Je suis une poupée de cire, une poupée de son

[chani]

In School Hard, we met Drusilla and what was the creepiest about her was her gagged dolls that matched gagged Sheila!
Miss Edith, especially, wasn't allowed to watch Dru feeding...Why?


Dru said it was because Miss Edith spoke out of turn and was a bad example...

I used to think that Dru's dolls were a wink to the classic evil dolls in Horror flicks as well as a way to point out Dru's broken innocence. Besides when Angelus sired Dru she stopped growing up and remained a forever child, so it makes sense that she kept playing with dolls and longing for her Daddy! Miss Edith would be the imaginary friend that a lonely child makes up.

But Miss Edith was more than that. Dru seemed to foresee stuff thanks to Miss Edith's whispers and yesterday I read a (spuffy)fanfiction that I recommend, and in which the author gave an interesting explanantion concerning Miss Edith. Here's the link:

Prayers for a Poet

Basically Fetching Mad Scientist, the writer, said that Miss Edith is Dru's "magical whatzit, the leftover from her life, before" and that Drusilla was simply the name she took when becoming a vampire like a nun changed her name when taking her vows(or like Angelus was renamed Liam)) which btw makes sense since Angelus pretented to be a priest hearing her confession before he turned her, and Drusilla was Caligula's sister (and also the name of his daughter!)but "in life, Drusilla was Edith Christine Hillary. Miss Edith."

In a way Angelus played with Dru and she was his doll...the Devil's doll!

William's leftover was Spike's heart, and I think it's quite poetic if Miss Edith was Dru's double or rather a metaphor of Dru's lost humanity. Not an evil doll then, but a shelter for Dru's soul.

Maybe what I like the most in that story is that this is Spike's explanation for Miss Edith. Only a poet could come up with such an idea!

Comments

[chrissie-linnit.livejournal.com]

I like that, and it's a credible explanation for her need to always have Miss Edith somewhere near her.

Dru might not always want to 'hear' what Miss Edith says, but then many of us deny our innermost feelings. Having her psychic power physically represented in a doll possibly allows the Demon to feel empowered. It's quite a tragic picture really, isn't it. Edith/Drusilla, an already fragile human shell possessed by a demon of Liam's making, unable to escape the demon or rid herself of second sight.

Tearing out Miss Ediths eyes and subsequently gagging her is a great way to represent Dru's inability to cope with the spontenaety and uncontrolability of a psychic gift/curse.

Have you ever seen The Man With the X-Ray Eyes, starring Ray Milland? A scientist tests a formula on himself and gains X-Ray vision. First it's a novelty but eventually it becomes a curse and the film ends with him tearing his own eyes out.

The Demon would never allow the shell it inhabits to be damaged and so Drusilla ceremonially 'removes', casts out, her second sight and calls it Miss Edith. I'm sure Dru must have gone through many dolls because every time a message penetrates her consciousness - especially if it is an omen of failure for the Family - she must discard the defaced doll because it didn't work, it didn't stop the voices getting through. She will forever try, and try again, with another doll and another one, forever try to shut out the voice of prophesy... but because the gift will never be quieted and to retain the smallest hold on sanity (and I do believe that Dru had sane moments) she is compelled to keep trying. Dru's existence, to me, seems a fate more fearful than the sword of Damacles.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I wonder about the other dolls too. Was the collection of dolls a metaphor of Dru's victims? I also remember Spike telling Willow in "Lover's Walk" that he gave Dru "beautiful dresses with beautiful girls in them"...it sounded as if said girls were dolls to play with. Like Sheila in "School Hard".

What Dru said about Miss Edith speaking out of turn and when she turned her away shows that sometimes Dru didn't want to hear what Miss Edith said indeed but it also shows that Dru believes in punishment. She was very into punishing Angel for what Angelus did to her family for instance in "What's My Line". She had always had a grudge about that.
But it is always in a twisted way. Angel is punished for what Angelus' crimes, while Dru worships her soulless Daddy, and Miss Edith is punished for what Drusilla did. But after all it makes sense. It is the soul that can be punished in Hell, because it is the soul that can suffer, not the soulless person...Punishing Angelus would be pointless. Dru does have a logic.

Miss Edith being not allowed to watch Dru feeding also kinda reminds me me, in a twisted way, Angel who didn't want to drink blood in front of Buffy. Here Dru decided to turn the doll away. In Angel's case he was the one facing away.

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that Miss Edith represented Dru's soul.


PS: I suppose you haven't gotten the postcard from Jordan. This is crazy. Nobody in Europe got them! But I swear I sent them!

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

Wonderfully logical, not just poetic. Thanks for sharing. I think there is so much more to Dru than a nutcase to dismiss or evil to despise. The character is a rich one and also quite important to the backstory of why Spike is the way he is. I always thought one of the reasons he held on to so much of his humanity was his compassion for Dru and his need for that humanity in caring for her. Without Dru needing those characteristics from him, who knows what parts of William he may have lost over the years.


Ethan, just for my Chani.

Love,
Kathleen
Taking a brief catch up break while writing ch 48 of GLE to get to Mary for beta. Did you catch my NC17 chapter last week? Going to have to actually post on the BoB board too.....been a bit busy this week and only read the digests!

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Thanks for Ethan!

I saw that you posted it but I haven't read it yet. I guess that now I won't dare to comment it with a "it's about time!". ;- )

It is on my to-read list of course.

*hugs*