Dexter Morgan
| Dexter Morgan | |
|---|---|
| File:Dexter.jpg | |
| First appearance | Darkly Dreaming Dexter |
| Last appearance | Dearly Devoted Dexter |
| Created by | Jeff Lindsay |
| Portrayed by | Michael C. Hall |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | The Dark Passenger (alter-ego) |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | forensics/serial killer |
| Family | Deborah Morgan (Adopted Sister) Harry Morgan (Foster Father) Brian (Older Brother) Joe Driscoll (Father) Laura Moser (Mother) |
Dexter Morgan is a fictional character in two novels by crime novelist Jeff Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) and Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005).
In 2006, the novels were adapted into the Showtime TV series Dexter. In the TV series, Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall. By day, Dexter is a blood splatter expert for the Miami-Dade Police Department. By night he hunts down and kills those who he feels "deserve to die". These are usually violent criminals (murderers, rapists, etc) who Dexter thinks have escaped justice.
Character history
Template:Spoiler As a child, Dexter suffered an event so traumatic he repressed the memory.
Within both the television series and the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dexter and his older brother Brian were trapped as children in a storage container at the docks in Miami, Florida for two days, surrounded by stinking corpses, sitting in a two inch deep puddle of blood. One of the corpses was their mother, a small time criminal who had been murdered with a chainsaw.
Dexter's adoptive father, police officer Harry Morgan, recognized that young Dexter was a sociopath with an uncontrollable need to kill. Harry decided to train Dexter to channel his violent tendencies in a positive direction. He taught the sullen teen to be a cautious, meticulous and efficient killer, and showed him how to leave no clues. Harry also taught Dexter to live a public life that discourages suspicion. Most importantly, Harry gave Dexter a system of ethical principles that Dexter came to call "the Code of Harry." Living by that code, Dexter kills only people who deserve to die because they are themselves killers.
Also featured in the series are Dexter's foster sister, Deborah, a police detective; his girlfriend, Rita; and Rita's two young children, Astor and Cody.
Dexter's personality and sociopathy
Dexter Morgan considers himself emotionally divorced from the rest of humanity. In his narration, Dexter often refers to 'humans' as if he were not one of them. Dexter claims to have no emotions and no conscience, that all of his emotional responses are part of a well-rehearsed act to avoid looking like a serial killer. He has no interest in romance or sex, and he considers his relationship to his girlfriend Rita to be part of his disguise. These characteristics are consistent with Schizoid personality disorder.
There are chinks in Dexter's emotional armor. He acknowledges loyalty to family: "If I were capable of love, how I would have loved Harry," Dexter says. Since Harry's death, Dexter's only family is his sister, Debra, Harry's natural daughter. At the end of the series, Dexter admits that he cannot hurt Debra because he "is fond of her". He also appears to care more for the happiness and wellbeing of his girlfriend Rita than he admits. Dexter likes children. He knows that Rita can trust him with her kids, as he would never hurt them. The flipside of this is that Dexter is particularly wrathful when his victims prey on children.
Animals don't like Dexter, which can cause noise problems when Dexter stalks a victim who has pets.
Dexter is driven to kill to satisfy an inner personality he calls "The Dark Passenger." Dexter kills when the Passenger's voice can't be ignored. That's when he "lets the Dark Passenger do the driving."
Dexter's killing signature
Dexter's preferred style of killing entails seizing the victim from behind and injecting them with an animal tranquilizer called M99 (etorphine hydrochloride) that renders them temporarily unconscious. The injection is a tradition established with Dexter's first victim, a hospice nurse (played by Denise Crosby) who killed her patients with overdoses of morphine.
When the victim wakes up, they are naked and secured to a table with heavy, clear plastic tape. Dexter then confronts them with narrative evidence of their crimes.
Typical of the classic serial killer profile, Dexter Morgan collects trophies from his victims that he can use to relive the killing moment. Dexter's trophy signature is to slice the victim's cheek near the eye and collect a blood sample, which he preserves on a laboratory slide. Dexter keeps blood slides from all his victims, neatly organized in a wooden filing box that he keeps hidden inside an air conditioner in his apartment.