Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence and blood.

“I had been waiting and watching the priest for five weeks now. The need had been prickling and teasing and prodding at me to find one, find the next, find this priest. For three weeks I had known he was it, he was the next, we belonged to the Dark Passenger together.”

The “Dark Passenger” is the name Dexter gives to his homicidal impulse, a key symbol in the text’s thematic exploration of morality, good, and evil. This passage reflects Dexter’s intense psychological compulsion, which governs his need to kill and justifies his targeting of the priest. The repetition of “find” emphasizes his obsessive drive, while the language “prickling and teasing and prodding” conveys an almost physical manifestation of his urges, underscoring their invasive nature. The phrase “we belonged to the Dark Passenger together” highlights Dexter's projection of his own darkness onto his chosen victim, creating a sense of kinship that rationalizes his actions.

“I was always careful, always tidy, always prepared ahead of time.”

Dexter lives according to a moral and a behavioral code. Behaviorally, he is precise and careful. He takes care to keep his crime scenes orderly and leave no evidence. He does research before he kills to ensure his victims deserve their fates. He is also neat in his appearance and does his best to blend in with “normal” people and avoid giving himself away as a killer. He takes pride in being a “neat monster,” as this is what has enabled his success and survival.