One thing I could not understand was, why from time to time, I found myself feeling sorry for the Joker.Or was it Heath, I don't know.I could not bring myself to fully despise the joker, but that is not because the performance lacked anything, it didn't. There just seemed at some level to be an element of pathos.Or maybe I am just plain nuts !!
Definitely an element of pathos, I agree. He's essentially very lonely. Along the psychosis and appetite for destruction, there seems to be this desire to impress and engage people. To connect. When the one gangster in the meeting calls him crazy or something, you expect him to be like, "big deal"! Instead he says, "no, I'm not" — softly, but with some emotional intensity.
And of course, you have to wonder what trauma and isolation led to him becoming what he was. Ledger gives us tiny peeks at that isolation underneath the repulsive exterior.