Dexter is a crime based series that revolves around the life of a man who may seem as normal in society but at night indulges in his addiction of murder. Dexter was traumatised at a young age seeing the bloody death of his mother, which may have left a bloody imprint on him turning him into the blood thirsty psychopath he is. Dexter lives with his wife and has two children but he is a very un-social character who appears to be acting to fit into society. Furthermore, he comes across as being very unusual to his colleagues at the Miami police department as he chose to work as a crime scene investigator, witnessing many murders a day, where he could have easily became a doctor. A long with that he has many other skills that suit the character of a criminal and hero; he lives to a moral code, is extremely disciplined and is a trained black belt in Ju Jitsu.
Dexter was excluded from society at a young age as he had a like for killing animals, which led him to killing his dog. His non biological father saw these strange occurrences and came up with a way for Dexter to channel his urges. Through more appropriate methods that would change society. Dexter’s father was the chief of police at the Miami police department, and with that came the burden of seeing many criminals escape the system, and get away with their horrible crimes. “These people deserve to die, Dexter.” So, the code was designed to release his urges of killing on other criminals, and some may see him doing a good thing in society. The director of the series portrays Dexters urges as another being known as “The dark passenger” who takes control over him and is the reason Dexter wants to kill. The addiction is similar to an addiction one may have to smoking or to drugs, they are dependent on it and experience withdrawal symptoms, as does Dexter when he has not taken a life in a while…
Now is Dexter the Protagonist or the Antagonist? It can be argued that he shares similar characteristics to the superheroes of the comic world such as Superman and Batman. Dexter gets rid of the bad guys in Miami, to which he follows a moral code on who fits that category to get rid of. But the means he does this is by killing the person instead of putting them behind bars. These characteristics suggest Dexter is more of an antihero. Even though Dexter is not killing people because he wants to do something good to some people it can be viewed that he is doing a positive thing by removing the criminals. The way Dexter kills his victims is different to that of a pure villain. It is more of a ritual and he takes care with it by rapping his victims in plastic. The actual ritual itself involves Dexter showing the victim all the crimes they have committed and then kills them by plunging a dagger in their heart or using other tools from his special collection. By him doing that it shows he has emotions and feels he has a purpose in society. At the end of a kill Dexter collects a blood sample from the victim and collects it as trophy which represents his lust for blood and each slide is a fragment of a memory in his mind of each kill, which he takes pleasure from. Furthermore, Dexter has had a tough child hood and was separated from society at a young age which is typically seen in antiheroes, whether it is a defect/deformity or unusual behaviour. Witnessing the death of his mother and being bullied in school, it is events like those, that perhaps have caused him to be the person he is.
Additionally, Dexter has a moral code as deciding to take another persons life is a choice that has severe consequences. The code states that he must never kill an innocent person, but may be able to kill people who deserve it (other criminals). It requires deep investigation before Dexter finally makes the choice to kill somebody, showing he takes the code seriously. But the fact that he has a moral code distinguishes him from the people he kills as a bad guy without a moral code is still a bad guy, but if a character can follow his own moral code it shows that he has boundaries and it means that the audience can understand him, otherwise the series would not have millions of people watching it.
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