Shubert-Split Down the Middle

      "Well, there were two truths...you know? She had trouble reconciling them because I had trouble, uh, reconciling them..." Bruce Wayne says this to Selina Kyle in reference to his two different personalities, his two truths. He is both Bruce Wayne and Batman and is, like he says, "split down the center." Batman has two sides to him. There is the Bruce Wayne side which is much more rational and clear-headed but then there is the darker side which comes out in Batman. Although Batman protects the city and intends to do good, he also looks for revenge. Bruce Wayne is able to let his darker personality come out in his altar ego of Batman. 

       In the same way, both Penguin and Catwoman have dual personalities. Once he finds out his name, Penguin is constantly correcting people to call him Oswald, yet he is also the Penguin. This is shown especially when one of his circus friends welcomes him back to the sewer by the name Penguin and he says that his name is not Penguin it is Oswald. There is a side of him that wants to be more human and less of a freak which is the Oswald side. However, there is the evil, villainous side that wants revenge and power. This is the side that wants to kill all the first born sons in Gotham and to basically destroy the whole city.  This is Penguin. There is a similar example as the last one in that he is again welcomed home and one of his friends says "Great Speech Oswald." and he loses it, saying "MY NAME IS NOT OSWALD! IT'S PENGUIN!! I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING!!! I AM AN ANIMAL!!!" These two scenes in comparison show Penguins dual personality really well.

      Just like Penguin and Batman, Catwoman is a complex character with more than one side to her. She has the more demure, complacent side as Selina but when night falls she becomes the seductive, dangerous, and vengeful Catwoman. A good display of both Catwoman and Batman's split personalities is to look at their scenes together. When they are Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, they both have much softer and more normal personalities. However, when they become their masked personalities they show their darker sides. 

     All three of the main characters in Batman Returns have split or dual personalities. They each have altar egos that are darker or more sinister than their other personality. In this way, they are all alike even though they are all very different people.