Rachel Dawes' arc

"But somehow, the major arc that began in the film as a real relationship between two men and a woman became the story of two men in love, with the object of their affection fading further and further into the abyss of either the cutting room floor or overlooked even initially in Nolan's script.

When the Rachel Dawes arc abruptly ends, we've had neither a scene of her kidnapping, or a funeral. Someone suggested to me that perhaps we have a stronger, and simpler, reaction to cute little blond boys, that putting a girl in harm's way would have a sexual overtone that would have muddied the waters somehow, as if the Joker's gun to the head must necessarily become a Freudian symbol. We have a long way to go in giving female characters the same credit as the males. It still seems to be okay for every film to wrap up with a damsel in distress somehow. It doesn't happen every time, but you know when it does, the female in question is going from solid human (if she managed to start that way) to flat and stereotyped". Source: www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com

PROMOTIONAL STILLS OF MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL AS RACHEL DAWES IN "THE DARK KNIGHT":