Dawson Leery, to me, is a very complex character, with sometimes diametrically opposed character traits that reflect the fact that he is sixteen years old, and hasn’t quite come to terms with who he is as a person. I see him as someone who has lived a sheltered life as a somewhat pampered only child, doted on by two loving and supportive parents, who up until recently offered him a secure home environment. His precocious intelligence has also somewhat isolated him from many of his peers, and so his attention has been focused on his two best friends, Pacey Witter and Joey Potter, who, for varying reasons, are also outsiders, and have chosen to share Dawson’s world with him. In Dawson’s room, the three of them can shut themselves out from the rest of the world, and Dawson can share his passion for movies and romance with the people he cares about the most. Dawson, by his own admission, is a dreamer, and while he and his friends possess an incredible propensity to analyze every minute detail of everything in their life, from what movie they are watching to their views on life, they, and especially Dawson, are utterly clueless when it comes to true feelings and romance. Dawson has also been the center of this little world, mainly because the home environments that Joey and Pacey come from have not afforded them any opportunity for security and love, so they seemed content to allow themselves to somewhat accede to Dawson’s needs and interests. Soon however, this idyllic world comes to an abrupt end, as reality crashes in on Dawson Leery and his friends.
The first major rift in this fragile alternate universe that Dawson has created for himself and his friends is his infatuation with the new girl in town, Jen Lindley. This causes a major rift in his friendship with Joey, who, unknown to him, and, perhaps, even to her, has grown to love Dawson. Much of the first season focused on this love triangle, and many of us grew frustrated as he seemed completely oblivious to the feelings of his best friend while pursuing the object of his infatuation, a pursuit that ultimately ended badly for him. The next major rift took place as his parent’s marriage broke up, while simultaneously, he gained and lost Joey as a girlfriend and a friend, and he also, in some ways, lost Pacey as Pacey became involved with Andie. Therefore, we got to witness Dawson go through and articulate a lot of anguish as all the people he had depended on were lost to him one way or another.
A lot of people have complained about Dawson’s "whining" and his sometimes self-centered behavior. I can agree with that assessment, but I also can understand why Dawson behaves like he does, due to his upbringing and the fact that the world he had known, and the people he cared about have, at least to him, changed so drastically in ways that he can not understand or accept. Dawson Leery is simply someone who hasn’t learned yet that sometimes it is best to exercise restraint and to use tact when dealing with the people that he cares about. That is a lesson that is very hard to learn, and I myself have had problems in that regard. I too, sometimes try too hard, or say the wrong thing at the wrong time, like Dawson did when he walked up to Joey right after her father was arrested. So I can completely understand, and identify with, Dawson’s tendency to try too hard, and end up with a result totally opposite from what he had intended. But, at heart, I think Dawson’s intentions are good, and that he is genuinely concerned about those people in his life that he cares about, and he does his best to show them that he cares, as he demonstrated many times, most notably when he "rescued" Jen from her own worst tendencies at Chris’ house, and when he took the ultimately selfless step of keeping Joey out of harms way when her father began dealing drugs again, and in doing so, sacrificed his relationship with her. So Dawson is like many of us, a flawed, but ultimately kind and caring character who is simply growing up and trying to figure out his way in the world, a mixture of precocious intelligence and unworldly naiveté, of idealism and immaturity. In other words, he is human, and I look forward to seeing this wonderful character come to terms with himself and the people in his life that he loves.
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