Next to Normal Meta - Gabe Goodman
Apr. 20th, 2013 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ayascytheI have been thinking. About Gabe Goodman as a character. A lot. While it's arguable that Gabe even classifies as a real character - seeing that he's just a hallucination in his mother's mind and every single fear and dark thought of the Goodman family condensed into one ... manifestation - the fact remains that, well, he is every single fear and dark thought of the Goodman family condensed into one manifestation.
Diana never really came to terms with her son's death, so she pushed it all away, pretending he was still alive. Dan, on having to deal with his wife's breakdowns and having to be the strong one, pushed his own grief aside and never really acknowledged the fact that Gabe - his own son - was dead. Natalie, who has been living in the shadow of a dead brother ever since she was born, has probably been told enough about Gabe, has seen her mother act towards a non-existent Gabe so often that he seems real to her to an extent. She may not see him, but he's at least real enough for her to be jealous and hate him.
I think that makes Gabe a lot more real than just a hallucination. He's the antrophomorphic version of problems that got swallowed down and never talked about. He's a symbol. And symbols, as Hugo already showed us with Enjolras, can be characters, too.
I think Gabriel Goodman is a bit like Peter Pan: while his mother's imagination may give him certain traits to make him look like a sassy teenager ("Are you snorting coke?" - "Not at the moment."), at the heart of it all, he really is a child that never got the chance to grow up.
I'm saying this, because everything Gabe does, the way Tveit portrays him, just screams "child" to me. He's toying with his mother's emotions, he's mocking his father's and sister's problems. He sabotages their lives through his mother's actions even to the point where he drags her down with him, driving her into suicide ("Come with me.") This house is his Neverland, his family is his playground.
(Btw, sexiest creeper face since ever. UNF.)
It's not that he's evil, per se. I don't think that he's even able to really grasp that concept. How should a child that is constantly alone have a sense for what is good and evil? But because he is oblivious he is also unintentionally cruel. He is like an ill-behaved brat, starved for attention and love, and who always wants to have his way ("For just another day, for another stolen hour, When the world will feel my power and obey").
And then there's the relationship to his father, which is more than just strained, even leaving aside the fact that Dan profusely ignores that Gabe died or ever existed. ("Why does he hate me?")* They're rivals for Diana's attention and love, constantly fighting each other. Gabe's nature drives him to be mischievous, to keep his mother away from the medicines and to drive a wedge between her and his father. It's her illness that is his raison d'être, after all, and she's the only one talking to him.
Yet, because he's this symbol for repression, there's also a strong need to push those boundaries, to bring back all the issues that have been forgotten. Gabe is the joker, the trickster. He sees everything, understanding his family better than they do themselves, holding up a mirror to all of them. ("I’ll hurt you, I’ll heal you. I’m your wish, your dream come true. And I am your darkest nightmare too. You can’t change me, I’m a perfect stranger who knows you too well. I’m right behind you and I’ll remind you. Cause if you won’t grieve me, you won’t leave me behind.")
Even if Gabe has a lot of darker sides, there is also a huge vulnerability to him. I think, deep down, a part of him wants to be released from this life and get away from it, even if it means dissappearing into oblivion. After all, he is stuck there, forever bound to this family and his mother. ("It's just another day - Feeling like I'll live forever" and "Are you hurting? Are you healing? Are you hoping for a life to live? - Well so am I.") He wants them to understand, so he can be free. And the key to that is acceptance. ("Until you name me, you can't tame me")
In the end, this is exactly what he gets. His mother accepts Gabriel's death and leaves her family, but Gabe is still there. Because maybe his mother and his sister moved on, but his father didn't. And neither of them, Gabe and Dan, can have closure that way. So there comes that moment, that one shiny moment where he really is that little kid, awed by the fact that his dad finally talked to him. And it is so heartbreaking, because it really shows just how lost and lonely Gabe actually is. ("Hi, Dad.")
As usual, I'm not really sure where I was going with this except that I'm trying to get a hold of Gabe's character because of reasons. (We all know why.)
*And this brings up entirely different thoughts concerning my intention to write Jefferson/Gabriel. Because Jefferson (depending on when they meet) is a father already and Gabriel is essentially a kid with huge daddy issues, looking for something or someone to fill the huge gap in his imaginary life. This all borders a little too close to Daddy Kink territory that I'm not sure I want to go there. At the same time, it'd be gloriously fucked up and we all know I can hardly resist that.
Diana never really came to terms with her son's death, so she pushed it all away, pretending he was still alive. Dan, on having to deal with his wife's breakdowns and having to be the strong one, pushed his own grief aside and never really acknowledged the fact that Gabe - his own son - was dead. Natalie, who has been living in the shadow of a dead brother ever since she was born, has probably been told enough about Gabe, has seen her mother act towards a non-existent Gabe so often that he seems real to her to an extent. She may not see him, but he's at least real enough for her to be jealous and hate him.
I think that makes Gabe a lot more real than just a hallucination. He's the antrophomorphic version of problems that got swallowed down and never talked about. He's a symbol. And symbols, as Hugo already showed us with Enjolras, can be characters, too.
I think Gabriel Goodman is a bit like Peter Pan: while his mother's imagination may give him certain traits to make him look like a sassy teenager ("Are you snorting coke?" - "Not at the moment."), at the heart of it all, he really is a child that never got the chance to grow up.
I'm saying this, because everything Gabe does, the way Tveit portrays him, just screams "child" to me. He's toying with his mother's emotions, he's mocking his father's and sister's problems. He sabotages their lives through his mother's actions even to the point where he drags her down with him, driving her into suicide ("Come with me.") This house is his Neverland, his family is his playground.
(Btw, sexiest creeper face since ever. UNF.)
It's not that he's evil, per se. I don't think that he's even able to really grasp that concept. How should a child that is constantly alone have a sense for what is good and evil? But because he is oblivious he is also unintentionally cruel. He is like an ill-behaved brat, starved for attention and love, and who always wants to have his way ("For just another day, for another stolen hour, When the world will feel my power and obey").
And then there's the relationship to his father, which is more than just strained, even leaving aside the fact that Dan profusely ignores that Gabe died or ever existed. ("Why does he hate me?")* They're rivals for Diana's attention and love, constantly fighting each other. Gabe's nature drives him to be mischievous, to keep his mother away from the medicines and to drive a wedge between her and his father. It's her illness that is his raison d'être, after all, and she's the only one talking to him.
Yet, because he's this symbol for repression, there's also a strong need to push those boundaries, to bring back all the issues that have been forgotten. Gabe is the joker, the trickster. He sees everything, understanding his family better than they do themselves, holding up a mirror to all of them. ("I’ll hurt you, I’ll heal you. I’m your wish, your dream come true. And I am your darkest nightmare too. You can’t change me, I’m a perfect stranger who knows you too well. I’m right behind you and I’ll remind you. Cause if you won’t grieve me, you won’t leave me behind.")
Even if Gabe has a lot of darker sides, there is also a huge vulnerability to him. I think, deep down, a part of him wants to be released from this life and get away from it, even if it means dissappearing into oblivion. After all, he is stuck there, forever bound to this family and his mother. ("It's just another day - Feeling like I'll live forever" and "Are you hurting? Are you healing? Are you hoping for a life to live? - Well so am I.") He wants them to understand, so he can be free. And the key to that is acceptance. ("Until you name me, you can't tame me")
In the end, this is exactly what he gets. His mother accepts Gabriel's death and leaves her family, but Gabe is still there. Because maybe his mother and his sister moved on, but his father didn't. And neither of them, Gabe and Dan, can have closure that way. So there comes that moment, that one shiny moment where he really is that little kid, awed by the fact that his dad finally talked to him. And it is so heartbreaking, because it really shows just how lost and lonely Gabe actually is. ("Hi, Dad.")
As usual, I'm not really sure where I was going with this except that I'm trying to get a hold of Gabe's character because of reasons. (We all know why.)
*And this brings up entirely different thoughts concerning my intention to write Jefferson/Gabriel. Because Jefferson (depending on when they meet) is a father already and Gabriel is essentially a kid with huge daddy issues, looking for something or someone to fill the huge gap in his imaginary life. This all borders a little too close to Daddy Kink territory that I'm not sure I want to go there. At the same time, it'd be gloriously fucked up and we all know I can hardly resist that.
