The Sad Death of Rachel Dawes
Christopher Nolan drew, quite a bit, on Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, when directing his film The Dark Knight. However, one thing that struck me was the treatment of the most prominent female characters in Miller’s comic and in Nolan’s film.
In Miller’s comic, the most prominent female character is Robin/Carrie Kelly. While lacking in strong motivation (she sort of just gets a costume and becomes Robin) Carrie Kelly is a spunky young girl who’s shown throwing herself into the dangerous role of the vigilante Girl Wonder.
In The Dark Knight, Rachel Dawes is the most prominent female character. Ex-girlfriend to Batman/Bruce Wayne and current girlfriend to Harvey Dent, Rachel operates mainly as a moral center in the film. Most notably, she is Harvey Dent’s moral center, and after she dies he loses his mind and becomes Two-Face. By insinuating that Dent’s villain alter ego’s name comes from a nickname that the Gotham PD gave him, Nolan also implies that Rachel’s presence is what allowed Dent to become Gotham’s white knight in the first place. In this regard, Rachel’s death causes her to become a Woman in the Refrigerator. That is, a female character killed off only to further the story or character arc of a male character. Rachel is killed solely to push Dent over the edge.
While Robin also serves as a sort of moral center in The Dark Knight Returns, I believe that she is more like a spot of hope in a dark and chaotic world. She provides a reason for Batman to continue fighting, and she represents the good of a dark, crime-ridden city. The major difference between her and Rachel is that while Robin is an active participant in the comic's events, Rachel exists mostly outside of Batman's activities. When she is involved, it is passively as a victim. While Rachel represents the good in Gotham, as does Robin, her death represents a downward turn in the Dark Knight trilogy.
I don’t believe Rachel needed to die. It felt more like Nolan was just trying to be grimdark when he killed her off, but I think it may have been more meaningful if the character had been allowed to live, but Dent succumbed to darkness anyway. Perhaps, the character could have survived and fought to stay resilient in an ever darker series. I don’t think she needed to be killed off to further Harvey Dent’s character or to signal a turn for the worse. The latter was obvious to all viewers, and the former could have been done sans Rachel’s death.
