Jerry the Mouse

Jerry Mouse (full name: Jeremy Adam Mouse) is the one of the two titular main protagonists of the animated series Tom and Jerry. He is Tom's archenemy and occasionally best friend. Normally playing the role of "victim" bearing the brunt of Tom's aggression, occasionally Jerry had assumed the role of the perpetrator, initiating the aggravation and tormenting Tom so Jerry is not always innocent.

History
While Tom is widely considered by default to be the "villain" between the two, many post-modern audiences have taken more and more notice to the brutal injuries that Jerry regularly inflicts on him, and sympathize more with Tom. Indeed, Jerry is technically a pest who shouldn't be living in the house, and Tom likewise is simply doing his job as a good pet by trying to get rid of him, and in a number of cases Jerry has arguably been the instigator of conflict. However, these cases are the exception rather than the rule, and in the vast majority of cartoons, Tom is clearly the instigator.

Usually, though, this is because Jerry has been stealing or pestering the homeowners, causing them to order Tom to either catch him or get kicked out. This puts the poor cat in a lose-lose situation. Overall, the conflict between the two characters is closer to an equally two-sided, active rivalry than anything else.

In other media beside the original shorts by Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Jerry tends to be less villainous, though not always the case. When Chuck Jones took over the series in the 1960s, he admitted that he didn't understand the characters all that well, and Jerry occasionally committed acts that were uncharacteristically cruel, such as the shorts "The Year of the Mouse" and "Love Me, Love My Mouse," both of which involved Jerry acting almost evil in nature. Even in Jerry's young age, his rivalry with Tom (as a kitten) stayed the same, as seen in the early 1990s show Tom and Jerry Kids.

The popular interpretation of Jerry as a villain has famously been parodied on The Simpsons by Itchy, (the rival of Scratchy) who is shown as a psychotic serial killer who targets civilians and has children, in contrast to Jerry's mischief.

Powers and Abilities
Jerry is shown to be a formidable opponent for Tom. Not only cunning, he also has amazing skill to overcome and deactivated any kinds of traps and formulating plans aside using various tools against Tom. Notable example of his amazing skills displayed when he able to grab a piece cheese that attached at the mousetrap without hurt himself (sometimes the trap not triggered at all until Tom check the trap himself for comedic effect).

In some ways, Jerry proved to be foil for Tom: In spite both of them displayed cunning intelligence and skills in various tools and items, Tom's skills in using various items against Jerry proved to be poor that he was more prone to inflict unnecessary destruction over the course of their fights whereas Jerry, who had better skills, able to counteract everything Tom throw at him without inflicting much damage.

Tom, he is more skilled, calculating and less destructive, as every times he had conflict with Tom. Tom often unintentionally destroys everything that gets in his way while Jerry rarely does the same. This may be due less to personality and more to the fact that jerry weighs about as much as four postage stamps.

Cartoon Shorts

 * Jerry is shown to be a hypocrite shown in "Posse Cat", where he steals food from Tom selfishly then expects to get more food from him in return for helping Tom get his dinner, when obviously Jerry was the reason he could not get any dinner and steals the food. Tom was famished to the point that he endangered himself, biting the tail of a bull.
 * In "Salt Water Tabby" Jerry steals a lot of Tom's food, and in "Cat Napping" Jerry rudely gives Spike the hammock for no reason, allowing Tom to hit the wrong target and get attacked without justice.
 * In "The Framed Cat" and several episodes, Jerry terrorizes Tom by getting Spike (or another animal) to falsely believe something Tom did something he did not do by hitting them to enrage them.
 * Jerry pranks Tom in a variety of episodes, and even tricks the traumatized cat into thinking Jerry himself dead.
 * He even harasses Spike in, "What a Pain" and a number of episodes. Jerry (and Tuffy) even causes havoc for Tom, Spike and (surprisingly) Tyke in, "Slinging in the Rain."
 * In a number of episodes, Tom is tasked with doing something (or not doing something) by his owner or he will be kicked out of the house,  Jerry would take advantage of this and go out of his way to get Tom into trouble, even when Tom has yet to do anything to him in the episode.
 * In The Million Dollar Cat, Tom inherited $1 million, but would lose it if he harmed any creature, even a mouse. Jerry brutally exploited this, constantly tormenting Tom and making him utterly miserable solely for his own amusement. Eventually, Tom lost his temper, destroyed the contract and attacked Jerry, remarking (in one of his few speaking roles) "Gee, I'm throwing away a million dollars...BUT I'M HAPPY!!" This is one of the few times where Tom gets the better of Jerry.
 * In The Two Mouseketeers, he tries to steal a feast that Tom had to guard. He succeeded and led to Tom to be decapitated because of the failure (which he knew already about) and he showed no pity nor remorse.
 * In Timid Tabby, he repeatedly finds ways to scare Tom's cousin, George, who is deathly afraid of mice. However, he does this because he mistakenly thinks that he is scaring Tom instead (as Tom and George look exactly alike) and is hoping to exact some revenge on him. When Tom finds out about this, he and George retaliate by teaming up against Jerry and scaring him out of the house by pretending to be a monster with four arms, four legs, and two heads and chasing him out the front door while laughing ghoulishly. This causes Jerry to run to a home for mice with nervous breakdowns.
 * In Baby Puss, Jerry witnesses Tom be dressed as a baby and tormented by a little girl. Rather than help Tom, he calls over some neighborhood cats, who then ridicule and bully Tom throughout the short. He does get a minor form of punishment at the end, though: after Tom is force-fed castor oil by the girl (with Jerry forcing Tom's mouth open with a pair of pliers), the bottle tips over and a drop of the oil falls into Jerry's mouth as he laughs at Tom's misfortune, causing him to join his nemesis in vomiting over a railing.
 * In Cat Concerto he repeatedly sabotaged Tom's piano recital, eventually forcing the cat to pass out from exhaustion before taking unearned credit for the recital; all this because Tom had disturbed his sleep inside the piano, which was a bad place to take up residence anyway and wasn't Tom's fault.
 * In the Chuck Jones short Year of the Mouse, to amuse his mouse friend, Jerry torments an innocent Tom asleep on a pillow, leading Tom to believe he's attempting suicide in his sleep by placing in his hand a loaded revolver and a knife covered in ketchup (mimicking blood), and even setting up a noose around his neck. This short may perhaps portray Jerry at his most villainous. Fortunately, Tom gets the better of them in the end, stuffing them in a bottle rigged at gunpoint after discovering the two's presences.
 * For much of the Gene Deitch era, cartoons like High Steaks and Down and Outing depicted Jerry relentlessly pestering a passive Tom and going out of his way to get the cat's evil owner angry at Tom.

Comics

 * Jerry once wants to take a photo of Tom in embarrassing situation. He eventually forgets to recharge the batteries, but he still pretends to have the photo. Tom becomes afraid that Jerry will show the photo to his friends, so it is easy for Jerry to exploit him as his body guard, causing Tom to get injured or beaten up several times.
 * Tom once falls in love with his beautiful neighbor and writes a love letter to her. However, before he can send it, Jerry and Tuffy steal it and threaten Tom to copy it and send it to all his friends.
 * When Tom gets cold, Jerry visibly torments him. For example, Jerry lays something (peanuts, etc.) in front of Tom, so when Tom sneezes, his head hits to it strongly.
 * Tuffy and Jerry once bake a cake from Tom's apples, although Tom forbids them to. While trying to stop them, Tom is insulted many times. He eventually ends up with burn hands. The mice bandage them the way that Tom's hands are tied up together. At the end, they reveal to him that the cake is actually for him. When excited Tom thanks them, they simply throw the cake at him.

Trivia

 * Both Tom & Jerry can be classified as anti-heroes as both are abusive, cruel, and villainous at times and are the main protagonists of the series.
 * Many critics feel Jerry was out of character in the Gene Deitch era shorts, with Tom being cast as a hapless victim who was never a threat to Jerry. Deitch himself later said this was due to his lack of understanding of the characters at the time. Notably his last few cartoons depicted a more regular rivalry with the titular duo.

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