Character Analysis RESEARCH FINDING

26 Actually, Dexter was adopted by Harry Morgan at the age of three due to the murdered of his mother. He is different from any other normal person, he describes himself as empty on the inside, he does not understand human emotions, he always reaching a way to feel something. Although his foster parents loved him. He did not love himself or everybody around him. He feels unlovable. He said he has pet once, but it doesn‘t work because he cannot get along with animals. Something in him is broken or missing. It can be seen from following quotation. ― I can‘t even keep pets. Animal hates me. I bought dog once; it barked and howled – at me – in a nonstop no-mind fury for two days before I had to get rid of it. I tried a turtle. I touched it once and it wouldn‘t come out of its shell again, and after few days of that it died. Rather than see me or have me touch it again, it died. Nothing else loves me, or even will. Not even – especially – me. Lindsay 2004, 47 The darkness of his life begins when he was three years old. He and his brother Brian witnessed their mother murdered in front of them. They sit locked in the dark amongst puddles of their mother‘s blood for two and a half days. The story told that his mother is a drug dealer, she and her friends try a little independent project with the drugs that not actually belong to them, and their business partner are unhappy and decided to discourage her. It shows by the following quotation. ― Brian waved a hand around at the interior of the little box. ‗ this happened, little brother. The chain saw, the flying body parts, the . . . blood--- ‗ With that same fearful emphasis again. ‗ Two and a half days of sitting in the stuff. A wonder we survived at all, isn‘t it? Almost enough to make you believe in God.‘ Lindsay 2004, 263 Basically, he does not remember anything about his past. This insident was so traumatic that Dexter blocked it from his memory for years. Dexter did not 27 even know he had a brother until Brian brought the memories back by re-creating them. Dexter‘s childhood does not lead serious effect in his life up to the appearance of the disorder in his personality. The disorder begins to be identified when he was a teenager, in the age of fourteen. Unconsciously he has an urge to kill. Killing makes him feel good and makes the voice in his head calm, he named his inner voice as The Dark Passenger. If he did not kill for a duration of time, his life became unstable. ― You‘re different, Dexter,‘ he says. I look away from the brightness of the stars. Around the small and sandy clearing the last glow of the fire is making shadows. Some of them trickle across Harry‘s face. He looks strange to me, like I‘ve never seen him before. Determined, unhappy, a little dazed. ‗What do you mean, Dad?‘ He won‘t look at me. ‗The Billups say Buddy has disappeared,‘ he says. ‗Noisy little creep. He was barking all night. Mom couldn‘t sleep.‘ Mom needed her sleep, of course. Dying of cancer requires plenty of rest, and she wasn‘t getting it with that awful little dog across the street yapping at every leaf the blew down the sidewalk.‗ I found the grave.‘ Harry says. ‗ There were a lot of bones in there, Dexter. Not just Buddy‘s.‘ Lindsay 2004, 37 The quotation above explains about when Dexter was teenager he enjoyed killing in his free time and his foster father reveals the truth about his mental state. After Harry finds out who Dexter is, Harry decided to protect Dexter by teaching him a set of rules to live by. To channel his urge to only kill people who deserves to die, choose carefully among those who deserves it, tidy up, leave no traces. Harry also told Dexter to be careful, being careful meant building a careful life, imitate life, sosialize, blend in with normal society. Dexter called these rules as Codes of Harry. Even after Harry has long gone, his lessons had lived on. ― It has to be done the right way, at the right time, with the right partner – very complicated, but very necessary. And always somewhat draining. So 28 I was tired, but the tension of the last week was gone, the cold voice of The Dark Passenger was quiet, and I could be me again. Quirky, funny, happy-go-lucky, dead-inside Dexter. No longer Dexter with the knife, Dexter the Avenger. Not until next time. Lindsay 2004, 13 The quotation above explains about the situation after he kills his victim. Before killing his target, he usually prepares everything. His victim must be the right person, he only kills murderers that he believes have escaped justice. He does not feel a guilt after a kill, in the reverse, it makes him feel better. Then he lives his normal life as blood spatter in Miami Metro Police. Dexter manages his double life well for years and has never been caught. Good during the days, and bad at nights. He maintains emotionless relationships in order to hide his real personality. It can be seen from the following quotation. ― All of which I had done, so very carefully. I was a near perfect hologram. Above suspicion, beyond reproach, and beneath contempt. A neat and polite monster, the boy next door. Even Deborah was at least half fooled, half the time. Lindsay 2004, 42 The quotation below shows that Dexter is good at imitate his social life. He is known as friendly and cheerful. It happens when he took the boat out after works, he passes the houses of his neighbors and greet them. ― I threw an automatic big wave and bright smile to all the neighbors out in their yards that grew neatly up to the canal‘s seawall. I waved to everybody. Some of them even waved back. They knew me, had seen me go by before, always cheerful, a big hello for everybody. Lindsay 2004, 33 He is also known as charming and attractive. He is good at being charming. Generally, every woman is happy to get the flattery from men. As a charming person, Dexter knew how to treat every woman as well. He has studied hard and practiced long, and when he applied it, no one could tell that he was faking it. It can be seen from the quotation below. 29 ―Hello Dexter,‘ she said in her too-quiet way. For her, two words were a long conversation. ‗Good evening, beautiful young lady,‘ I said in my best Lord Mountbatten voice. ‗May I observe that you are looking very lovely this evening. Lindsay 2004, 55 Based on explanation above the writer concludes that Dexter Morgan is different from any other normal person, he has witnessed his mother get murdered in front of his eyes, although he does not remember the event, but since that his life changed. Therefore, in the next discussion, the writer would like to discuss about Dexter and his psychological problem.

B. Dexter and his Psychological Problem

Darkly Dreaming Dexter novel described that Dexter suffers post traumatic syndrom that turn him into murderer. Dexter Morgan is identified as the major character because of involvement in each event that happened in the novel. In the age of 30‘s years old, Dexter seems that he has a perfect life. He has a girl friend, he has a job in Miami metro police, he has a sister who also works in Miami Metro Police, he is also a good-looking man and has extremely fit body. But nobody knows, even his sister, that Dexter actually has a serious problem in his personality. His big trouble is coming from ―The Dark Passenger‖, the visualization of his Id. From the very beginning of the story , he said that he doesn‘t have feelings about anything and he studied about human interactions, and good at faking it all. He doesn‘t understand or experience expression of love, sexuality, comfort, humor, or remorse. He is reaching for human feeling and by killing, he feels something, Dexter murder‘s are directed by an inner voice he refers to as The 30 Dark Passenger who keeps prodding him to kill. His life changed to be balance since he satisfy The Dark Passenger, it comes to his life unconsciously. 46 His foster father Harry has find out who he is and teach him a set of rules, to kill without getting caught and only kill the people who deserve to die. These rules give Dexter guidance how to blend in society and avoid attention. ― Whatever made me the way I am, made me hollow, empty inside, unable to feel. It does not seem like a big deal. I am quite sure most people fake an awful lot of everyday human contact. I just fake all of it. I fake it very well, and the feelings are never there. Lindsay 2004, 16 As the explanation in chapter II, according to Freud‘s sexual stage development, Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced sexual frustation in relation to any psychosexual development stage, he or she would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder. 47 In oral stage birth-1 is the first phase of this development where libido is only focus on mouth. Oral phase also a primary stage that give influence to next level of psychosexual development. In this development, mother is first relationship with the infant. That is why mother is the important part in oral phase. A mother also created a good personality of child and if a character of mother is missing, the child will has the indication of depression. Dexter was never breast fed because his mother was somewhat careless, and he did not live with his mother. He probably weaned quite a lot since he had no woman to breast feed him. He may have had an oral fixation but it has not permanently effected his personality since this fixation often results in immaturity. 46 Unconscious is the vast area of the pscye holding desires memories, an emotion of which we are not aware. In Susan Nolen-Hoeksema 47 A. Bullock., S. Trombley. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought London: Harper Collins 1999 pp. 643, 705 31 When Dexter losing his mother, he is in Phallic stage 3-6. In this stage, a boy recognizes the first love object to anyone as the closest person to him; commonly is the mother. The story told that he witnessed his mother get murdered when he was only three years old, so he cannot share his love to anyone since he has no figure of a mother and his psychosexual development was disrupted. This traumatic event put Dexter‘s normal mental development on hold. Although he has Doris as his foster mother, the figure of Dexter‘s mother cannot be changed, this woman never plugs his emptiness. Fixation in this stage often results in vanity, self-obsession, sexual anxiety, and etc. Dexter‘s urge to kill appears in Latency stage 6-puberity. When Dexter was fourteen years old, he is on puberity time, because in this age Dext er‘s sexual feeling exists. Because of he fixated in phallic stage, he has no interest in sex, Dexter‘s mind was negatively distorted at a young age so his Id has not been pushed to the back of his mind. His neurosis that established in phallic stage caused him failure to direct his energy towards following socially acceptable activities. Killing makes him feel good and makes the voice in his head calm, he named his inner voice as The Dark Passenger. If he did not kill for a duration of time, his life became unstable. From the analysis above, the main character suffered post traumatic syndrom that turn him into murderer its caused of his structure personality id, ego, and superego works unbalanced, he has bad past experiences, then his personality is disturbed. According to Freud personality as having three aspects, which work together to produce all of our complex behaviors: the Id, ego, and the Superego. 48 All three components need to be well-balanced in order to have good amount of psychological energy available and to have reasonable mental health. 48 http:wilderdom.compersonalityL8-4stuctureMindIdEgoSuperego.html . Accesed on April, 2015.