The Power of Persuasion

Everyone has already elaborated on the unifying theme of ambiguity in “Gingerbread”, “Normal Again”, and “The Turn of the Screw” so I would like to diverge and move towards the topic of following someone blindly due to the power of persuasion and suggestion and also the theme of role reversal. In both of these episodes and the story, one or more characters is prone to being influenced by others and swayed in their opinions and actions. Furthermore, due to outside factors and the power of persuasion, sometimes the parent or adult becomes the child and vice versa.

In “Gingerbread”, Mrs. Summers is incredibly susceptible to the evil influence of the two ghost children, Hansel and Gretel. Joyce easily succumbs to their persuasion and eventually agrees with them that Buffy, because she is the slayer, must be burned at the stake, along with the other students accused of witchcraft. The power of suggestion is incredibly strong in this episode because under the circumstances that the dead children are found, it is implied that magic and supernatural beings were the cause of their demise. Therefore, it is not a stretch for Joyce, who is already uncomfortable with the idea of her daughter killing vampires, to suddenly turn against all manifestations of the supernatural, including her daughter, thanks to the creepy and “innocent” advice given by the little kids. Also, I saw an interesting parallel between Joyce and Miles and Flora in “The Turn of the Screw”. Joyce becomes like the children in the story firstly, because she sees ghosts like the kids presumably do, and secondly, Joyce is easily influenced by the thoughts of the ghost children, in a way similar to which Miles and Flora accept whatever the governess says, that the ghosts exist, even if there are truly no real ghosts.

On a similar note, in “Normal Again”, we also witness the power of persuasion and people telling others what to believe and what is real or not. In the episode, while Buffy is in the mental hospital, her parents and the doctor both pound it into her head that Sunnydale and her slaying lifestyle is a figment of her imagination. The power of suggestion from them makes Buffy question whether they are right or not and whether her supposed life is all a lie. In “The Turn of the Screw”, the children are made to believe they see the ghosts simply because the governess implies as much. We don’t know for sure whether the children are interacting with the ghosts or not but because the governess makes them feel like they should be seeing the ghosts, this causes them to think that they are. Furthermore, Buffy experiences a role reversal from always being the hero and saving the day to needing the support and help of her friends to overcome what are hopefully hallucinations. In all three circumstances, the power of persuasion and suggestion alter their known realities.