Jake LaMotta's Character Study (Raging Bull)

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In Martin Scorcese's Ragin Bull, we are introduced to the character of Jake LaMotta. He is a middleweight boxer who can clearly take a beating. In one of the scenes with his brother Joey, he asks him to punch him in the face. After pursuation Joey eventually does punch Jake who takes it with a smile. This comes to show that Jake does indeed enjoy, and thrive on his ability and desire to take a beating and inflict pain on others. Jake planned and executed the beating of a boxer named “Janiro”, just because his wife said that his face is pretty. This moves us to another charactersitic of Jake LaMotta; his uncontrolable jealousy. He is always in fear of infidelity from his wife and goes to great lengths to keep an eye on her and keep her to himself alone. Even a greeting kiss on the cheek is more to Jake than he can accept. This becomes apparent the most in the nightclub scene, where his wife Viki goes to greet the mobsters who are also the chairmen of the boxing federation... We could also see that Jake, by nature, is a very violent person. He will resort to violence to solve almost anything. He even had to beat his wife. This charactersitic seems to be running in the family, as his brother Joey, also resorted to violence a few times. This coincides with his fear of losing. He refuses to lose anything he gained. Not only does that apply to his wife, but to his games and even how to obtain the girl he wants. He refused to lose her to someone with more money (a hotshot as he called him) as he also took it hard when he was forced to purposely lose his title match. Last but not least, Jake LaMotta reaches his panic point quite quickly. He's a self destructive person above all. When his career was going into a slope, he gained weight uncontrolably and lost his temper quicker than

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