). Ego is the conscious mind that helps build ID more practical and longer-term thinking. When we have an intense fear of something or a phobia, the most common response is to move away from that. People always avoid things that making you the most anxious. But, in some cases, the counter phobic reaction leads the person toward the things they fear the most. It can be a challenge for people to address it.

The counter phobic reaction makes perfect sense for Bruce Wayne. This phobia that he thrives on encouraging him to become the Batman. Animal phobias are actually very common in children. Freud said that the animal phobias reflect the fear of father that are projected on to the animals. And Bruce’s father play a extremely important role in Bruce’s psychology. His father was a doctor, he built the huge corporation and he was well respected by everyone. One of the deepest fears of Bruce is that he is letting down his father. When Bruce shows in public, he acts like a professional business leader. He takes over his father’s corporation and operate it as well as when his father was alive. He shows us that he is conscious of his behavior. This shows that he is in the super-ego stage. Super-ego houses Bruce’s understanding of morality and motivates him to work harder to get closer to his desire with the conscious mind. By understanding the childhood drama of seeing his parent murdered in front of him, it helps us to realize what he becomes is reflected from the early experience from the drama. The key is how he manages it and forms it into his new identity. After you lose important people in your life, there are many different ways you can handle it. Many people decide to take out the advocacy position and Bruce take that to the same direction by being Batman. The death of his parents leads his unconscious mind to look for justice, which can keep the city safe. By becoming Batman, he has to split his consciousness.

When he is moving on to the new Identity, he has to withdraw his other identity and he has to deal with many causes. One example is that he always appears to his family and friends as a playboy and it has become a part of his daytime life. A playboy helps him to hide his real identity as a crime fighter. This represents the ID, because it satisfies him with basic wants and needs immediate gratification. However, this caused a really unstable relationship with his girlfriend, Rachel. Rachel thought all he did was spending money, enjoying life and he did not inherit his father. According to Freud theory, Bruce is currently in repression. Fraud suggests that we often get what we want in our dreams because they often originate from repressed drives. Bruce has to force the conscious mind into the unconscious memories, so that he could forget about the death of his parents.

Bruce Wayne himself even thinks that he wasn’t an interesting character. He is wealthy and powerful, but he does not handle well in relationship. With the identity of batmen, he becomes obsessed. Bruce Wayne does not seem to like Being Bruce Wayne, he spends more time being Batman. According to the psychoanalytical model, the Batman represents the Id, because it’s the unconscious part of the his psyche which is almost non-human and the character itself is impulsive and instinctual. Batman is the psychological defense of Bruce Wayne. Freud describes the defense mechanism as things we do unconsciously which help us cope with anxiety and reality. Bruce uses the defense mechanism as the Batman, because this makes him forget the tragic of his parents. Only in the split identity, he tends to find the turn meaning of his life and what he does the best. In traumatic experience, when crimes, accidents occurred, people can begin to split off aspect of themselves even more than other people. And dealing those memories can lead people to dissociate just like the Batman.