Psychology
Dexter Morgan
Dexter Morgan - a fictional character in a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, and the protagonist of the television series "Dexter". In the novels and television series, Dexter is a forensic medical expert on blood spatter, who works for the Miami Police Department, but also, he is a serial killer who preys on other criminals who have managed to cheat justice and escape the punishment. Dexter follows a special code, which his adoptive father Harry Morgan taught him when he was a child. The two most important rules of the "Code of Harry": never kill innocent people and always cover up all traces so that no one and never found them.
Dexter Morgan was born in a poor and dysfunctional family. His father, Joseph Driscoll, has repeatedly been in prison and his mother, Laura Moser, possibly was engaged in a drug trafficking. Also, he had an older brother Brian. Dexter's mother soon became an informant in the police station and came under the leadership of a police officer Harry Morgan. There was later identified that the mother of Dexter and Harry were lovers. Harry insisted that Dexter's mother led him on the trail of a drug dealer. However, the meeting did not go as planned - a drug dealer realized that Dexter's mother works for the police, and killed her and three other persons, sawn them apart by the chainsaw in a railway container on the territory of the coastal Miami warehouse. Little Dexter and his older brother witnessed the whole process of the massacre being inside the container. After a brutal massacre, for another three days, they sat in a puddle of blood and remained there waiting until the police did not find them. The first person who entered the container was Harry Morgan. What he saw shocked him, and apparently feeling guilty for what has happened, he took Dexter to himself, gave him his surname and adopted this child, who was three years old.
Soon, when Dexter was 8 years old, his stepfather began to notice the loss of the neighborhood dogs. The boy did not remember anything from his past life, but an inexplicable craving to kill somebody made it felt. Then Harry decided to talk to him, and the son revealed to his father his secret. The Father of love for his son did not inform anyone about this, about which he later regretted. He still found the dismembered bodies of animals buried in his garden. When Dexter was 14 years old, his father understood that it is impossible to overcome this addiction and he created for his son a special Code, which he was obliged to follow, not to fall into the hands of the policemen. Morgan taught Dexter to direct the growing desire for killing to a useful direction - to kill only those who deserve it: criminals who escaped justice because of loopholes in the laws or lack of evidence. Harry taught him all the tricks of the fight, how to cover up traces, not to leave incriminating evidences and also how to find victims. In accordance with the Code, the majority of victims are murderers (although it is also referred to arsonists and child molesters), and Dexter should find the irrefutable evidences of their guilt before acting. Henceforth, Dexter will build his entire life by five rules from the Code of Harry:
- not get caught
- not kill the innocent
- No one must be aware of his secret
- He should be ideal at the work, in the family and being among his associates
- All bodies should disappear so that no one found them.
When Harry died, Dexter continued his work. He worked in the police in a position of a forensic medical expert on blood spatter; it gave him a cover and bonus. An access to all police archives helps him to track down the killers and to kill them using a bloody ritual, and then he sent the bodies of these died people to eternal swim in the Atlantic Ocean, throwing off them overboard his yacht under the eloquent title "Slice of Life". Dexter Morgan could look for criminals who were not punished by the law, as well as to eliminate the evidences against him, and to direct the investigation group to the wrong track.
Dexter - a very complicated man. He believes that he has no emotions, and this terribly frustrates him. But he knows how to perfectly imitate emotions and behaves with all politely. He rigidly treats his victims during the punishment and only in these moments he shows his true and real face. But at the same time, paradoxically, Dexter loves children and believes that they are much more interesting than their parents. It makes him torture his victims before the murder if they killed the children. His relationship with Astor and Cody, Rita's children, brings him close to her. But Astor for a long time feels neglection to Dexter, especially after the death of Rita. Nevertheless, becoming their stepfather, Dexter even more cozies with them and swears to protect them at all costs.
Dexter uses a tranquilizer M-99 (better known as atropine) for animals during an attack on his victims. Typically, using a skeleton key, he enters into their apartments and begins the ritual, if he finds the evidences of their crime. Dexter covers the floor and walls with polyethylene, turning the place of his crime into "trash bag inside." The table or other large surface is also covered with polyethylene; at the walls are placed photos of those people who were killed by his victim. Then he waits for a convenient time and sneaks up behind the victim, or, waiting for when the victim returns home, injects into his carotid artery the sleeping pills. The victim wakes up being strapped to the table with a tape. He sees Dexter, who will tell him about his crimes and victims; often these conversations are converted into a dialogue. After the conversation Dexter puts on an apron of the butcher and a protective mask for Lawnmower Man, makes an incision with a scalpel on the cheek of the victim and takes a blood sample for his collection. Then he takes a weapon (knife, hatchet, ax, screwdriver, hammer or other) and inflicts a fatal blow. After that, he dissects the body by electric equipment, folds the parts of the body into garbage bags and throws them into the ocean (preferably in the Gulf Stream) from his yacht called "Slice of life".
Summing up, it should be said that Dexter is not just a maniac, who imagined himself as a cleaner of a bad society. For some people he is a hero who has redeemed mankind from the maniacs and killers, for others he is a dangerous madman who should be isolated from the society. In almost every season Dexter struggles with himself. And under the influence of normal people the protagonist changes, becomes more humane. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it is unlikely, that in the end, Dexter wins. I think that he is incorrigible such as the cannibals. And these characters can only be stopped in one way that is by killing them.
References
Sean Mitchell. (2006). So He’s a Serial Killer? A Guy Needs a Hobby
Christopher Ryan. (2012). Being Dexter Morgan
Laura Schultz. (2008). The Psychology of Dexter
The Science Behind Dexter (TV): The Psychology of a Survivor http://megan-kathleen.hubpages.com/hub/The-Science-Behind-Dexter-Deb-the-Survivor
