Interpretation Continued

The subway shows represent the real turning point that began his path to becoming the clown prince of crime and how later those actions affected the whole society. When Arthur first killed the three WallStreet guys after them jumping him, he ran away into a bathroom in fear and began his transition into the Joker. Flash-forward he is on the run from two detectives for the murders he committed and ends up on the subway once again but filled with protestors wearing clown masks in inspiration from Jokers’ actions. A fight breaks out at the next subway station after one of the detectives accidentally shoots a protester and the rest decide to jump the detectives, sending them into critical condition. Rather fearing the actions he caused earlier, Joker is now proud of them, represented in him laughing at the situation and striving away from the scene in confidence on the way to the Murray Show.  

The Murray Show helps display what little of his positive goals, humanity, and sanity he has left. The first time the Murray Show was introduced was in Arthur’s imagination as it looks as if he idolizes late-night show host, Franklin Murray (Robert De Niro) with how excited he imagines it would be to meet him. He then pursues becoming a comedian like Murray until a gig goes wrong and Arthur cannot stop his laughter. Arthur sees his performance in a segment on the show and Murray begins to make fun of him. This destroys Arthur as one can assume as he idolized Murray and to see him on TV making fun of him must have helped bring him down a dark path. He later appears on the show where Murray is making fun of him yet again, but this time, Arthur has already completely lost himself to Joker. He begins to go on a rant about how people treat each other, appealing to the last bit of his humanity left, but everyone boos him. He then finally loses all his sanity and kills Murray in cold blood.