The Soul issue:  free will and Christian metaphor in Spike’s journey

The goal of this analysis will be to determine if there can be a valid explanation to the inconsistencies found in the behavior of Spike in relation to Angel and other vampires in the Buffyverse, and the concept of vampires free will and how it’s linked to their lack of soul. 

Premises of the Buffyverse

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Universe has a whole set of rules that do not apply to other Vampire Universes.  For instance, the premise of the show is that vampires are humans who are dead, (most info use in this article comes from Wikipedia and Aquina Summa Theologica), whose soul is taken away, and whose bodies then come to be inhabited by a bloodlust demon, who is very basic in its needs and instincts.  The remaining of the person functions are unaltered, they retain memories and even some personality (or rather repressed personality) traits are present. 

Most importantly, the vampire still have reason, language and is capable of emotions.  There is still humanity in it.  And is that humanity that determines cruelty or lackthereof. 

Humanity vs Soul

This quote from the Judge when he addressed Spike and Dru:

Quote:

“You two stink of humanity. You share affection and jealousy.”   (Surprise S2)

Indicates that humanity and soul therefore are two things that can exist separately.   While the Judge, finds no humanity in Angel, after he gets unsoulled earlier in the same episode.

What is a soul then and why some vampires retain aspects of humanity?  There are literality hundreds of definitions, but in general a soul is a self-aware essence, an essence that makes humans sentient.  Also called Anima, it indicates that animates, makes things alive. 

Plato says that there are three elements in the soul:

4.         the logos (mind, nous, superego, or reason)

5.         the thymos (emotion, ego, or spiritedness)

6.         the pathos (appetitive, id, or carnal) 

And the demon that remains in the vampire animates the body with all three elements of an actual soul.  The vampire still thinks, reasons, feels emotion, and of course, feels appetite.   The appetite, or concupiscence in Christian terminology, is the dominating trait in this borrowed pseudo-soul, turning a rational creature into a killer, whose principal interest is feeding and preying. 

But as we see, the other two components are in existence too.  The Thymos element is also important: emotions such as anger, resentment, pride are very common in the vampires and we see it in Angel when he becomes Angelus.   Love is also possible, as we see in the Spike/Dru and later Spike/Buffy relationship.