Just as the characters in the episode deal with issues of control, the episode (I’d say, unintentionally) brings up issues of what controls the gothic. That is to say, is “the Gothic” ruled by old texts, like Dracula, and how much can contemporary texts change or influence what is perceived as Gothic? Can a new text be considered Gothic without any basis on the old?
A characteristic of Gothic is the dichotomy of old and new, which is very present in Dracula. One could think of it as a subset of the ethnic, exotic conflict (epitomized by the age-old East/West issue) – for time, as place, can lead to exoticisms. Is not the future exotic, intriguing – dangerous? Do not we romanticize certain periods of the past (for example, steampunk… and pirates)?
I realize I just used three paragraphs to ask a series of questions, most of which I consider rhetorical. The question that I’m about to attempt to answer in the next few paragraphs is why did Whedon wait until the 5th season to bring in Dracula, and by exploring this question, attempt to provide insight to the issues of the old texts control on the Gothic, and what new Gothic has to offer.
Dracula is one of the prime texts we think of when we, modern consumers, think of “the Gothic,” though ironically it was one of the later Gothic texts (perhaps that is why it came into our cultural conscience: good timing, right around the turn of the century/midst of the Second Industrial Revolution). On our part, looking back, it has come to symbolizing all that the original Gothic has to offer, in all its glory. In the time in between Dracula and “Buffy”, Dracula has been imagined, parodied, paid homage to, and redone in different media (specifically film) many times.
Whedon needed to set up a new vision of Gothic, in order to juxtapose it: hence, the episode is in the fifth season, and not earlier. By already having established his characters, plot devices, and variations on the Vampire mythos, he is able to contrast them and explore where they fit in with both the original design of Dracula and the cultural perspective that has developed over the century. (Buffy premiered 100 years after Dracula was first published.)
Let’s take the character of Renfield-Xander: Whedon references Renfield, and Xander takes on some of Renfield’s characteristics (eating bugs, for example, though he does so grudgingly and like he’s compelled to more than desirous of). There’s only so much resemblance that the audience gets the connection, and some of it is based on cultural reimaginings of the Dracula story––for example, though in the book Renfield escapes to go to his master, in the Buffy episode Xander repeatedly grovels and calls Dracula names like “Dark Prince,” seen nowhere in the book, but found later culturally (see “Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula” TV 2000). What Joss Whedon did was to see where his characters fit in with the Dracula story and mythos—hence why Xander is the one chosen to represent Renfield, using his character that had been developed over the past four seasons. He’s the somewhat helpless friend, who usually says crazy things and isn’t taken seriously (just as Renfield, crazy man in a sanitarium, isn’t a prime candidate for being taken seriously). With this, the two characters are able to mesh—but also, Whedon is able to add something to Xander. We all remember the line Xander delivers at the end, in reference to his near-constant position in Buffy: “I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!” This is no longer another version of Renfield, but rather something that has happened to Xander.
This self-referencing makes it such a great episode. Referencing earlier seasons, and old Gothic texts, and the ways old Gothic texts have been viewed in the past century, referencing the supposed basis of Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and working him into the series cannon and workings, yet retaining/explaining the Dracula mythos within it (I’m referring to the scene with Spike)—it’s wonderful.
And then we come to Buffy, and here Whedon really shows his hand and tips things on their head. The closest thing to our Stalwart Female Hero in the book is Mina. Mina succumbs to Dracula’s “thrall,” though she doesn’t want to, she is powerless to stop it, despite her great heroism. Buffy at first seems the same—but then she shows that she is no Mina, no Gothic staple, but powerful and dark, stronger than Dracula. She is not like anything Dracula has faced before, if not in idea than in execution. And just as in the book, Dracula’s death signifies “old world, you’ve been fun, and we couldn’t have done it without you, but it’s British Empire time now so die,” in the show, Dracula’s staking signifies “old text, you’ve been fun, and we couldn’t have done it without you, but it’s Buffy time now so die.”
Let’s take the character of Renfield-Xander: Whedon references Renfield, and Xander takes on some of Renfield’s characteristics (eating bugs, for example, though he does so grudgingly and like he’s compelled to more than desirous of). There’s only so much resemblance that the audience gets the connection, and some of it is based on cultural reimaginings of the Dracula story––for example, though in the book Renfield escapes to go to his master, in the Buffy episode Xander repeatedly grovels and calls Dracula names like “Dark Prince,” seen nowhere in the book, but found later culturally (see “Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula” TV 2000). What Joss Whedon did was to see where his characters fit in with the Dracula story and mythos—hence why Xander is the one chosen to represent Renfield, using his character that had been developed over the past four seasons. He’s the somewhat helpless friend, who usually says crazy things and isn’t taken seriously (just as Renfield, crazy man in a sanitarium, isn’t a prime candidate for being taken seriously). With this, the two characters are able to mesh—but also, Whedon is able to add something to Xander. We all remember the line Xander delivers at the end, in reference to his near-constant position in Buffy: “I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!” This is no longer another version of Renfield, but rather something that has happened to Xander.
This self-referencing makes it such a great episode. Referencing earlier seasons, and old Gothic texts, and the ways old Gothic texts have been viewed in the past century, referencing the supposed basis of Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and working him into the series cannon and workings, yet retaining/explaining the Dracula mythos within it (I’m referring to the scene with Spike)—it’s wonderful.
And then we come to Buffy, and here Whedon really shows his hand and tips things on their head. The closest thing to our Stalwart Female Hero in the book is Mina. Mina succumbs to Dracula’s “thrall,” though she doesn’t want to, she is powerless to stop it, despite her great heroism. Buffy at first seems the same—but then she shows that she is no Mina, no Gothic staple, but powerful and dark, stronger than Dracula. She is not like anything Dracula has faced before, if not in idea than in execution. And just as in the book, Dracula’s death signifies “old world, you’ve been fun, and we couldn’t have done it without you, but it’s British Empire time now so die,” in the show, Dracula’s staking signifies “old text, you’ve been fun, and we couldn’t have done it without you, but it’s Buffy time now so die.”
So rather than including the old text out of necessity, Whedon uses it as a device to further his own new Gothic, a Gothic which stands alone from, though it is not separate from, the old texts.
And that’s what I have to say about that.
Now here’s a song.
[Xandria – Vampire]
They’re another Dutch symphonic-metal band.
“So would you kiss the sun goodbye?
And give your life to never die?”
And give your life to never die?”
Loved you post! To answer your question can a new text be considered Gothic without any basis on the old, I don't think so. To be Gothic, it must have both the old and the new, so Gothic is like a bridge that connects the new to the old. Gothic usually sets in the modern time. In Dracula, the Scooby gang is from the Victorian Era, which corresponds to the time that Stoker lived in. Then, to make the novel Gothic, Count's castle is brought in. Castle is something that withstands the test of time, so it represent the old. Even in Buffy, Sunnydale is a modern American town. But, whenever the Scooby gang is faced with a monster, they always do research first, dive into the old world knowledge.
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