Archetypes of Personality
Carl Jung defines archetypes as the "contents of the collective unconscious" (4). They are "archaic or [. . .] primordial types, [. . .] universal images that have existed since the remotest times" (5). Many of these archetypes are based on images, shapes, and landscapes, but some are based on personalities. Most of the possible archetypes of personality can be found in Buffy. Giles is the Wise Old Man, the imparter of knowledge. Tara and Joyce are the Good Mother, associated with fertility and nurturance. Drusilla is the Temptress, the destroyer of men. And Ethan Rayne, worshipper of chaos, is the Trickster, "mischievous, disorderly, and amoral" (Dobie 58). Many of the main characters can be classified as more than one archetype: Buffy as hero and anima to Spike, Spike as hero and shadow to Buffy, Faith as Temptress and shadow to Buffy. The overlap of character and archetype is part of what keeps Buffy from being formulaic and two-dimensional.
One of the most interesting relationships in Buffy is that of Buffy and Faith. Faith is a rather obvious shadow for Buffy. They are both Slayers, both gifted with extraordinary strength and power, but they use it in different ways. Jung defined the "shadow" as a person's dark side, full of aspects of ourselves that we don't want to confront. The shadow must be accepted and integrated, or it "functions behind one's back" (Franz, Shadow 5). Faith is the violent side of Buffy, the side Buffy doesn't want to admit exists despite her Slayer status. She is also the side of Buffy that would rather be playing than working, enjoying herself rather than saving the world.
Buffy has a strong moral imperative that drives her to fulfill her duty as the Slayer despite her personal desire to be a normal teenager. Her efforts to be "one of the group""”by trying out for cheerleader, going on dates, and running for Homecoming queen"”are continuously thwarted by her responsibilities to protect her peers"”and the world"”from the forces of evil (Stevenson 106-7). Buffy's sense of responsibility stems from "a deep and abiding sense of the value inherent in human beings" (Stevenson 107). She doesn't fight evil for the reward (there isn't much of one), but because it's the right thing to do (Stevenson 110).
However, Faith is amoral. She slays because it's fun, not because it's right. "Isn't it crazy how slaying just always makes you hungry and horny?" she notes ("Faith, Hope, and Trick," 3.3). She arrives in Sunnydale expecting to find another version of herself, but instead finds Buffy, who is still dealing with issues stemming from the necessity of killing Angel and his subsequent return. Buffy doesn't share everything with Faith, and Faith takes it personally, allowing Buffy's issues to drive her away. Faith initially tries to imitate Buffy by having what she has"”family and friends"”but fails due to her lack of trust in anyone and her own self-centeredness. When Faith's attempt to be just like Buffy fails, she falls back on her power to give her meaning, trying to be important to Sunnydale in general and Buffy's friends in particular by being a better Slayer than Buffy. But Faith lacks Buffy's innate moral compass, which leads her to abuse her power by stealing and accidentally killing a man, then going over to the "dark side" and killing for fun as she works for the evil Mayor of Sunnydale (Stevenson 118-19).
Once Faith realizes that she can't be like Buffy, she attempts to make Buffy into her. The season three episode "Bad Girls" (3.14) shows Buffy giving in to the possibilities that Faith represents. "We're Slayers, girlfriend, the Chosen Two," Faith reminds her. Buffy skips a chemistry test in order to fight a nest of vampires with Faith. Later, while hunting a demon, Faith breaks into a sporting goods store to stock up on weapons. When Buffy protests, Faith says, "When are you going to get this, B? Life for a Slayer is very simple: want . . . take . . . have." Buffy goes along with Faith's hijinks, but there are consequences. They get arrested, escape from the police, and wind up killing an innocent man by mistake. This is the action that reminds Buffy of her responsibilities, though she does still cover up their involvement in the murder when the police come asking questions.
At this stage, Buffy does not accept or integrate her shadow. Instead, she fights Faith and puts her into a coma. But the shadow does not go away just because it's repressed. Faith wakes up eight months later, and, thanks to a postmortem gift from the Mayor, switches bodies with Buffy ("This Year's Girl," 4.15). Faith now has what she has always wanted: Buffy's life. But her attempt to start over and become Buffy backfires. She is uncomfortable with the love and affection that Joyce and Riley shower on her, thinking she is Buffy. Faced with other people's negative perception of her, which they feel free to express in her presence since they think she is Buffy, Faith begins to understand the root of her unhappiness. But the more time she spends as Buffy, the more like Buffy she becomes until she sacrifices her own plans to run away in order to help others, losing Buffy's body in the process (Stevenson 120-1; "Who Are You?" 4.16). Buffy learns less from her stint in Faith's body, though she does discover what it's like to be hated rather than loved, disrespected rather than revered. While this incident starts Faith on her hero's journey to redemption"”most of which occurs on Angel"”it does not serve to incorporate Buffy's shadow. That role must be taken over by another: Spike.
Both shadow and anima can be illustrated in Buffy's relationship with Spike. In the sixth season, after Buffy has sacrificed her life and before she is resurrected, Spike takes Buffy's place as the muscle of the vampire-fighting group (6.1). After she is resurrected, she confides her pain to Spike, though she can tell no one else. Significantly, she tells him, "I can be alone with you here" (6.3). She can, because he is a part of her, an aspect of her. He is the only one she can talk to because he is the only one of her circle who knows what it's like to be dead (Davidson 30). Buffy uses Spike in an attempt to feel something, to shake off the apathy she's felt since she crawled out of her grave. She sees Spike "as representing some part of herself she [feels] she [can't] respect, but need in order to feel alive" (Davidson 31). Spike continuously pulls her toward the dark, urging Buffy to leave her friends and join him. "You try to be with them," he says, "but you always end up in the dark. With me" (6.13). Buffy tries, several times, to leave Spike, but only when he begins to function behind her back (smuggling demon eggs), and when Riley's brief return reminds her of who she is supposed to be, is she able to break away. This time, though, the shadow is more fully integrated. Buffy better understands the darkness in her, and Spike's darkness has thinned. Not long after Buffy calls off their relationship, Spike decides he needs to regain his soul in order to be the kind of person Buffy deserves. A truly evil creature would not have made such a decision, showing that Spike's interactions with Buffy have made him less evil.
In turn, Buffy acts as Spike's anima. The anima, according to Jung, is a person's life force, but also a magical female (for men) being, usually connected to erotic fantasies (25). The anima is "a mischievous being who crosses our paths in numerous transformations and disguises, playing all kinds of tricks on us, causing happy and unhappy delusions, depressions, and ecstasies, outbursts of affect, etc." (Jung 26). Before Spike realizes that he is in love with Buffy, he feels oppressed by her. As he rails at his sometime lover, Harmony:
"Buffy, Buffy, Buffy! Everywhere I turn, she's there! That nasty little face, that bouncing shampoo-commercial hair, that whole sodding holier-than-thou attitude. [. . .] She follows me, you know, tracks me down. I'm her pet project. Drive Spike round the bend. Makes every day a fresh bout of torture. [. . .] You don't understand. I can't get rid of her. She's everywhere. She's haunting me, Harmony!" ("Out of My Mind," 5.4)
His first few "encounters" with Buffy after this rant are in the form of dreams and daydreams. The first one shows him his true feelings for her, which he vehemently denies when he wakes (5.4). He isn't sure how to deal with these feelings for someone who isn't a demon, but soon begins to try to help her. After a disaster at the local club, the Bronze, Buffy finds him doctoring a victim. When she asks him what he's doing, he replies: "Making this woman more comfortable. I'm not sampling, I'll have you know. Just look at all these lovely blood-covered people. I could, but not a taste for Spike, not a lick. Know you wouldn't like it" ("Triangle," 5.11). She is disgusted, but he continues to put himself in her path and help her as much as possible. Eventually she trusts him enough to leave her little sister, Dawn, in his care while she handles her slaying duties. He assists in the final battle at the end of season five out of love for Buffy and affection for Dawn, and continues to help the "Scoobies" out of a sense of responsibility to Dawn and Buffy's memory. He backtracks into evil in order to act as Buffy's shadow during season six, but when she leaves him, he turns back to good and goes seeking his soul. Every good thing he does is for Buffy, "to be hers" (7.2).
Other archetypes, those of shape, color, and landscape, can be used to analyze Buffy episodes more specifically, but the above discussion and illustrations would assist the students in understanding some of the more complicated interpersonal archetypes. Showing the students these archetypes in a format that is familiar to them, a TV show that speaks their own modern language and shares their modern sensibilities, will assist them in identifying them in other texts.
