Dwight Schrute: Difference between revisions

Template:Office character box Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a fictional character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. His counterpart in the original UK version of The Office is Gareth Keenan.

Overview

When the series begins, Dwight Schrute is a salesman at the Scranton branch of the paper-goods distribution company Dunder Mifflin. Dwight formerly held the title of "Assistant to the Regional Manager" but constantly refers to himself as "Assistant Regional Manager," attempting to elevate himself to second-in-command to Michael Scott. Dwight craves authority over others and relishes any minor task that Michael or anyone else gives him. Though Dwight acts like a know-it-all, he is actually quite gullible and naïve. For this reason, he is easily tricked and tormented by his desk-mate and fellow salesman Jim Halpert. Dwight speaks in a halting, dramatic manner, even in casual conversations.

Dwight's outlook on life seems to be more severe than that of his fellow employees and most people in general. This idea is furthered by his adulation of fictitious, television heroes such as Jack Bauer. He also seems to be a fan of anime, or at least the subculture within, as evidenced by his "World Anime Expo" shirt in the basketball episode. In a special feature on the Season 3 DVD, Rainn Wilson describes Dwight as someone who does not hate the system, but has a deep and abiding love for it.

Despite lacking social skills and common sense, Dwight is Dunder Mifflin's top salesman and has won countless awards for his sucesses. Additionally, despite his personal dislike of Jim Halpert, the two have been shown to be a very effective sales team. Dwight's ability as a salesman, though, has rarely commanded the respect of his peers or led to higher levels of professional success. A physically imposing man at 6 feet 4 inches with little if any sense of humour, Dwight appears to be a perfect example of an authoritarian personality, relishing any and all power. This may be why Dwight was attracted to Angela, an equally bossy character. In an episode commentary on the Season One DVD, Wilson refers to Dwight as a "fascist nerd."

Interests

Dwight is trained in the art of surveillance and is a former Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff's deputy. He is also a purple belt in Goju-Ryu karate, and is interested in survivalism. Dwight is a pop culture and sci-fi buff who has expressed fanship of many sci-fi movies and popular TV shows. He hints at belief in fictional creatures such as androids and zombies. He enjoys playing ping-pong and states that many of his heroes are table tennis players. He is also shown to be very good at the sport. His musical tastes vary, but classic rock seems to be a reoccurring theme. His personal musical talents are not lacking, as he plays guitar and recorder, and sings. He has a fascination with cars, especially muscle cars. Dwight certainly has a deep interest in weapons, and is shown to have stockpiles hidden throughout the office. He is technologically talented and shows a passion for the online role playing game, Second Life.

Coworker relations

For a list of pranks played on Dwight by Jim, see Jim's pranks.

Inexplicably, Dwight worships his boss, viewing him as a model for success, and often jumps in on Michael's ill-conceived schemes. He craves authority, and is thrilled when asked to handle any task given to him. He has also been known to assume authority even when it is not handed to him. Dwight does seem to understand sometimes that Michael views him with a large dose of contempt, but with one major exception of going over Michael's head to vie for the manager's job, his loyalty to his boss rarely flags.

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Dwight Schrute

Dwight feels threatened by Ryan, to whom Michael often assigns personal tasks, and he continues to resent Ryan, a temp, throughout the second season, often addressing him as "Temp," even after Ryan took Jim's job.

In Season One and the beginning of Season Two, Dwight has a mild crush on Kelly. In a "Diversity Day" exercise, he lists Caucasian and Indian as two races he finds sexually attractive. Kelly acknowledges their history in a deleted scene from "The Job".

He is frequently the victim of practical jokes by coworkers Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly (see Jim's pranks), though he frequently remains oblivious to Pam's involvement. As a result of this, Dwight and Jim have an ongoing feud that reaches a head in "Conflict Resolution", when Dwight threatens to quit unless Jim is transferred. Professionally, Dwight wins the 2005 Salesman of the Year Award, though this is likely due, at least in part, to his stealing Jim's largest client. Somewhat surprisingly, Dwight was regretful during "Initiation" as he told Ryan he and Jim never got along, and since that point and Jim's return from Stamford they have generally gotten along better--Jim even consoled Dwight during the painful aftermath of his break up with Angela--although Dwight maintains a supercilious attitude towards Jim. Dwight did plan to demote Jim from the Assistant Regional Manager spot and make his life a living hell during "The Job" but Jim mocked his plans and they didn't produce any concrete impact on Jim.

Dwight bonds temporarily with Pam during "The Injury" when he suffers from a concussion and begins to act friendly towards her. However the bond is seemingly short lived, as it lasts for that episode only as Pam glumly expected once she realized his injury was the reason he was being nice. In "Back from Vacation", Dwight shows that he does care about Pam as he gives her a handkerchief while she is crying and comforts her despite not knowing she is crying over Jim's relationship with Karen. The friendship between the two is re-kindled during "The Job" when Dwight secretly makes Pam Assistant to the Regional Manager and sincerely thanks her for her service. In "Money", after Pam and Jim stay at Dwight's family farm, which he turned into a Bed and Breakfast, they write a good review about their stay to help cheer up Dwight from his break up with Angela.

As a result of the Scranton-Stamford merger, Dwight loses his number two position to Jim and engages in an ongoing battle with new salesman Andy Bernard to gain Michael's favor as his right-hand man. The struggle comes to a head in "Traveling Salesmen". In Season 4, Andy and Dwight work well together as a sales team, but Andy's successful pursuit of Angela after she broke up with Dwight has annoyed him.

Relationship with Angela

Towards the middle of Season Two, Dwight develops a secret relationship with Angela Martin. The relationship is hinted at in the episode "Performance Review".[1] The couple are caught by the documentary camera snuggling in the backyard during Jim's party in the episode "E-mail Surveillance". The pair discuss the rearing of children during the episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Dwight also tries to attack Oscar when he pushes Angela out of his way after she makes a snide remark about his homosexuality in the episode, "Gay Witch Hunt".

Pam begins to suspect a relationship between Dwight and Angela in the episode "E-mail Surveillance" by observing their interactions, suspicions which are strengthened in "Conflict Resolution" and pretty much confirmed by "Traveling Salesmen". Ryan discovers the relationship between the two when he overhears a coded conversation between the two in the kitchen. Jim discovers the relationship while coming out of the bathroom.("The Negotiation").

In the episode "Fun Run", Angela asks Dwight to care for her sick cat, Sprinkles. Instead of caring for the cat, Dwight puts the suffering cat in Angela's freezer to put it out of its misery. He lied, however, and told Angela that he put it in there after it died. Angela figures out the truth when she discovers claw marks in the frozen food. In the episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", Dwight and Angela go out to eat after work to discuss their relationship. While there, Angela decides that she can no longer be with Dwight and they break up. Dwight becomes depressed in a typically eccentric manner, but a brief conversation with Jim helps him work through it and he becomes his own, somewhat difficult, self again, to the obvious satisfaction of Jim and Pam. In the fourth season finale "Goodbye, Toby", Dwight is obviously hurt when Angela's boyfriend, Andy Bernard, proposes to her. Before giving Andy his answer, Angela looks at Dwight to see him standing in silence, so she accepts, much to Dwight's hurt over it.

In the final scene of the episode, and therefore the final scene of the season, office coworker Phyllis Vance comes back into the office following Toby's farewell party and catches Dwight and Angela making out.

Character in real life

• Rainn Wilson based Dwight's hairstyle on his own style he had when he was sixteen. In an interview, however, he said that he went to a barber to get "the worst haircut possible."
• When the bobblehead doll introduced in the Valentine's Day episode was made available for purchase on the NBC web site, it sold out its initial run of 5000 units.
• In "Halloween", Jim and Pam uploaded Dwight's resume to "Monster.com, Craigslist, and Google." A producer actually did create a Monster account for Dwight and uploaded his resume a month before the episode aired. It can be found by employers with resume database access who search for salesmen in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
• In "Money", Jim refers to a TripAdvisor page for Dwight's bed and breakfast. This can be found by searching for Schrute Farms.
• On the May 7, 2008 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, US Senator and presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain joked that Dwight Schrute would be his vice presidential candidate choice.[1]

External links

• Schrute-Space - Dwight Schrute's "blog" (NBC official website)
• Dwight Schrute Quotes
• Download a Schrute Buck
• Dwight Schrute Bobblehead - At NBCUniversalStore.com
• Schrute Farms B&B- Listing on TripAdvisor