So, as we discussed in class, there are many more dopplegangers in the episode "Dopplegangland" than just Willow and Vamp Willow. There's Buffy and Faith, Giles and Wesley, demon Anya and human Anya, etc. In addition to this, the entire series of Buffy shows the characters changing or encountering changed versions of themselves. To name just a few more examples, Buffy and Faith switch bodies in the 4th season, the adults in Sunnydale reconnect with their youthful selves in "Band Candy", and in "Halloween", everyone who bought their costume at a certain store becomes what the dress up as. This last example is similar to our discussion in that Buffy, Willow, and Xander both change into costumes that exaggerate a version of themselves they wish were true in real life (Xander is a tough soldier, Buffy a beautiful nobel woman from Angel's time).
So what is it about a doppleganger that makes it so appealing to the gothic tradition? As we have discussed previously, to set a character against their doppleganger allows a comparison to take place, and certain traits of the character become more obvious or exaggerated. Furthermore, as we see when Willow is unwilling to kill her Vamp self and when Guido praises the devil as being sent by his guardian angel, dopplegangers blur the line between good and evil. A doppleganger must be a version of yourself, so even if it is evil, and you are good, how can it be entirely bad? This is a dilemma which arises frequently in the literature we discuss, and I believe it is an important element of the gothic.
One other purpose we haven't discussed is a doppleganger can serve to bring out darker qualities in a good character by posing as a trustworthy figure. In "Dopplegangland", Vamp Willow makes real Willow nervous with just how dark, sinister, and seductive she is. It is not long after this episode, however, that Willow begins to display many of those same characteristics. She realizes her attraction to women about a year later, and not long after that her powers begin to grow and become progressively darker, until she goes completely bad. I've always loved the moment when Willow, real Willow, who has become dark Willow (following me? There are too many Willows... though I still can't get enough of her) says "Bored now" in exactly the same tone as vamp Willow from this season. So, we see that dopplegangers in Buffy serve not only to exaggerate certain traits in a character, but also to bring opposing und surprising traits out of them later on.
Kim, I really like your questioning of how a doppelganger can ever truly be either good or bad, as I think this is the primary conflict that Willow encounters in this episode. I would agree that it is impossible for a doppelganger to be either definitely good or evil, as this would make whatever the being was, not actually a doppelganger, except perhaps in appearance alone. For a true doppelganger to exist, the copy must contain some piece of the original, meaning that it cannot 100% defined as being good or evil, as it will inherently have both, just as the being that it copies does.
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