Abstract
This study discusses how the different morals of justice and love are thematized in the role of Buffy Summers, the main protagonist in the Saturn Award-winning TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Prior to the 20th century, vampire served as antagonists, depicted as the embodiment of evil in various media. The modern vampire genre has re-envisioned vampires as sympathetic main characters. On the small screen, the vampire Angel in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", who becomes Buffy's love interest in the show's early seasons, is not only enigmatic but also benevolent. In this context, this work analyzes the extent to which the moral stages of Buffy correspond to her vacillating between her mission, namely, to fight in the cause of justice, and her love for a vampire. Based on Michael J. Sandel's three philosophies of justice, namely, maximizing happiness, respecting human dignity, and promoting virtue, the analysis revealed that the moral stages of Buffy Show the necessity and difficulty of upholding the third idea of justice, or the promotion of virtue, in her mission to save the human lives given that she lacked high social standing.
Author Information
Sayaka Oki, Doshisha University, Japan
Paper Information
Conference: LibrAsia2016
Stream: Literature - Comparative Literature
This paper is part of the LibrAsia2016 Conference Proceedings (View)
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