Doppelganger as Self

After reading Lisa’s post, I began to think about Willow’s choice not kill vamp Willow. Lisa asks the question does Willow’s decision means that Willow chooses to not learn the lesson and begins her path to crazy, evil Willow. I say a firm no because I don’t think that the lesson is a binary battle between good and evil. The lesson is rather to confront the fears one has of themselves. As I mentioned in class, doppelgangers are not the opposite of an individual. Doppelgangers are amplifications of a certain trait of an individual. Vamp Willow seems completely different than Willow. However, she is still Willow. The difference is that vamp Willow is dominated more by her instincts and desires. Willow is too forgiving, too timid and vamp Willow is the repressed extreme badass (she is even lesbian, which Willow is a ways away from accepting). They are not two separate beings. I think that Willow’s decision to not kill vamp Willow shows that she does learn the lesson. An individual cannot be simply one thing. Willow is a multifaceted person who has a strength she does not allow herself to recognize. By not killing vamp Willow, Willow is accepting that the demonic power-hungry vamp Willow is a part of her and by killing her, Willow would be killing part of herself. Guido does not have the same realization. He refuses to accept the dwarf as having any relation to him. He is perfectly willing to kill the dwarf because Guido believes himself to be better. This lack of understanding is the reason that Guido does not actually have a character shift. He is not a better person at the end of the story, unlike Willow.