Page "Willow Rosenberg" Paragraph 15

From the inception of Willow's character in the first season, she is presented with contradictions.

Bookish, rational, naive, and sometimes absent-minded, she is also shown being open to magic, aggressively boyish, and intensely focused.

Willow is malleable, in continuous transition more so than any other Buffy character.

She is, however, consistently labeled as dependable and reliable by the other characters and thus to the audience, making her appear to be stable.

She is unsure of who she is ; despite all the tasks she takes on and excels at, for much of the series she has no identity.

This is specifically exhibited in the fourth season finale " Restless ", an enigmatic pastiche of characters ' dream sequences.

In Willow's dream, she moves from an intimate moment painting a love poem by Sappho on Tara's bare back, to attending the first day of drama class to learn that she is to be in a play performed immediately for which she does not know the lines or understand.

The dream presents poignant anxieties about how she appears to others, not belonging, and the consequences of people finding out her true self.

As Willow gives a book report in front of her high school class, she discovers herself wearing the same mousy outfit she wore in the first episode of the show (" Welcome to the Hellmouth ") as her friends and classmates shout derisively at her, and Oz and Tara whisper intimately to each other in the audience.

She is attacked and strangled by the First Slayer as the class ignores her cries for help.