Daria Morgendorffer
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| Daria Morgendorffer | |
|---|---|
 Daria Morgendorffer as she appears in the opening sequence in Daria |
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| First appearance | "Babes R US" [Beavis and Butthead, 1993]; "Esteemsters" [Daria, 1997] |
| Last appearance | "Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead" [Beavis and Butthead, 1997]; Is It College Yet? (2002) |
| Created by | Glenn Eichler |
| Portrayed by | Tracy Grandstaff (voice) |
| Information | |
| Aliases | N/A |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 15-18 |
| Occupation | Freshman at Raft College. |
| Family | Helen Morgendorffer (mother) Jake Morgendorffer (father) Quinn Morgendorffer (sister) |
Daria Morgendorffer (born 1981) is a fictional animated character from MTV's animated series Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria. In 2002, Daria placed at number 41 on the list of the Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of all Time by TV Guide for her role in the two shows.[1] She was voiced in both incarnations by Tracy Grandstaff.
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[edit] Beavis and Butt-Head
In Daria's first incarnation as a recurring character on Beavis and Butt-Head, she formed a female, intelligent foil to the two male dunderheads. Often, the two would openly mock her and refer to her as "Diarrhea." Though she is not amused by their antics, she does not have the passionate hatred for them that Principal McVicker and Coach Buzzcut have nor does she really believe there is any hope for them either as David Van Driessen had. At times, she would also make fun of the two for their stupidity. She also took advantage of their idiocy and got them to unwittingly pledge a hundred dollars apiece on a charity walkathon.
In the episode "U.S. History" [1], she turned around to talk to the duo and said they'll never graduate, and she told them that "to graduate" means to be all done with the final year of school (Beavis responded, "You mean, like...school ends?"). In the Christmas Special, it is stated that Butt-Head had been responsible for giving her a negative outlook on boys. In the final episode of the series when the boys "died," Daria expressed the sentiments that Beavis and Butt-Head did not have very bright futures to look forward to. She was one of the few characters that the duo never managed to drive crazy as they had with many other students and teachers. In the Marvel Comics series, the duo did manage to push her closer to the edge than they do in the TV show. In Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, she only appears once throughout the film with a group of students, but did not say anything.
[edit] Daria
In her eponymous series, following Beavis and Butt-Head in the order of time, Daria became more angsty; to some, she is the poster child for 'teen misfit'. Daria is a bespectacled, plain, unfashionably dressed, but highly intellectual, seemingly cynical and sarcastic teenage girl who is portrayed as an icon of sanity in an insane household, with her vacuous, fashion-obsessed sister Quinn and career-obsessed parents Helen and Jake.
Unlike most animated characters, Daria and her counterparts age during the duration of the series. When the series began, Daria was 16 years old, she moved to Lawndale, and was a sophomore in high school, and was introduced in the school (this was not seen in any of the episodes). When she graduated from high school in Is It College Yet?, she was 18 years old. According to the episode Lane Miserables, her height is 5'2".
While much of the show is a vehicle for Daria's droll deadpan monotone one-liners, she is ready to stand up to misused authority, leading some fans to conclude that her apparent cynicism is only skin deep (or at least that she is only cynical in the classical sense).
An oft-quoted line from Esteemsters, the first episode of Daria, sets the tone for Daria's attitude: "Don't worry, I don't have low self-esteem. It's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."
[edit] Series
During the series, Daria attends Lawndale High School, where on her first day in "self-esteem class" she meets Jane Lane, the artist and classmate who will be her first real friend and her best friend through the rest of her high school life. It also showed that Daria was susceptible to the same kind of crushes other teenage girls had, as through the series she got visibly nervous around Jane's older brother Trent. Their strong friendship and mutual endurance of gloomy adolescence was a motif of the series, which survived despite Jane's boyfriend, Tom Sloane, becoming Daria's. Furthermore, the final regular episode had Daria come to a troubling epiphany that she was burdening her parents needlessly by being herself. However, her friends, and especially her parents, reassured her that fundamentally they were proud to know such an intelligent, principled and perceptive young woman.
The final two seasons of Daria made a departure from the "static world" that most western animation series occupy, giving all of the characters opportunities for growth, and crises to manage. Among them include Daria struggling to cope with the kind of romantic turmoil she never anticipated facing, even while she makes peace with her sister who is beginning to abandon her superficial facade.
[edit] Movies
The first Daria movie, Is it Fall Yet?, gave the principal characters time apart from one another in parallel narratives which foreshadowed further changes in their relationships.
By the time the finale movie Is it College Yet? arrives, Daria's character has undergone noticeable growth. She chooses to attend Raft College, which is possibly a thinly-veiled fictional version of Tufts. She graduates from Lawndale High, winning the Dian Fossey Award "for dazzling academic achievements in face of near total misanthropy", and crowning her acceptance speech with the assertion that "...[T]here is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza."
[edit] Relationships
Jane Lane: Daria's best friend whom she met in a self-esteem class.
Quinn Morgendorffer: Daria's younger sister. They constantly antagonize each other. Quinn is pretty and popular, Daria is not.
Trent Lane: Jane's older brother whom Daria for much of the series had a crush on.
Brittany Taylor: A popular cheerleader who sometimes sees Daria as her friend, though Daria begs to differ.
Kevin Thompson: A popular football player and Brittany's boyfriend. Daria enjoys manipulating his stupidity like she did Beavis and Butt-head.
Jodie Landon: A friend of Daria's. She and Daria sometimes clash over Jodie's practicality and Daria's rigid idealism.
Tom Sloane: Daria's only boyfriend during the series. It is hinted in the end that they may get back together after breaking up over their social differences.
The Fashion Club: Quinn's social circle who also dislike Daria.
Joey, Jeffy and Jamie: Near-identical in personality, Daria sees them as pathetic. They adore Quinn and constantly attempt to get her affection.
Beavis and Butt-head: Daria hates them and manipulates their stupidity
[edit] Cameos
Daria makes a brief cameo in the Drawn Together episode "Lost in Parking Space, Part Two". She is being tortured in the basement of a Hot Topic along with other cartoon characters. She has a nail being hammered into her eye and says "This is men's fault" in her infamous monotone.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
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