"Fear Itself" as a Progenitive and Progressive Text

Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto combines romanticism and modernisms to capture the complex gothic imagination of the eighteenth century. This text breaks free from the status quo and attempts to propose alternative avenues of thought that stray from the conventional realms of philosophy and religion. Similarly, Whedon’s Buffy marries modernism, postmodernism, and antiquity to make a new gothic landscape of interpretation. Buffy captures the twenty-first century struggle of seeking alternative explanations that deviate from the all too static rational and scientific means of understanding. “Fear Itself” exemplifies this union of genres as well as the intent to use the supernatural as a mode of enlightenment.

Many of the characters have fears that they are unable to grasp and face through rational processes. For example, Joyce fears making new friends and trusting people, Buffy fears that she is inadequate of Parker’s attention and that she won’t be able to protect her friends, and Xander fears that he no longer has a place in the Scooby Gang. While not by choice, these characters find understanding of these doubts through supernatural circumstances in the haunted house. These aforementioned characters’ fears are “classical” in nature, and therefore ground the text in antiquated tradition that creates an acceptable foundation for the supernatural to flourish from.

With that being said, some of the characters have supernatural fears, such as Willow who is afraid of being a weak witch and Oz who is afraid of transforming into his werewolf state. Not surprisingly, they too learn through a supernatural avenue that fear is in the mind and should not be given unbridled control. The fact that these fears are not classical speaks to the following step in the progression of using the supernatural as an accepted channel for gaining understanding. That is to say, in Sunnydale, and arguably modern society, the supernatural no longer needs classical ties to assert validity. Still, it should be noted that Willow does use classical motifs in other ways in this episode. For example, she dresses as Joan of Arc for Halloween and playfully calls her werewolf boyfriend Brutus.

Thus, Buffy and The Castle of Otranto combine multiple genres and advocate for the supernatural as an alternative method of understanding complex issues within individuals and society. Both texts come at respective times in history when common ideology is too restricting for comfort. Moreover, “Fear Itself,” through its commonplace acceptance of the supernatural, not only seeks to build off classical traditions but also works hard to establish the supernatural in its own right as a distinct channel of thought.

Does size really matter?

So, to continue from my comment on Amelia's post...

I think it is interesting to note how there is a strong distinction made between mental strengths and weaknesses and physical strengths and weaknesses in the latest episodes we have watched. The children in Gingerbread have more power over the masses, but like Cordelia says, she likes "the two little ones better than the one big one," because Buffy's strength lies in overpowering her opponents physically. In Fear Itself, Buffy is Red Riding hood (going along with the parallels Annelise already made), weak and in need of the huntsman Giles to save her, because her mental strength is no match for her fears and paranoia of trying to protect her friends. However, she is able to defeat Gachnar because her physical strength and size make him no match for her...or her tennis shoe.

Both of these episodes collide in "Normal Again" where in the one reality, Buffy's parents urge her to summon mental strength to defeat her insanity and to find her way home, meanwhile, in the more familiar realm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer uses strength and force to gather and conquer her friends. In both Fear Itself and Gingerbread, we see Buffy triumph with physical strength, but things get more confusing in Normal Again. She attacks her friends with strength in our realm, but they backfire with talking, emotional soothing, and mental strength. Because her mentality is not as strong here, her friends triumph. We see that this weakness is carried over into the asylum realm, as her mental strength is not great enough to save her. However, we also see that the writers of Buffy value mental strengths and weaknesses over physical ones. In our realm, she fights with force (which usually brings her to victory) but even with her force, her weakness of mind helps her friends overcome her attack, therefore making her mental weakness too great to be saved by her physical strength.

This is parallel to the demon in Gingerbread, who could have defeated Buffy by controlling the minds of the masses, and even Buffy's slayer strength was no match for the thrall the demon put the town under. However, once the demon loses his strength of the mind, even though he gains physical strength and size, he is defeated.

This all goes back to what Kim was saying about the significance of size in Castle of Otranto. It makes us wonder how much size actually matters when things like emotion, love, prophecy, anger and hate, etc. etc, are brought into a battle. Though there was a great giant in Otranto, the leading cause of conflict in the novel, or so it seemed to me, was the mental torture on the lovesick characters, not the "demon" that seemed to befall the castle.

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.

Fear Itself

"Fear Itself" is definitely one of my favorite episodes. Sometimes when people watch shows like Buffy, they forget that the main character/hero/heroine is afraid of things too... but this episode reminds us that Buffy is afraid that she won't always succeed.

I thought the costumes people wore also played an important part in mirroring the character and the character's fears. Willow, while dressed as Joan of Arc, should have been strong and powerful. She should have stood up for what she believed in... so she did. But, just as Joan of Arc's stand backfired on her (aka, she was burned at the stake,) Willow's spell backfires. Usually when people wear tux's they draw attention. They look sharp and noticeable. James bond is always dressed to the 't', but he often has to avoid being seen. This plays into his becoming invisible. As God, Oz is definitely the person who handles the scary things that the outside world has to offer... he's afraid of himself, and his own power. Finally, Buffy, as Little Red Riding Hood, who had to be saved by the huntsman. The idea that Buffy will fail is similar to being eaten by the wolf... then, like the huntsman, Giles comes in with a chainsaw to save them all.

Just because it was Joss Whedon, I'm sure it was intentional.

The Hollywood Height Bias

Let me begin with a statement: this may sound crazy, but this is what I took from the episode “Fear Itself” and “Gingerbread” mixed my reading of Kim’s post. When I first watched “Fear Itself”, I did not really think about the size of Gachnar. He was small, which automatically meant he was not scary and that the fears they had experienced were simply tricks. We see this same kind of height bias in “Gingerbread”, when the two innocent children meld together to form a huge, muscled demon. As the giant demon, he is supposed to be far scarier. This may sound crazy, but as an RA who is small and has to confront people on a regular basis, I have to say short people should not be so blatantly discounted. When I watched this episode again, I immediately thought of the differences between the original Mr. Hyde and the modern Mr. Hyde. We watched the different clips of how people want to see Mr. Hyde now and the new portrayals are consistently hulking giants. Apparently in order to be scary to modern-day audiences, Mr. Hyde can no longer be short; he needs to be a least twice the size of an ordinary person. I disagree because I think the original Hyde is plenty terrifying. It is more suspenseful to imagine Hyde’s twisted frame slowly stalking the streets, than to deal with Hyde on steroids. He is so different from the tall, dignified Dr. Jekyll that if Utterson had not read the letter left to him by Jekyll, he would have never been able to fully accept the idea of such an extreme transformation.

In all these instances, however, it is as the short character that the demons have the greatest affect. In “Gingerbread”, the demon is actually more powerful as the two children. The children wreak havoc on the town because they seem so innocent. If it hadn’t been for Giles (Giles appreciation!) revealing the demon’s true form with a spell, Buffy’s and Willow’s mother would have remained under the spell and both Buffy and Willow would have died. The demon loses all his power when he is shown to be a giant, scary looking creature. In fact, as the children, he has lasted for hundreds of years, but as soon as his true form is revealed, he dies. As Kim mentions in “Fear Itself”, Gachnar is incredibly strong. Most of the episode is spent watching the Scooby gang run around trying different remedies and failing at them. They, as big people, cannot win against Gachnar, a tiny demon, until they see his true form and lose all fear of him. Some posts mentioned that their authors took away the idea of controlling fear, instead of letting fear control the mind, but all I could think of was how unfair it was for poor Gachnar to be squished while Hyde was allowed to be terrifying.

Which World is the Escape?

In “Gingerbread,” there is no doubt that Buffy is right, and Sunnydale’s citizens are wrong during the rise of “M.O.O.” While this dynamic is familiar and easy for Buffy viewers to understand, it still represents a reversal of real world expectations. The ragtag group of teenagers (plus Giles) are equipped to solve the world’s problems, while their parents and community members are useless, and in this case, impeding their progress by antagonizing them. While this does seem like a rebellious teenager’s self-pitying fantasy of the world (“My parents are out to get me and they have NO IDEA what’s really going on…”), that’s exactly what makes Buffy’s world so interesting. Because these tensions are so dramatically externalized and the heroes are so unlikely, we are forced to re-evaluate our notions of what the world is like.

“Normal Again” halts this process of re-evaluation by making us wonder if we should return to our pre-Buffy expectations (I can’t help but say that they’re just being meta here by making us re-evaluate our re-evaluations). Of course a teenager and her friends aren’t battling demons and constantly saving the world. That would be ridiculous, she must be imagining all of it. We are given a free pass to explain away all of Buffy’s world and any lessons we may have learned there. We’re given a similar choice in The Turn of the Screw, as we can choose to believe that the governess is crazy. In both cases, however, the ambiguity forces us decide which version of the world we think is real rather than giving us the answer.

So which is actually better and braver, believing the rational, or the fantastical world? When Buffy has to make a choice which world she belongs to, which is the braver choice? If there is no way for her to know which world is actually the real one, I think this question is incredibly difficult to answer. On the one hand, we are taught to live in an empirical world, and to look for rational explanations for everything, which would indicate that Buffy should accept the fact that she has been making up her life as the Slayer. On the other hand, we have seen texts that refute the ability of empiricism to explain the whole world, such as Dracula, where the characters have to take a leap of faith in order to truly understand and defeat their enemies. In such a case, Buffy obviously needs to go with her gut and continue being the Slayer (which she eventually does).

But which world is actually the cop-out—the one in which everything can be rationally explained and anything inexplicable can be dismissed, or the messy, supernatural world of demons and slayers? The fact that both of these worlds seem equally plausible as escapes from the other is unsettling, and this is why I’ve never enjoyed “Normal Again,” although I applaud its brilliance. Once again, “Buffy” has proved to be self-aware enough to show us an important thing that Gothic texts do. They offer us either an escape from the difficulties of reality or a key to expand our horizons and understand the world more clearly, but we can never be sure which. In Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, he sums up this problem really nicely: “Granted that man does nothing but seek that mathematical certainty, he traverses oceans, sacrifices his life in the quest, but to succeed, really to find it, dreads, I assure you. He feels that when he has found it there will be nothing for him to look for” (Dostoevsky). Gothic literature gives us the opportunity to play with and test out our own theories of reality, but any conclusions we draw have to come from ourselves. Ultimately, I think that the best Gothic works serve both purposes of escape and key, and I think that “Buffy” definitely falls into that group.

Works Cited:

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground. N.p.: n.p., 2008. Project

Gutenberg. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

Normal Again

I'm just going to start off by saying... I can't stand books, movies, or shows that involve any sort of insanity/padded rooms. It freaks me out. I think it's because one of my biggest fears is that one day I'll wake up in a white room, and find out that my whole life has been imagined. (I had this fear before I saw this Buffy episode...) So needless to say, I despise this episode with a burning passion.

Anyways... onwards with the insanity theme.

I was in the group that was supposed to argue that the Governess was insane. (Given that she smothered the little boy at the end... I actually believe she was insane.)

Both Buffy and the governess fight to stay in their make believe worlds... however, in Buffy's case, the make believe world is the world that seems more sane. The governess fights to stay believing in the ghosts, and Buffy fights to stay at the insane asylum. They differ, however, in the choices they make at the end. While Buffy finally decides to go back to the real world, and help her friends, the Governess tries to maintain the false world, and cling to it by writing a diary of the events that occurred.

So in the end... it appears that Buffy remains sane while the Governess never fully recovers.

... I guess.