arthur had a rather turbulent childhood . being raised by an overbearing , controlling mother and a rarely present father , emotional issues were bound to follow suit . never being allowed to make his own decisions or do anything at all that he pleases , a resentment for himself began to develop . he hated himself for not being able to stand up to his mother . he hated himself for not being able to stand up to anyone . for the majority of his childhood , he kept his negative emotions sealed away inside . this lead to an issue with anger in the future . arthur always tried to keep his cool , before joker he would have never dreamed of hurting anyone . even when he got angry . despite this , his anger was explosive . sudden and unpredictable . but he often substituted yelling for violent . any violence that were to happen would be taken out on the objects around him . never a person .
young arthur - joaquin phoenix
as arthur went through school , he realized he had a passion for entertaining people . making people happy . he also developed a need to prove himself . to become something that would be worth his parents pride . but their family was already poor , and when arthur got old enough to be looking for a job , he couldn’t find anywhere , his parents would consider , decent that would hire him . as a result , he went back to what he enjoyed doing . he decided that his own enjoyment was worth more than anything that would pay well . much to his mother’s disappointment , he became a clown . one available to hire . but as he would soon learn , it was difficult to get bookings and this caused much friction within the clown community in gotham . even arthur himself had had his fair share of fight’s with other clowns because of one had gotten a booking and another hadn’t .
arthur’s mother - frances conroy
because she lived in poverty her whole life , arthur’s mother had grown delusional as a way to cope with the fact that her son was now living the same way . she had forced herself to believe he was well - off . to believe arthur had a job that brought in good pay . to believe her son was no longer living in poverty . but in reality , he was a clown who struggled to find work as well as a place to stay . with a majority of his night’s being spent sleeping in the subway station . either on trains or benches . he lived each day as it came , and soon he grew a friendship with those he met along the way . as well as a genuine sense of caring for them . he wanted to do right by them . he wanted to do right by his mother . but the condition he was living in was only worsening the state of his mental health .
arthur sleeping on a subway train
arthur wanted to do something good . he wanted to help the people around him , the people like him . the people who were suffering just because money was an issue for them . this was why he became joker . he organized riots to stand up against the rich . to make a change . to make a difference . joker was a symbol for good in the beginning . but that rapidly changed as his following grew larger and larger . as people began to recognize him in his every day attire , not as joker . the attention got to his head . the gap between arthur and joker grew larger and more distant . he began to lose himself . he began to change . he became more joker than arthur .
joker protests and riots poster