Patrick
Jane in The Mentalist is man who is brilliant, playful and often
cocky. He has a lack of boundaries, and often disregards
protocol. Before he joined the CBI, he
was a minor celebrity. He obtained his minor celebrity status by pretending to
be a psychic. This brought him
both a large amount of money (enough to buy a house in Malibu). In an interview, Jane said that Red John was an “ugly,
tormented little man, a lonely soul, sad, very sad.” This prompted Red John to
murder Jane’s wife and daughter. Jane felt he had to avenge his wife and
daughter by killing Red John. His desire to avenge his family was his
motivation to join the CBI (California
Bureau of Investigation). He is valued because of his ability to use his tricks
and mind games to close cases and his is also considered to be one of the
finest detectives in California.
On the surface, he is
very playful and happy person. This is not just
simple-minded happiness, it is his conscious decision to be happy and live
positively. Though he is a very happy person on the surface, he is very sad about the loss of his family
on the inside. One of the quotes I’ll use to prove my point is from Kimball
Cho (one of Jane’s fellow CBI agents) "Don't
take this the wrong way but the death of Jane's family made him a better
person.”
