The Stranger We Know So Well
Jane the Insecure
by
Jane Lane. Daria’s “partner-in-crime,” sister to Lawndale’s favorite musician, and artist extraordinaire. This is the generic description of the character, and what anyone who is familiar with the show will tell you. Others might toss in such descriptions as a psychopathic Yenta, but that’s another matter. And the general take on writing the character - at least, as far as most fan fiction writers go - is that she’s fairly confident and self-certain. Where did this idea come from?
Jane is perhaps one of the most complex characters on the show, even if much of what we figure out about her is through inference instead of actual fact. One, she’s an “outcast,” whose only real friend in the world outside of her older brother is Daria. Two, she does have a cynical streak, and she does have a somewhat bent sense of humor. Three, she is a rather empathic human being at times, thus prompting my belief that a lot of the cynicism and mordant wit is an act, and not deeply ingrained in her psyche. Four, somewhere inside her self she really wants to be accepted by the popular kids, perhaps even be popular herself. Five, as a direct result of all of the above, she’s about as insecure as they come. None of her behaviors ever really indicates to me that Jane's particularly self-confident or self-certain (to re-use a phrase).
We gather from “Esteemsters” that the only reason she did the esteem class so many times was that she had nothing better to do. The obvious inference - no friends. An outcast, then? Someone who doesn’t fit in with the accepted beliefs and standards of the popular crowd, in any event. That’s not, perhaps, because she wasn’t trying, but rather because she simply wasn’t being accepted. Who knows? As a result, though, she met the one person outside of Trent who really seemed to accept her for who she was - Daria.
The cynical streak is sort of a given. I mean, someone like Jane, raised in a family where (evidently) her parents and older siblings were almost always running off somewhere, is the sort of person who is going to end up believing that people are motivated by self-interest. Your mother and father jetting off to exotic locales to take pictures and attending pottery conventions in Podunk, Arizona are the sort of things that create such a mindset in a young and impressionable girl.
Likewise, we know she’s got a bent sense of humor. Take, for instance, the Daria/Trent “Yenta” act. Quite frankly, I don’t think she did this out of any real interest in seeing her brother and friend hook up. It makes a lot more sense when you look at it as one of the few things that gives her pleasure in life: watching her otherwise cold and emotionally-distant friend go berserk at the mere sight of a boy. This is (or should be) the accepted explanation for her behavior, not that she’s a slap-happy matchmaker who won’t rest until her brother and friend have jumped in the marriage bed, so to speak.
Empathy. Much harder to demonstrate in this day and age then a lot of people would think, especially when one projects an outward image of cynicism and difference. But it’s definitely there. Take, for instance, her own reaction to the Tommy Sherman thing. She believed that although he was a rotten jerk, he didn’t deserve to die. So did pretty much everyone else, but that’s beside the point. She felt this way so strongly that she literally steered clear of her friend for (I believe) fear of hearing lots of rather sarcastic comments about the incident. Or how about “A Tree Grows in Lawndale,” where she and Daria go to Mr. O’Neill about giving Kevin a job as a speaker after he hurts himself in a motorcycle accident? Daria and Jane were - here, at least - both driven by feelings of guilt in the incident. After all, if they hadn’t suggested he get a motorcycle, it never would have happened. Forget, for an instant, that it was Tom's idea (I think), because if she hadn't actually felt guilty, she still wouldn't have done it.
What about acceptance? This one’s so damned easy to back up I shouldn’t have to bother. But I’m going to do it anyway. Remember earlier, when I said that Daria was the only person besides Trent in the world who really accepted Jane for who she was? What you have right there is the reason why Jane has tried to be so loyal a friend to Daria over all of the years, through the good times, the bad times, and the worst times.
In a family like the Lanes’, children like little Jane (ha ha ha) are liable to end up feeling abandoned, maybe even worthless. As Trent is pretty much the only member of the family around for her, she feels a closeness to him that she doesn’t feel with her mother, her father, her siblings, or nieces and nephews. And for many years, that was it, I think. Until Daria came along, and all of a sudden she had someone else who at least sympathized with some of what she felt.
In “See Jane Run,” we meet a Jane who is very much interested in the track team. Why? At first, it has to do with showing up Mrs. Morris, and at least a little to do with Evan. But I believe she actually grew to like some of the popularity. Certainly, she didn’t have a problem with being able to bail out of gym class, and the buy in math didn’t hurt. All of a sudden people were talking to her, and congratulating her on her victories. Accepting her, at least superficially, as one of their own. However, when she realizes that this continued popularity with the lesser buffoons of Lawndale High threatens her relationship with one of the few who accepts her without athletic prowess, she bails on the system. At least, that’s my interpretation of the whole thing.
“Daria Dance Party” is yet another example of what I’m talking about. Certainly, Jane didn’t have to agree to help out Quinn by being on the dance committee. So why’d she do it? To slightly paraphrase, it was a chance to show that “Jane Lane wants to be your friend.” Admittedly, you could look at it yet another sarcastic comment, but I choose to take it at face value. She resorted to sarcasm and the like to justify herself to Daria, who I honestly believe she is frightened of scaring off at this stage in the series. So we get the Pollock tribute, which was met with generally high favor by the student body. Never mind the fact that Quinn took all of the credit for it, which I am sure hurt Jane a lot more then she let on. After all, art is one of the few things she seems to take seriously.
And how about “The F Word?” Without a doubt one of the most commonly-criticized episodes of the series, in which Jane goes “popular” and almost joins the cheerleading team. Often, I see it said that Jane is acting horrendously out of character throughout the whole thing. For a long time, I thought so myself, until I caught an errant repeat of it the weekend before “Is It Fall Yet?” aired, at which point I reconsidered. Further thought on the subject reveals to me (maybe no one else, but my mind is - as anyone who’s read some of my stories knows - a twisted beast) that she’s probably entirely within character. Here Jane has another opportunity to become popular, to be accepted and well-liked by the student body. She passes on it after a frightening fantasy sequence in which she and Kevin are a thing. I’ll explain a little bit more about why I believe it even came up in the first place in the next section, just so you know. And so - again - she ducked out of her opportunity to get something that she wants.
Finally, I will lump all of the Tom aspects to the show together into one uber-point. Tom, for a long while at the very least - accepted Jane for who she was. The same as Daria and Trent do. This is the primary reason that she stayed with him as long as she did, despite the fact that (in the beginning) it was ripping her away from the friendship with Daria. Acceptance. Here are two people who - in many ways - are on the same wavelength. With a little communication, perhaps, Jane and Tom would still be together, and Daria’d still be in the land of the single.
Now, about the insecurity thing. We’re all insecure at certain times, it’s a fact of life in this day and age. Jane, though, practically takes it to a whole new level. In “The F Word,” one can infer that Jane can see herself turning into a Brittany-like dunce as a result of being popular. This results from an internal lack of confidence, I believe, as well as the simple fear that if she becomes popular, Daria and Tom will no longer accept her as a friend.
It’s a combination of irrationalism and the previous four points which make Jane so insecure. “Dye! Dye! My Darling” is the crowning example of this in action to date. Jane is insecure in her relationship with Tom. It is established that they’re having all sorts of problems, and they’re not talking about them. Instead, they’re just leaving them be, opting to sulk in silence and watch Sick Sad World instead of discussing a dinner date. She comes to think, I guess, that this dye might change something, and so enlists Daria (who has no talent at this sort of thing, by all accounts save Aaron Adelman's... Mwahahahahaha!) to stripe her hair with blonde dye. Guess what? It doesn’t go right.
Jane flies totally off the handle, making all sorts of freaky accusations to both Daria and Tom. Some of them turn out to be justified, but that’s not really important. The crap about Daria botching the dye job intentionally, in order to make Jane unattractive enough to steal Tom away, is absolutely irrational, and founded on the insecurity she’s feeling in her deteriorating relationship. It takes sir Trent the Quasi-Oblivious to get the point across to her, but that’s something else.
How about the lesbian potential, as hinted at in “Is It Fall Yet?” Yet another major example of what I’m speaking of. All it took from Allison was a few words, and all of a sudden Jane is questioning her own sexuality. She’s still feeling drained from the Tom debacle, as I call it, and questioning a lot about her own self-worth at this point in time. Angst-ridden, maybe even suicidally so. So if someone comes along who “is never wrong” about such things, can she be so sure about herself anymore? Had Allison tried such a stunt at any other time in Jane’s life, odds are that Jane wouldn’t have even given it a second thought. But it just had to come after a rotten little breakup, didn’t it?
Of course, all of this posits one rather interesting question, I think. Namely, is Jane depressed, has she ever been, and what are the odds that she tries to kill herself? We may not have seen it on-screen, but post-DDMD, I’d be willing to be that Jane was immensely depressed. You tend to be, after something like that. I’d also say that Jon Kilner accurately painted a picture of Jane’s life pre-Daria in both “The Last Days of Solitude” and “The Stranger I Know So Well.” That is to say, someone who has considered (and even attempted) suicide. I also figure that had Trent not been around to talk to, Jane probably would have tried again in the space between DDMD and IIFY? Again, though, that’s just person opinion.
That’s pretty much it for me in this essay. Not much else to say, but I will end with a quote for my own pleasure. From the song “Precious Things” by Tori Amos, I give you an excerpt that I think sums up a lot of Jane’s feelings. Of course, it’s all just my opinion, and I could be wrong, as Dennis Miller might say.
“I remember, yes, in my peach party dress
No one dared, no one cared to tell me
Where the pretty girls are, those demigods
With their nine-inch nails and little fascist panties
Trapped inside the heart of every nice girl.”
--Brian Taylor, not a cheerleader's little brother
Revised and completed on 10/25/2000.