Mina the "Angel" and Buffy the "Dark Angel"

I sometimes feel out of place in our class. I know, objectively, that I’m not the only one lacking a membership card to the Buffy fan club, but sometimes it feels this way. I love literature. I’ve never been a really big television person. Sure, I watch some Gossip Girl here and there, some Food Network, and have recently developed an unhealthy propensity towards turning on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but I’ve always lacked the patience to watch TV. Up to the current moment, my blog posts have been more “literary,” so I think I’m going to take a little break to express a more prototypical, angsty-opinionated blogger sentiment with this post. Okay, so basically, I really liked the episode today. Yes, Buffy’s pink pleather pants were rather, “kick-ass,” and there was something dreamy and “penetrating,” about Dracula’s eyes that made me reminisce about my childhood crush on the mascara-clad lead singer of Green Day, but this episode also demonstrated that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a successful show in that it is incredibly self-aware of its motives. What made “Buffy vs. Dracula” effective was how in-tune Whedon was with Stoker’s novel. Using the already socially awkward and “off-putting” Xander as Renfield was genius. This episode was also shrewd in that it was able to mock the previously established Gothic parameters, while at the same time, making the story resonate with contemporary viewers. Without having read Dracula, I think the brilliance of the script would have been lost on its spectators. Watching this episode made me feel the pleasure one gets when successfully close-reading a text. One of the biggest differences between the episode and the novel manifested itself in the comparison of Buffy to Mina. Both women are forced to straddle the world of the “un-dead” and that of the living. However, I would argue that Mina is ultimately the stronger of the two women. Though she was slowly turning into a vampire,” Mina clings desperately to her humanity. Her self-awareness acts as her ultimate preservation. Buffy may have eventually defeated Dracula, but like Dracula acknowledged, there is something “dark” in Buffy that she doesn’t yet understand. She still needs to learn about herself, to be taught. Buffy is more akin to the “un-dead” than the completely self-aware “angel,” Mina could ever be.