Humanity: Monster or Man

The appearance of the Judge (from “Surprise” and “Innocence”) in Buffy puts forth an interesting question; What is it that makes us human? According to legend, the Judge is “brought forth to rid the Earth of the plague of humanity, to separate the righteous from the wicked, and to burn the righteous down.” Giles claims that no human has ever survived the Judge’s purging, yet it is not humans alone who are burned for their humanity. This brings us back to the question, what defines humanity?

The audience’s first thought is that it might have something to do with love. After all, the judge first fixes on Spike and Drusilla. The Judge condemns them, “You two stink of humanity. You share affection and jealousy.” For the two emotions to exist, there has to be some form of mutual caring between the vamps. The Judge’s first actual victim though is the scholar vampire. He “is full of feeling. He reads.” The scholar falls victim to the apocalyptic monster due to his passion for books and learning. Love would be the obvious conclusion to the Judge’s determining factor.
However if you look more closely, love can’t apply. Drusilla doesn’t love Spike. He is merely an amusement to her, the one who took care of her and filled the long years. As soon as Angel is turned back into Angelus, Spike looses his appeal to Drusilla. Love doesn’t fade that quickly.

Angel provides a better reference to discovering the factor used to determine humanity. With a soul, he is vulnerable to the Judge; without, he is “clean.” The soul is not the answer though, because other soulless vampires can still have aspects of humanity (i.e. Spike and Dru). So what else has changed? In “Innocence,” Ms. Calender’s uncle explains that “Angel was meant to suffer, not live as human.” Angel’s gentleness and contentment have disappeared. His guilt is gone and with it his good intentions. Which of these made him human?

His soul provided a conscience that made him care about things beyond himself. This is where the answer lies. Spike and Drusilla care about each other even if it might be for different reasons. The scholar cared about his books and knowledge. Angel cared about Buffy. It is our care for things outside of ourselves that gives us our humanity; without it, we would be no more than self-indulgent hedonists with a drive for pleasure and satisfaction even at the destruction of all else.