The beginning and the end - the Romeo and the Juliet

More has been said, written and debated on the story of the two quintessential lovers than one might read, hear and debate in his or her lifetime. And while analysts of modern and post-modern culture have all rushed to uncover mysterious hints that such a myth was, indeed, taken over, interpreted and re-interpreted in various works and versions, few have shown considerable interest to one of the most unexpected sources of myths "reloaded" - of THE MYTH reloaded. And that is what many would discard as being a simple, corny "teenage TV series". However, at least one comprehensive paper has been written on the matter, and that is Jenny Crusie's essay:"Dating Death: Love and Sex in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer". With that, I have also disclosed the name of the TV series I was referring to, but it's a sacrifice worth making if it will direct you to read her paper.
By the time I started reading the paper, I was already 80 percent determined to start watching again, from the beginning, the TV show that had made quite an impression on me, quite a few years before, when I was but a hopelessly romantic teenager. But then this essay came up and revealed gates and windows that I never new existed, but which gave me an extraordinary complex insight. And while I'm not planning to provide a detailed description of how this film has made me feel, nor even attempt to come up with my own critical approach, I would like to share my thoughts, unsophisticated and unlearned as they may appear, on how the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" re-discusses and re-creates the essentials of Romeo and Juliet.
Contrary to what most people would say first-hand, the story of Romeo of Juliet is not of one love that brings together two conflicting families but, to a far greater extent, it is the story of how two conflicting worlds are brought together and struggle to survive the passion and flame of only one love. It is the story of a sun and a moon sharing the same sky, of two wooden bridged built over the same river, of the beginning and the end of the same destiny.
From this point of view, the analogy with Angel and Buffy only comes natural. They do represent conflicting worlds, one is a creature of the night, the other is a creature of the light, they walk in the same direction but on parallel roads, that are never meant to meet. And when the unthinkable happens, when the two warriors unite under the sky of the same passion, Hell is unleashed and Heaven brought down to Earth...
And that is, pretty much, the base line in Buffy's story. She lives in a town that is virtually above hell, but she is pretty much a chosen one of the heavens, she who will deliver human kind from all evil (pictured, this time, in demons and vampires). He is a damned one, a demon of dual nature, both in his name and in his being. The name Angel/Angelus is a reflection of this. If Angel, who bears the name of a saviour, is in fact a demon with human soul and conscience (who, ironically enough, lives his eternal hell on earth), Angelus, his soul-less alter ego, is the personification of evil itself. And what better shape can evil find than that of one who destroys the personification of good?
There are some things, experiences and feelings, that anyone can relate to, regardless of the shape such things are presented in. The story of Romeo and Juliet, or its more modern version of Angel and Buffy, appeals to anyone who can get a glimpse at the inside worlds it brings to light. It's the world of our own souls, reflected, and maybe refracted, in the turbulent waters of never ending struggles between good and evil, between darkness and light, between the conflicting universes that make of each of us so universally human, and yet so unique.