The episode “Buffy vs. Dracula” is both a updating of, and meta-commentary on, the well-known “Dracula” myth. In this way, Buffy is set up as a sort of heir to Mina and is able to do what the earlier woman could not.
Joss Whedon’s “Buffy vs. Dracula” is extremely self-aware in its humor. Buffy and the other characters are very impressed by Dracula’s “celebrity.” Dracula, with his long hair and heavy black and white makeup looks more like a famous rockstar than the aging Count we are first introduced to in Stoker’s novel. There are references in this episode to both Sesame Street and the Dracula movies. These references allow the audience to remain removed from the action and to enjoy the episode’s intentional and self-referential campiness. Everything about the episode, from the “hand of God” appearance of the castle, to Spike’s reference to Dracula’s humble beginnings insists that the audience remember that this episode is an intelligent commentary on what we have come to think of as the tropes of the gothic tradition.
It is important that it is Buffy who vanquishes Dracula, and not one of the male members of the “Scooby Gang” because it reverses the idea that to be female is to be solely a victim. Of course, within the world of the show, it is perfectly natural that Buffy would kill Dracula as she is the most powerful, the slayer. However, with the larger “Dracula” myth, it is significant that a woman can be both a victim and a conqueror. Mina, who at first seems poised to transcend the stereotype of the victimized female because of her “man’s brain” and status as a “New Woman” ultimately must step aside and let Quincy Morris, perhaps the most masculine of all the men in the novel, defeat Dracula. Mina is portrayed as competent throughout the entire novel, often more competent than the men. However, at the end of the novel, particular in Jonathan’s closing remarks, she is transformed into a hopeless damsel in distress. Buffy is able to do what Mina is not, and thus she is the only who truly deserves the title of “New Woman.”
Fascinating perspectives. The weird part is that you say Buffy is really deserving of the term "New Woman," which I agree with, but she's the only New Woman, whereas Mina and all other fictional or non-fictional women could / did achieve the properties of a "New Woman" for their time. If Buffy is our new woman, we’ve got some really high standards to live up to.
ReplyDeleteYou make some really interested points here. I completely agree with you about the differences between Mina and Buffy, though I think Stoker gives Mina more credit than you think. After all, many of the men remark on how manfully she handles the knowledge that Dracula attacked her and that she is slated to become a vampire when she dies after drinking his blood. In fact, the men admire her courage so much they take her back into their confidence and don't hid anything about their undertaking from her. However, Buffy is the true "New Woman," for she, unlike Mina, refuses to let the men in her life defeat Dracula for her.
ReplyDelete