Vampires: What are they? Who are they?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a series grounded in myth. With myth comes metaphor; it is an expected aspect of any mythical analysis. What do these imagined creatures mean? What depths of our psyche do they represent?

Consider the vampire. A regular aspect of many mythical fictions, the vampire is the center demon in this television series. Buffy is hardly the first story to bring these creatures into popular culture, however. Vampires have been around for ages, embodying a wide range of metaphoric representations from sociopaths to seductive perfection. Still a general conclusion can be made; vampires are chocolates. They provide a sort of ecstatic, even sensual, pleasure (the vampire’s bite is said to provide a high similar to that of narcotics), yet they are sinful, soulless. Of course their lack of a soul grants the vampires a sort of conscience-free action that we have all desired at one point or another. With their heightened sense and strength, immortality, and their perfect physique, Vampires represent the ideal human at an inhuman cost. As their aversion to sun might suggest, vampires represent our darkest fantasies; unable to accept them as our own we push them off onto this romanticized myth.

Darla stands as a perfect example. The sweet goodness you know you shouldn’t have. Her dress adds to this fact. As Angel points out, “What’s with the Catholic schoolgirl look?” The name, Darla derives from the world darling. Darla, herself, embodies raw sexuality; she is lust with a touch of sadomasochism.

Darla, and all she represents, is the favorite of the Master. The Master spends nearly the entirety of his existence on the series trapped underground, buried in a sense. He is suppressed, and he represents all that Buffy has suppressed, all of her emotions or potential aspects she is unwilling to accept or embrace. “With power comes responsibility,” the Master recites. Until she is ready to face him, Buffy is unwilling to think of slaying as anything more than a side job; very often she forgets the responsibilities associated with her role as Slayer as when she chose to go on a date with Owen rather than accompany Giles to the funeral home. Buffy nearly got both Giles and Owen killed because she wouldn’t see the responsibility that came with her role. Also, one of Buffy’s greatest fears is for killing to become easy, for her to become cold and lose her ability for empathy. Once the master is freed (and duly killed), Buffy can no longer suppress the “big bad” within her; it too is freed as her attitude shows upon her return in season two episode one, “When She was Bad.” It isn’t until she has fully confronted the Master a second time and ground him “into talcum powder,” as Xander says, that she vanquished the demons within.

Colin, too, stands as a very metaphoric symbol in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a child we expect him to represent pure innocence, and so he does when we first see him on the bus in “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date,” but once the vampires turn him into one of their own Colin becomes the representation of pure evil. Even as we watch Colin lead Buffy into Hell, we can’t help but think of him as helpless; we want to reach out and “help,” as he begged of Buffy. His mere form as a child makes him the stuff of nightmares and horror shows. Mix that in with a couple biblical references and allusions, and our sense of what should be is twisted, shattered.

Another vampire, or in this case set of vampires, who’s name alluded to biblical stories was The Three from the episode “Angel.” The Three are the embodiment of masculinity. They are strong, tough, and practically overdosing on testosterone. Their name comes from a reference in the bible to King David’s Warriors, sometimes referred to as The Three, perhaps as a bit of foreshadowing for the trinity that is introduced in the New Testament. The fact that The Three in Buffy the Vampire Slayer nearly destroy her is yet another way evil has chosen to twist and mock religion. Buffy has to be rescued by Angel when she is fighting them, but in the end a woman, Darla, defeats them.

Angel, himself, is surely one of the greatest metaphors of the show so far (through episode one of season two). Angel represented the battle of self; he is unsated desire. He is a vampire; he craves human blood, but he also has a soul and the guilt that comes with it. As Darla says in reference to the humans, “Guess what precious; you’re not one of them.” Angels response is similar, “I’m not exactly one of you either.” There is a battle raging within him between the human and the demon, because Angel is cursed to be both. Even more than a representation of this battle, though, Angel is unsated desire. All that he craves, Buffy, warm blood, forgiveness, an end to the pain, is lost to him. Buffy is a slayer not to mention a child. Blood though he craves it has become despicable to him. It is too late for forgiveness, and the end is lost forever for immortals.