Stefan Salvatore part 2

[lauren3210]

Part 2 of this incredibly long essay!

Stefan doesn’t stop to think about whether his decision to manipulate these people is right, either, because in the very next episode, he is back to manipulating Damon in order to get him to do what he wants:

STEFAN: Anna took Elena.

DAMON: Yeah, I got that from your 600 voicemails.

STEFAN: Damon, all night long, every single street in town, I've been searching. What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?

DAMON: Well at least you know you'll see her again.

STEFAN: Damon, please. What do you know? You were with Anna, you must know where's she living. Just tell me where I can find her.

DAMON: Nope. You can go. Really.

STEFAN: You know, all I can remember is hating you. There might have been a time when that was different, but your choices have erased anything good about you. But see, I also know you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me. And I'm sorry.

DAMON: Apology accepted.

STEFAN: So please, just tell me what you know. It's Elena, Damon. If you know something, tell me.

DAMON: I mean this sincerely- I hope Elena dies.

The fact that Stefan chooses this moment to offer up an apology for the role he played in Damon’s life just proves that he is not being sincere; he is manipulating Damon yet again to get what he wants.  It is obvious that he needs Damon’s help in this situation, but he won’t just ask for his help; he has to try and guilt Damon into helping.  It’s as though Stefan doesn’t know of any other way to get what he wants from people, or believe that they would give it to him willingly.  Just imagine if the above scene had gone like this, for example:

STEFAN:  Damon, Anna took Elena.

DAMON:  Yeah, I got that from your 600 voicemails.

STEFAN:  Damon, please, I know I hurt you last night, but Elena is in real trouble right now!

DAMON:  I mean this sincerely – I hope Elena dies.

STEFAN:  You don’t mean that.  It wasn’t her fault that she betrayed you, I made her do it!  I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry.

If Stefan, instead of pretending to be sorry for his part of the pain that Damon has suffered in the past, actually apologised for the most recent thing that he did to hurt Damon, I suspect the conversation would have gone a lot differently.  What compounds Stefan’s actions here are the following actions from Damon.  He decides to help anyway, even though he doesn’t tell Stefan this.

It is therefore established that as a human, Stefan manipulated people by omission out of the sense of morality.  As a vampire sustaining himself on animal blood, it is established that he manipulates people into doing what he wants, but not always consciously.  But what about when he is drinking human blood?  Does this factor change the way he interacts with people?  We get our first glimpse of this during Miss Mystic Falls (episode 1x19):

STEFAN: What’s going on in here?

DAMON: I was just filling Elena on your extra-curricular activities.

STEFAN (laughing): What are you talking about?

ELENA: I know about the blood, Stefan.

DAMON: I'm uh - I’ll be downstairs, drinking

(He leaves. Stefan smiles)

STEFAN: I was going to tell you.

ELENA: When?

STEFAN: I’m fine. I’m fine, the blood, it doesn’t change anything.

ELENA: It’s changing you.

STEFAN: Why? Because I kept it a secret from you? Come on Elena, look, giving the way you’re reacting right now, can you really blame me for doing that?

ELENA: Are you hearing yourself right now? You’ve been stealing blood and lying and you say that everything’s fine? Everything’s not fine, Stefan!

STEFAN: So what - so you and Damon all of a sudden have everything figured out then?

ELENA: It‘s not about Damon. It’s about what’s happening to you

STEFAN: I know and I’m telling you that I’m fine. I’m fine. Please, come on. Elena I thought you… I thought you believed in me.

(Someone is knocking on the door. It’s Carole Lockwood)

CAROLE LOCKWOOD: Elena, let’s go. The line up’s starting

ELENA: I just… I need a minute

CAROLE LOCKWOOD: You’re not even dressed yet. Escorts wait downstairs, Stefan.

(He looks at Elena and leaves)

From this conversation, it is clear that Stefan tries to manipulate Elena on two fronts; first, by trying to insinuate that Elena and Damon are somehow colluding behind his back, and second, by trying to make her feel guilty for thinking less than wonderful thoughts about him.  It should be noted that these are the actions and words that an addict would use in a confrontational setting, but the manipulation cannot be ignored, especially as it has now become an established thread of Stefan’s character, one that weaves through each facet of his personality that we have thus far been shown.

This manipulative streak is carried through again into the next phase of Stefan’s season 1 character arc; that of withdrawal.  In Blood Brothers (1x20), as Stefan is suffering from withdrawal from his latest binge on human blood, he is depressed and suicidal over the guilt that he feels, not only for his latest crimes, but also the sins that he has committed since becoming a vampire.  When Elena begs him to tell her why he is refusing to eat, he tells her (in flashback) how he transitioned into being a vampire:

ELENA: Talk to me, Stefan. Why are you doing this?

STEFAN: I'm making the decision I should have made years ago.

ELENA: What are you talking about?

STEFAN: You have to feed in order to complete the transition.

ELENA: I know that.

STEFAN: It was a choice I shouldn't have made.

From this conversation, it is clear that he is currently feeling the guilt of all of his sins since becoming a vampire.  But still, he lies through omission here.  While he reminisces about how he was turned into a vampire, and the choices that he has made since then, he doesn’t bring up the one moment of his past that he feels the most guilt over; that of the part he played in Damon’s transition.  He leaves Elena to assume that just as he made the choice to transition, so did Damon.  Elena, as she is wont to do, assumes that Stefan’s version of events is completely truthful, and she eventually has to learn the truth from Damon.  As Stefan is suffering from withdrawal at this point, it is unlikely that he manipulates the situation from a desire to cause pain to anybody.  His own guilt and pain are the only things that he can concentrate on at this point in time.  But what this says about his character is that he even uses his manipulative streak against himself.  In this moment, he is lying by omission to himself, as a self-preservation tactic.  The guilt he feels over forcing Damon to transition is so immense that he can’t even admit it to himself at this point, so he ignores it; cuts this moment out of his own narrative.

As Stefan’s character arc continues into season 2, we find him more comfortable in his relationship with Elena, more comfortable in his relationship with his brother, and more settled into his role within Mystic Falls in general.  And this is where we see his manipulative streak become more obvious, suggesting a transition within Stefan himself, as he becomes more conscious of this ability.  The first instance of this newfound comfort is in Memory Lane (2x04), where he manipulates Katherine into revealing what her plan is:

KATHERINE: Why did you keep this picture? Why not burn it? Tear it up? You want to know why I came back. Well I have a better question: Why did you? For Elena? No. You came back here to fall in love with me all over again, didn’t you?

(He moves toward her and touches her face)

STEFAN: What is it about you that makes me still care?

(She kisses him but he put a vervain dart in her back. She falls on the couch.)

What this suggests is that he has become more aware of his ability to manipulate others who care for him, and not just the two he is currently closest with.  As season 2 progresses, we see Stefan branch out in this area, and start to use these tactics more and more consciously, and with other characters.  We see this first, and perhaps most prominently, with Caroline in Katerina (2x09):

STEFAN: Okay, now I’m leaving.

CAROLINE: Wait…!

STEFAN: No, no, no, Caroline, you have two seconds to come clean.

CAROLINE: What do you mean?

STEFAN: I’d believe the whole innocent act a little bit better if I didn’t know how good you were at providing a distraction on demand. Where is Elena?

CAROLINE: I can’t tell you.

STEFAN: You can’t tell me? Are you kidding me?

CAROLINE: I’m sorry but I… I can’t tell you.

STEFAN: Caroline! Elena was kidnapped, she could have been killed and you’re seriously not gonna tell me where she is?

CAROLINE: She’s not in any danger. I would not have let her put herself in danger.

STEFAN: Put herself in danger where? What do you…? She’s with Damon isn’t she?

CAROLINE: Ew, no.

STEFAN: Then where… where is she? Listen, if you’re my friend like you’ve been pretending to be all day, then you’ll tell me where she is.

CAROLINE: Stefan, I am your friend but I’m also Elena’s friend and I’m sorry but I’m not going to tell you where she is.

(He looks at her and leaves)

What is interesting about this interaction, is the four separate ways in which he tries to manipulate Caroline into giving him the information that he wants.  First, he tries anger, by insinuating that she is pretending to behave innocently.  While it is true that she is trying to keep him distracted, it doesn’t make the concerns she is airing to him, as a friend, as any less important to her, but he just dismisses her worries as a distracting technique to keep him from his goal.  Next, he tries guilt, by trying to appeal to Caroline’s sense of loyalty to her friend.  When this doesn’t work, he actually just tries using his own feelings, which is a rarity for Stefan.  He uses his genuine concern over the slowly growing bond between Damon and Elena in order to elicit a pitying response from Caroline, so that she will want to tell him what he wants to know to make him feel better.  When this doesn’t work, he goes back to guilt, hoping that by playing on Caroline’s feelings for him, she will give him what he wants.  Finally, once he has exhausted all of his manipulation techniques, he gives up and walks away, not understanding that there may be other ways of talking to Caroline, or realising that sometimes what he wants isn’t the most important thing.

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