Vampire Slayer Deontology

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In the television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there is a consistent power struggle between Buffy and Faith. In the early seasons of the 90’s television show they redundantly mind you that the slayer is the chosen one to fight demons. During a slayers adolescence, she is given a watcher to teach her fighting skills and why she must fulfill her duty of fighting evil. There is no evident escape, she is simply chosen. The life of a slayer is fatal and difficult, that being said it requires arduous effort to stay emotionally balanced. A new slayer is appointed when the current slayer is killed. She is recognized among the underworld as a superhero. Faith is a slayer that was activated when Kendra Young was killed by a vampire, and Kendra was…show more content…
Throughout the show Faith is not present. She comes from a neglectful background and is frequently given the opportunity to prove that she is capable of morally just acts and in every instance she proves herself to be unscrupulous and incapable of human compassion. In philosophical terms, it can be said that Buffy focuses on characteristics of deontology, where as Faith follows utilitarian beliefs. Deontology is the philosophical study of the nature of duty and obligation. Utilitarianism is characterized by happiness and consequentialism. Consequentialism focuses on the consequences of actions, versus the actions themselves. It is the belief that one’s actions depend solely on, in Faith’s case, the greater good of evil. Faith also promotes an overactive id, acting primarily on desire. Where as Buffy tends more to her ego, balancing her unconscious and conscious. Neither one of them entirely represent one versus the other, but each of them embodies one more than the other. Concerning a commonality, both slayers face the detriments of superiority and inferiority…show more content…
She has to balance her id and ego, keeping her innate instincts inward and thinking before acting constantly. Her purpose in society to defeat all evil that her town truly represents, feeds her desire to be the hero, her superego. She acts in practical and logical ways. Her unconscious id shows at points, but she always shrugs it off as unimportant. Her purpose in life, to rid the world of demons, forces her to view her position of power as a job that must be taken seriously and done with precision, involving deep logical thought and team work. She dabbles in the id’s necessary pleasure principle, but gains most pleasure from accomplishments that are reality based. Where as Faith lets her id control her. She acts on desire. Whether that be a sexual impulse or a manifested repression, she focuses on power rather than conflict and solution. Buffy leaves wrongful humans, no matter how dangerous, to the justice system. She does not have the license to kill humans, therefore she won’t. It is not so cut and cleans for Faith. The main reason for this occurrence is because of her lack of healthy parental figures. She is unstable and finds her destiny job to be enjoyable. That is if you gain pleasure from pain and darkness as she does. These traits are remarkably similar to a demons perspective, but due to her human form, Buffy can’t kill
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