Jack Harkness: A character examination.
So I've seen various people discussing their characters recently and it's sort of spurred me on to write up a rant/discussion piece about my opinions on Jack.
There often seems to be some rather blanket statements applied to Jack, and the more I see some of them the more it makes me sad that they're there at all. It seems they range from misconceptions to the more extreme 'are you even watching the same programme as me'? This will likely be rambling as I think of it, but I'll try and address some of those and give my opinions on them here. I am also aware certain opinions or statements might go against each other, but then I don't think that matters; everyone has sides of their personality that clash, Jack included.
And a point worth saying, this is my own opinion. A character is open to interpretation, this is mine.
Jack Harkness will sleep with anything.
No, he won't. There is quite a strong distinction between someone being a flirt and someone actively trying to bed everyone. Now that isn't to say he hasn't led an active sexual life, but not that he actually wants to sleep with everyone that he speaks to.
In Jack's previous life he was a Time Agent. A job that quite clearly had its grey areas. It's worth remembering here that Jack then was quite a different man to the one we know him as now. In the agency he was in his 20s-30s, he was mortal, and his life experience, while tragic at times, was nowhere near that which he'd had by the time we come to know him in Torchwood. He was much more happy go lucky, and he lived his life in a very different way to that which he would later. What we've seen of how the Time Agency is portrayed it's quite clear that it takes a certain sort of man (or woman) to take on such a role. The only other agent we see is John Hart and he is certainly less than scrupulous. While he might be in the extreme, looking at him and what we know of early Jack we can draw a vague picture of him. Now with that information in hand, it's not a huge leap to imagine Jack would have been using his sexuality as a tool.
Of course on face value that can look like quite an unpleasant statement, and to a degree, it is. Jack is an incredibly sexually aware man, and if he was 'running a job' or something similar, he would have no problem with doing what he needed to do to get a job done. If that included seducing someone, or possibly even sleeping with them. John Hart mentions that the paralysing lip gloss trick he uses on Gwen (TW 2x01) was a trick he learned from Jack. Perhaps the biggest and most blatant example of this nature is something we get when we very first meet Jack. He flirts with Rose on the roof of the ship, he dances with her and has a bottle of champagne ready and plays music; all classic seduction styles in an attempt to get her on his side.
This is something that would be a learned skill, and a skill that became part of his every day life. Flirting with people was and is a game, and one he frequently indulges in, whether he intends to pursue it or not.
Moving Jack to the modern setting we are most familiar with him, we see the same tricks employed when he refers to meeting a soldier in a bar to get information from him (DW 4x12). Now I am not of the opinion he would have slept with that man, but as he said himself, 'strictly professional' he was doing what he needed to do get a job done.
Tangentially, Jack finds flirting fun, and it's something he enjoys doing, such as with Chantho and the other man on the Silo (DW 3x11) and with Ruth, Rhys' receptionist (TW 2x04).
Sex is also something Jack understands. It's something he's confident in, so he often pushes it to the forefront and almost hides behind it to shield any other insecurities. It's something he has strength in and so he can use that to bolster himself.
I don't believe that Jack views sex as a throw away act. It has to be more than a session of in and out for it to be fulfilling. Not that he has to be in love with every person he sleeps with, very far from it, but he thrives on how he makes other people feel. So if he makes them feel good, it's a more responsive experience.
Jack is incapable of being monogamous.
Not at all. Jack is from a very different time to that which we are familiar with and so the conventional relationships we might think of now might be inherently alien to him. But that said, since we first met him Jack has come a long way and changed with it too.
We've seen from canon that Jack has been married (TW 2x09), and though we have little information to go with that it's an interesting snippet of the man and who he is. We see his relationship with Estelle Cole (TW 1x05) and the way he refers to her is again very indicative to his romantic leanings. He says how he loved her when he first saw her, and how they said they would be together forever; and Jack saying this even knowing how it was an impossibility. It all lends towards a rather classic romantic idea. And this as the base of it is what I think Jack is: a romantic, and in an almost old fashioned sense.
Were it possible for him to do so and if the circumstances of his life allowed it, I don't think Jack would be opposed to settling down with one person in an almost nuclear family situation. In fact it is an idea he has been seen to pursue even in a life that wouldn't allow it.
Again it is a distinction between flirting and actively pursuing people. When we see him build something of a relationship with Ianto (albeit an undefined one) I would be quite sure any other flirtations past that are simply that, flirtations.
Jack didn't love Ianto.
He most certainly did. He may not have been the most expressive about showing it, and he certainly didn't always treat Ianto how he deserved, but there is no question that he loved the man. By the time Jack met Ianto he was already at least 138 years old. He had been in love with people, and he had lost them. He was already a father and already a grandfather, so his reluctance to 'commit' is more than a little understandable, as his reluctance to admit his feelings.
That said, there are moments in the show you see Jack with Ianto and you see a more 'real' side of Jack. Such as him asking Ianto out on a date (TW 2x01), he is much more vulnerable and quiet, because it's something that's important to him, and something that matters.
When Ianto died, he told Jack he loved him, and the fact Jack didn't reciprocate the sentiment is certainly not supportive of the suggestion that he didn't feel that way. If anything, his response of 'don't' just goes to show how he wasn't ready to accept Ianto's death. In that scene we see Jack plead with him, almost like a small child, begging him not to die. Yes, he might do this to anyone he cared for, but personally I see this as evidence to support his emotion towards Ianto.
Ianto was Jack's soul mate.
Moving on from the last statement, I think it's important to get the balance right. While Jack did love Ianto, he was not the love of his life, and loving him was no more important than loving Estelle or Lucia or the Doctor or anyone else Jack may have loved, seen or unseen.
Ianto was a very important chapter in Jack's life, even if Jack hadn't intended him to be, but it is certainly not a case that nobody will ever measure up or that Jack should mourn forever.
Gwen irritates/disgusts Jack.
This statement I've seen various times, and really I find it mind boggling. Jack and Gwen's relationship is tumultuous. Between the two of them emotion obviously runs very high, but not for a moment was that emotion one of dislike.
I would say it is fair to say that Jack loves Gwen. He of course loves all his team, but what he feels for Gwen runs on a slightly different level. It is something they are fully aware they can never act on, and so it remains on the surface and ever present, because it is never really addressed.
Jack and Gwen do and always will have a firey relationship. She doesn't always agree with him, and she's not afraid to tell him, and while Jack might appear annoyed at that, he's actually glad of it. He likes people who push him and challenge his opinions, and likes people who will show him when he is wrong. (TW 1x02) we see Gwen challenge Jack and approach things in an entirely different way to that which he does, and as he says then, that's brilliant.
If Jack loves x person it means he can't love x person!
Loving one person does not mean Jack is suddenly incapable of loving another. Jack has lived a long time, and he's from a different time. Love is not mutually exclusive, and loving the Doctor, for example, doesn't mean he doesn't love Ianto.
Jack is heartless.
Jack can be prone to close himself up and hide his emotions or be harsh with people. This, however, does not make him heartless. He's simply protecting himself from hurt. And in a life where he's had quite a bit of it, it's a necessity. He jokes and laughs a lot, but it's worth remembering that this is often just his defence mechanism and way of hiding how he really feels (and hiding from himself as much as anyone else). He can be ruthless at times, and sometimes appear cold and hard, but that is just him trying to get through. That, and the fact he is human, and he makes mistakes. He is far from perfect, and he should never be portrayed as being so.
Jack is not an indiscriminate killer. He has killed, and will do so if he feels he has to, but as he says himself 'we see enough death' and he does what he does to help, not hinder.
Jack and the Doctor.
I won't put much here, but I feel the Doctor is such an important part of Jack's life that it deserves to be mentioned. The Doctor quite literally changed Jack's life and made him the person he is in more ways than one. Jack sees the Doctor as a man to look up to (something I will go into more in a moment) and most of the man he shapes himself to be, is through the Doctor's influence.
I often say the Doctor is the exception to Jack's rules, in so much as all the emotional blocks and general behavioural rules in puts in place for himself get twisted and changed where the Doctor is concerned.
Around him, he feels a weight is off his shoulders. He no longer has to be the leader, he can be lead, and be the Doctor's support. He would do anything for him, and always be there, whatever that meant.
Jack's stolen childhood.
Jack's rather idyllic youth was cut short when the creatures came and killed his father and took his brother. This had a huge knock on effect on the rest of his life. When he went to war he persuaded his friend to go with him because he thought it would be an adventure (TW 1x12). This sort of attitude we see reflected across the series at different points and in different ways.
As I mentioned above his whole reaction to Ianto's death was quite a reverting to childhood moment, so I shan't go into that again here. I think the largest and most prevalent example of Jack's behaviour being almost juvenile is that of him and the Doctor. He has a distinctly hero worship attitude towards the Doctor, and his almost need for approval from him is again a very youthful thing. Jack loves the Doctor (and in my head I see it as a romantic love) but at the same time, the Doctor is almost a father figure to him, taking the place in his mind of that person to look up to and aspire to be like.
Jack is also prone to almost tantrum type behaviour. He has been seen to walk off when events don't go the way he wants them to (both in small ways, such as leaving a room, or bigger ones, like leaving a planet).
A wonderful example of Jack's childish behaviour would be that of his reaction to Owen's death. Instead of accepting it, he simply refuses to, and instead he brings him back, ostensibly for a computer code, when it's quite clear that in truth he just isn't ready to let him go, and childishly, he throws his toys out of the pram and has things his way.
He was forced to grow up at an early age, and as such, in many many ways, he never really did.
Jack was pregnant.
No, he wasn't, he was joking. Blimey, people.
Right-o, I have rambled on for quite a while, and I'm completely sure I could ramble on for even longer. I'm sure there are things I've gone over too much, and things I've missed, but I think I'll leave it there and hope that it hasn't bored anyone to sleep.
If anyone would like to discuss in the comments, I'd be happy to.
ETA: Since I posted this there have been two more wonderful character discussion posts written and I thought I'd link them here.
hofficoffi on Ianto Jones.
alien_catcher on Gwen Cooper.
There often seems to be some rather blanket statements applied to Jack, and the more I see some of them the more it makes me sad that they're there at all. It seems they range from misconceptions to the more extreme 'are you even watching the same programme as me'? This will likely be rambling as I think of it, but I'll try and address some of those and give my opinions on them here. I am also aware certain opinions or statements might go against each other, but then I don't think that matters; everyone has sides of their personality that clash, Jack included.
And a point worth saying, this is my own opinion. A character is open to interpretation, this is mine.
Jack Harkness will sleep with anything.
No, he won't. There is quite a strong distinction between someone being a flirt and someone actively trying to bed everyone. Now that isn't to say he hasn't led an active sexual life, but not that he actually wants to sleep with everyone that he speaks to.
In Jack's previous life he was a Time Agent. A job that quite clearly had its grey areas. It's worth remembering here that Jack then was quite a different man to the one we know him as now. In the agency he was in his 20s-30s, he was mortal, and his life experience, while tragic at times, was nowhere near that which he'd had by the time we come to know him in Torchwood. He was much more happy go lucky, and he lived his life in a very different way to that which he would later. What we've seen of how the Time Agency is portrayed it's quite clear that it takes a certain sort of man (or woman) to take on such a role. The only other agent we see is John Hart and he is certainly less than scrupulous. While he might be in the extreme, looking at him and what we know of early Jack we can draw a vague picture of him. Now with that information in hand, it's not a huge leap to imagine Jack would have been using his sexuality as a tool.
Of course on face value that can look like quite an unpleasant statement, and to a degree, it is. Jack is an incredibly sexually aware man, and if he was 'running a job' or something similar, he would have no problem with doing what he needed to do to get a job done. If that included seducing someone, or possibly even sleeping with them. John Hart mentions that the paralysing lip gloss trick he uses on Gwen (TW 2x01) was a trick he learned from Jack. Perhaps the biggest and most blatant example of this nature is something we get when we very first meet Jack. He flirts with Rose on the roof of the ship, he dances with her and has a bottle of champagne ready and plays music; all classic seduction styles in an attempt to get her on his side.
This is something that would be a learned skill, and a skill that became part of his every day life. Flirting with people was and is a game, and one he frequently indulges in, whether he intends to pursue it or not.
Moving Jack to the modern setting we are most familiar with him, we see the same tricks employed when he refers to meeting a soldier in a bar to get information from him (DW 4x12). Now I am not of the opinion he would have slept with that man, but as he said himself, 'strictly professional' he was doing what he needed to do get a job done.
Tangentially, Jack finds flirting fun, and it's something he enjoys doing, such as with Chantho and the other man on the Silo (DW 3x11) and with Ruth, Rhys' receptionist (TW 2x04).
Sex is also something Jack understands. It's something he's confident in, so he often pushes it to the forefront and almost hides behind it to shield any other insecurities. It's something he has strength in and so he can use that to bolster himself.
I don't believe that Jack views sex as a throw away act. It has to be more than a session of in and out for it to be fulfilling. Not that he has to be in love with every person he sleeps with, very far from it, but he thrives on how he makes other people feel. So if he makes them feel good, it's a more responsive experience.
Jack is incapable of being monogamous.
Not at all. Jack is from a very different time to that which we are familiar with and so the conventional relationships we might think of now might be inherently alien to him. But that said, since we first met him Jack has come a long way and changed with it too.
We've seen from canon that Jack has been married (TW 2x09), and though we have little information to go with that it's an interesting snippet of the man and who he is. We see his relationship with Estelle Cole (TW 1x05) and the way he refers to her is again very indicative to his romantic leanings. He says how he loved her when he first saw her, and how they said they would be together forever; and Jack saying this even knowing how it was an impossibility. It all lends towards a rather classic romantic idea. And this as the base of it is what I think Jack is: a romantic, and in an almost old fashioned sense.
Were it possible for him to do so and if the circumstances of his life allowed it, I don't think Jack would be opposed to settling down with one person in an almost nuclear family situation. In fact it is an idea he has been seen to pursue even in a life that wouldn't allow it.
Again it is a distinction between flirting and actively pursuing people. When we see him build something of a relationship with Ianto (albeit an undefined one) I would be quite sure any other flirtations past that are simply that, flirtations.
Jack didn't love Ianto.
He most certainly did. He may not have been the most expressive about showing it, and he certainly didn't always treat Ianto how he deserved, but there is no question that he loved the man. By the time Jack met Ianto he was already at least 138 years old. He had been in love with people, and he had lost them. He was already a father and already a grandfather, so his reluctance to 'commit' is more than a little understandable, as his reluctance to admit his feelings.
That said, there are moments in the show you see Jack with Ianto and you see a more 'real' side of Jack. Such as him asking Ianto out on a date (TW 2x01), he is much more vulnerable and quiet, because it's something that's important to him, and something that matters.
When Ianto died, he told Jack he loved him, and the fact Jack didn't reciprocate the sentiment is certainly not supportive of the suggestion that he didn't feel that way. If anything, his response of 'don't' just goes to show how he wasn't ready to accept Ianto's death. In that scene we see Jack plead with him, almost like a small child, begging him not to die. Yes, he might do this to anyone he cared for, but personally I see this as evidence to support his emotion towards Ianto.
Ianto was Jack's soul mate.
Moving on from the last statement, I think it's important to get the balance right. While Jack did love Ianto, he was not the love of his life, and loving him was no more important than loving Estelle or Lucia or the Doctor or anyone else Jack may have loved, seen or unseen.
Ianto was a very important chapter in Jack's life, even if Jack hadn't intended him to be, but it is certainly not a case that nobody will ever measure up or that Jack should mourn forever.
Gwen irritates/disgusts Jack.
This statement I've seen various times, and really I find it mind boggling. Jack and Gwen's relationship is tumultuous. Between the two of them emotion obviously runs very high, but not for a moment was that emotion one of dislike.
I would say it is fair to say that Jack loves Gwen. He of course loves all his team, but what he feels for Gwen runs on a slightly different level. It is something they are fully aware they can never act on, and so it remains on the surface and ever present, because it is never really addressed.
Jack and Gwen do and always will have a firey relationship. She doesn't always agree with him, and she's not afraid to tell him, and while Jack might appear annoyed at that, he's actually glad of it. He likes people who push him and challenge his opinions, and likes people who will show him when he is wrong. (TW 1x02) we see Gwen challenge Jack and approach things in an entirely different way to that which he does, and as he says then, that's brilliant.
If Jack loves x person it means he can't love x person!
Loving one person does not mean Jack is suddenly incapable of loving another. Jack has lived a long time, and he's from a different time. Love is not mutually exclusive, and loving the Doctor, for example, doesn't mean he doesn't love Ianto.
Jack is heartless.
Jack can be prone to close himself up and hide his emotions or be harsh with people. This, however, does not make him heartless. He's simply protecting himself from hurt. And in a life where he's had quite a bit of it, it's a necessity. He jokes and laughs a lot, but it's worth remembering that this is often just his defence mechanism and way of hiding how he really feels (and hiding from himself as much as anyone else). He can be ruthless at times, and sometimes appear cold and hard, but that is just him trying to get through. That, and the fact he is human, and he makes mistakes. He is far from perfect, and he should never be portrayed as being so.
Jack is not an indiscriminate killer. He has killed, and will do so if he feels he has to, but as he says himself 'we see enough death' and he does what he does to help, not hinder.
Jack and the Doctor.
I won't put much here, but I feel the Doctor is such an important part of Jack's life that it deserves to be mentioned. The Doctor quite literally changed Jack's life and made him the person he is in more ways than one. Jack sees the Doctor as a man to look up to (something I will go into more in a moment) and most of the man he shapes himself to be, is through the Doctor's influence.
I often say the Doctor is the exception to Jack's rules, in so much as all the emotional blocks and general behavioural rules in puts in place for himself get twisted and changed where the Doctor is concerned.
Around him, he feels a weight is off his shoulders. He no longer has to be the leader, he can be lead, and be the Doctor's support. He would do anything for him, and always be there, whatever that meant.
Jack's stolen childhood.
Jack's rather idyllic youth was cut short when the creatures came and killed his father and took his brother. This had a huge knock on effect on the rest of his life. When he went to war he persuaded his friend to go with him because he thought it would be an adventure (TW 1x12). This sort of attitude we see reflected across the series at different points and in different ways.
As I mentioned above his whole reaction to Ianto's death was quite a reverting to childhood moment, so I shan't go into that again here. I think the largest and most prevalent example of Jack's behaviour being almost juvenile is that of him and the Doctor. He has a distinctly hero worship attitude towards the Doctor, and his almost need for approval from him is again a very youthful thing. Jack loves the Doctor (and in my head I see it as a romantic love) but at the same time, the Doctor is almost a father figure to him, taking the place in his mind of that person to look up to and aspire to be like.
Jack is also prone to almost tantrum type behaviour. He has been seen to walk off when events don't go the way he wants them to (both in small ways, such as leaving a room, or bigger ones, like leaving a planet).
A wonderful example of Jack's childish behaviour would be that of his reaction to Owen's death. Instead of accepting it, he simply refuses to, and instead he brings him back, ostensibly for a computer code, when it's quite clear that in truth he just isn't ready to let him go, and childishly, he throws his toys out of the pram and has things his way.
He was forced to grow up at an early age, and as such, in many many ways, he never really did.
Jack was pregnant.
No, he wasn't, he was joking. Blimey, people.
Right-o, I have rambled on for quite a while, and I'm completely sure I could ramble on for even longer. I'm sure there are things I've gone over too much, and things I've missed, but I think I'll leave it there and hope that it hasn't bored anyone to sleep.
If anyone would like to discuss in the comments, I'd be happy to.
ETA: Since I posted this there have been two more wonderful character discussion posts written and I thought I'd link them here.
hofficoffi on Ianto Jones.
alien_catcher on Gwen Cooper.