Jake Morgendorffer

Jake Morgendorffer is a fictional animated character who featured regularly in the MTV television show, Daria. Father of Daria Morgendorffer, he is a middle-aged man, brown-haired, and trim, who almost always wears an ocean-blue business suit.

Background


Jake Morgendorffer was the son of an emotionally abusive father, nicknamed "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer, who (as Jake remembers it) tormented his son mercilessly and ultimately shipped him off to military school the first chance he got. Jake's time in military school further traumatized him, as his parents refused to visit him and all but forgot about him until graduation. Little is known about Jake's siblings, though it is possible he had an older sister.

Afterwards, Jake enrolled at Middleton College and met his future wife Helen Barksdale. The two were part of the hippie counter-culture at the time, which was a calming influence to the seething cauldron of repressed rage and hatred for the world around him and for his father. The two moved into a commune after graduation and got married. His father died shortly thereafter.

Like many hippies, Jake and Helen rejected the 1960s counter-culture by the end of the 1970s and began working in the corporate world. Jake in particular began work in the advertisement industry, with little success. Adding to his strife was the fact that Jake worked for a rather controlling boss who treated Jake poorly (whom he referred to as a "mini-Mussolini" in the episode "Boxing Daria") and further verbally abused Jake on a regular basis.

Jake and Helen ultimately had two daughters, Daria (whom he often refers to as "kiddo") and Quinn. By this point the family was living in Highland, Texas, (home of Beavis and Butt-head). The family stayed there for several years before moving to the suburb of Lawndale. Although it is unknown whether Helen or Jake instigated the move, it has been implied that the change spurred Jake to start his own freelance advertising consultant firm. Jake could now enjoy the freedom of being his own boss, far from the stress-filled environment in which he used to work.

Relationship with Helen
Jake and Helen are and always have been much in love, but there is a strong undercurrent of resentment between the two of them in their relationship. In the episode "Psycho Therapy," Helen describes Jake's behavior as "lost in a fog when [he's] not flying into a rage" to a counselor. His general meekness often causes Helen to make a majority of the decisions. When Jake goes into a rage, Helen ranges from humoring him to pushing back.

In "Psycho Therapy," Jake accuses Helen of having control issues, allowing him no vices. Both are then asked to role-play as the other, leading Jake to portray Helen as a narcissistic career woman with an addiction to praise who does everything without empathy, while Helen portrays Jake as a self-pitying manic-depressive who doesn't try to fix his own problems and is adverse to responsibility. Jake's assessment of Helen really hits home for her and upsets her greatly, leading him to apologize afterward.

Despite this episode, both still care about each other and there is no lack of passion in their marriage. It is unknown whether the role-play resulted in any lasting emotional scars.

Personality
As a victim of long-term emotional abuse, Jake suffers from neurotic behavior that at times borders on mental illness. His general reaction to everyday trauma is to avoid conflict, usually by ducking behind a newspaper that he pretends to read. However, in spite of this defense, Jake has been known to go off on angry fits of yelling and screaming at things, real and imaginary, that he feels are out to get him. In particular, Jake is prone to scream "Damn it!" during these tirades. The drastic mood swings eventually affect his health, once giving him a mild heart attack that leaves him bedridden for a short time. However, during his convalescence, Daria points out, to his delight, that he has now lived longer than his hated father.

In spite of these fits, Jake has not shown typical signs of physically or emotionally abusing his wife or children, in contrast to many victims of childhood abuse. It could be argued that the attempts by his wife and daughters to protect and humor him reflect a milder form of emotional abuse, but not any that was intentional on Jake's part.

Despite Jake's neurotic behavior, there have been periods where he has true insight into the lives of his children. During "Boxing Daria," he explains to Daria that while she was a difficult child to deal with due to her reclusive and jaded behavior, he and Helen understood and accepted that someone as bright as she was not going to be like everyone else. This, of course, flies in the face of their many attempts (primarily Helen's) to get Daria to be like everyone else.

Job
Jake's status as a marketing consultant seems to change from episode to episode. Sometimes it seems to be doing just fine, sometimes he's losing clients and is in danger of losing his parking space. The series does show that Jake has some pull around Lawndale, though. He uses his contacts to get Daria a job in It Happened One Nut, and when Jodie and Daria apply for a bank loan during a class assignment in Partner's Complaint, the loan officer cites that if Daria's father cosigns on the loan the bank may react more favorably.

Clueless Jake
It would be difficult to make Jake any more oblivious than he is portrayed in the series. Let's face it, a man who yells "What's the number for nine-one-one?" ("Write Where It Hurts") is more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal. This stereotype works well in farcical comedies (see Squirrel Story), but making him a more serious character is challenging.

Darth Jake
There are a number of stories which postulate that the emotional trauma Jake suffered through as a child would have serious future ramifications in his future. "Darth Jake" stories almost always characterize Jake as horrifying, vicious, cruel, and acting out a pathological desire to show that he's a better father than "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer. Examples of this type include The Angst Guy's "Darius," LyinTamer's "Night of the Storm," and Scissors MacGillicutty's "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?."

A fic that subverts this variation is "Chosin Fate," where Daria finds audio tapes of her grandfather before and after the wartime events that transformed him into the "Mad Dog." In the fic, listening to those tapes has a cathartic effect on Jake; he muses on how that was the first time he had ever heard his father say that he loved his son, and considers how his father was a damaged soul who wasn't trying to abuse him, but to toughen him up for the dangers of the world. We also see this in "It's All About Respect," where Jake and Lauriel de la Ribas speak about "Mad Dog's" service time, and how it affected Jake's father and the people around him.

Good Jake
A few fanfics focus strongly on Jake's good qualities. Daria regards him as a "hero" in "Of Human Bonding," a reference that puzzled many viewers, but he is known to take up Daria's side in some parental disputes (notably in "Arts 'N Crass" and "Boxing Daria"). Angelinhel's "Alley" is a touching and realistic ficlet about Jake's softer side.

Reformed Jake
Now and then, a fanfic will present Jake as overcoming his broken past and stalled present to be a better husband and father. In Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe, Jake's friendship with Anthony DeMartino spurs him to teach classes at a nearby community center ("All But Forgotten"). However, his newfound independence proves to be one of the many causes of a widening rift between him and Helen, eventually leading to their separation ("Memory Road"). The separation forces Jake, for the first time, to really work at getting to know his daughters and to take care of himself.

Super Jake
And then there are a few ficlets that presume Jake's cluelessness is a cover, and he is secretly a mightier force for good than anyone supposes. Shallow15's "Super Zero" is an excellent example. TAG's "Nuthouse" is a comic take on this concept.