Kilgrave As The Abuser In Jessica Jones

Kilgrave as the Abuser in Jessica Jones A recurring theme throughout Jessica Jones is Kilgrave’s abusive nature. In episode eight, AKA WWJD? his behavior emulates that of an abusive partner towards Jessica. Kilgrave feels a sense of ownership over her, and he will do anything within his power to maintain his control of her. This is congruent with the actions of an abusive relationship. Throughout this episode Kilgrave is primarily emotionally abusive towards Jessica, saving his physical abuse for those around him as a means to control Jessica. The United States Department of Justice defines domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another
At the end of their exchange, we see Kilgrave use his childhood to try to excuse his actions, he claims that his troubled childhood led to him not knowing how to behave. He prefaces showing her the videos of the medical experiments by asking her to watch the videos and then tell him which of them was violated more. He seems to be incapable of accepting responsibility for his actions, and when confronted with them, he instead transfers culpability to his parents and then attempts to claim that the reality of the situation was that what was done to him by his parents was worse than what he did to Jessica; as though this makes his actions acceptable. This lack of responsibility is inconceivable. This is something that is seen frequently with abusers, they blame others for their actions, or claim that they themselves are in fact the real victims. Another way in which Kilgrave is emotionally abusive towards Jessica is when he manipulates and exploits her to force her to stay with him. It is typical of abusers to threaten to hurt themselves or people the abused cares about in order to exert control over their victims. While usually this means threatening to damage someone the victim is close to, in Kilgrave’s case he is using the threat of hurting innocent people to control Jessica. He has “hired” a chef, Laurent, and a housekeeper,
Finally, an example of his outright sadism occurs after Jessica left the house to think over her options. Kilgrave has Laurent and Alva stare out the living room window, looking for Jessica and he has instructed them not to close their eyes until they see her. We see Alva begging to be allowed to close her eyes, just for a little bit, but Kilgrave is merciless, commanding them to keep their eyes open so that they don’t miss spotting Jessica. Kilgrave’s control over Jessica is becoming so strong that at one point in the episode she is considering giving Kilgrave exactly what he wants and living with him. He has managed to convince her that if she does this, then lives could be saved. Jessica discusses the possibility with