Dexter Morgan. A Moral Murderer? (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Communications - Movies and Television, grade: 1.0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: This bachelor thesis aims to answer the following research question: Is it possible to morally absolve Dexter not only from a utilitarian and a Kantian point of view, but are there also aesthetical aspects influencing and reinforcing the viewer's attitude? As the question consists of two parts, the analysis will correspondingly be carried out in two steps.

The first part will investigate if the viewer is enabled to morally justify Dexter's behavior by positively identifying with him, and if this dynamic is supported and reinforced by stylistic devices such as framing and mise-en-scène. The second part will investigate Dexter's "activities" on the basis of the two abovementioned ethical theories and apply these to a selection of scenes from various seasons of the series. Unlike the article from dexterdaily.com, which suggests that Dexter may be morally absolved by both utilitarianism and Kant's ethical theory, a preliminary assumption of this thesis is that Dexter might be offered moral amnesty by utilitarianism, rather than by Kant.