Dreams
According to Freud, dreams are the "language of the unconscious" (Dobie 53). They can impart wisdom by solving problems, act as wish-fulfillment, or help to identify problems unknown except to the unconscious (Freud 140). When analyzing dreams, Freud claimed, one must identify the themes, which tend to be compressed or condensed, so that one element can stand for many different ideas or objects (151). Often, dreams are also dramatizations in which thoughts are transformed into situations so they can be more easily dealt with. However, the most obvious symbols or events in a dream may not be the most significant in terms of the conscious mind. Sometimes the more subtle elements illustrate the true significance of the dream (Freud 154-5).
Dreams play an important part in Buffy. As a Slayer, Buffy has a minor gift of prophecy, and she has dreams that warn her about trouble coming or help her to solve problems. When she first arrives in Sunnydale, she knows the evil is real because of her dreams. Giles reminds her that these are important: "Or perhaps you're right. Perhaps there is no trouble coming. The signs could be wrong. After all, it's not as if you've been having the nightmares . . ." ("Welcome to the Hellmouth," 1.1). The prophetic element does not keep Buffy's dreams from being symbolically significant or indicators of her unconscious state, however. Three dreams in particular have enough Freudian overtones to be useful for teaching Freudian analysis. One warns Buffy of the loss of Angel's soul, one shows her who to go to for information about Angel's soul, and one tells her how to defeat the Mayor.
The first dream takes place in season two's "Innocence." Buffy wakes and reaches for the water glass next to the bed. Finding it empty, she gets up and goes into the hall. Drusilla appears behind her, following her. Buffy turns her head slightly but keeps going. She opens the door to the bathroom and finds herself in the Bronze. Willow is sitting at a table with an organ grinder's monkey. "The hippo stole his pants," she says in French. Buffy is confused but continues deeper into the club. The next person she sees is her mother who is holding a cup and saucer. "Do you really think you're ready, Buffy?" she asks. Buffy replies, "What?" Joyce drops the saucer, which shatters on the floor, then turns and wanders away. Buffy heads toward the stage, then sees Angel. She smiles and takes a few steps toward him. Drusilla appears behind him and drives a stake into his back. Buffy screams his name and reaches toward him, but he crumbles to dust. Drusilla steps forward and says, "Happy birthday, Buffy."
For the most part, this dream is a foreshadowing of Buffy and Angel's sexual intercourse, which results in the loss of Angel's soul. Drusilla, who often acts as Buffy's shadow, is both herself and Buffy in the dream. She is a threatening figure hovering just outside of Buffy's awareness. At the time, Buffy had assumed Drusilla was dead, and her appearance in the dream warns Buffy that she's not. Although Drusilla stakes Angel in the dream, Buffy considers herself his murderer when she causes him to lose his soul and later has to kill him in order to save the world. At the moment that Angel and Buffy consummate their relationship, Drusilla, who is also precognitive, collapses, crying Angel's name. After a moment, however, she ceases crying and begins laughing evilly. Her connection to Angel is such that she knows about Angel's loss of his soul before Buffy does (2.14).
Joyce's part in the dream is twofold as well. She questions Buffy's readiness to consummate her relationship with Angel, and the scene itself is a harbinger; later, while Buffy is discussing the possibility of acquiring her driver's license, Joyce says, "Do you really think you're ready, Buffy?" and drops her saucer to shatter on the floor. It is a warning that the events in the dream are about to come to pass, which they do at the end of that very episode.
Willow's part in the dream is more vague. The comment about the hippo and the monkey's pants refers to a conversation she had with Oz, her werewolf boyfriend, about animal crackers:
OZ. Oh, look! Monkey! And he has a little hat. And little pants.
WILLOW. Yeah, I"”I see!
OZ. The monkey's the only cookie animal that gets to wear clothes, you know that? [. . .] So, I'm wondering, do the other cookie animals feel sorta ripped? Like, is the hippo going, "Hey, man, where are my pants? I have my hippo dignity!" [. . .] And you know the monkey's just, "I mock you with my monkey pants!" And there's a big coup in the zoo.
WILLOW. The monkey is French?
OZ. All monkeys are French. You didn't know that? ("What's My Line, Part 2," 2.10)
Buffy was not present for that discussion, nor, to our knowledge, did Willow ever mention animal cookies and their pants to her. However, Willow is not out of place in this dream; with her introduction to Oz, her own sexuality is awakening. Obviously, on some level, Buffy realizes that Willow is growing up, as well. Later, Willow performs the gypsy curse to return Angel's soul to him, though it is completed too late to save him, which makes her a party to Angel's death ("Becoming, Part 2," 2.22).
After the loss of Angel's soul, Buffy has another dream. It begins with a memory of her sexual encounter with Angel. The scene is surreal, dimly lit, with only glimpses of skin, sheets, and lips and the faint sound of sighs and moans. Angel says, "I love you." Buffy opens her eyes, and there is a brief flash of Angel in his vampire face. The scene immediately cuts to a daytime funeral. Angel steps out from behind a headstone. When Buffy looks up at him, he says, "You have to know what to see." She looks over her shoulder, where Jenny Calendar, Giles' girlfriend"”and, unbeknownst to any of them, a gypsy of the same tribe that cursed Angel"”is lifting a veil from her face. Buffy wakes, a determined look on her face.
The first part of the dream needs no analysis. It is simply Buffy's memory of the pleasure and joy of sleeping with Angel. However, her mind reminds her of the consequences by flashing to Angel in vamp-face. The act, while in itself a beautiful sharing of love between two people, is tainted by the consequences: the loss of Angel's soul and his reversion to an undead, soulless monster. At the time, Buffy's conscious mind only suspects that their lovemaking had anything to do with Angel's change. Her unconscious mind links the two as cause and effect, which is, of course, true.
In Freudian dream analysis, a person will wake when the symbolism becomes too obvious, when the unconscious begins speaking too clearly (Dobie 53). This tendency may be the case with Buffy's sudden awakening from this dream, since she has realized that Jenny has something to do with Angel's new temperament. Some of this realization may be precognitive, but it's possible that Buffy's unconscious could have worked it out. Once Jenny realized the consequences of Buffy's involvement with Angel, she began"”not very subtly"”to try to pry them apart. On an unconscious level, Buffy may have realized that Jenny was something more than she had been admitting to the group.
The dream also acts as wish-fulfillment. Buffy wants to know what happened to Angel, and she wants him back the way he was. The initial part of the dream, her memory of their lovemaking, takes her back to before he was a monster, but it does not tell her what happened or how to fix it. In the cemetery scene, however, Angel gives her enough of a clue for her to piece unconscious cues together and go seeking answers. The cemetery setting is no accident; hours before the dream, Angelus tells her, "Your boyfriend is dead," and Buffy has indeed lost someone very dear to her (2.14). It is no stretch to assume that the funeral is for Angel, or Buffy's innocence, or both. Angel's appearance during the day is also wish-fulfillment, since Buffy has often bemoaned the fact that they never see each other during the day. At the same time, it indicates that Angel"”or at least the version of Angel in the dream"”is not a threat. She does not have to fear the dream-Angel. If he were dangerous, he would not be able to walk around in daylight. It's possible that the dream-Angel is a spirit guide, Angel's soul come to give Buffy a hint, since it no longer resides in his body (Keller 169). Whether Angel's soul is actually in her dream or he is just a projection of Buffy's desires, the outcome is the same: Buffy knows exactly who to go to for information about Angelus.
The third dream takes place after Buffy's fight with Faith and her subsequent offering of her blood to Angel. The two girls lie in adjoining hospital rooms, both suffering from blood loss, and Faith also afflicted with head trauma and a stab wound. Both are unconscious. In the dream, Buffy walks into Faith's apartment. The window is still broken from the fight, and half-packed boxes sit everywhere. Faith is facing the window, her back to Buffy. A small cat sits on her bed. "Who's going to look after him?" Buffy asks.
FAITH. It's a she. And aren't these things supposed to look after themselves?
BUFFY. A higher power guiding us?
FAITH. Pretty sure that's not what I meant.
BUFFY. There's something I'm supposed to be doing.
FAITH. Oh, yeah. Miles to go. Little Miss Muffett counting down from 7-3-0.
BUFFY. Great. Riddles.
FAITH. Sorry, it's my head. Lotta new stuff.
(The cat on the bed flickers and changes into Faith in her hospital gown, lying comatose.)
FAITH. They're never going to fix this, are they?
(The Faith on the bed changes back to the cat.)
BUFFY. What about you?
FAITH. (Turns to face Buffy, motioning to her own face.) Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades.
(Buffy looks down and the knife she used to stab Faith flickers in and out of view in her hand.)
FAITH. You want to know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Not even his.
BUFFY. Is this your mind or mine?
FAITH. (Laughs) Beats me. (She walks toward Buffy.) Getting toward that time.
BUFFY. (Looks around at all the boxes.) How are you going to fit all this stuff?
FAITH. Not gonna. It's yours.
BUFFY. I can't use all of this.
FAITH. Just take what you need. (She reaches out to touch Buffy's face.) You ready?
(The scene flashes to white as Buffy wakes up.) (3.22)
Faith's comment about Little Miss Muffett, while cryptic, does not require analysis outside of the show. It is in place to foreshadow the introduction of Dawn, which takes place two years (or 730 days) later. The rest of dream is full of symbolism, and while Freud claims that most symbolism is personal and cannot be interpreted by anyone but the dreamer, other symbols are universal (170). For example, a person's house represents her body. In this case, Faith's house is destroyed, mirroring her own physical condition. She worries that "they're never going to fix this," meaning both the window and her injuries, and indeed, the doctors claim that the head trauma is too extensive and Faith will probably never wake up (3.21). Faith's belongings are packed, indicating that she will soon be leaving her body in death. She hasn't left, or even finished packing yet, meaning that she is close to death, but not quite dead.
In Freudian symbolism animals stand for younger siblings (Keller 167). Faith and Buffy have each referred to themselves as "big sister" at different times. In this case, the cat represents Faith. Her comment that "these things [are] supposed to take care of themselves" indicates her acceptance of her responsibility for her own life. Just as Buffy had recently fired her Watcher, Wesley, and was ready to graduate from high school, so Faith was ready for a similar rite of passage.
The knife, often a phallic symbol, in this case represents Buffy's understanding that Faith's condition is her doing. The knife appears in her hand, still bloody, as Faith talks about scar tissue. At the same time, the knife is a symbol of what Buffy needs to defeat the Mayor. He gave Faith that knife, and Buffy took it away from her and stabbed her with it. Buffy has often seen the father-daughter affection shared between Faith and the Mayor, and her unconscious mind knows that his weakness is Faith. She reminds Buffy that this weakness will never go away, even after his plan to "ascend" and become a demon is complete. In order to defeat the Mayor, Buffy uses that knife to taunt him"”in his new, ascended, gigantic snake form"”into chasing her into the school building, which has been rigged with explosives.
In-class analysis of these three dreams would guide the students through Freudian dream analysis. Several other dreams in the series, mostly Buffy's but occasionally other characters', can be analyzed and discussed in much the same way. For example, the season four finale, "Restless," is made up of the dreams of the four main characters"”Willow, Xander, Giles, and Buffy. While the dreams are overtly in place because the spirit of the first Slayer is attempting to kill the four because of a spell they performed, they also serve to explore aspects of the characters' psyches"”their fears, wishes, and insecurities"”that are not often seen.
