Andrew and the Gothic Tradition

As I was reading “Transformations”, the first lines stuck out to me as being very much a recurring theme of the Gothic Tradition. The tale begins, “I have heard it said, that, when any strange, supernatural, and necromantic adventure has occurred to a human being, that being… is forced to bare the inner depths of his spirit to another” (Shelley, 1). As we discussed in class, the idea of passing on a story as a form of penance for a sin is key to understanding this text, the poem of The Ancient Mariner, and other texts we’ve thus far explored. This is also exactly what Andrew feels the need to do in “Storyteller”.

For the most part, the Storytellers of our texts have also been the protagonist(s) of the story itself: Laura writes of Carmilla (though there is the brief introduction by whoever found her writings), Guido tells us of his own transformation, and the characters of Dracula each detail their own experiences. Each justify their explanations, usually saying they wish to educate others in the dangers they have encountered.

Andrew, however, is obviously not the protagonist of Buffy. He further differs from most of our traditional storytellers in that he tells the tale less to educate on the dangers of The First and more to document how awesome he and his friends are at battling evil. It can thus be said that Andrew is documenting his experiences for selfish purposes, not with the intent to educate (like Guido, a little bit, but not as much like everyone else). Though he might claim he wants to teach the world about the Slayer, his exaggerated descriptions and adoration of his own work (as seen as he dramatically re-watches Xander and Anya’s encounter, as if he himself were instrumental in writing the scene) clearly suggest he wants to earn fortune and glory for himself and for his friends.

As previously stated, Andrew is not the protagonist of the series. Buffy is (duh). Why, then, is he chosen to tell Buffy’s story rather than Buffy to tell her own? (When I say chosen, I mean in the sense of the show’s writers choosing him. In the context of the story he is a self-proclaimed storyteller). Perhaps the storyteller is not meant to be the protagonist, but is instead meant to be the character who changes the most over the course of the story’s telling. Andrew goes from being happy-go-lucky, stuck in an action movie destined to have a happy ending, to a man who realizes he is doomed to die and has murdered the only friend he ever had. This story may be his to tell, because when the audience (or reader, in the case of our Gothic examples) sees how much an encounter with the supernatural has effected the storyteller, they are more likely to fear the supernatural themselves, and thus the motive to educate is more effective. Buffy does not change over the course of this particular episode, and so the effect would be far less if she had been our storyteller. She does take on the role of the educator, however, so perhaps there is a correlation between protagonist and educator, and storyteller and the one most effected by the events of the story.