The Call to Adventure

Jerry Downing - An Emasculated Hero

Jerry Downing is an unformed man who is imprisoned by unemployment. His alienation from the world of work has made him weaker as a man and consigned him to a sofa to be an observer of life in the same way that L.B. Jeffries is consigned to a wheelchair to observe other people's lives in 'Rear Window'. The television is Jerry's rear window and the sofa is his wheelchair. He is a man that has drifted through the past few years without any deep relationships, and it is in this sequence that we get to see him from the viewpoint of other characters.

Kerry Cerberus

Kerry Cerberus is the mirror image of Jerry. She enters the scene on a romantic mission to win his heart. Both of them are single, but Jerry embodies the twin hell of singleness and unemployment. The only thing that separates them is the fact that Kerry has a job.

Urban and Polite Society

Rachel Angus is an upper-middle-class woman without literature. Unlike Jerry, she has never been unemployed nor does she have an appreciation for the arts. Her interest is in current affairs. Rather than offering friendship to Jerry she asks him if the news is on. Whereas Jerry and Kerry have spent their lives trying to be socially mobile, Rachel has remained horizontally within her own society. She represents the old world of Victorian manners and etiquette contrasted by the world of the educated classes within working class society and their social mobility that Jerry represents. This is emphasized by their separateness on the sofa. He is in a state of no-development because of the rejection of his novel, whilst she is also in a state of no-development because she has remained firmly rooted within her Victorian values. In this they are both alike, but although they live in close proximity to each other they are still isolated from one another. The triangle of singleness is complete between Jerry, Kerry and Rachel.

The Herald - Julia Wells

Julia Wells is the herald of the film who calls Jerry into adventure. She represents ordinary middle class life and symbolizes a normality that Jerry strives. She has a healthy relationship with her boyfriend and is the only person in the household who is not single. This is a quality that Jerry finds attractive, and he engages with her in an attempt to participate in this normal world.

Refusal of the Call

An Ungrown up Man

Jerry Downing is an underdeveloped up man who is viewed with suspicion by his flatmates because he doesn't have a job. His passive voyeurism of watching television is seen specifically by Rachel as demonstrating deviant behaviour. But his stasis is countered by the activities of Kerry and Julia.

Kerry's Call to Adventure

In the first of three tests, Kerry tries to pull Jerry out of his passivity by inviting him to go salsa dancing. He turns down her offer, but invites her to try again another time.

Refusal of the Call

He is then encouraged by Julia to find a full time job so that he can find his partner in the workplace like she did. He rejects her advice, bound to his sofa and looking up at her like a little child. She senses that there is something wrong, and responds by externalising some of her own buried animosities.

Meeting with the Inadequate Mentor

Meeting with the Inadequate Mentor

When Jerry sees his father, Nicholas Downing, on his way to the Jobcentre in Clapham Junction, he sees a projection of himself: Friendless, Jobless and doomed to be unemployed for the rest of his life. Nicholas Downing is what Jerry Downing will be like in 20 years time if he doesn't change.

Meeting with the Mentor

Karen's Energy, Jerry's Stasis

Now that Jerry Downing has entered the world of work in a publishing house, his line manager, Karen Glinda, becomes his ally and mentor. On his first day of work she buys him a drink. Later on in the week she buys him a coffee, nursing him like little baby. Her productive energy counters Jerry’s passive invalidity, replacing the inadequacy of Nicholas Downing as a father figure. Like Kerry, Karen buys Jerry a drink in the pub, but unlike Kerry, Karen enables him to move on with his novel. Because of this, Karen replaces Kerry as well by becoming his girl Friday, relegating Kerry to the position of Miss Lonelyheart. Karen Glinda is the key to unlocking Jerry’s novel.

Allies and Enemies

The Ally - Julia Wells

Julia Wells is a closet writer who is interested in Jerry's endeavour to publish a novel having had her own creative ambitions drummed out of her by family and friends. Once she sees Jerry getting closer to his dream by working for a publisher she extends the hand of friendship by cooking him a meal. But it is only half a meal because she cooks him something that he doesn't eat. In effect, she is feeding herself because she wants to extract the necessary information from him that will enable her to get closer to her dream.

Ally turned Enemy - Kerry Cerberus

Jerry's success in securing employment is met with an atmosphere of resistance by Kerry when Julia informs her of the new development in his life. She observes Kerry's mounting opposition against Jerry and tries to appease the situation by cooking him a meal. Kerry, on the other hand, has given up on Jerry because she is convinced that romance will not develop between them. She has invited him to salsa dancing, bought him a drink and cooked him a meal to establish a feeling of romance, only to discover that there is no room in his life for her. There is now bad blood between Jerry and Kerry which has transformed her from an ally to an enemy.

The Reward

A Drifting Soul

Jerry Downing spiritually drifts into work with the mental lapse of a man without society. Karen invites him for a drink during his lunch break, but again he is a man who is metaphorically not there. He shares his ordeal with her, and she extends the hand of friendship by taking him under her wing in order to help him grow as a writer. Karen Glinda now becomes his new father figure.

Jerry typing up novel

Karen begins a series of workshops to help Jerry improve his novel so that she can present him respectably to the world of publishing. Her involvement in his life provides him with a living relationship that helps him to grow as a person and move on with his life. When the novel is finally accepted for publication, Jerry returns the dream of being a published writer to its rightful owner - his father. The novel represents his father's unfulfilled ambition of being a published writer, but now that Jerry has compensated his father for what he didn't achieve he can now move on and live his own life.