Jackson "Jack" Dawson (born 1892-1912) is the deuteragonist in Titanic. and the love interest of Rose DeWitt Bukater. He dies at the end of the film from hypothermia, protecting Rose by having her float on a doorframe while he stays in the water; he was only twenty years old.
Personality[]
Jack is a man of the world. He travels extensively, working his way over to America on “tramp steamers and such,” and staying in out of the place dives in Paris to study his art. He has no fear of doing new things or having new experiences and agrees to go to dinner in first-class just for the fun of it. He is delighted with physical beauty and the people around him, using every opportunity to sketch and immortalize them in his sketchbook. When Rose wants to talk about doing exciting things, Jack tells her they will do those things. He sizes people up immediately, with no illusions about them. Jack is quick-thinking, improvising using his environment in the disaster (breaking down doors, fighting people off, getting Rose to the highest point of the ship, using a piece of wall paneling to save her life). He also has good usage, aided by a wing pragmatism -- his insights into people are perceptive -- “There’s no boat, is there?” “They have you trapped, Rose, and you’re gonna die if you don’t break free... that fire that I love about you is going to burn out.” He knew Cal framed him for theft without any proof. He knew Rose didn’t belong in the situation she was in, despite barely knowing her. Jack’s final speech to Rose is about how she needs to look toward the future with optimism -- “Go on, and make lots of babies, and watch them grow,” -- but he admits he doesn’t think about more than he has in this moment, most of the time.
He is a free spirit, who knows his own mind and who balks at the idea of Rose being forced or coerced into doing something she does not want to do. He persistently and bluntly asks her if she loves Cal, with the implication if not, why would be with him, much less she marry him? Even though he has a warm, dynamic personality, Jack doesn’t need everyone at the dinner table to like him -- so long as Rose approves. He forms a bond with her that only strengthens the more time they spend with one another. He trusts her to “know” him through this bond after only a short time together. His bluntness comes in handy once in awhile; he is also fast to come up with logical solutions that make sense (“Oh, real slick, Cal -- Rose, he put in my pocket!”). He is not interested in talking about things only, but also doing them. Jack minces no words with Rose in prompting her to let go of social constraints and be true to herself. He tells people off. He issues orders. He acts on his feelings, punching people in the face, climbing into the back of an automobile with Rose. He can detach for a higher good, such as when he pretends there’s another boat and he can get off on it, to get Rose to safety.
Jack is always chasing after a new experience or dream, with an optimistic approach to the world and the people in it. He doesn’t mind winging it, all the time -- he travels the world loving every minute of it, because he “never knows who I’m going to meet” or what experiences he is going to have. He’s comfortable being without a permanent home, working his way from place to place, and gambling with his future in pursuit of the next exiting thing, all out of a desire to avoid being bored or not having fun. When he meets Rose, his distress at her continual compromises causes him to push her to be more free and open, to follow her dreams in an open-minded way. His protectiveness comes out under stress when keeping Rose safe and escaping the ship and makes him generally assertive (he breaks down doors, tells people off, and stands up for himself and others). He doesn’t care what others think of him, but becomes more rigid and demanding when things go wrong (moving to righteous anger in stressful situations, such as suddenly caring about “the truth” when Cal frames him for stealing the necklace).
Biography[]
Aboard the Titanic[]
Jack and Fabrizio winning the poker game
Jack Dawson is a 20-year old man who won his and Fabrizio de Rossi's Third Class tickets on the Titanic in a lucky hand of poker with Olaf and Sven. He has traveled the world since he was 15 and has been to various places such as Paris. He is also a very good artist who drew many paintings, especially of people. Some of these include nude women, in perticular French ladies. Jack later tells Rose that girls in Paris are willing to take their clothes off.
Shortly after installing themselves in their cabin, G-60, where they meet the other 2 Swedes who are relatives of Sven and Olaf, the two are chilling on the Poop Deck and they meet Thomas "Tommy" Ryan, a proud Irish passenger. As he asks Jack how much money he makes with is drawings, Jack is immediately distracted and bewildered by the 17-year old Rose DeWitt-Bukater who walks to the aft of A-Deck above them. She's a First Class passenger. He gazes at her elegant beauty and Fabrizio tries to bring him back to the real world but it doesn't work. Rose looks back but then Cal comes to get her. Tommy then comments to him that "he'll never get next to the likes of her".
Much later, Jack is laying down on a bench in the Third Class passengers deck area, star-gazing when he notices Rose running by, crying hysterically, eventually climbing over the stern railing with the intentions of killing herself by jumping off the stern railing and into the icy water below. Jack manages to convince her not to go through with it. However just as Jack is bringing her back she slips over her dress, and falls but Jack is able to catch her and pull her to safety. Rose makes such a scene and screams so loud that crew members on the Forward Well Deck can hear it, and they start running aft and arrive just as Jack has dragged her in and it looks very shady to the crew. Quartermaster Rowe then calls for the Master-At-Arms.
Caledon Hockley, her fiance, and the Titanic crew members suspect him of attempting to assault her and interrogate him while he's hand-cuffed, but Rose lies to Cal to not reveal that she was attempting suicide, and creates the story of how she slipped while trying to have a look at the propellor, something that humors Colonel Archibald Gracie, who also joined Cal, and Jack saved her and looks at Jack with eyes that say: 'this story should be alright, confirm it'. Jack agrees and says it's true. Colonel Gracie calls him a hero. After this, Cal initially wants to pay Jack money for his heroic actions but Rose insists that it's not enough, which leads Cal to invite Jack to dine with them that evening, allowing him to temporarily join the First Class part of the ship. Cal's bodyguard, Spicer Lovejoy gives Jack a cigarette after he requests it, but questions him how he saved her from a simple fall and still had time to take off his shoes and coat. He later is revealed to have been a former Pinkerton so it's not surprising that he notices this.
The next day, Jack and Rose talk a lot about each other's lifestyle, and Rose is a bit skeptical and cynical but she's intrigued by this poor guy. They form a tentative friendship. Jack told her that his parents were dead and showed her some of his drawings. Jack later gives Rose's spitting lessons on A-Deck, and meets Rose's mother, who doesn't trust him, the Countess of Rothes, and Margaret "Molly" Brown, who takes him to her cabin and gives him a suit to wear and takes care of his hair.
Uneasy, he arrives at the corridor, and the attendents great him but he doesn't know how to act. He waits near the Grand Staircase, practicing the typical manners and body language of the creme de la creme, when he looks up and sees Rose in a superb looking evening dress. Caledon seems somewhat surprised that he is nearly a gentleman. Molly guides Rose and Jack to the Dining Saloon.
At the First Class dinner, Jack makes a good impression on the rich folk that sit at the table; however, Roses mother, Ruth, reveals he travels in steerage. He jokes about there not being rats, and shares his philosophy about life, being grateful as well as his luck at poker.
Jack had slipped her a note and they meet at the clock. He invites Rose to the Third Class party, which Rose really enjoys. They dance together, show their skill and she drinks a large pint. They are unaware that they were seen at the party by Lovejoy, who looks down from the staircase.
Ruth forbids Rose to ever see him again. She later tells him this. Whilst Thomas Andrews gives the group a tour, Jack then pulls Rose into the Gymnasium and tells her that if she doesn't break free from her family, she'll be miserable for the rest of her life and the fire he has for her will burn out. Rose tells Jack that it's not up to him to save her and Jack says she's right, only she can make that decision. Rose reluctantly tells Jack to leave her alone.
However, much later on in the day, Rose sits at a table where she watches a little girl being corrected by her mother and realizes that Jack was right, changes her mind and goes to find Jacks' friends, who advice her to go to the bow of the ship. There he instructs her keep her eyes closed making sure she is not peeking Jack then helps her up onto the rail of the stern. Standing behind her Jack holds her waist steadying her so she does not fall then spreading her arms out he has here open her eyes to reveal what is a sensation of flying as this is all going on he is gently singing in her ear Come Josephine bringing her arms back in they gaze into each others eyes and share their first kiss during what would be the last time Titanic ever saw daylight.
Later, Rose suggests Jack should sketch a picture of her naked wearing only the Heart of the Ocean, a diamond necklace that was given to her by Cal as an engagement gift. When they are done, they get out of the room, Rose puts the drawings and necklace in the safe with a very cheeky note to Cal, but when leaving, Lovejoy hears the doors close and he sees them in the hallway and they end up running from him through the ship. They go down with the elevator, run through a few stairs but he catches up and they open a door leading to a ladder down the Boiler Rooms. They eventually find a car in the First Class baggage holds and hide inside. After sharing a moment, the two make love in the car. During this, Rose puts her hand up onto the steamy window, leaving a hand print.
They have left just in time before some stewards found them. Much later they go back to the top of the deck, laughing at how they tricked the two stewards and they exchange kisses again, which First Officer William Murdoch witnesses as well as the Look Outs. A few moments later, the lookouts spot the iceberg.
In the Sinking[]
Rose and Jack are startled to feel the ship lurch.
Jack handcuffed to a pole on the E deck.
Jack trying to escape the sinking ship.
An angry Cal sets up Jack to be arrested, framing him for stealing The Heart of the Ocean necklace, Lovejoy had slipped it in Jack's pocket. The First Class passengers are then brought up to the Boat Deck. As women and children are being let off the ship as part of the "Women and children first" code. Rose refuses to get on a lifeboat and goes back to save Jack as he is left handcuffed in the flooding brig of the sinking ship. Rose manages to cut off his handcuffs using an emergency axe, and they make their way up to the top of the ship where there are only a few lifeboats left. Jack is forbidden to get on a lifeboat because the officers are only letting on women and children first. Rose reluctantly gets on a lifeboat without Jack after much convincing from Cal that he and Jack are going to another lifeboat across the other side of the Titanic.
Jack and Rose's final moments together
Although she is safe, Rose chooses to jump out of the lifeboat and back on to the ship desperately running as Jack is to reunite. Then as they see each other again and Cal was trying to shoot them, but they got away. Jack told Rose to hold on and he got on her back and he told her to hold her breath as they was going down. They got in the water but Rose couldn't find Jack. They finally found each other and he got her on a piece of the boat and she lay there. He told her to live a happy life and have many children and to die happy in her warm bed. She promised him this, held one another's hands. Jack later dies of hypothermia. The life boat comes by not far from her, and Rose is forced to let go. She grabs the whistle off of the body of one of the dead officers and she blows it until one of the boats looking for survivors comes by and grab her out of the water. They get her to safety and later, while on the
RMS Carpathia[]
she sees Cal, but decides not to say anything. She tells an officer taking the names of those who survived the sinking that her name was Rose Dawson, taking Jack's last name.
Reunion[]
Jack reunites; with Rose during the dream scene.
Jack is last seen in a "dream" where Rose walking up the Grand Staircase to meet him, surrounded by all those who perished in the sinking of the Titanic.
Gallery[]
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