Ello! Minion here!
Well I never thought I'd be posting this piece of my English project from last year (other pieces include "Granny's Secret", "Feathers", and "The Fields") but after a request from a wonderful reviewer "ZenyZootSuit" here it is! This essay was written with exerpts from the ever amazing comic "Batman Year One: Two Face and Scarecrow".
Also I do not own in any way, shape, or form Batman with that in mind, enjoy!
Scientist or Sadist?
"As a skinny, awkward scarecrow alone in the icy fields of modern society...Enduring the endless backward glances, the furtive whispers...the cruel pointing, gawking stares...The barely concealed clicking tongues...God in heaven...Thank God in heaven I don't look like THAT!" ( Jones 66). Upon hearing the legacy of Scarecrow, many would assume he is simply another one of Batman's deranged villains and feel no need to look deeper into the mind of Dr. Jonathan Crane. Certainly his criminal record speaks volumes of both his mentality and character; however, Dr. Crane's criminal acts and neurosis are results of an abusive environment and not a product of his biological nature. Due to the grotesque element of his crimes, many overlook his already shadowed past which harbors greater insight into the malicious role that society created and Crane filled.
In order to better understand the innermost workings of Dr. Crane's mind, one must first view life from his eyes. During his youth, Dr. Crane suffered both verbal and physical abuse from his peers causing him to be consumed by fear and harbor a deep loathing for his tormentors which is obvious from his account of the situation: "You're scared...I understand, learned the instinct as a kid myself. Think that an oxymoron...'learned instinct'? I assure you it's not. There are all kinds of teachers. All kinds of children..." (Jones 16). Most of Dr. Crane's childhood was filled with the fear of those his own age as they relentlessly bullied him due to his small stature and scholastic tendencies. Amid physical beatings and verbal taunts, sometimes young Crane was set on fire by his own classmates. Nevermind the abuse at school, when young Crane journeyed home he was then tormented by his fanatically religious great-grandmother: "Filth. Lies. The demon's tongue. Nevermind, we'll cleanse his wickedness away...T'was God's will you see. His great lesson in how to face our childhood fears...just as it is your lesson now, Jonathan" (Jones 17-18) . As his sole caretaker, his great-grandmother sought to instill a great discipline and religious zeal in young Crane in order to correctly raise him; however, her efforts passed beyond reason and entered the dark realm of extreme abuse. Often she would force him to work long hours in the dying fields of their Georgian manor and when she felt he deserved punishment, she would lock him inside an abandoned aviary for an entire night while a flock of crows would mercilessly attack him. It was through such sufferings that Jonathan strengthened his resolve to take control of his life whatever means necessary. While depicting his past, he explains that "It was the defining moment, you see...The object lesson that shaped the rest of my life...It was the moment I learned—from my own great-grandmother—the two most powerful forces on Earth...Fear and Control! And that anyone...could use them" (Jones 33). Inspired by the power of science which allowed his great-grandmother to train the malicious crows to attack him, Crane devoted his time to researching the many sources of fear and methods to harness its potential. Despite the severe abuses he suffered, Crane was determined to rise above his own fear and study the very vice which had caged him for so long.
Upon understanding the cruel and traumatic past of Dr. Crane, one would assume his crimes were purely of a vengeful sort. While it is true that his work is centered on fear, the very emotion he battled throughout his childhood; he also focuses on the functions of society as a whole as well as the mentality of its individual components. When giving a recollection of his life, Crane shares his thought process, "I realized that while fear is perceived by the eye, it's processed and evaluated by the brain. Soon after, I began work on chemicals aimed directly at the source" (Jones 74). What had begun as a means to achieve vengeance, now took form in a constructive manner as he sought to deepen his understanding of the mind and its chemical balances concerning fear. Over many years of extensive research, Crane reached many scientific discoveries with the assistance of his test subjects. The ingenious nature of his work is obvious as Crane elaborates further, "An amazing formula, really. It acts on that part of the brain that harbors the ego...that dark, primal corner where lies our baser selves...and deepest fears." (Jones 50). In order to study phobias and other forms of anxiety within society, he focused his efforts on both the origin and construction of fear in a biological and psychological sense. His devotion to researching the obscure but prevalent emotion of fear speaks fondly of both his motivation and ambition to claim success in his work. Even as he continued his recollection, Crane explained the benefit of his new-found knowledge, "My class nearly got straight A's that term, underscoring my theory about the power of fear" (Jones 44). In an effort to contribute to society, Crane taught a college level psychology class at Gotham University where he expounded his work and spread his knowledge to others. While many of his teaching methods caused great distress among the administration, his pointed approach to teaching psychology deeply impacted his students in a manner unrivaled by any before.
Despite the less publicized and even less well received truth of Dr. Crane's dark past, his criminal acts of kidnapping, instilling psychological torture in sadistic experiments, and murder cannot be overlooked. In fact, Batman, the masked vigilante of Gotham city, expresses his disdain for Scarecrow as he says, "...I want to catch this lunatic" (Jones 26). Batman speaks on behalf of his desire to see justice prevail in the looming danger of Scarecrow's crimes. This desire is very well founded considering the extremity of Scarecrow's actions. Later, when Batman confronts Scarecrow in battle, he seethes, "You are insane" (Jones 84). Such a brash label, while placed upon Scarecrow in the heat of battle, holds great truth. Due to the intensity of abuse, Crane isolated himself from others as he became obsessed with fear which caused him resorted to brazen experiments and eccentric teaching in order to gain stability within his own mind. Along the way he developed his alter-ego 'Scarecrow' as a persona which would terrify others in ways 'Jonathan' could not. While Batman, the alter-ego of the successful business man: Bruce Wayne, is also a product of a traumatic childhood, the two men hold little in common as Batman's sidekick, Robin, points out, "Our guy probably killed his parents, lost his mind, and feels no guilt whatsoever!" (Jones 76). Ironically, while Dr. Crane did not kill his parents, he is considered insane and so as the continuous augmentation of ill repute builds, Robin uses his limited knowledge of Crane to paint a vivid if not slightly inaccurate picture. In truth, both Batman and Robin seek nothing more than to destroy the threat placed on Gotham itself without any regard to the man behind the mask, acting as bearers of judgment in the face of a terrifying villain.
Although the truth of Cranes past, his reasoning, and his actions are explained, the morality of the situation casts asunder a clear opinion of Scarecrow. For even the savior of Gotham City, Batman, rose above the haunting fears he faced as a child in order to bring the world to its deserved justice with no regard to the crimes he, himself, committed. Within Scarecrow's mentality, he is no different from Batman and while his crimes are a very dark reality, the boy who was traumatized by fear is not simply a distant memory. Both men are shades of grey in a world foolishly fighting to separate life into black and white. Scarecrow is simply a darker shade of gray, one so dark that it cannot be discerned from black when seen at a glance, yet in the light of the abuses he suffered, his determination to rise above his fear cannot be scorned just as the manner in which he chose to construct his research cannot be praised...And so he will endure the endless whispers and cruel stares as he wanders alone; a concealed Scarecrow in the icy fields of modern society, too engulfed by gilded white to see his lonely shade of grey.