The way the characters are formed is one of Euphoria’s most intriguing features. It aims to understand complicated human emotions, especially those of high school students who aren’t sure of their identities or what they want to do with their lives. The storytelling is the first aspect that sets Euphoria apart from other coming-of-age movies or television shows.
We learn about every character from Rue’s perspective, which frequently prompts the spectator to wonder about the narrator’s biases. This distrustful narrator (Rue) and the way the visual language is used to support the narrative are both examples of this. Despite the complexity of every character in this series, Nate and Cassie top the list. We’ll make an effort to comprehend the characters in this piece as well as how their past has an impact on the present.
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Understanding The Character of Nate Jacobs And Cassie Howards
The reasons why Nate Jacobs is possibly the most despised character in the two seasons are clear. He is the epitome of the poisonous masculinity that modern women so strongly reject. Even while this very wrong mentality has a history, that cannot ever be an excuse. Rue stated that the types of women Nate was drawn to were those who wore tennis skirts, had no body hair, wore ballet slippers or sandals, and smelled of fresh fruit in the first season of Euphoria. Women who wore sneakers and appeared, sat, or spoke like boys infuriated him. Maddy matched his ideal of perfection, but their relationship was toxic. They were attracted to one another by jealousy, and despite numerous breakups, they constantly came back together.
When Nate first saw his father’s collection of pornographic movies, he was eleven. Early exposure to his father’s sexual activity had a significant negative impact on Nate’s mental health. This history also contributes to his homophobia. Maybe his hatred of LGBT people came from seeing his father interact with young males and trans women. Nate began exercising and adhering to a strict diet at the age of twelve in order to realise his father’s ambition of becoming a pro quarterback. His disdain towards his father, though, persisted. In Euphoria Season 1, Nate misbehaved with Jules purely because she was a transwoman. Later, he saw a video of his father and Jules. He then approached her online under the alias Tyler and struck up a conversation. Jules understood his father’s secret and might tell others, which made him feel threatened. More than anything, he was unable to accept his father’s truth, which made him desire to shield his family from the disgrace.
Nate attempted to treat Jules as Tyler the same way his father did in the video, but she restrained him. He used her nakedness as a form of blackmail. To keep his father’s identity a secret, he threatened her. In order to accuse the genuine Tyler of choking Maddy, he even used her as a witness. When Nate gave Jules the CD in Euphoria Season 2, he said that he had real feelings for her. Jules responded by stating that she shared the same sentiments. Even though Nate wanted to despise Jules for who she was, he was unable to stop himself from having love feelings for her.
Nate and Cassie fell in love in Euphoria Season 2, or at least that is what we can infer. He thought Cassie was the ideal woman—submissive, stylish when he wanted her to be, and capable of being the ideal wife he had always wanted. Cassie could be shaped whichever Nate wanted her to be, in contrast to Maddy, who was incredibly self-assured and dominating. The pair had started dating at the end of the season. Cassie was happy to have Nate as her owner. After all, she was prepared to pose as Maddy to grab his attention. However, Nate kept having the nightmares in which he used to be the victim of his father. He was unable to conquer his fear thanks to his friendship with Cassie. When Nate was making love to Cassie, he used to think of Maddie and Jules. He immediately ended his relationship with Cassie when Lexi made fun of him in her performance.
Nate only wanted his father to suffer, even if he had his father jailed for secretly filming his intercourse. He demanded that he make amends for his early trauma and the man he had turned out to be. He struggled to understand how his father was able to live his life on his terms while he was unable to. Nate is unable to accept himself and will not become the man he has always detested.
Cassie aimed to represent every desirable quality in a lady (before feminism took the world by storm). She believed that the ideal woman was one who could be adored and cherished by those around her. Someone who was kind, innocent, considerate, and lacked strong beliefs about the world. She recognised her attractiveness and relished the attention that the males in her vicinity gave her. She merely wanted to be a nice wife and mother who would take care of her family at home. She had no further aspirations in life. Cassie wished not to resemble Suze, her mother. Her mother was frequently intoxicated, and her father was never present when her parents were fighting. We saw in Lexi’s play that Cassie wanted to believe in and stand by her father even when he wasn’t acting rationally. She fantasised about having the ideal family. A week before turning fifteen, she had her last encounter with her father. He stole plates and spoons before leaving the house. They didn’t know where her drug-addicted father was at any given time. Her mental health was severely impacted by her father’s abandonment. Cassie wanted to keep the baby when she became pregnant with McKay’s child, but she was forced to make a different choice when her boyfriend refused to support her.
Cassie could finally envision her ideal family materialising when she met Nate. He was the one who could look after her and make sure she was taken care of while she played the part of a nice wife. Every time Cassie’s fairytale bubble was burst, she became enraged because she believed in them. She was aware of Nate’s personality, but all she wanted was for him to love her unconditionally. In order to be with him, she gave up her friendship and her family. Nate was having dreams about other ladies even though they were in some ways ideal for one another. After their breakup at the end of Euphoria Season 2, we may anticipate some nefarious behaviour on Cassie’s part because she had previously warned Nate that she might be harmful if she so desired.
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