Joe's Week 10

In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic Gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?

Buffy adopts and adapts many Romantic Gothic conventions and ideology within the context which were employed by Shelley when she wrote Frankenstein. Modern issues like “the relationship of a creation to its creator, the impact of love and acceptance on the formation of character, the harm that disinterested science can do, and the arrogance inherent in an obsessive quest of knowledge” (Rose, 2002:134) leave their traces in Buffy’s 1999-2000 season’s releases. In them we can easily identify Buffy “employs Romantic ideology in contemporary contexts and terms. Adam, the monster like Frankenstein, was created in a government funded compound in Sunnydale. Adam’s first victims are replica of the Creature’s first victim – the young brother of Victor Frankenstein. The romantic Gothic tradition can be traced as “a male Romantic hero who struggles with the opposing forces within his psyche.” (Rose, 2002:135)

Yet this tradition is upset in Buffy with a female hero at its centre stage and being helped by a group of her friends, the Scoopy gang. She reveals that “the most effective weapon to retain humanity and encourage creativity is the force” in the community. (Rose, 2002:141) which is contrary to the isolation of Victor Frankenstein which is the result of his loss of faith in his creation leading to his family members killed one by one by his monster. Buffy’s victory was the compassion and the innate nature change of the creatures within themselves.

Reference:

Rose, A (2002) Of Creature and creators: Buffy does Frankenstein , in R. Wilcox & D. Lavery (eds) Fighting the forces: What’s at stake in Buffy the vampire slayer. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.