Was Matt Donovan from The Vampire Diaries the quintessential working-class American hero?
Let’s talk about Matt Donovan, the shy boy-next-door, and the only character who remained human till the very end on The Vampire Diaries, a teen-drama teeming with vampires, werewolves, witches, their various hybrids, not to mention ghosts and those pesky doppelgangers.
Matt represented working-class Americans, and their struggles of coping with financial challenges and emotionally draining family situations, all the while being constantly shamed for lacking “class”, and yet surviving against all odds. But his story arc and character development appear to have been a tad bit neglected by the show-runners, which I think was a huge missed opportunity to flesh out a working-class hero.
When we meet him in the pilot, his girlfriend Elena, one of the three main leads of the show, had just broken up with him, and all he could do was look at her across the hall, too heart-broken for words. We learn gradually that he was forced to become an adult way too early because his father left them a long time ago, and his mother, who is always one step away from a bender, keeps disappearing on trips and trysts with toxic boyfriends. This left Matt with the responsibility of paying the bills, and he could only afford school because of a football scholarship.
Yet, instead of taking to drugs or alcohol, Matt continued to go to school and even worked at the local restaurant. He was repeatedly killed, even possessed once, often mocked for just surviving, and wasn’t successful when it came to his love life. He could have become a bitter recluse, and did go away for a bit, but eventually, he chose to be a positive and supportive member of the Mystic Falls gang.
Matt Donovan was often just a quiet presence in the background — whether it was Bonnie’s funeral, the vigil for Alaric, or their high-school graduation. Other times, he was actively helping and protecting his friends and his town, often making huge sacrifices along the way.
Matt willingly died by drowning, so that he could communicate with his dead sister Vicky, and find out more about Jeremy’s ability to see ghosts and plans to drop the veil between the human world and The Other Side. One could tell that he hadn’t been able to get over his sibling’s sudden death, and he risked his life to speak to her once again. He was lonely and vulnerable. But he wanted answers, and he took the leap of faith because he trusted Bonnie’s skills as a lifeguard.
Amidst all the chaos, Matt was always there for his friends. He volunteered to train Jeremy in wrestling when he was learning to hone his skills as a vampire hunter. Matt also swallowed his pride and posed for pictures differently, when his then girlfriend Caroline insisted that he hide his hand that was in a cast because of Katherine’s shenanigans in the run up to the Founder’s Day parade.
In fact, years later, it was only to save Caroline that Matt allowed Bonnie to stop his heart. This nullified his ownership of the deed to the Salvatore mansion, thus allowing Stephan and Damon to get inside and rescue Caroline.
He graciously stepped in to fill in for Jeremy when April was about to be embarrassed at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. He helped whisk Elena away to safety out of town when Alaric turned into an Original Vampire and unleashed hell. And though Damon blamed him for Elena’s vampirism, that was actually Rebekah’s doing as it was she who caused the car accident. Moreover it was Stephan who chose to listen to Elena and save Matt first, leaving Elena to die with Damon’s blood in her system and come back to life as a vampire.
Tyler trusted Matt enough to give him the deed to his house when he went away to avenge his mother’s death. But instead of abusing that trust, Matt used the house to shelter Jeremy when he was going through a dark phase, and even briefly let Monique (fake Sarah Salvatore) live there for a bit, after she founder her injured in the town square from what was clearly a vampire bite. Matt even agreed to be Katherine’s personal trainer when she became human.
Also, let us not forget how it was Matt’s death, albeit temporary, that helped switch Elena’s humanity back on. It was with him that Elena chose to have her funeral at Wickery Bridge. Matt was a true friend, and believed in defending humanity. His earnestness earned him the affections of Rebekah, who yearned to be more like him, and even Katherine who often appeared reluctant to kill him.
And he did all this without repeatedly taking his shirt off!
But did any of this earn Matt the respect that he deserved? Damon was repeatedly mean to him and even joked about Matt’s social class. Interestingly, it was Damon who turned Matt’s sister Vicky into a vampire just because he was bored, and then it was Stephan to staked and killed her in her vampire form. But Matt forgave them, and even helped deliver the cure to the virus that made Damon and Elena cannibal vampires.
Meanwhile, Klaus outright referred to Matt as “the help” when he found Rebekah had bought him a new truck after she caused him to crash the old one. Perhaps, it was because of the way the two bad boys on the show treated him, that even fans of the show sadly engaged in some toxic behavior online, making hateful remarks about Zach Roerig, the actor who played Matt Donovan.
Meanwhile, on screen we see Matt training to join the town law enforcement, and even becoming the town’s Sheriff. Before that, he has to deal with the death of his fiancé. On the show’s spinoff series Legacies, we learn that Matt goes on to become Mayor of Mystic Falls. But this development takes place off-screen. So sometimes it appears that even if the character had a journey, and was indeed rewarded in some way, we the viewers were deprived of the opportunity to see it happen.
I feel this was a missed opportunity, because even today, the American heartland is teeming with thousands of Matt Donovans — teenagers who can only afford and education because of a sports scholarship, kids who are working two jobs and struggling to finish graduation, kids with dead-beat dads and moms addicted to drugs or alcohol. These kids could very easily end up engaging in self-destructive behaviors; they could lose hope and then make a series of very bad life choices that could impact many others. They could even end up perpetuating the cycle of abuse.
Matt Donovan can be their hero; someone who inspires them to hold on to their humanity and their best qualities, even as they cope with some of their greatest challenges in life. Wish the creators of The Vampire Diaries had treated Matt Donovan’s character with greater respect, so that fans could have seen him in a different light.
