Dreams, dreams, dreams. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has consistently used dreams to reveal important information within the series (“Restless” being the most obvious example of this). Usually the important message is obvious, though; sometimes there are some deeper meanings that are more convoluted, but usually the really important message is right there on the surface.
In the article we read, “Spirit Guides and Shadow Selves: From the Dream life of Buffy and Faith,” Donald Keller writes, “dreams tend to give a symbolic representation of the dreamer’s current state and suggest what the dreamer needs to do next: not a prediction but a prescription.” He continues “the function of the dream in Buffy: dramatizing internal attitudes, symbolically representing crucial interrelationships, summing up episodes or longer narrative arcs and oracularly hinting at events to come; in short, it is a crucial and unique narrative tool for presenting a maximum of information in the briefest and most resonant manner.”
So, what is the role of Spike’s dream in “Showtime?” The blatant meaning doesn’t seem that important. Spike loves Buffy; we’ve known this for several seasons now. His need for her is no great realization that requires some special dream sequence to relay, and the dreams didn’t use any thought-provoking symbolism to remind us of this. It doesn’t predict what will happen because Spike never is able to break free on his own. Buffy has to come to cut him free and carry him out. The dream doesn’t exactly provide a lot of quick information either; it’s just his tortured, pain-enhanced hallucination. Why do they show it then? Why not just cut that scene and let us hear him chanting his belief that Buffy will come? That would have showed us his love and belief in her faster than the dream.
Perhaps than the dream is a prescription after all. Spike has clearly been having some issues since he got his soul back. Things didn’t turn out the way he had expected; there hasn’t been that perfect happy ending, and he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with it. Maybe the dream shows us what he needs to do to be able to find himself again. Maybe Spike’s unconscious doesn’t like the idea of being the, ah...vampire in distress; maybe he needs to do some rescuing of his own in order to order to gain his former strength.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Dr. Rose says:
ReplyDeleteThis is really kind of an aside to your post, but this season is really becoming about belief of all kinds...Spike believes in Buffy, Buffy tells Spike that she believes in him, the challenge for the potentials is to believe in themselves, and to believe in Buffy....and so it goes.