In his article "She's Not All Grown Yet: Willow as Hybrid/Hero in Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Jes Battis discusses how Willow's character changes throughout the series. To me, this morphyness is interesting in the context of "Tabula Rasa" where everyone's character is kind of obliterated because of, not insignificantly, Willow. Battis argues that Willow's character varies more than the other characters do throughout the series, citing her vampire doppelganger, Dark Willow, Light Willow, and her various identities as straight, gay, computer geek, shy high schooler, and powerful witch. When everyone forgets everything they know in "Tabula Rasa", different things happen to their identities. Although Buffy doesn't remember that she is the slayer and she names herself Joan, she still takes charge of the situation and realizes that she's a "superhero". Giles, Xander, and Anja's characters seem to stay pretty much the same except that they forget their relationships. Tara's shy and quiet nature remains unchanged. Spike re-identifies himself as a good vampire, and I would argue to Battis' article that Spike's character changes nearly as much as Willow's does throughout the show. Willow's identity also changes drastically when her memory is wiped. Though Buffy and Spike discover their "superpowers" almost immediately and begin to use them, Willow does not ever identify as a witch until her memory comes back. Even though Buffy's identity doesn't change much while Spike and Willow's do, I think that how their identities change might be more important. But more on that later.
As we discussed in class, we can use the memory wipe to represent the process of discovering ones identity, which we can compare to Catherine learning and growing and defining her character along the way in Northanger Abbey. I think Catherine begins to define herself for the first time when she makes up her own mind that she no longer wants to be on the carriage ride with John Thorpe because he mislead her into thinking that the Tilneys had abandoned their walk. By making up her own mind, she begins to choose her own identity. This is similar to Buffy naming herself Joan and taking charge of the situation in "Tabula Rasa". I would argue that Willow, unlike Buffy, does not actually redefine her identity when her memory is erased - her identity as a witch simply goes away and while she does rediscover her identity as a gay female, I think that her sentence "I think I'm kinda gay" doesn't act in the same autonomous redefining way as Buffy's "I think I'll call me Joan" does. I think this is because Buffy is the heroine and Willow, much as I love her, is only the sidekick. Spike also takes an active role in creating his new identity as a good vampire by defining himself as such, so maybe he is acting as the hero in this episode. Do you guys think autonomy in defining one's identity can make a character a heroine?
Citation:
Battis, Jes. "She's Not All Grown Yet: Willow as Hybrid/Hero in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association 2.4 (2003): n. pag. Web. 14 October 2011.
First of... Oh good... I'm glad you had 2 posts in row... because I did that this week, so you're not alone!
ReplyDeleteI like what you have to say about Spike (I feel like he gets left out a lot) and I do think that autonomy in defining one's identity can make a character a heroine. When a person is completely free to be whoever they want, I believe that they are more likely to be the best they can possibly be. In many cases being your best can be very heroic.