Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Radka Hulvová

Dexter 's Critique of Contemporary American Society

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D.

2014

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

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Author’s signature

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. for his exemplary attitude, guidance, and helpful feedback. I would also like to thank my family and the closest friends for encouraging me throughout the process of writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5

Chapter One: Relevant Contextual Elements ...... 9

1.1 Dexter Series ...... 9

1.2 Television, Film and Literary Predecessors ...... 10

Chapter Two: The Critical Aspect of Dexter ...... 23

2.1 Duality in Dexter ...... 23

a) Dexter Morgan ...... 23

b) Black Humor ...... 32

c) Other Characters ………………………………………………………. 35

2.2 Ruthless Society ...... 41

a) Neoliberalism and the Narcissistic society ...... 41

b) Dexter‟s Narcissist‟s - Maria LaGuerta and Captain Matthews ...... 46

2.3 Vigilante Thinking ...... 51

a) Audience Identification ...... 51

b) The Code of Harry ...... 56

c) Vigilante Justice in Dexter and the American People ...... 59

Conclusions ...... 64

Works Cited ...... 68

Résumé ...... 74

Resumé ...... 75

Introduction

The Dexter series – can be characterized as an American police television drama, or detective television series, but it is most importantly a series that features a serial killer as its main protagonist. Despite the fact that he takes pleasure in killing human beings, the viewers of the show generally root for him and, to some extent, even identify with him. This unexpected reaction seems to indicate some tendencies that could be deemed as disturbing in a modern twenty-first-century society. The popularity of the show can be surely ascribed partly to its comic aspect, its mostly dark humor that brings fun into otherwise often very serious situations. And yet again, this humor that comes mostly from the funny remarks of Dexter Morgan, the serial killer himself, appears to be not only making fun of the inability of other characters to see Dexter‟s true self but it also appears to be indirectly criticizing the American society and its hypocrisy which arises from the double lives of its citizens.

This thesis will explore the critical aspect of this television show, in order to answer three research questions that will specify my main argument, the argument that the Dexter series challenges the moral state of the American nation, some of its stereotypical values, and the drives that lead the actions of many American people. The questions are: To which negative traits of the American society does the show draw attention to? To what events and developments led to the creation of these traits and what means did the creators of the show use to criticize these traits?

The thesis focuses on the first four seasons of the series. Apart from the information retrieved directly from Dexter and other primary sources, the thesis is also based on the following secondary sources: The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles, a book by Linda Dryden; Daily Life in Victorian England by Sally Mitchell; The

American Dream: A Cultural History by Lawrence R. Samuel; The Culture of

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Narcissism, a book written by a well-known American cultural historian, social critic, and moralist Christopher Lash; and A Brief History of Neoliberalism by a distinguished

British social theorist David Harvey.

The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles is concerned with the nineteenth century fin de siècle literature, namely with the urban Gothic literature of Oscar Wilde,

H. G. Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson. It speaks of a literature that depicted the pessimistic spirit of its age and reflected many anxieties that plagued the contemporary society. One of them being an anxiety about the duality of the metropolis, as well as its people. In the book, Dryden compares the tales of doubling and doppelgängers to the actual situation in the British society of that time. The individuals from the upper classes often led double lives and secretly indulged in morally questionable behavior, while on the outside keeping the appearance of highly civilized beings. It shows that

London was not divided into the upper-class world of wealth and virtue, and the lower- class world of vice – as was the general view of the Victorian Londoners, but that the corrupted and imperfect human nature was very much inclusive of all classes of the society. This source will be used in the first chapter of the thesis dedicated to the predecessors of Dexter along with the chapter “Victorian Morals” from the book Daily

Life in Victorian England, which describes the strict moral rules that were imposed on the members of the Victorian society. It will be used to introduce the issue of duality, a subject that links some of the selected literary works of the past to Dexter, as the series also deals with this matter.

The book American Dream: A Cultural History is a field guide to the evolution of the American Dream ideology, a product of American collective imagination and one of the core mythologies of the nation. The author covers the history of this mythology from 1931, when the phrase was coined, to the first decade of the twenty-first century.

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He also provides various interpretations of the Dream that American people have, one of the most persistent ones being the ownership of a single-unit family home. The book will be used in the subchapter about the duality in Dexter to explain the significance of the place Dexter lives in with the relation to what it represents.

The Culture of Narcissism and A Brief History of Neoliberalism will serve as foundations and main sources of information for the chapter dealing with the certain sense of ruthlessness that appears to be widespread in the western society. The first of the books mentioned explores economic, political, and social developments which led to the state of cultural crisis in 1970s America and describes the consequences that arose from the anxieties that Americans experienced at that time. The consequences including, for instance, the normalizing of pathological narcissism, the extreme preoccupation with the self, the obsession with self-realization, the indifference towards predecessors and posterity, or the extremely competitive nature of the society that creates a feeling of “war of all against all” (Lash 40). The second book mentioned examines in more detail what appears to be the guiding principle of the economic though from the mid-1970s to the present day - neoliberalism. An ideology which through its emphasis on the value of free market further encourages competitiveness in the society.

This thesis has two chapters. The first part of chapter one provides the reader with some basic information about Dexter and serves as a necessary starting point for any further research. The second part contains an overview of the literary, television and film works that can be considered as Dexter‟s predecessors, in a sense that they either belong to a similar genre, have similar features, or address and criticize similar social issues. The works include literary classics, such as Edgar Allan Poe‟s short story The

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), a gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr

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Hyde (1886) written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan

Doyle‟s books about a fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Patricia Highsmith‟s psychological thriller novel called The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), suspense novels and films about the serial killer Hannibal Lecter, or the American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

The second chapter of the paper focuses on the critical aspect of the Dexter series and it is divided into three subsections. The first subsection analyses Dexter in terms of its depiction of dual nature of the American society. It discusses how Dexter‟s adopted social role of average, middle-class American, who is living in the suburbs, is closely linked with the powerful American ideological ethos of the American Dream and its definition of the „good life‟. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the show challenges the preconceived notion of the western civility through its characters and dark humor.

The second subsection further elaborates on the deceiving power of appearances and on the people‟s obsession with them. It explores the historical events, the social climate and the way of thinking present in America of the twentieth and twenty-first century that gave rise to the widespread proliferation of egocentric and narcissistic type of personality. The second subsection also illustrates this trend via two characters from the Dexter series that best reflect a certain degree of general ruthlessness that can be found in many echelons of the contemporary American society.

The third subsection of the second chapter is concerned with the reasons behind

Dexter‟s popularity and behind the audience identification with the main character, tracing it down also to the vigilante thinking that is deeply imbedded in the American culture and psyche.

All of my findings are reflected in the conclusion.

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Chapter One: Relevant Contextual Elements

The subsequent chapter provides background information about the

Dexter series, including the overview of its literary, film and television predecessors.

The discussed works will not always be listed in a chronological order. The governing principle will be the subject matter, genre and the relation of a particular book, film or television show to the rest of the discussed works.

1.1 The Dexter Series

Dexter is a series that aired on an American premium cable and satellite network

Showtime between the October 1, 2006 and September, 22 2013. It is a series about

Dexter Morgan – a blood spatter analyst who works for Miami Metro Police

Department and a man who also leads a secret life of a serial killer. Dexter is very good at his job, is well-liked by his co-workers, loved by his sister, and perceived as a perfect boyfriend by his girlfriend. With his guy-next-door looks and pleasant manners, Dexter gives no reason for the people around him to suspect that he is anything more than a sincere and law-abiding citizen. In reality though, he has a whole other, much darker, side to him. Dexter is a psychopath who has a strong, unflinching drive to kill and who has a hard time understanding many of the natural human emotions. His becoming a psychopath was triggered by a traumatic event which occurred when he was very young. At the age of three, Dexter witnessed a violent death of his biological mother which consequently gave rise to his fascination with blood and to his urges to kill.

Dexter was lucky and got adopted by a police officer Harry Morgan, who took him in right from the crime scene. Harry recognized Dexter‟s homicidal tendencies early on and because he was convinced that Dexter‟s condition was permanent, irreversible, and because he cared for Dexter, he decided that he would teach Dexter how to cover his

~ 9 ~ tracks and other necessary precautions that would help to keep him of the electric chair.

To morally justify his cause, Harry comes up with an idea that Dexter‟s destructive urges could actually be used in a productive way and so he creates a certain set of moral principles, a code that ensures that Dexter‟s urges are channeled only towards the most vicious criminals who have slipped through the justice system. Apart from what Harry teaches him, it is also Dexter‟s job that enables him to successfully pursue his unusual passions. His knowledge of police procedures eliminates the risk of him being caught, his access to the police database makes spotting and tracking down his potential victims much easier, and most importantly, his job provides him with a camouflage that maximizes the appearance of his credibility and minimizes the likelihood of his deviancy ever being revealed.

1.2 Television, Film and Literary Predecessors

Dexter revolves around law enforcement and strongly resembles other American television shows that fall into the categories of police procedural and forensic drama - genres that have enjoyed considerable popularity in the past fifteen years. They deal with similar subjects but they differ slightly. Police procedural attempts to convincingly depict the day-to-day activities of a police force during a crime investigation. It covers all stages of the investigation and its main protagonists are usually police detectives or police officers. Forensic drama, on the other hand, shifts the focus of the show from the traditional representatives of the law - police officers, lawyers, police or private detectives, judges etc., towards the specialists in forensic science – forensic pathologists, toxicology forensics, blood spatter analysts and the like. The shows follow these specialists as they use science and technology to examine and analyze the

~ 10 ~ evidence collected from the crime scene. Based on the results of their DNA testing, fingerprint testing, dental X-ray testing, autopsy and other scientific procedures, they are almost always able to solve the case in the end. In order to make the forensic experts more interesting to the audience, the creators of the shows distort the way in which the police work. The forensics scientists, who in reality spend most of their time in their offices and laboratories, are in these shows portrayed as actively involved in processing the crime scene, interrogating suspects, and are sometimes even engaged in a pursuit and an arrest of suspects – activities that do not fall under their responsibility in real life.

The huge success of these genres is evident in the significant number of their long- running shows. Probably the best-known representative of the police procedural and forensic drama is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - a CBS series about the forensic scientists in Las Vegas, Nevada which has been on television already for fifteen years now and has three spin-offs: CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and CSI: Cyber. Another good example is Law and Order –with its 20 seasons the longest-running crime drama on

American primetime television, NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Without a

Trace, Bones, Cold Case, and The Mentalist.

A substantial part of Dexter‟s content corresponds to the subject matter and to the characteristics of the two genres but the creators have combined it also with features, themes and preoccupations that are typical of other different genres, and thus introduced a completely new take on the series like CSI.

One of the things that set Dexter apart from the other forensic and police procedural shows is definitely its main character, serial killer Dexter Morgan. This choice of the main protagonists links the series to the literary and film tradition of serial killer fiction. In the modern urban environment, people were often fascinated with serial killers. The Gothic literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth century frequently

~ 11 ~ depicted tales of multiple murder, and the beginning of the twentieth century witnessed no drop in the demand for this kind of literature. America of the beginning of the twentieth century was obsessed with stories about the real-life serial killer who is probably the most notorious killer in history – Jack the Ripper. The murders of eleven prostitutes that were committed in the Whitechapel district of impoverished part of

London called East End between the years 1888 and 1891 became a common inspiration for a large number of fictional dime novels published in America at that time. The term serial killer was coined many years later, though. It happened in the

1970s, when Robert Ressler – the author of the phrase, and an FBI investigator, started to conduct a research on serial murderers and began along with his colleagues from the

FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit with serial killer profiling. The unit was (and still is) studying a behavior and psychological make-up of convinced criminals and suspects, looking for patterns that would help the investigators with analyzing the evidence from the crime scene. The findings are then used for compiling a behavioral portrait of an offender which generally increases the Bureau‟s chances of apprehending the criminal by narrowing down the list of possible suspects. David Schmid in his article "Serial

Killer Fiction” attributes the unexpected popularity of the serial killer fiction and its unprecedented growth that appeared in the 1970s and 1980s, to the increased preoccupation of the FBI with serial killers which manifested itself in the FBI‟s activities and measures, such as the previously mentioned serial killer profiling. Schmid talks about “the FBI‟s success in both building up a full-scale moral panic around serial murder and establishing the Bureau as the solution to the „epidemic‟ of marauding serial killers plaguing the land” which, according to him, boosted people‟s interest in the serial killer genre and produced a new prototypical character that became a central

~ 12 ~ figure of a majority of the serial killer fiction: “the FBI agent […] mind hunter […] uniquely qualified to deal with the serial murder menace” (Serial Killer Fiction).

The praise of the FBI‟s ability to effectively fight the serial murder and apprehend the killer was one of the reoccurring conclusions as well as one of the prevalent themes of the serial killer stories. Thomas Harris‟s suspense, horror novels about Hannibal Lecter are exceptions to this trend. Even though they are detective procedural novels and they allow its reader to identify with their law-enforcement protagonists, they are mostly centered on the psychopath Hannibal. They express his intellectual superiority over the representatives of the authorities and emphasize his superior deductive skills - two of the attributes whose possession is very useful and sometimes even essential for the detection and successful apprehension of the perpetrators. Harris‟s books were turned into four movies and the first of them the

Silence of The Lambs (1991), starring Antony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter and Jodie

Foster as FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling, has over the years gained a status of a cultural icon. In the movie, Hannibal, a former psychiatrist and a cannibalistic serial killer now in prison, assists the FBI academy student Starling in catching a serial killer called Buffalo Bill- a killer based on several real-life serial killers of the twentieth century, but most importantly based on the modus operandi of Ed Gain who like

Buffalo Bill killed several women in order to make a "woman suit" for himself.

Hannibal books and movies present, just like Dexter, a serial killer that is most of the time ahead of the authorities. He understands perfectly the criminal mind and is therefore able to uncover the villain and solve the case much faster than the police.

There is also an apparent similarity in the origin of Hannibal‟s and Dexter‟s murderous selves. The prequel to the Hannibal novels and films called Hannibal Rising explores

Hannibal‟s childhood and his sudden turn into a serial killer. It retells Hannibal‟s story

~ 13 ~ which started 1933, when he was born into an aristocratic family in Lithuania, and which then took an unfortunate turn in 1944 when he lost both of his parents due to the raging Second World War. Hannibal and his younger sister Misha were subsequently captured by Nazi collaborators who later murdered and cannibalized Misha in front of

Hannibal and who even fed him her remains. This series of events that caused Hannibal to become a psychopath and a killer are just as gruesome and traumatic as Dexter‟s seeing his mother being chopped up with a chainsaw in a shipping container, which was the experience that created the dark side of Dexter‟s personality.

Hannibal Lecter is an intelligent, well-educated and sophisticated man with refined tastes in music and art who does not tolerate rudeness as “discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to [him]” (Silence of the Lambs). He is also a man that revels in psychological manipulation and a man who can be darkly comic at times. In the film

Hannibal, Clarice Starling talks about the arguments that Hannibal has for eating his victims after he murders them, a point of view that is very much filled with black humor: “[He dines on them] to show his contempt for those who exasperate him, or sometimes to perform a public service. In the case of the flutist, Benjamin Raspail, he did it to improve the sound of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra, serving the not-so- talented flute player‟s sweetbreads to the Board” (Hannibal). In this context, Hannibal is an interesting and fascinating character, which is something that he shares with Dexter, but Hannibal is, unlike Dexter, portrayed in such a way that he remains outside of the reach of the readers‟ and viewers‟ identification. The readers and viewers might be curious to know more about him and can be drawn to his outrageous actions but most of them are probably not left with a feeling that they are, in a way, very much like him.

Exceptionally brilliant individuals that occupy themselves with unraveling mysteries and detection are, not surprisingly, also common tropes of detective fiction.

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One group of these individuals again comprises of people who are not part of the official agency that is supposed to be dealing with these issues. In spite of their

“outsider” status, their abilities often surpass the abilities of the people in charge.

In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a character of Sherlock Holmes, probably the most famous fictional detective of all times. Holmes for whom the investigation is the most animating and exciting hobby, is a master of deductive reasoning equipped with keen observation and forensic skills. These fantastic intellectual abilities enable him to become a consulting detective for the London police inspectors, who along with the government frequently ask for his help in the most difficult cases. Although Sherlock often gives an impression of arrogance and his lack of emotions could make him come across as unpleasant and inaccessible, the way in which the stories are narrated prevent it from happening. Doyle decided to tell the story from the point of view of Sherlock‟s fellow lodger, assistant and biographer doctor John

H. Watson who becomes Sherlock‟s friend and whose sympathetic telling brings humanity to his character. By using Watson as a narrator, Doyle also accentuates

Sherlock‟s genius even further, as many situations that Watson, who represents an average person, regards as utterly baffling or even unsolvable, generally appear much clearer to Holmes who is usually able to solve them without much difficulty.

The same approach can be found in the works of an American writer Edgar

Allan Poe, the author who is believed to write the first detective fiction. The reason behind this is that an amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, the central character of the

Poe‟s first short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and two other stories, served as a prototype and a main inspiration for several more recent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes.

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Poe employs first person narration, the narrator again being detective‟s friend who, apart from telling the story, plays only peripheral role in the stories – a role which lies mainly in making Dupin‟s observations look more grand. Dupin is not a member of police force and he does not use conventional police methods. He tries to distance himself from emotional aspect of the crimes, relying on his intuitive logic, astute observation, thorough examination of the crime scene, and ratiocination. Much to the displeasure of the police, his technique of detection yields results as he is able to reveal true culprits of the most extraordinary murders while the police‟s investigation moves the wrong direction.

Poe sets the stories about detective Dupin in Paris, a populous city whose enormous size and population provides its inhabitants with relative anonymity. This anonymity can in turn give criminals bigger security, since it lowers the chances of their being caught, while turning the city into a rather dangerous place for the rest of the society. Poe‟s woks reflect the fact that a metropolis is a fertile breeding ground for crime and it is therefore a very suitable and believable setting for the tales that talk about violence, crime and the dark side of society. This is surely one of the reasons why his literary successor Doyle chose for Sherlock Holmes to live and work in London, why the series Dexter is set in Miami, and why also writers of Gothic literature decided in the middle of the nineteenth century that it was time to abandon the traditional conventions of the genre and moved their stories full of horror from remote landscapes and secluded places to the very heart of the modern metropolis.

Poe‟s works belong to the Gothic genre, which also brings them closer to

Dexter since the series shares many of the genre‟s features. Dexter, for instance often deals with macabre subject and depicts shocking discoveries that involve images of mutilated bodies, corpses, body parts and details of blood – all of which are the

~ 16 ~ characteristic features of the Gothic literature. It also sometimes employs light effects and uses specific camera angles to promote a feeling of suspense, fear, or dread, but most importantly, its character of Dexter corresponds to the common theme of the

Gothic literature – the outsider who with his desire or actions transgresses the accepted limits of society. This theme can be found in such Gothic literary classics as Mary

Shelly‟s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) where a scientist

Victor Frankenstein breaches the boundaries of natural and moral order when he in a scientific experiment creates a living creature out of dead body parts, or in the Gothic novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897 which features an aristocrat and vampire

Count Dracula who preys on blood to extend his life and has desires to regain his family‟s lost power by using his supernatural powers.

These works represent the theme of challenging certain social limits well, although, we can find examples of Gothic fiction that deal with challenging popular views and general believes about morality of a certain society, which are issues that are much closer to the content of Dexter. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

(1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson, and other works, such as The Picture of Dorian

Gray (1891) by Oscar Wilde brought attention to the moral duplicity of the people from the upper classes that were generally believed to be highly moral in comparison to the lower orders.

Stevenson‟s novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written during the reign of Queen Victoria which lasted from 1837 to 1901. People living in this era attached great significance to their reputation, and respectability became one of the

Victorian „watchwords‟. Stevenson perfectly illustrates this importance of reputation in narration of Mr. Utterson, the narrator of the story, who describes the means by which he and other people decided to punish Hyde after he tramped over a little girl: “[k]illing

~ 17 ~ being out of the question, we did the next best. We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this as should make his name stink from one end of London to the other” (Stevenson 12).

It was a morally rigid society with strict code of conduct and very high moral standards. According to the Nancy Snyder‟s article “Divided Self Theme in Stevenson's

„Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,‟” the compliance with these expectations was a necessary prerequisite for social acceptance and professional success as: “Those who strayed from acceptable behavior would not be easily accepted in polite society.” The article also says that as a result, people were often forced to opt for self-denial and decided to hide their desires in order to “maintain a respectable social appearance […] [b]ecause social class [also] determined upward mobility and capability of financial prosperity”

(Snyder), or as Stevenson wrote in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in order to “walk steadfastly and securely on [their] upward path.” (Stevenson 70).

In one of the chapters from her book called Daily Life in Victorian England,

Sally Mitchell looks into the issue of Victorian morality. Mitchell describes the society as a society whose respectable citizens were ideally supposed to be equipped with virtues like thrift, honesty, sobriety, and efficiency in everything they did, which required of them to cultivate other qualities and habits, such as self-control, initiative, orderliness, punctuality, getting up early in the morning and organizing their leisure time constructively. She also states that people who cared for their good name always made sure they stayed out of debts, were dressed in a good manner and tidy clothes, did not eat on the street, or use loud voices that would call too much attention them.

Another fact she mentions is that the people of middle and lower classes were taught to be self-sufficient: “A common maxim was „keep yourself to yourself‟. There was a strong inhibition against telling anyone about personal problems or family difficulties.

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Neighbors kept their distance; people seldom invited anyone except relatives into their houses.” (Mitchell 231) According to the book, earnestness and prudery were praised while frivolity was frowned upon. Despite of the rising prominence of the feminist movement and an emergence of more enlightened vision of a liberated “New Woman”

(232) at the end of the nineteenth century, the gender roles were strongly enforced and the most common image of the ideal woman was still the one of the „angel of the house‟, “whose entire life centered on the home” (230). Marriage held a central place in the conception of ideal womanhood and so “[…] women were trained to please men, help children, and suppress their own wants” (232). They were expected to present a feminine persona and be “meek, virtuous, innocent, weak, ignorant, beautiful, and subservient to men” as Felicia Appell writes in her essay “Victorian Ideals: The

Influence of Society‟s Ideals on Victorian Relationships”. Mitchell further elaborates on the issue of gender expectations and emphasizes that Victorian women were supposed be chaste and that some people even insisted that “[a] respectable girl should be completely ignorant about sex and sexuality until initiated by her husband on the wedding night” (Mitchell 232). Men on the other hand, were given the responsibilities of being providers and protectors and if they were not masculine enough and had some feminine or even homosexual tendencies, they were considered weak and amoral. The man counterpart to the feminine ideal was a “gentleman” who except for being honorable, ethical and dependable cultivated an outward appearance of dignity and restraint. Young boys were instructed in public schools in how to become a gentleman and part of their education was “train[ing] of emotional reserve that came to be called the „stiff upper lip‟ so that they would exhibit a stoic self-control“(232).

Jekyll and Hyde is set in London of the late nineteenth century and it reflects its realities. The city had recently experienced a huge influx of people during the century

~ 19 ~ and the population had grown from one million to over four million in 1881. Some of the London‟s districts, such as the East End and formerly respectable West End district

Soho, became overcrowded with immigrants and poor people whose poverty and poor living conditions fueled the spread of diseases and crime in these areas. In a consequence East End and Soho became for many people synonymous with the abode of the London‟s “underbelly” (Dryden 44). According to Linda Dryden and her book

The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles, the more affluent people who lived mostly in the fashionable parts of the West End or the suburbs regarded the East End as “a cesspit of crime, vice, drunkenness and poverty, populated by „savages‟ who were only one step up the ladder from the bees” (48). There seemed to be a big gulf separating the wealthy and educated from the impoverished inhabitants, both in terms of their material and moral standards. The preconceived idea shared by the “respectable” Londoners which assumed that if compared with their poorer counterparts, the more privileged part of the London‟s society would be declared as full of merits and decisively morally elevated, nevertheless proved to be problematic and, strictly speaking, wrong.

Dryden points to the fact that the literature of the late-nineteenth century which frequently dealt with the theme of the double, challenges this perception and self- delusion about their general moral soundness as it talks about “the possibility of a dual self, where the externally moral individual masks a primitive „other‟ within that threatens to engulf the civilized.” (9). This literature reveals that behind the veneer of virtuousness can often be hidden an intrinsic darkness, strong passions and self- indulgent hedonism which is given expression in the secret lives the individuals are leading. The books were a response to their age and expressed true contemporary concerns. Dryden draws attention to the publication of the series of four articles entitled

The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon in 1885, in which an English newspaper editor

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William Thomas Stead dealt with an issue of child prostitution and exposed that “it was the upper and middle classes that were primarily engaged in „buying‟ virginal girls for sexual gratification“(64). His findings thus suggested that the English “gentlemen” were, in fact, no more or less moral than the working-class men, and they also called attention to the social hypocrisy of the concerned upper and middle classes, many of whose members were just superficially genteel while secretly having dark secrets, which can be also supported by the documented existence of a considerable number of bourgeois and upper-class men who were called “flâneurs“ (55) and who prowled the city streets, including the infamous East End, seeking excitement, wanting to taste its forbidden delights and buying pleasure to satisfy their passions and boredom.

The message of the fin de siècle literature about the duality can be summarized, in a simplified way, by the saying “the appearances can be deceiving” and by the assertion that there cannot be drawn a line that would distinguish the “savage” from the civilized based on one‟s social status.

The psychological thriller novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia

Highsmith addresses the phenomenon of double lives as well. The novel is about a young American Thomas Ripley a lonely, poor and dissatisfied man who murders his successful, well-liked and a very rich friend Dickie Greenleaf, so that he could assume his name and persona to get the perfect life he always wanted. Tom is an excellent impersonator and a very good forger, he steps right into Dickie‟s shoes and for a several months leads a double life, enjoying every minute of being Dickie Greenleaf. When being Dickie, Tom no longer feels like an underdog with no self-respect. He feels

“completely comfortable, as he had never felt before” (Highsmith 135). Thanks to his intelligence and cunning, Tom manages to outwit the police, in the end, get away with

~ 21 ~ two murders and keep at least Dickie‟s money after it is no longer possible for him to remain being Dickie.

Highsmith‟s The Talented Mr. Ripley is memorable for being one of the first literary works whose main protagonist was a murderer with whom the readers were invited to sympathize and even empathize - the is the most significant feature that the novel has in common with Dexter. Despite the fact that the story is narrated in the third person, it is told from Tom‟s point of view. Readers thus have a full access to the character‟s thoughts and feelings which makes it easier for them to identify themselves with the underachiever, and the outsider Tom and therefore to have a greater understanding for his actions.

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Chapter Two: The Critical Aspect of Dexter

In this chapter, I will analyze the series Dexter itself. The chapter is divided into three subsections and each of the subsections deals with one specific, rather negative, social issue that the series seems to draw attention to.

2.1 Duality in Dexter

The first major issue I want to address is the dual nature of the American society. Firstly, I will illustrate this phenomenon on the show‟s character of Dexter

Morgan, secondly, on the black humor of the show, and lastly, on several other character that are depicted in a similar way to Dexter.

a) Dexter Morgan

Miami, the second most populous city in the Southeast of the United States, one of the richest cities in the United States, and the city situated in Florida – a state that is nicknamed the “Sunshine State”, was chosen by Jeff Lindsay, the author of the Dexter novels that served as the basis for the series, as an ideal setting for Dexter‟s story. Its glossy window panes of the high-rises that gleam in the sunshine, white beaches, palm trees, pastel skies, blue pools and the ocean that invites for a swim, a boat ride or even a cruise, contrasts sharply with the criminality, prostitution, gang killings, illegal drug trade, human trafficking, and other very real problems that Miami as a major city, and a final destination of illegal immigration from Latin America, faces. The city with its dual character serves as a perfect parallel to Dexter‟s complex nature and life.

In the series, we observe this good-looking, friendly, and witty man named

Dexter Morgan managing his job and relationships. His work colleagues respect him for his excellent skills in blood-spatter analysis and generally like him because he has won

~ 23 ~ them over with his amicable behavior and little gestures like bringing them boxes of fresh doughnuts in the morning, and his girlfriend Rita loves him for his kindness and attention towards her and her two little kids, Astor and Cody, who just like her, adore him. He has a very good relationship with his foster sister and co-worker Debra as well.

Since Dexter‟s foster and Debra‟s real parents, Harry and Doris, are both already deceased, they are to each other the only family they have, and for that reason Debra has a very strong and unconditional sisterly affection towards Dexter. Small things like asking the people around Dexter about how their families are doing or selfless acts, like buying a coffee to a woman who cannot find her purse, make Dexter appear like a

“godsend” („The Dark Defender‟) in the woman‟s eyes and like a very nice and likeable person to others. We also observe Dexter dealing with problems and family duties that regular adults have to attend to: kids getting annoying when hitting puberty, going to yoga for pregnant women and their partners, looking for a new, bigger house for the expanding family, mood swings of the expecting girlfriend, planning a wedding, experiencing sleep deprivation after the baby is finally born, going to barbecue parties, or punching a neighbor after he makes a move on his wife. In other words, doing nothing out of the ordinary.

At the same time we, however, discover that when nobody is looking, predominantly at night, Dexter occupies himself with a whole other set of activities which are very much in conflict with his upstanding image. We can see him repeatedly indulging in ritualistic murders, enjoying every stage of the process, which he finds

“intoxicating” („Dexter‟): preparing the tools, lining the carefully selected crime scenes with plastic sheeting, stalking the victims, injecting them with a horse tranquilizer, tying them down to a table with duct tape, forcing them to look at the photographs of the people they have killed and then making them confess to their crimes, slicing their

~ 24 ~ cheeks to get a trophy for his blood sample collection, killing them with knives, cleavers, or power saw, and afterwards dismembering their bodies, shoving the body parts in plastic bags, and disposing of them in the ocean. Dexter savors these activities as they allow him to fulfil the needs of his hidden, violent part that he calls the Dark

Passenger. This deviant side of his personality has to remain secret to prevent his ruin, and therefore Dexter cultivates his pleasant behavior and tries to have problem-free relationships that would provide him with a protective camouflage. From an early age

Harry, his foster father, instructed Dexter in how to behave and construct his life that he would match the conventional image of normalcy, an image that would make Dexter safe by allowing him to blend in with the rest of the society. In season one, Dexter has several flashbacks into his childhood that depict Harry giving him advice about what he is supposed to do to achieve that:

HARRY. Dexter, were you smiling?

DEXTER. No.

HARRY. Okay, we‟ll do another one.

DEXTER. I hate going to the beach

HARRY. Too bad. You‟re part of a family. And being part of a family means smiling for photos.

DEXTER. Why should I pretend to be happy?

HARRY. Because it‟ll make your mom happy, and because it‟s how you fit in.

(„Let's Give the Boy a Hand‟)

Or:

DEXTER. Yeah, well, I don´t really care about girls. I just like being alone.

HARRY. But most normal people don‟t, and it‟s important that you seem normal.

(„Love American Style‟)

~ 25 ~

When it comes to emotions, Dexter says he feels like “an empty vessel” („Do

You Take Dexter Morgan?‟) as if he had “a hollow place inside” („Love American

Style‟), but keeping his father‟s lessons in mind he observes closely the reactions of other people and is therefore able to quite successfully mimic the appropriate behavior and fake what comes naturally to most of the human beings. Commenting on it, Dexter in his own words says: “People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all, and I fake them very well” („Love American Style‟).

At the beginning of the series Dexter also approaches his role in the lives of the people closest to him as a necessary performative act: “Brother, friend, boyfriend. All part of my costume collection.” („Love American Style‟) and even confesses that he started dating Rita because it would again be a good cover. His actions resemble the kind of behavior that is typical of psychopaths. In the article “Differences Between a

Psychopath vs Sociopath”, an article that looked into the characteristic behavior of psychopaths and sociopaths, psychologist John M. Grogol described how psychopaths, who just like Dexter, tend to be seen as charming by the people around them, often lead

“a semblance of a normal life” to minimize the risk of their criminal activities being revealed. He wrote that “[p]sychopaths, in general, have a hard time forming real emotional attachments with others [and that they instead] form artificial, shallow relationships designed to be manipulated in a way that most benefits the psychopath”

(Grohol). Something that seems to correspond with Dexter‟s behavior, to a large extent.

In the first episode of the season one, Dexter admits that he does not understand sex because it seems “undignified” to him, but because he has to “play the game”

(‟Dexter‟) he picks Rita as his partner. Dating Rita “works for [him]” („Dexter‟) because after the horrible experience she has had with her ex-husband who repeatedly beaten and raped her, she is completely uninterested in sex too.

~ 26 ~

Just like that of a psychopath, Dexter‟s private and public life seems to be decidedly founded on practical reasons. For example, in season three Rita gets pregnant and Dexter proposes. Before doing so, Dexter is contemplating whether he should do it and eventually he comes with a positive answer to this question. However, it is not primarily some sense of responsibility for Rita‟s condition or affection that ultimately inspires him to make the decision. It is predominantly the possible benefits he could gain from the new status, specifically the promise of a higher level of his inconspicuousness: “Family man. Husband and father. Sounds so upstanding. Much better than lives alone - keeps to himself” („All in the Family‟).

Rita is convinced that: “[she] found the one, truly decent man left on the planet”

(„Dexter‟). When Dexter confesses to her that he has a dark side to him, in the sixth episode of the series, she just smiles and replies: “Somehow I doubt that. You have a good heart, Dexter. […] You don´t hurt people” („Return to Sender‟). Despite the fact that Rita usually raves about Dexter and his being “great, generous, gentle guy” („Our

Father‟), on several occasions she starts to suspect that Dexter is hiding something. At the beginning of the second season, she wrongly concludes that Dexter must be, like her ex-husband, a drug addict as it would explain his frequent absences and sometimes odd behavior. Later in the season, she finds out that he is having an affair with his sponsor from Narcotics Anonymous where she herself forced him to go. In the fourth season, she discovers that Dexter lied to her and that after the wedding and moving into a new house with her and the kids, he did not sell his old apartment. What she doesn‟t know is that Dexter needs the apartment for storing his killing tools and because it is solely

“[his] home, [his] sanctuary („Turning Biminese‟) and the only place where he can freely be himself. Dexter is reluctant to let go of the apartment as he feels that it is: “the only thing that‟s helped (him) keep the mask in place” and that “[w]ithout it … [he

~ 27 ~ would] burst” („Dirty Harry‟). The whole issue and the lack of Dexter‟s openness get him and Rita into marriage counseling but they eventually, as in the previous cases, work out their differences.

Rita remains unaware of Dexter‟s murderous self and, until the end, continues to think very highly of him. She does not realize the extent of Dexter‟s secretiveness and would probably be surprised at the number of occasions when Dexter might have been much more literal that she thought, as for example in their short interaction at the wedding dinner rehearsal:

RITA. This is gonna be a nice dinner. Thank you for doing this, Dexter.

DEXTER. Just doing what grooms are supposed to do.

(„Do You Take Dexter Morgan?‟)

By which, Dexter might actually mean that he threw the rehearsal dinner just because it was expected of him in his cover act of being a caring fiancé.

Dexter is a Caucasian and heterosexual male, who could be, due to his profession and income, classified as middle-class, according to some theories of the social stratification. Sociologists Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson, in their book

Sociology Now, for instance, perceive the middle class as a class that encompasses, among others, also the people of Dexter‟s profession, the police personnel: “Most hold white-collar jobs: They are technicians, salespeople, business owners, educators.

However, many blue-collar workers and high-demand service personnel, such as police, firefighters, and military, have acquired incomes large enough to place them in the middle class” (Kimmel and Aronson 184).

~ 28 ~

The term middle class is ambiguous as there is no exact definition of the concept but its logical detonation is that the class occupies the middle position within the social hierarchy. Being socio-economically positioned between the upper-class and the working class, the middle class should, in a simplified way, represent a middle ground between the extremes and perhaps even stand for something average. Considering the middle class in this way, we could also regard Dexter as a representation of the average

American. This idea that Dexter could portray a prototypical image of an American is also reinforced by his decision to date Rita, a single mother who lives in suburbia, and by his own move to the suburban house.

From the dark days of the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the affluent years of the 1950s and 1960s, to this day, the American society is being influenced by its collective ideology of the American Dream. The Dream‟s rhetoric of the „promised land‟ where „everything is possible‟ is founded on the belief that American society based on capitalism and the free-market should create a level playing field for everybody and therefore ensure that if any individual works hard enough he/she shall be rewarded with whatever he/she strives for. This ideal proves to be very much utopian since there, for example, is and always will be only a limited number of the most prestigious jobs that can fulfill the aspirations of the most ambitious individuals and because the system can therefore never accommodate the needs of all people even if they would, with their efforts and results, deserve it. The ideology is very likely too optimistic and not entirely realistic, but nevertheless, the American Dream with its

„rags-to-riches‟ tales, so often depicted in the popular culture, has served as a powerful tool of the American propaganda both inside the country and abroad.

The definition of the Dream and the good life that it should bring is fragmented and it can mean basically anything, depending on personal preferences and values. The

~ 29 ~ consumer society of the twentieth and the twenty-first century has been directing much of its attention to the outer materialistic measures of success and there is ,thus, no wonder that many people came to regard the place they lived in as the clearest expression of the American Dream.

The desire to own a private piece of land with, ideally, a spacious single-family house equipped with all the modern conveniences and trimmings, such as a large grassy backyard, a pool, and two garages, has become entrenched in the nation‟s interpretation of happiness. In the series, it is nicely illustrated on Rita‟s delight over their move to the suburbs: “Carpools and swimming pools. How much are we living the dream?” (Living the Dream). Over decades, the majority of Americans has considered it as being the ideal place to live. Lawrence R. Samuel who dedicated an entire book, titled The

American Dream: A Cultural History, to the ideology of the American Dream, states that, for example, according to a 1992‟s survey it was approximately eighty percent of the interviewed people, and he also claims that the people considered other types of housing as temporary solutions, or compromises (Lawrence 145). Despite the fact that owning such a house often does not make economic sense to many families, the demand for them is not declining. Lawrence even speaks of people being willing to become

“servants to their houses” (192) in an effort to get and keep a house like that.

Additionally, the government, too, has been encouraging the people to put a priority on acquiring their own place to live by creating mortgage terms that were more affordable for them. Lawrence claims that by doing so, the government further reinforced a certain view of the house ownership which regarded it as being almost a prerequisite for becoming a “full-fledged American citizen” (6), and also bolstered the popular assumption of it being a guaranteed “formula for satisfied adulthood” (197). In turn, the people who obtain the “necessary badge of the middle class achievement” ( 94)

~ 30 ~

– one‟s own house in the suburbs, often seem to be forming a relatively content, homogeneous suburban societies, conformist in nature – which is something that is very much in the government‟s interest.

Dexter‟s relocation to the suburbs makes him appear undistinguishable from the ordinary American middle-class inhabitants of suburbia, as his decision to follow the manufactured equation of happiness: marriage, kids and the house in the suburbs, corresponds to their conventional aspirations and values. In the third season, Dexter describes himself as: “Dexter Morgan, good suburban husband, happy father of three.

On paper anyway” („Living the Dream‟), clearly referring to the big, dark secret he is hiding. Everyone who is watching the series is from the very first episode well aware of

Dexter‟ s double life but seeing that he is at this point quite successfully blending in with his suburban neighbors, makes one wonder how many other people are hiding their deviant sides behind the mask of their external behavior and appearance.

As the internet article “The Duality of Dexter” notices, the show appears to be challenging the common stereotype of the trustworthy: “middle to upper class average

Joe white guy [who is] being [just] a simple unassuming figure with virtuous and venerable characteristics” (Duality). A guy who is a member of the social class that does not constitute a large percentage of the law offenders, since the majority of the felons and prisoners are, as stated in the Guardian article: “men from poor and working- class backgrounds” (Garside). In one of his inner monologues, Dexter himself makes an observation about the misleading nature of similar assumptions: “Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it‟s the very people who are supposed to be protecting us.

A cop, a parent, the spatter guy” („Dex Takes a Holiday‟).

~ 31 ~

By extension, the series can be seen as not only questioning the objectivity of the stereotypical views regarding social classes but perhaps also the whole notion of the western civilization being particularly civilized. It suggests that there is a possibility that a large portion of American people is only superficially nice to the others and that the idea of the moral soundness and superiority of the nation is surely, to some extent, hypocritical.

b) Black Humor

Alison Peirce in her essay “In a Lonely Place? Dexter and Film Noir” which discusses the genre of Dexter, compares the series to the soap operas and programs like

Desperate Housewives that have: “always depicted the everyday darkness of suburban life, exploring the dichotomy between the exterior presentation of perfection and normality while, below the surface, indecency, depravity, and horror boil over” (204) and Dexter appears to play on, and continue in that tradition. One of the means that the series employs for this purpose is the use of black humor.

The creators of the show, for instance, decided to combine specific shots to produce syntagms that comically expose the dark side of Dexter and the humanity in general, as, for example, in this sequence of scenes: Dexter kisses Rita‟s forehead which is followed by a cut and then by the camera focusing on an air conditioning in Dexter‟s apartment behind which Dexter stores a box full of blood slides – trophies from his killings. („Dexter‟)

The dark tendentious comedy of Dexter finds expression also in his dexterous choice of words. Dexter‟s official life often interferes with the secret one, but by the right choice of words, he is able to tell the truth without arousing suspicion to his criminal activities. As in this situation: Dexter is cover in blood because he has just

~ 32 ~ killed and butchered his victim and at that moment he receives a call from Rita. She asks him what he is doing and he replies: “I‟m just finishing up some project but I‟ll come by later” („Dexter‟). There is no need for him to resort to lying as he can make use of these vague or commonplace phrases, thousands of people use every day. And so when Rita calls him again on some other occasion, tells him she needs to see him and he replies: “I was just dropping somebody off” („Waiting to Exhale‟), the likelihood of her interpreting correctly of what he is actually doing – which is literally dropping somebody off, as dumping his body parts into the Atlantic Ocean, is very small.

The black humor in Dexter takes also other forms. Firstly, there are the slips of the tongue where Dexter accidentally reveals his deviant fascination with killing, as in the third episode of the season one, where he in front of his co-workers calls a newly found crime scene in the ice hockey arena “stunning” and says it feels “like a dream” to him, quickly saving the situation, though, by adding: “standing on the home ice of the

Miami Blades” („Popping Cherry‟).

Secondly, the creators added some flashbacks into Dexter‟s past which provide a glimpse into the secrets that reside in Dexter‟s memories. These flashbacks often function as means to let the viewers on to the dark parts of Dexter‟s story that he smartly decided to keep for himself.

This happens, for example, in the scene which depicts Dexter being in a session with a psychologist that is helping him overcome his intimacy issues. The psychologist asks Dexter to tell him something about his father, starting with “[the] kind of stuff

[they] did together” to which Dexter replies: “You know, normal father-son stuff.” Then comes a cut and we are suddenly taken into a dark room where we can see Harry, who has probably woken up in the middle of the night, going to the fridge for some food. All

~ 33 ~ of the sudden, somebody jumps him and we soon discover that it is Dexter, who is just practicing ambushing people so that he can do it properly - which is apparently a part of

Harry‟s training and, at the same time, Dexter‟s and Harry‟s disturbing version of

“normal father-son stuff” („Shrink Wrap‟)

Another example would be one of Dexter‟s dental appointments where Dexter engages in a casual conversation with his dentist. Their small talk moves towards the way they spent their summers and Dexter enthusiastically mentions that he “went to the carnival [and] even won a prize.” The true meaning of the sentence is subsequently revealed in a flashback that captures Dexter going to the carnival because he is stalking his victim there, and “winning his price” when killing him. To keep the conversation going, the dentist pretends to be alarmed and wants to know if he: “stayed away from those sweets […].” Dexter admits that even though “[he] is usually good, [he] sometimes indulge[s].” There is another flashback and we witness Dexter indulging - indulging in chopping up his victim. To conclude the talk, Dexter tells the dentist that he “also made a point to meet new people” („Our Father‟) which is again immediately deciphered as a code for extending his blood slide collection.

Thirdly, there are situations in the series in which Dexter is silent to the other characters but very vocal to the viewers who have an exclusive access to whatever

Dexter‟s thinking through his voice-over narration. For instance, Rita calls Dexter, wants to know what he is doing. The first thing that goes through his head is the naked truth “breaking and entering” („Shrink Wrap‟), the same thing happens when Debra talks about her attitude towards killers and says that if Dexter “[gave her] one shot,

[she]‟d put a bullet in the [their] head[s] [because they are] killing people [and that if] dad taught [her] one thing, it‟s to value a human life.” Dexter cannot help but thinking:

“Yeah, but I think we had different assignments” („The Dark Defender‟), remembering

~ 34 ~ how Harry was actually helping him to get away with his murders. And it happens also when Dexter tries to comfort a man, Miguel Prado, who is grieving over his dead brother, by saying: “Sorry” and then adding to himself: “that I killed him” („The Lion

Sleeps Tonight‟), pointing out the paradox that it was in fact him who accidentally killed his brother. The utter honesty of his thoughts somehow comes across as funny, as do some of his morbid acts like postponing the murder of the psychiatrist, who profits from making his patients commit suicide, because Dexter “needs another therapy session with him” („Shrink Wrap‟), his taking a carton of milk from a man whom he just killed so that he can bring some for the kid‟s morning cereal, as he promised to Rita, or his talking about family dynamics in an unusual context of his sister Debra investigating his own crimes: “ […] I wish my own sister weren‟t hunting me. Makes for an awkward family dynamic” („An Inconvenient Lie‟).

The black humor of the show juxtaposes the morbid and the dark with normal everyday situations, and it seems to target the black and white vision of the world that some people might have, drawing attention to the evil that can lurk behind a respectable exterior. With his ghastly “moon-lit dates” and “late social calls” („It's Alive!‟) Dexter is the primary manifestation of the paradigm, however, he is not the only one.

c) Other Characters

There are several other characters in the show that support the idea that people can be at heart completely different from the image that they project to the other people.

In the first season, that is, for instance, the main antagonist of the series and the serial killer nicknamed the Ice Truck Killer. He wears a „mask‟ of Rudy Cooper, a likeable, kind and intelligent man who studied at Sorbonne and now works as a prosthetist in ~ 35 ~

Miami. During the investigation of the murders he committed, Rudy meets Debra and thanks to his charm and feigned generosity he soon becomes her boyfriend. Rudy appears as funny, laid back, loving and passionate guy and so when he asks Debra to marry him, she enthusiastically says yes. In the sixth episode, Debra visits Rudy‟s apartment, is pleasantly surprised about how neat it is and playfully utters: “You‟re full of surprises, huh?” to which he responds with a smile, saying: “You have no idea”

(„Return to Sender‟). And he really means it. In a few moments, the story exposes that has a big hidden refrigerated annex to his apartments where he kills his victims and drains them of their blood because he is, in reality, the serial killer that Debra and the

Miami Metro Police is desperately trying to catch for a long time.

It turns out that Rudy‟s real name is Brian Moser and that he is Dexter‟s biological brother who has been staging his murders in Miami to make Dexter remember the suppressed memories of his mother‟s murder and the memories of his life before the incident and his adoption, since at this point, Dexter yet does not recall any of it, including the fact that he had a brother. It also comes to light that Brian alias Rudy is dating Debra only because he wants to get closer to Dexter. She is just a part of his plan to reconnect with Dexter, for whom he cares, is very fond of, and about whom

Rudy feels very protective of, from the time they were little.

On the other hand, he has no genuine feelings for Debra. The engagement ring he gives to her comes from a dead prostitute that he killed before and the romantic boat ride that he arranges and takes her to, turns from a celebration of their upcoming life together into an abduction on whose end Debra is supposed to die. Brian shows his true self and cold-heartedly makes fun of Debra‟s trustiness by saying: “I´ve never wanted to hurt you” to which crying, shaken and terrified Debra desperately wants to believe,

~ 36 ~ letting out her: “I know, I know.” Only to hear him ask if “[it is] making it easier for

[her] [b]ecause [he] can keep going on and on” („Born Free‟).

Brian is laughing at Debra‟s inability to detect his act, similarly as he is mocking the society by being a prosthetist while he is dismembering its members on regular basis. An especially dark and ironic is Brian‟s role in the recovery of Tony Tucci, a man who is ignorant about the fact that the man who is now treating him was actually the one who earlier cut off both of his legs and wanted to kill him.

An excellent example of a person with a secret life can be also found in the fourth season. It is the serial killer called the Trinity Killer, who for decades commits a series of murders all over the United States without the authorities realizing that the cases are connected. One man, however, notices the reoccurring pattern of the murders, at last, and tracks him down to his current location – Miami. It is the FBI‟s retired but outstanding Special Agent Lundy who used to work on high-profile cases in the past.

He believes that the killer murders in a cycle of three, hence his nickname the Trinity killer, his first victim being a young woman whom he lets bleed to death in a bathtub, second being a mother of two whom he forces to jump of a high, abandoned building, and the third being a father of two whom he bludgeons to death with a hammer. In the end of the series, it turns out that the cycle consist of not three but four victims, the last victim being an innocent ten-year old boy whom Trinity first kidnaps and in the end buries alive in cement.

The killer commits the murders to recreate his own tragic family history which left him irreversibly damaged. It all started with an accident that happened when Trinity was ten years old. Trinity was watching his sister taking a shower. She noticed him, got startled and slipped, breaking the glass in the shower. The glass sliced her thigh artery

~ 37 ~ and she bled out. Their mother could not bear the grief and committed a suicide. After that their father, and an alcoholic, blamed Trinity for both of their deaths and repeatedly beat him. Trinity could no longer stand it and so he killed him.

Agent Lundy expects him to be a loner, but in reality he is, like Dexter, a husband and a father. On top of that, he is a dean, a teacher, and even a man with a status of the community hero which he earns for his work in the Four Walls One Heart

Christian charity organization that builds free homes for the homeless. Trinity‟s name is

Arthur Mitchell and he also lives in a suburban house. Arthur‟s relationship with his family seems from the outside as filled with intimacy and warmth. Dexter is aware of the fact that Arthur is a “wolf in sheep‟s clothing” („Dex Takes a Holiday‟) but because he is so convincing in portraying the perfect image of family bliss and because he appears to Dexter as the “father of the freakin year” („Dex Takes a Holiday‟), Dexter decides that before he kills him, he could learn a thing or two from him about how to balance the family responsibilities with his dark side.

After a while, though, he discovers that Arthur‟s extremely close and happy family is just another of his shams because when no one is looking and he is behind the walls of their nice house, Arthur becomes a tyrant to his family. He requires absolute obedience, locks his daughter in her room, making her pretend to be his deceased sister

Vera, and if somebody steps over his boundaries, he resorts to violence - severely beating his son Jonah, or calling his wife a “cunt” („Hungry Man‟), for example.

Everybody in his family is scared of him and Jonah even wishes Arthur was dead. In the end, Dexter pays dearly for his unwise decision to delay killing Arthur and for his getting close to him, as before Dexter finally stops him, Arthur kills Rita as he makes her another of his bathtub victims.

~ 38 ~

Both of the previously mentioned characters were villains whose true hidden self was morally way worse than the artificial persona they adopted in their public life.

Dexter‟s sister Debra, by contrast, is a character that works the other way round. We can often hear her swearing, see her drinking and sometimes acting all tough but it is very likely just her defense and coping mechanism against the disappointments and hardships she might and does encounter in her life, one of them being her tragic love for

Rudy – the Ice Truck Killer. Dexter remarks she would probably feel “damned if she let anyone see she‟s suffering inside” („Born Free‟) as she does not want anyone to notice any kind of weakness. It is mainly because she wants to prove to the others at work that even though she is a young woman, she is strong and has what it takes to become a detective like her late father.

Otherwise, Debra is an open book. She has no ulterior motives or hidden agenda.

At work she is relentlessly driven to move forward with her career but she does so solely by working hard, playing fair and refuses to “rat” („Turning Biminese‟) on her colleagues, even if it might help her achieve her goals faster. In her personal life, Debra seems to be changing her partners quite frequently and once we can also see her cheating on her current boyfriend. This can be, however, explained simply by the fact that she is only human and, in fact, also a human who is very unlucky in love.

First, we can see Debra making some bad choices picking the wrong guys, after that comes Rudy – a man with whom she can imagine growing old, up until the point when he tries to murder her. After that, she is dating two guys Gabriel and Anton. They are both nice and kind but they are just not the one. In the fourth season, while she is still dating Anton, we see Debra, unintentionally rekindle her feelings for her true love - the FBI‟s Special Agent Frank Lundy, only to witness her pain shortly after they are finally reunited, as Lundy is shot by the Trinity‟s daughter and dies in front of Debra‟s

~ 39 ~ eyes. Even though, she does not have to and it would be probably more advantageous for her if she did not, Debra decides to be honest with Anton, tells him she has spent the night with Lundy and because she has a conscience she also lets him go as he, according to her “deserve[s] much better” („Dirty Harry‟).

Debra‟s sincere attitude reflects the genuine goodness that is unimpaired by the protective walls she often puts up and by her minor moral flaws. The character of Debra challenges the objectivity of appearances with a positive message that people can also be nicer than they appear. She contributes to the problematization of the issue of moral hypocrisy in the American society and thus prevents us from making negative generalizations that we might be otherwise tempted to draw from the show.

~ 40 ~

2.2 Ruthless Society

This subsection brings us to the second social issue that the series is

concerned with – the sense of general ruthlessness among American people. I

will start this section by revisiting the social developments of the past that

shaped the nation into this state and then I will examine how the show deals with

this problem.

a) Neoliberalism and the Narcissistic society

In the book Reading Television, by John Fiske and John Hartley, the authors instruct its readers in analyzing the television output. They emphasize that television is a highly conventional medium whose messages usually “propagate and represent the dominant class ideology” (55) and whose “discourse is considered to present us with up-dated version of social relations and perceptions” (18), as well as, with the underlying value structure of a certain society. Because Dexter is a television series, we can, based on Fiske‟s and Hartley‟s findings, assume that it is a relatively reliable source for illustrating and validating the existence of some of the actual contemporary social trends. Despite its popular culture status, the creators of the show decided to push a little and bring some mildly controversial topics into the series and into the mainstream. Apart from its challenges to the morality of the American people, that we discussed in the previous subsection, the show also depicts a rather negative inclination of American people to protect their own interests first and foremost, pursuing approval, acclaim, and public recognition in today‟s highly competitive society.

There are many possible causes that can stand behind the widespread proliferation of the egocentric type of personality in the American society but one of ~ 41 ~ them is certainly the defeatist attitude of the Americans which arose from the dissatisfaction and hopelessness that was present among the American people in the

1970s.

At that time, the nation still vividly remembered the horrors of the Second

World War, felt threatened by the Soviet Union but also became extremely tired of the constant political turmoil of the recent past. The Vietnam War, the Watergate affair, the student riots, the New Left, the revolutions, the racial violence, the gang wars, and the economic stagnation, created an atmosphere of uncertainty, insecurity and danger, which was even more heightened by the more and more audible scientists, environmentalists and eco-warriors who were warning against the wastage of the non- renewable natural resources or predicting possible ecological disasters, and by the television news broadcasting which brought the images of natural destruction, death, and political unrest from all over the world to the living rooms of a still bigger number of Americans.

People started to lose confidence in their leaders. They were pessimistically looking into the future, diminishing their expectations, as if there was no hope for better tomorrows. With this attitude, they seemed to lose interest in the future, devaluating the past at the same time. Christopher Lash in the book The Culture of Narcissism:

American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations asserts that because people were more and more unable to “identify [themselves] with posterity or to feel [themselves] part of a historical stream” (Lash 34) they often ceased to struggle for any substantial social change and channeled their energy towards temporary matters instead.

1970s became known as the „Me Decade‟. New movements that emerged at the time, such as the consciousness movement, were encouraging people to try to live for

~ 42 ~ themselves, primarily taking care of their own well-being. They were stressing the importance of the personal growth, self-fulfillment, self-revelation, or things like health food and the power of positive thinking, raving about their positive impact on one‟s happiness. As Lash depicts in his book, these movements were also advising people not to “make too large investment in love and friendship, to avoid excessive dependence on others, and to live for the moment” (22). They were, basically, promoting hedonism and the protective shallowness of impermanent attachments.

Lash says that combined with the therapeutic ideology, which took over the

American society in the 1970s and which “[upheld] a normative schedule of psychosocial development and [thus] [gave] further encouragement to anxious self- scrutiny” (33), these movements brought out the narcissistic personality traits in the

American people, making the self-absorbed narcissist “the dominant type of personality in the (contemporary) society” (115).

As Lash observes, it was an unfortunate development because narcissists tend to be very unhappy people. They often feel restless, dissatisfied, depressed, and lonely, suffer from hypochondria and paradoxically also self-esteem issues. Furthermore, they are generally, extremely terrified of aging and death because they “look to others to validate [their] sense of self” (115) and they know that with old age they will very likely lose the abilities that people are taught by the society to admire in people - their beauty, celebrity and power, which is in the modern times also tied with productivity, adaptability, and strength. And since the “identification with other people‟s happiness and achievements is tragically beyond the capacity of narcissistic personalities” (29) and because he or she has little hope in the future, narcissists do not find much consolation in their offsprings either.

~ 43 ~

Another reason why this development was unfortunate is that narcissists are so fixated to the idea that external approval and acclaim will give their life meaning, that some of them are able to make amoral decisions to get it. Narcissists are fiercely competitive, trying to get ahead of the others so that they could rise to the top and be identified as winners. Lash observes that is not rare for them to have great “fantasies of

[their] omnipotence” which does lead many of them to belief that they have “right to exploit the others” (28). These individuals can then be seen bending the rules, manipulating the others, having predatory relationships, and refusing to submit to some higher loyalty. They, for example, seek to exploit “[an] organization to their own advantage and to advance their interests not merely against their rival organizations but against their own teammates” (68).

The competitiveness and unscrupulousness of the American people was further stimulated by the marked change in political and economic thinking that propagated neoliberalism as the new philosophy that should shape the world. The potential for neoliberal thinking was present in the American society for a long time but it found more noticeable expression as late as 1981 with the outset of Ronald Reagan‟s presidency.

Neoliberalism was built upon the American values of freedom, liberty, choice, and on the nation‟s distrust in strong central government. The ideal of this ideology is a state that keeps federal regulation to a bare minimum and leaves the free market to regulate itself. The state is supposed to create a favorable business climate that supports free enterprise, free trade, and which thus allows international competition to thrive. By diverting from the other concepts of government that were applied in the past, such as the Keynesianism or the welfare state, Americans hoped to tackle the problem of inflation and unemployment. President Reagan and his administration started with

~ 44 ~ budget cuts, deregulation and privatization of finance, airlines, telecommunication, and even energy, transferring public assets to private domain, reducing corporate taxes in an effort to “open new field for capital accumulation” (Harvey 169) and to “induce a strong inflow of foreign investment” (Harvey 34).

In the book A Brief History of Neoliberalism, David Harvey argues that the arrival of neoliberalism thinking might have been secretly ignited by the economic elites who wanted to “restore the class power” (25) and points to the negative consequences the neoliberalism had on the American distribution of wealth which seem to confirm his theory. He wrote that after the implementation of neoliberal policies, there was a “shift towards greater social inequality and the restoration of economic power to the upper class” which led to “the consolidation of monopoly power” (35) “at the expense of labour” (85).

Neoliberalism‟s damaging impact on the social relations of the American people was no less serious. Owning to its overriding orientation on productivity and action, and due to the enormous emphasis neoliberalism placed on the values that were rooted in the nation‟s frontier experience - the values of independence and self-reliance, competitive individualism started to extensively influence personal and professional relationships of American people. Gary Weaver in his article about the American cultural values, blames the individualism for the deterioration in the quality of interpersonal relationships among young people. He claims that as a result of individualism, many young people of the new millennium “may have difficulty cooperating with others and forming intimate relationships [because they] cannot stop competing as individuals” (Weaver 10).

~ 45 ~

Some people appear to see rival in everyone and everything, be it a competing company, a colleague, a sibling, a husband or a wife, as if they were acting on the „dog eat dog‟, „the survival of the fittest‟ human behavior philosophy all the time. With the neoliberal cult of personal responsibility where everyone is being held “accountable for his or her actions and well-being” (Harvey 74) social solidarity somewhat weakened too. Margaret Thatcher, a former Prime Minster of the United Kingdom and a vocal proponent of neoliberalism once said that there is “no such a thing as society, only individual men, women and their families" (Harvey 52) which reflects the alienating power of the neoliberal thinking that can be detrimentally effecting people‟s ability to care for the others and which, at the same time, justifies the pragmatic and self-seeking actions they might chose to occupy themselves with instead.

b) Dexter’s Narcissist’s - Maria LaGuerta and Captain Mathews

Dexter touches upon the subject of narcissism and savage competition in the

American society mainly in the first two seasons via its characters of Lieutenant Maria

LaGuerta and her supervisor Thomas Matthew, Captain of the Miami Metro Homicide.

Both of them are very ambitious, they want to be admired and they want to rise to the position of eminence. One of their top priorities is to look good in the media and to use the press for self-promotion. As Dexter says: “LaGuerta loves her press conferences” („Popping Cherry‟), as does Mathews because they have learnt that in today‟s society preoccupied with appearances and fame, it is important to primarily give an impression of managing the crisis which corresponds to Lash‟s grim observation about the common degradation of American public life and politics into mere

“spectacle” (Lash 50).

~ 46 ~

Despite the impeccable public image they maintain, we can see that neither

LaGuerta nor Mathews is afraid to cross boundaries of fair-play to promote their interests. At work they try to personally benefit from the achievements of the Homicide department often taking credit for somebody else‟s ideas and hard work.

In the first season, for example, Debra Morgan comes up with an idea that the

Ice Truck killer might be using a refrigerated truck for some of his murders. During the briefing, Debra fails to convince LaGuerta about her theory, though, and she vehemently dismisses it. Debra refuses to drop the theory and is looking for the truck in her free time. She succeeds and the truck becomes an important lead on the case. Even though LaGuerta was the reason why the official investigation did not follow Debra‟s lead, which could have easily meant that the evidence would slip through the police‟s fingers, LaGuerta still presents herself to her supervisor as the one who has a big share on the discovery because it is her who: “encourage[s] all [her] officers to think outside the box” („Crocodile‟).

Thomas Mathews is no different. It can be illustrated on the scene where he congratulates LaGuerta on her getting a confession out of a person who claims to be the

Ice Truck Killer.

MATTHEWS. It feels good to be praising your police work instead of your politics for a change.

LAGUERTA. We need to make an official comment. Don´t worry. I‟ll keep it short. I´m just heading downstairs now for the press conference.

MATTHEWS. The press conference is over. Oh, and, uh, don´t worry. I kept it short.

LAGUERTA. You got to be fucking kidding me. That was my bust!

MATTHEWS. This is my department.

LAGUERTA. Did you at least give me credit?

~ 47 ~

MATTHEWS. Yes. I just gave it to you. Haven´t you been listening?

(„Circle of Friends‟)

The scene shows that Mathews, too, shamelessly seizes every opportunity that comes along, including the one that is not fully deserved. In this case, he intentionally rushes to give the speech before LaGuerta because he guesses correctly that it will open new doors for him in his career. One of these doors is, for instance, a gain of powerful connections. Mathews is not in the least ashamed of what he has done and even mocks

LaGuerta about it:

LAGUERTA. When did you speak to the DA?

MATTHEWS. We had dinner last night. Mayor Allen took us out to celebrate Neil Perry‟s arrest. Hell of a good time.

(Smiles widely)

LAGUERTA (Smiles but narrows her eyes saying). Hijo de puta.

(„Shrink Wrap‟)

It is clearly not an isolated act of calculated selfishness for Matthews. In the second season, scuba divers accidentally discover Dexter‟s dumping ground in an ocean bay, strewn with plastic bags filled with body parts. The case becomes known as the

Bay Harbor Butcher case and as the second biggest case in Florida‟s history at that time.

A special FBI team is assigned to oversee the investigation and to assist the Miami

Metro Police Department. Being like-minded, LaGuerta readily uncovers that

Matthews‟s willingness to call in the FBI is probably not motivated by his concern for the public safety but by Matthews‟s vision of him advancing in his career after the killer is caught: “Well, that figures. FBI does all the heavy lifting, Captain Mathews takes all

~ 48 ~ the credit. Nice political move when you‟re buckin„ for deputy chief” (Waiting to

Exhale).

Mathews and LaGuerta are both of a relatively high-grade career position and there is certainly a certain sense of power struggle between them. The play a pin-pong game with the unpopular obligations, such as announcing an unfavorable development of the police investigation to the press and publicly admitting the mistakes and failures of the police force. They try to protect themselves, maintain their reputation and let the competition take the blame. If their competition goes too far or becomes too troublesome them they are ready to strike.

In the first season, Mathews has some disagreements with LaGuerta and decides first to intimidate and threaten her: “No, you haven't seen my true colors, Maria. But you´re about to. Enjoy this office while it‟s still yours” („Truth Be Told‟), and then to demote her after he makes her think that he came to her to tell her that he will honorably take full responsibility for the recent failures of the department:

MATTHEWS. All our mishaps these last few months […] they‟re all the result of a bad command structure, and that‟s my failure.

LAGUERTA. Well I‟m glad to hear you say that. Takes a big man to admit his own mistakes.

MATTHEWS. So this morning, the commissioner gave me the go-ahead to restructure the division. Effective immediately, you will no longer serve as my lieutenant.

(„Truth Be Told‟)

A new Lieutenant, Esme Pascal, is appointed to Laguerta‟s position. And she later confesses that “[w]hen [she] was hired, [she] was instructed not to make

[LaGuerta‟s] life easy” („Born Free‟). LaGuerta pretends to be Pascal‟s friend but secretly plots to discredit her because she wants her previous job back and Pascal stands

~ 49 ~ in her way. She succeeds. By making Pascal suspect that her fiancé is cheating on her,

LaGuerta turns her into a distracted, heartbroken woman who has emotional outbursts at work and uses police resources for personal matters. Pascal acts very unprofessionally and Matthews is forced to reinstate LaGuerta back to the position of Police Lieutenant.

LaGuerta appears to be sticking up for Pascal but in the end we find out that it was her who was sleeping with her fiancé. Immediately after she gets what she wants, LaGuerta ends the affair, even though the fiancé left Pascal and destroyed his and Pascal‟s whole relationship for her. LaGuerta who has been in the relationship for purely pragmatic reasons proves to be, by the words of Pascal‟s ex-fiancé: “one coldhearted bitch” („Go

Your Own Way‟) and a woman who is not afraid to backstab a nice person and sacrifice her happiness just to get her own way.

~ 50 ~

2.3 Vigilante Thinking

This last section of the series analysis focuses on the reasons behind the audience identification with the character of Dexter. By addressing this issue, I will get to my last major point, the point that the Dexter series draws attention to and warns against the sympathetic attitude of the contemporary American people towards vigilantism.

a) Audience Identification

The show Dexter enjoyed a wide critical acclaim as well as popularity. It was translated into thirty-eight languages and the original airing of the series finale in 2013 drew up to 2.8 million viewers to their television sets - the largest audience in the network‟s history (Hinckley). The popularity of the series is, however, not the thing that is unusual about the show, as there were other popular television shows and films in the past that dealt with the topic of serial killers. What is surprising is the people‟s positive reaction to the main character – the serial killer. There are numerous articles and discussions on the Internet, in which people confess to be identifying with Dexter. What does the show to transform the horrifying Gothic figure of the serial killer into a

“loveable” (Lindsay) character and a central figure of audience identification? What are the reasons behind American people rooting for Dexter?

A lot of the appeal of the show surely comes from the charisma of the leading actor

Michael C Hall, who was for his excellent performance in Dexter nominated five times for the Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series category, and awarded a Golden Globe in 2010. Hall is endowed with a considerable amount of charm which he bestows onto his character. He portrays Dexter as a funny, entertaining, well-groomed and physically attractive man.

~ 51 ~

In the essay “Rooting for the Bad Guy,” psychologists Richard Keen, Monica L.

McCoy and Elizabeth Powell Keen explain from the psychological perspective why the

„bad guys‟ on television or in the movies are often seen sympathetically by the viewers.

One of the reasons that according to them significantly increases the character‟s likeability is his physical attractiveness. Because unconsciously, people associate good looks with positive traits, such as “social competence, adjustment, potency, and intellectual competence” (Keen, McCoy, and Powell 135) and because “people tend to associate with successful individuals as a form of ego-preservation and self-esteem”

(141) the audience might perceive the good-looking Dexter, who gets things done with his efficient killing, as somebody very successful and therefore somebody worth looking up to.

The viewers feel compassion and sympathy for Dexter especially after they gain knowledge of the tragic circumstances of Dexter‟s past, and these feelings are further promoted by the increasingly prominent human face that the character develops during the show.

At the beginning of the show, Dexter insists on not having any emotions but with time it becomes evident that Dexter is not completely heartless and would like to connect with others. It turns out that Dexter is actually primarily afraid that letting people get too close to him would lead to “messy complications” („Let's Give the Boy a

Hand‟) as it would require commitment and sharing – dangerous things for someone who needs to conceal such a big secret as Dexter. He has problems with intimacy and most likely represses his feelings because they pose a huge threat to him as he cannot afford to let others see what he really is, and because he is absolutely sure it would mean the end of his relationships and of him.

~ 52 ~

We can see Dexter who is initially self-deceived about his emotionlessness, genuinely caring about the people closest to him – Rita, Debra, and the kids – Astor and

Cody, or for example his colleague Angel Batista. He becomes fond of them and it mirrors in his actions. For instance, in his strangling a child sex offender who has been eyeing Astor. Dexter does it because he will not let anyone: “hurt [his] children” („Lion

Sleeps Tonight‟). It also manifests in Dexter‟s sincere concern about what they would feel and what would happen to them if he was caught and revealed as a killer: “The pain will come when Deb finally understands who her brother really is. Rita‟s horror. The kid‟s tears” („Resistance Is Futile‟).

His feeling uneasy about it shows that Dexter has a conscience, which can be spotted also on his reaction to Batista‟s undeserved arrest, in the second season, to which Dexter indirectly contributed by introducing a dangerous and manipulative woman named Lila into their lives. In his inner monologue Dexter feels sorry for Angel and says: “I warned Angel. Still, I hate to see him disgraced in front of everyone” („Left

Turn Ahead‟)

Towards the end of the third season, Dexter almost falls victim to the serial killer

George King, known as the Skinner. For a while he is convinced that he will die and has this imaginary conversation with Harry, who, in this case, functions as a representation of one part of Dexter‟s conscience. In the conversation, Dexter surprisingly expresses his wish to see his yet unborn son Harrison:

HARRY. You want to see him come into this world?

DEXTER. Yes. To raise him with Rita. To watch him grow up. To protect him.

HARRY. I know.

~ 53 ~

DEXTER. I didn‟t, until now, when it‟s all gonna be taken away. I‟ve never wanted anything so much in my life.

(„Do You Take Dexter Morgan?‟)

In the course of the conversation, Dexter finally becomes aware of how important his family is to him. In the fourth season, he acknowledges it again when he goes with Rita for marriage counseling, as he realizes that Rita might leave him. In his thoughts he confesses to the viewers that while Rita is “picturing her life without [him], [he] can't picture [his] without her. Or the kids. Harrison” („If I Had a Hammer‟). Three episodes later, Dexter confirms the authenticity of his feelings for Rita when he declares in another of his „talks‟ with Harry that despite the fact that their relationship was “just a cover” for him at the beginning and that Rita was only “a companion […] someone who looked normal”, “[s]he‟s so much more that [a disguise for him] now” („Hungry Man‟).

The voice-over narration of Dexter is created in such a way that the audience can feel as if Dexter was speaking directly to them, creating some kind of familiar bond between them. In this uncensored version of Dexter‟s reality, Dexter exposes also his anxieties, concerns and weaknesses, showing that in other areas of life he is not as confident as during his killings. For example he his cluelessness about romance: “I can kill a man, dismember his body and be home in time for Letterman, but knowing what to say when my girlfriend‟s feeling insecure… I‟m totally lost” („Dexter‟). In addition to that, his inner monologue often has a self-deprecating undertone which surely gains

Dexter some more points for sympathy as well.

On top of it all, Dexter represents an outsider, someone who experiences a feeling of otherness and struggles to fit in – a common sentiment that many people can relate to. His primary reason is self-preservation but he admits that he would actually

~ 54 ~ also like to belong into the society: “I always prided myself on being an outsider, but now I feel the need to connect with someone” („Return to Sender‟). Like so many other people, he has difficulties balancing his true self with the need to conform to the social rules. In his article Eastern Europe's Republics of Gilead, Slavoj Žižek suggests that this need arises from the homophobic inner antagonism towards the Other and foreign that originates from the society‟s fear over the preservation of its “way of life” (195).

He says that in every society there is, to some extent, present a certain notion of “a nation being able to exist only as long as its specific enjoyment continues to be materialized in certain social practices […] In the unique way a community organizes its […] enjoyment – feasts, rituals of mating [and so on].” (195) The otherness is perceived as a threat to society and its culture, and therefore the society demands everyone who wants to be a part of this community to hide the parts of themselves that are not considered as socially acceptable or desirable and to maintain an image of normality that should corresponds to some specific idea of what one‟s proper life should be.

In the series, Dexter mentions that he has been questioning whether he is good or bad but has decided to stop “asking these question [because he] doesn‟t have the answers” (‟The British Invasion‟) and then he expresses his doubts about anyone having them. It is because he observed that probably everyone has something he/she wants to keep private. Rhetorically he asks Harry: “Who are any of us really? We all have our public life, our private life and…” “Your secret life. The one that defines you” as Harry finishes the thought („Hello, Dexter Morgan‟).

And it is also because he has learnt that „normal‟ and „good‟ can be quite a variable concept. In the first episode he is, for instance, astonished by the level of aggression that the „normal‟ people at the seafood bar display towards the creatures that

~ 55 ~ happened to be their dinner: “Needless to say I have some unusual habits, yet all these socially acceptable people can‟t wait to pick up hammers and smash their food to bits.

Normal people are so hostile.” („Dexter‟) At other times, he witnesses his colleagues doing socially unacceptable and inappropriate things he himself is not guilty of, like stealing money or having inappropriate sexual comments at workplace. On these issues,

Dexter seems to be, for a change, more compliant to the general social rules and morally on a higher ground than the „regular people‟ around him. By pointing at all the flaws in character and in action of the „normal‟ people around Dexter, Dexter must logically appear less deviated in the eyes of the viewers and therefore to seem closer to them.

b) The Code of Harry

One of the most important means that the creators of the show used to bridge the gap between the audience and the serial killer is that they gave Dexter a certain set of principles according to which Dexter acts. Rules that rationalize his violence and make it appears as if the killings were somewhat morally acceptable. The code that was instilled in Dexter by his step-father Harry, serves as Dexter‟s superego and it requires of him to target only a restricted group of criminals - killers that took lives of innocent people who did not deserve to die or the people who hurt children. Furthermore, to satisfy the code, Dexter must gather as much evidence as is necessary for him to be absolutely sure that his future victim is guilty of his/her crimes and for that reason

Dexter usually also insists on his victims confessing to what they have done before he executes them. Dexter is definitely not an uncontrollable maniac because, for instance:

“[he] would never hurt a child” („Lion Sleeps Tonight‟) and because even though he is a killer, he is not a “beast” („Let‟s Give the Boy s Hand‟) which he proves, for example,

~ 56 ~ when he resists a kill of an innocent man that was set up for him by his biological brother Brian.

Reassuring is also Dexter‟s strict adherence to these principles. Almost never do we see Dexter abandoning his moral ethics. What we can see, on the other hand, is

Dexter making decisions in the name of justice that are sometimes very difficult for him. In the first season he “severs the bond with the only person who ever accepted him

[at that time]” („Born Free‟), his older brother Brian. After he kills Brian, Dexter mourns him but he realizes that Brian had to be stopped because he posed a threat to the society as he, unlike Dexter, lacked restraint. While Dexter got adopted, Brian was institutionalized in a mental hospital and nobody there helped him handle his killing urges the way Harry did for Dexter. Brian therefore acted solely on his natural instincts and according to his liking.

Dexter‟s relationship with the first good friend he makes, Miguel Prado, has a similar ending. Miguel Prado is a top Assistant District Attorney in state of Florida. His is known for his motto: “Safe Miami is the only Miami” („Our Father‟) and for his reputation for being “a law and order hardass” („Our Father‟).

In the third season, Dexter goes after a young drug dealer and a killer named

Freebo but accidentally kills Miguel‟s younger brother Oscar. All the suspicion falls on

Freebo, however, and so after Dexter kills him and Miguel catches him at that, he is easily persuaded that Dexter did it as an act of revenge for Oscar. Miguel feels great gratitude towards Dexter and because they now share a big secret they start to spend more time together. They bond over their father issues and one day Dexter reveals to

Miguel, who already suspects it, that he is a serial killer who kills murderers. Miguel is not appalled. Actually, he says to Dexter: “You have nothing to explain to me. Nothing

~ 57 ~ to apologize for. Ever. I‟m with you. I am behind you. I respect you.” („Turning

Biminese‟), and also tells him that “[they] are like minded [and that] together, [they] can make a difference” („Sí Se Puede‟). Miguel expresses his vision of using both of their potentials for making the world a better place.

Dexter teaches Miguel how to safely proceed with killings. He shows him the supplies he needs, some methods for covering his tracks, stresses the importance of good research on the victim and shares the code with him. At the beginning, everything looks promising, as if Dexter finally found a partner in crime in front of whom he can be honest. Things gets complicated, though, when Miguel stops using his newly acquired knowledge and skills for the noble reason to serve justice and makes use of it for purely personal reasons.

He kills Ellen Wolf, a defense attorney who has been looking into his unprofessional and unethical work practices finding proof of “missing evidence, witness intimidation, and jury tampering” („Easy as Pie‟). Miguel is furious because she is “[re- opening [his] cases [and] [u]ndermining years of [his] hard work” („Easy as Pie‟) and so he simply kills her because she gets in his way. Dexter reproves him for that and tries to talk some sense into him but then Miguel in yells this in his face: “I'll do what I want, when I want, to whomever I want, count on it” („Go Your Own Way‟) making Dexter realize that Miguel turned into a loose cannon which needs to be stopped for the sake of the innocent people of Miami.

On those occasions when Dexter‟s actions do not satisfy Harry‟s code, Dexter seems to experience remorse, as with the mistake on whose account he kills an innocent photographer, a boss of the actual killer. He also seems to experience uneasiness with his euthanizing Camilla, a family friend who in pain struggles with cancer and begs

~ 58 ~

Dexter to end her life, or with framing his Police colleague Doakes, who in the second season finds out that Dexter is a serial killer, with being the Bay Harbor Butcher – a situation that makes Dexter contemplate turning himself in to the authorities

.

c) Vigilante Justice in Dexter and the American People

As was mentioned earlier, Dexter reduces the number of murderers in Miami- a city where the “solve rate for murders is at about twenty percent” („Dexter‟). And this is one of the biggest reasons behind the audience identification. His killings come across as a public service and their end result is actually in an agreement with the opinion of the majority of Americans. In 2014, Gallup conducted a survey that was asking people whether they support the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, or not. The poll results revealed that sixty four percent of the 2269 interviewed people from all fifty states of the United States were in favor of the death penalty (Jones). It is therefore safe to say that a considerable part of the American people does think that these felons deserve to die, which is yet another interesting phenomenon that Dexter appears to be bringing into our attention.

At the end of the last episode of the first season, Dexter expresses his conviction that a lot of people would probably secretly approve of what he has done to his brother,

The Ice Truck killer, and so many others: “[they] would probably thank me if they knew

I was the one who drained him of his life. In fact, deep down I'm sure they'd appreciate a lot of my work.” And then he imagines a crowd of people cheering for him. They have big signs with his face and name, confetti is flying everywhere and then there is even an airplane flying across the sky and towing a banner that says: “We ♥ Dexter.” The people are patting his back as we walks along and a man approaches him saying: “Good job in

~ 59 ~ there, Dex. You sliced him up good.” A policeman standing by seconds that by praising his: “Way [of] tak[ing] out the trash, which is followed by a woman cheering: “All right Dexter, protecting our children!” („Born Free‟)

In the second season, when the Police led by Captain Matthews announce that the Bay Harbor Butcher “is only killing the dregs of society [and that] good, moral people have nothing to fear” („See-Through‟), Dexter‟s speculations about the people‟s approval of his actions proves to be right, as many Miami citizens display a support for the Butcher.

When, for instance, Dexter goes into a diner, he overhears a man sharing his view on the Butcher with his friend, saying: “All I‟m saying is these guys had it coming. […] As far as I‟m concerned, whoever‟s doing this deserves a goddamn medal”

(„The Dark Defender‟). And when Dexter turns on a TV, there is a television presenter according to whom people should: “[…] put this Bay Harbor Butcher on the city payroll. Give him a corner office, a company car and all the ammunition he needs. At least somebody is doing something to clean up Miami, which is more than I can say for those folks down at city hall” („See-Through‟). The positive response comes even from

Rita‟s mother who declares that “if what [she‟s] heard is true, that he only goes after criminals, [she] say[s] leave him alone. He‟s got [her] seal of approval” („See-

Through‟). And it also manifests in an attempt of a man who before his death wanted to turn the Butcher into a graphic novel superhero vigilante character called the Dark

Defender („The Dark Defender‟).

Dexter draws upon the vigilante tradition that gained prominence in the visual media especially in 1970s when several cult vigilante thriller movies were produced.

The movie Dirty Harry (1971), starring Clint Eastwood in a role of an unorthodox

~ 60 ~

Homicide Inspector from San Francisco, Harry Callahan, is one them. The film about

Callahan who is determined to stop the dangerous criminals and to keep the San

Francisco inhabitants safe by any means necessary, even if it means not following the police protocols and using methods that are seen as illegal in the eyes of law, was a critical and commercial success and it led to the production of four sequels.

The same number of sequels has a popular vigilante action film from 1974 entitled Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson. A movie is about Paul Kersey a liberal and peaceful architect from New York who turns into a vigilante after his wife‟s murder and his daughter‟s rape. The authorities are unable to find the criminals, the whole city feels unsafe, appears to be infested with crime, and so Kersey decides to protect himself and his fellow citizens with a gun in his hand, shooting everyone who means harm.

According to the essay “Vigilante films, an American tradition”, that was published on the Los Angeles Times website in 2009, the film industry appears to experience a revival of the vigilante genre in the new millennium (Lim 1). Dexter might therefore be the television reflection of trend and a reaction to it.

However, it is not only the vigilante film tradition that the Dexter series draws upon, it is also the vigilante tradition of taking law into one‟s own hands that has been firmly rooted in the nation‟s history and psyche. The article “Vigilantism” by Andrew

Karmen, an article that is concerned with the origins and history of the vigilante tradition, states the vigilante justice was, for example, used as a “frontier response to the threat and reality of crime” (Karmen) of the first settlers that came into new western and southern territories that were yet unprotected by a criminal justice system. Furthermore,

Stan Beeler, in his essay “From Silver Bullets to Duck Tape: Dexter versus the

Traditional Vigilante Hero” notes that there is also a certain parallel between the

~ 61 ~ vigilante justice and the very foundation of the United States because it was, as he reminds us: “[a] revolt against unjust taxation” which strongly resembles the vigilante tales of “men who, when faced with evildoers wrapped in the protection afforded by a weak or corrupt legal system, take justice into their own hands” (Beeler 221).

Michelle Byers, in her essay “Neoliberal Dexter?” presents Dexter‟s acts as echoes of certain aspects of neoliberalism and introduces a theory that connects the vigilante thinking that is present in the contemporary America with neoliberalism and its emphasis on self-care, as, according to her: “Citizens like Dexter have now responsibilities including cleaning up the state‟s mistakes […] filling its holes – by dispensing vigilante forms of justice [for example]” (Byers 156). This certainly might be one of the contributing factors that reinforces the vigilante thinking but, in my opinion, it more likely arises from the Americans‟ “long-standing skepticism about the effectiveness of the legal apparatus” that David Schmid talks about in his essay “The

Devil You Know and the „Goodness‟ of American Serial Killing” (Schmid 174), a skepticism which, as he writes, creates a perception that “violent criminals routinely go uncaught and unpunished” (174).

I am convinced that people are basically concerned about their personal safety which also may be showing in the recent poll results of the surveys that inquire into the people‟s attitudes towards gun possession. Gallup‟s survey from 2013, for example, asked people whether they think there should be or should not be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by police and the other authorized persons. Seventy four percent of the respondents answered: “No, there should not be” and when they asked the people who own a gun, what is their reason for having a gun, sixty percent answered: “For personal safety /Protection” and five percent “Second Amendment right” (Guns) This seems to indicate that Americans do not have much faith in the

~ 62 ~ authorities and that if these authorities fail, they want to be, just like their ancestors were, prepared to take action.

By practicing vigilante justice, Dexter gives the audience the comfort of seeing justice done, but at the same time, the series provides them with the ethical complexities that often come with it. Seeing Miguel Prado using the vigilante justice for personal reasons, which is equally wrong as the often unjustified lynching of innocent people that were done by the vigilante committees in the past, provides the viewers with a warning against idealizing vigilantism because, in reality, it is almost always misused for one‟s profit.

The American One of the most recent examples from the American history would be, according to some people, such as the former senior law lord The Lord

Bingham of Cornhill (Taylor), the American military invasion of Iraq in 2003. An invasion that is now suspected to be primarily motivated by the American political and economic interests and not by any real nuclear threat, as the American representatives officially presented it before.

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Conclusions

My analysis of the first four seasons of Dexter has found that through the repeated exposure to a particular set of attitudes, character traits, and character types, the creators of the show provide the viewers of Dexter with a subtle criticism of the

American society, a criticism that draws attention to its moral state.

The first major issue that the series addresses is the hypocrisy of the people who might stereotypically judge their culture, nation or social class as more civilized and morally superior to the other ones. On the characters of Dexter Morgan, Arthur

Mitchell, Brian Moser, and Debra Morgan, the creators illustrate that the image that one projects onto the public does not have much of an information value about one‟s true self. While Debra hides her vulnerable and genuinely good self behind her tough act, the other three characters, all of them are serial killers, successfully keep the appearances of upstanding, law-abiding citizens when hiding behind the facade of the inconspicuous middle-class men that meet the common requirement for being “normal”.

By belonging into the middle-class, which is a class that tends to perceived by people as more trustworthy and righteous in comparison with the lower classes, these characters undermine similar preconceived assumptions upon which the society so often functions. Their relative ease with which they imitate the appropriate behavior and their ability to blend in with the rest of the society, accentuates the possibility of there being many more individuals within the American society who are only superficially nice to the others while they are secretly living their essentially amoral lives.

This sense of the probable moral duality of the American society and its people is further reinforced by Dexter‟s setting – Miami, large city of contrasts - a sunny, wealthy, and prosperous city but also a center of crime in the area, which provides an

~ 64 ~ interesting parallel to the issue of duality, and by the show‟s mildly subversive black humor that uses, for example, the juxtaposition of the everyday situations with the horrifying murderous acts of the main protagonist, his slips of the tongue, or his honest inner commentary, to expose and accentuate the existence of evil that can often lurk behind the outer presentation of normality and virtuousness.

The second negative trend in the American society that the series pays attention to is the fierce and sometimes unscrupulous competitiveness between its members. In the first two seasons, the characters of Thomas Matthews and Maria LaGuerta represent two narcissistic personalities who want to, and do, rise into the position of eminence because they strive for success, public acclaim, and admiration. They maintain an impeccable public image in the media, but in reality, they are just two ego-centric and profit-seeking individuals who oftentimes exploit and manipulate others to promote their interests and reach their goals. They do not play fair, are resolved to eliminate their competition by any means and they do not flinch from hurting innocent people in the process.

The amoral actions of these two characters point to the negative consequences of the society‟s orientation towards individualism, self-fulfillment and success of the contemporary highly competitive American society. We can also take their actions as an indirect critique of neoliberalism, an economic and political ideology that has been the dominant one in the American society for decades, especially since the 1980s, and an ideology that placed a great emphasis on self-reliance and independence, which in consequence, strongly promoted competitive individualism.

The third major critical and controversial issue that I spotted in the series is the

American people‟s sympathy towards vigilante serial killers. One of the contributing

~ 65 ~ factors that made the show Dexter popular is the audience‟s identification with Dexter and a part of this identification is, to some extent, people‟s understanding for Dexter‟s serial killer side.

The show benefits from the American tradition of the vigilante justice that is embedded in the American culture and history since the foundation of the United States and the frontier experience. Taking law into one‟s hands when the authorities were nonexistent or ineffective was quite common in America in the past, and so even now the American people might be quite open to seeing this kind of justice more positively than, for instance, the people who came from the countries without this tradition. One of the indicators that seem to support this theory is the American‟s liberal attitude towards gun possession which suggests that the Americans nowadays still want to have the option to take the law into their hands if necessary.

The series itself addresses the matter of the American people having an understanding for the vigilante justice in the second season, in which a considerable number of Miami‟s residents openly supports the work of a serial killer they nicknamed the Bay Harbor Butcher, which is actually Dexter, praising him for killing those who had slipped through the justice system.

The following season of the show approaches the subject of vigilantism in another way as it allows the reader to see more of its moral complexities. Through the character of Miguel Prado who uses the vigilante justice for personal reasons, the show warns against idealization of vigilantism which can, in turn, make the viewers who are positively inclined towards the vigilante thinking to re-evaluate their stance towards it.

In a conclusion, television shows are, as a general rule, reflective of the current value structure in a certain society. These popular culture narratives can therefore serve

~ 66 ~ as a valuable source of information about the contemporary social relations and trends.

Being set in the United States of the present day, the series Dexter depicts the mood and the moral state of the American nation in the new millennium, including its sore points.

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Works Cited

Primary sources (Episodes from the Dexter series)

Buck, Scott, and Lauren Gussis. "Hello, Dexter Morgan." Dexter. Dir. S. J.

Clarkson. Showtime. 6 Dec. 2009. Television.

Buck, Scott, and Tim Schlattmann. "Left Turn Ahead." Dexter. Dir. Marcos Siega.

Showtime. 9 Dec. 2007. Television.

Buck, Scott. "Do You Take Dexter Morgan?" Dexter. Dir. Keith Gordon. Showtime. 14

Dec. 2008. Television.

---. "See-Through." Dexter. Dir. Nick Gomez. Showtime. 21 Oct. 2007. Television.

---. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Dexter. Dir. John Dahl. Showtime. 12

Oct. 2008. Television.

Cerone, Daniel, and Melissa Rosenberg. "Born Free." Dexter. Dir. Michael Cuesta.

Showtime. 17 Dec. 2006. Television.

---. "The British Invasion." Dexter. Dir. Steve Shill. Showtime. 16 Dec. 2007.

Television.

Cerone, Daniel. "Circle of Friends." Dexter. Dir. Steve Shill. Showtime. 12 Nov.

2006. Television.

---. "It's Alive!" Dexter. Dir. Tony Goldwyn. Showtime. 30 Sept. 2007.

Television.

---. "Popping Cherry." Dexter. Dir. Michael Cuesta. Showtime. 15 Oct.

2006. Television.

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Eglee, Charles H. "Sí Se Puede." Dexter. Dir. Ernest Dickerson. Showtime. 2

Nov. 2008. Television.

Fierro, Adam E. "All in the Family." Dexter. Dir. Keith Gordon. Showtime. 19

Oct. 2008. Television.

Greenberg, Drew Z., and Tim Schlattmann. "Truth Be Told." Dexter. Dir. Keith

Gordon. Showtime. 10 Dec. 2006. Television.

Greenberg, Drew Z. "Let's Give the Boy a Hand." Dexter. Dir. Robert Lieberman.

Showtime. 22 Oct. 2006. Television.

Gussis, Lauren. "Easy as Pie." Dexter. Dir. Steve Shill. Showtime. 9 Nov. 2008.

Television.

---. "If I Had a Hammer." Dexter. Dir. Romeo Tirone. Showtime. 1 Nov. 2009.

Television.

---. "Shrink Wrap." Dexter. Dir. Tony Goldwyn. Showtime. 19 Nov. 2006.

Television.

Manos, James, Jr. "Dexter." Dexter. Dir. Michael Cuesta. Showtime. 1 Oct.

2006. Television.

Phillips, Clyde. "Crocodile." Dexter. Dir. Michael Cuesta. Showtime. 8 Oct.

2006. Television.

---. "Living the Dream." Dexter. Dir. Marcos Siega. Showtime. 27 Sept. 2009.

Television.

---. "Our Father." Dexter. Dir. Keith Gordon. Showtime. 28 Sept. 2008.

Television.

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---. "Waiting to Exhale." Dexter. Dir. Marcos Siega. Showtime. 7 Oct. 2007.

Television.

Rosenberg, Melissa, and Wendy West. "Dex Takes a Holiday." Dexter. Dir.

John Dahl. Showtime. 18 Oct. 2009. Television.

Rosenberg, Melissa. "An Inconvenient Lie." Dexter. Dir. Tony Goldwyn.

Showtime. 14 Oct. 2007. Television.

---. "Love American Style." Dexter. Dir. Robert Lieberman. Showtime. 29 Oct.

2006. Television.

---. "Resistance Is Futile." Dexter. Dir. Marcos Siega. Showtime. 25 Nov. 2007.

Television.

Schlattmann, Tim. "Dirty Harry." Dexter. Dir. Keith Gordon. Showtime. 25 Oct.

2009. Television.

---. "Go Your Own Way." Dexter. Dir. John Dahl. Showtime. 30 Nov. 2008.

Television.

---. "Return to Sender." Dexter. Dir. Tony Goldwyn. Showtime. 5 Nov. 2006.

Television.

---. "The Dark Defender." Dexter. Dir. Keith Gordon. Showtime. 28 Oct. 2007.

Television.

---. "Turning Biminese." Dexter. Dir. Marcos Siega. Showtime. 26 Oct. 2008.

Television.

West, Wendy. "Hungry Man." Dexter. Dir. John Dahl. Showtime. 22 Nov. 2009.

Television.

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Vigilante Hero." Dexter: Investigating Cutting Edge Television. Ed. Howard L.

Douglas. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010. 221-31. Print.

Byers, Michele. "Neoliberal Dexter?" Dexter: Investigating Cutting Edge Television.

Ed. Howard L. Douglas. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010. 143-56. Print.

Dryden, Linda. The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2003. Print.

Fiske, John, and John Hartley. Reading Television. London: Routledge, 1989. Print.

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2015.

Grohol, John M. "Differences Between a Psychopath vs Sociopath." Psych Central.

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"Guns." Gallup.Com. Web. 2 Jan. 2015. .

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Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.

Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print.

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Daily News. 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Jones, Jeffrey M. "Americans' Support for Death Penalty Stable." Gallup.Com. Web. 1

Apr. 2015.

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Résumé

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the American series Dexter in terms of its challenging nature towards some of the social issues of the contemporary American society, including the general moral state of the nation. Through a detailed critical examination of the first four seasons, the thesis introduces three major areas that the series appears to be drawing attention to, each of which has a separate subsection dedicated to it.

The first subsection is concerned with the issue of moral hypocrisy and moral duality of the American society and its members. The issue is demonstrated on the secret double lives of the characters from the show and on the show‟s black humor which targets it.

The second subsection deals with the ruthless competitive individualism prevalent among Americans. This negative phenomenon is illustrated on the behavior of two characters from the show. The possible root of the problem is also discussed. The thesis sees it as an impact of society‟s promotion of certain neoliberal values and as a result of the economic, political and social developments of the past fifty years.

The last subsection discusses the possible reasons behind audience identification with Dexter, the serial killer, and argues that one of the contributing factors is the relatively high degree of understanding for the vigilante justice among the American people, an understanding that arises from a long tradition of vigilantism in the nation‟s history.

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Resumé

Cílem této bakalářské práce je analyzovat americký seriál Dexter z hlediska jeho kritičnosti vůči některým společenským jevům současné americké společnosti, včetně její morálky. Pomocí detailní kritické analýzy prvních čtyř řad seriálu představuje práce tři zásadní témata, na které seriál upozorňuje. Každému z těchto témat je věnovaná samostatná podkapitola.

První podkapitola se zabývá problémem morálního pokrytectví a přetvářky americké společnosti a jejích členů, a zaměřuje se proto na postavy seriálu, jež vedou dvojí život. Pozornost je věnována rovněž černému humoru, který se na uvedené negativní jevy zaměřuje.

Druhá podkapitola se zabývá bezohledným, tvrdě soutěživým individualismem, který je mezi Američany velmi rozšířený. Tento negativní fenomén je ilustrován na chování dvou postav ze seriálu. Současně je diskutována možná příčina problému. Práce jej vidí jako dopad společnosti propagující určité neoliberální hodnoty a také jako výsledek ekonomického, politického a společenského vývoje posledních padesáti let.

Poslední podkapitola uvádí možné důvody, jež stojí za identifikací diváků s postavou Dextera - sériového vraha, a dochází k závěru, že jedním z důvodů může být vyšší míra pochopení Američanů pro situace, kdy člověk vezme právo do svých rukou, pochopení, které pramení z dlouhé tradice tohoto tzv.vigilantismu v americké historii.

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