Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Alex Engel ENC 1101 February 29, 2004 Research Paper

How Buffy explains Good, Evil and the Soul

According to Plato, the immortal soul separates man from the lower beasts and makes it possible for us to concern our selves with the realm of ideas. I think, therefore I am. Descartes describes the soul as the thing that makes us more than a machine. It gives us consciousness, feelings, emotions, and sensations. Locke saw people as being a blank slate, a tabula rasa, when they are born and their personality is then developed by how they react to the things around them. To some people, an orange may taste sour. To others it is tart. There will never be a consensus on everything because of this (Soul Metaphors). Who is right? Perhaps each of these philosophers is correct in some way, but I believe Joss Whedon, the creator of the television phenomenon Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) nailed it when he referred to the soul as an inner moral compass or guiding star (Whedon).

On Buffy, good and evil is explored primarily through the exploits of Buffy, a teenage girl chosen to slay vampires, demons and all the evil that plagues humanity. In her ongoing quest to protect the innocent, she encounters equal parts decidedly evil and good characters. More interesting however is the modicum of gray area characters, whose actions decide their ultimate fate of good or evil.

If Buffy is good, pure and simple primarily because of her status as Slayer, then the vampires must be evil simply because they are at the other end of the spectrum. At first sight, this is true. When a human is sired, or turned into a vampire, his soul escapes. The demon gets the body but never the soul. This leaves vampires with no moral compass, free to do whatever evil deed they please, with no remorse for their actions.

On season one of Buffy, she encounters her first “Big Bad” or main villain for the season. This villain is a particularly old and powerful vampire known as The Master who wants nothing less than to bring forth hell on Earth and to claim his station as ruler of Earth. Clearly he is the epitome of evil. Buffy has no choice but to save the human race and deter hell on Earth by destroying him. And does she ever. Slayer good, vampire bad, end of story. Unfortunately just as you think you’ve figured it out, another layer is peeled back revealing more complexities. Good versus evil will never be that simple.

The master was evil because he had no soul. What if through some twist of fate a vampire happened to have a soul? Would he be inherently good because of it? Such a situation can be found in Angel, the 240 year old vampire who, after murdering the daughter of an elder of a gypsy clan, had his soul restored by them as the ultimate punishment. When his soul is restored, Angel goes from heartless murderer to helpful vampire dedicated to redemption for his various crimes. So yes, the vampire with a soul is good. He chooses not to kill humans, time and time again. Although often tempted, he maintains his self control, drinking only pig’s blood because to drink from a human would be wrong. He knows this because he has a soul. More proof however, is that when Angel and Buffy consummate their relationship, Angel experiences a moment of true happiness, which ironically eliminates the gypsy curse placed on him and removes his soul. What does he do? He immediately reverts to his former self, killing and maiming in the name of fun, and ultimately trying to destroy the world. Clearly, within the soul lies our morality, our penchant for good and the knowledge that our actions have consequences and often hurt others.

How then, does one explain humans choosing to commit an act of evil? If they have a soul, won’t they know what they are doing is wrong? The short answer is yes, and frankly, they just don’t care. For whatever reason, they choose to ignore their moral compass or soul, and instead commit whatever immoral acts they have rationalized as alright. Take for example Willow, Buffy’s best friend. All through her high school years, Willow was the good one, the brainy one, always doing the right thing. And even when she became proficient in magic she remained good, using it to help her friends rather than to hurt. But when her girlfriend, Tara, is murdered by another human, Warren, she decides to seek bloody vengeance for her death using her powers to not only kill Warren, but to also seek out his two partners in crime, not even involved in the shooting death. Despite Buffy’s best efforts to change her mind, Willow becomes absorbed in the darkest of magic and kills Warren in the same cold blood used to kill Tara, flaying him alive. At this point, she loses all sense of right and wrong, consumed in hatred and hurting the ones she loves. Finally, in a desperate attempt to quell her and everyone else’s pain, she tries to destroy the Earth. Only the love of her best friend Xander causes her to see the error of her ways and to return to the light side, letting her moral compass guide her to what is right, and causing her to seek redemption for what she has done, proving that good will eventually shine through. It does too, as Willow becomes a white witch goddess, consumed in white light, in her final attempt at redemption during the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when she casts a pivotal spell that leads to victory for the human race against the ultimate evil. She has a soul; she ultimately sees what she did was wrong, no matter the reason, and atones for it.

Vampires are inherently evil. Humans however, have the ability to choose which path to follow. The best example of this is Faith, arguably the Buffy Universe’s most complicated character. Faith, a human, became a Slayer once Buffy’s replacement Kendra died. When one dies, another is called, such is the chain of Slayers. Faith began her life normally, and after a few bumps, adjusted to the Slayer’s way of life. In every way, Faith is the opposite of Buffy. Buffy broods about being a slayer. Faith takes a sick pleasure in staking each vampire, enjoying her abilities to a frightening extent. Responding to whether she likes slaying, Faith replies, “God, I love it!...When I’m fighting, it’s like the whole world goes away and I only know one thing -that I’m gonna win and they’re gonna lose. I like that feeling. (Faith, Hope, and Trick)

Faith is only interested in food, sex and “fun,” and beating up her enemies, all very direct and basic sources of pleasure. She is not a vampire slayer because it is her duty, she does it because she loves to kill (Forster). Only when she inadvertently kills a human do her problems truly surface. Buffy tries to tell her what she did was wrong. Faith denies it. Her moral compass is being seriously betrayed. She elevates herself to a level above regular people, saying what she did made no difference. She becomes obsessed with killing, becoming the hired muscle of The Mayor in season three of Buffy, getting paid to do what she loves most, kill. Finally realizing her evil potential, she calls it “living my own way, having a blast...It feels good.” (Consequences) Eventually however, her bubble bursts when she switches bodies with Buffy and realizes that she is in fact horribly unhappy, and Buffy, the repressed prude, has a better life than she does. Worse however, is when she comes to the realization that she is evil, and that it is wrong. She tries to induce Angel to kill her. “I thought you were happy with the way you are,” Angel says to her at one point, but they both know it isn’t true. Finally knowing that evil will never make her happy and believing that redemption is impossible for her after what she’s done, Faith simply wants to end her pain (Forster 18). Ultimately, when Angel refuses to kill her, Faith drops all pretense and begs him: “I’m evil! I’m bad! I’m evil! Do you hear me? I’m bad! Angel, I’m bad. I’m bad....Please Angel just do it. Angel please, just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Just kill me. Just kill me.” (Five by Five) Faith’s hatred and disgust for herself was the first crucial step to her redemption. However halting and misdirected it was, it was her moral awakening. (Forster 18)

In the world of Buffy, good and evil must be held in tension with one another, thus creating a balance of the two. Just like yin and yang, love and hate, pleasure and pain, good and evil always go hand in hand. Clearly in the Buffyverse, the soul plays a pivotal role in balancing the fight of good versus evil. It keeps the good guys fighting the good fight. Without the soul, good and evil would go unrecognized. Life would be a constant gray area in which everyone’s actions went without judgement. Without evil, there would be no struggle, no sacrifice and no point to redemption. And most importantly, it keeps the balance of good versus evil in tact, because, without balance, all would be lost.

Works Cited

Consequences. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dir. Marti Noxon. WB/Fox, 1999.

Faith, Hope, and Trick. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dir. David Greenwalt. WB/Fox, 1999.

Five by Five. Angel. Dir. Jim Kouf. WB/Fox, 2000.

Forster, Greg. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy. Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 2003.

“Soul Metaphors in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series” 29 Feb. 2004 http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs/souls.html

Whedon, Joss. “The Purpose of a soul” (2001) 29 Feb. 2004 http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts/paley4.html