In this episode of
Buffy vs. Dracula, it opens up with Buffy in bed and she wakes up to slay a vampire in the cemetery. This kind of foreshadows that she will soon meet Dracula in a cemetery, which she does not too soon after. The characteristics of Dracula were similar to those in the book, his skin complexion was pale, although he did not have red lips, they were pale in
Buffy vs. Dracula. He also had long hair, black, about shoulder length. At first she had not even recognized him or knew who he was. But once he revealed himself as Dracula, she tried to kill him like she would any other vampire.
There were a few similarities from this episode and from Bram Stoker's
Dracula. One being that he was carried in a large wooden box filled with dirt. We see this when the workers are unloading the box at the castle and Dracula slashes the workers throat. Another similarity is when Dracula comes through Buffy's room as fog, just like in the book when he enters the room as fog to get to Mina. Dracula longs for Buffy just as he longed for Mina's affection.
Gender is portrayed throughout this episode frequently. Usually when faced with adversity, the female character/ damsel in distress would run and be screaming her head off trying to fight for her life. In this case, Buffy does not run from Dracula, but almost like she embraces him. Kind of like she is toying with him. Dracula cannot just go at her, he wants to have a connection with his victims. He wants them to long for him like he longs for them. At first when they are in the castle towards the end of the episode, he says that she cannot resist him, he exclaims it is because she does not want to. But here she is using her looks and innocence to get him aroused, to make it seem like she is under his spell. Typical for a female gender role, a woman manipulating a man to get what she wants. The stereotype of fighting like a girl also comes into play here. Clearly, Buffy is capable of holding her own and is more than capable of defending herself. Perhaps fighting like a girl is not so bad in this case. Although much cannot be said for Xander who put under Dracula's spell, catering to him. This places him in a feminized role, catering to Dracula.
Seeing as I have not yet watched this episode of Buffy, I feel I have a decent idea of how the episode played out, you did a great job describing Buffy and Dracula's interactions. I would not have expected so many similarities between the Dracula in this episode to the character in Stoker's novel only because of the characteristics of other vampires on the show, but that shows how much the writers cared about staying true to the original character, which is kind of comforting seeing as that was most of the class's first interaction with him.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you pointed out how when fighting Dracula, Buffy continues to play into those typical female actions like flirting and her looks to defeat him. As a character she is both a "typical girly-girl" but also someone who is not afraid to kill you, so the fact that she uses both sides when fighting him, allows us as viewers to see that girls can be both, and that's okay! Great analysis!
I also watched this for my blog. You did a good summarizing the main parts of the show and comparing them to the novel. Fighting like a girl is definitely not a bad thing! It would have been nice to see a little more about the other characters in the show too to see how their roles were related to the novel. But I think you did a great job!
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