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Was Angelique SO Wrong? (A Dark Shadows Essay)

Time for another essay about the 1966-1971 gothic daytime soap opera Dark Shadows

When it comes to the 1795 Dark Shadows storyline, I am a bit of an Angelique apologist, with two huge exceptions:

1/ What Angelique does to Victoria Winters, the only person who, in the Collins household, offers Angelique friendship, one of the few people who wants to be kind to Angelique, and Angelique frames Vicki for being a witch (instead of herself)! Yes, it was an act of self-preservation on Angelique’s part, but it was still a nasty thing to do.

2/ What Angelique does to Sarah Collins when Barnabas tells Angelique that he knows that Angelique is a witch. Yeah, I get it, Angelique, you’re angry as heck at Barnabas, but sticking pins in a voodoo doll representing Barnabas’ little sister and then threatening to stick one right in the dolly’s heart? Sorry, that’s a step way, way too far. I was totally on your side before that (I wasn’t all that fond of Vicki, sorry).

Still… let me tell you why I have more compassion for Angelique than I do for most villains.

If you want a really thought-provoking book about Angelique’s background, pick up a copy of the novel Angelique’s Descent, written by actress Lara Parker herself.

But, since many DS fans haven’t read that book yet, I’m going to stick to talking about what the original series shows and tells us about Angelique.

At a young age, in Martinque, Angelique was brought into the du Prés family as a lady’s maid for Countess Natalie du Prés (and possibly for her niece Josette). Angelique has had to learn the ins and outs of working as a maid, thereby learning about everything from table manners to the current fashions. Angelique is seen by Natalie as a rather dull, uninteresting youngster. But Angelique is no fool. She, through observation, has learned all the manners and mannerisms of the privileged class. Is it surprising that Angelique has thoughts above her station in life?

Angelique’s relationship to Josette is… complicated. In some ways, they’re almost friends, chattering away at each other in French, embracing when they first encounter each other at the Collins Estate. I do not feel that Angelique exactly dislikes Josette, nor does she actively wish Josette any direct harm (not while Angelique is a living human, anyway). However, Angelique is definitely envious of Josette, and must be thinking, Why does Josette have all the wealth and privileges, and I don’t? Just through some accident of birth? Why not me? How is this fair?

We know that Angelique borrows Josette’s perfume, tries on her clothes, and has taken as her boyfriends the suitors that Josette cast off. Knowing that Angelique could so easily do this, is it any wonder that Angelique thinks Why not me?

Then Barnabas Collins (son of Joshua Collins, a Puritanical father and rich capitalist, a man who raised his son to be “a man of honor”) comes to Martinique to pursue a marriage with Josette, a woman who, from all indications, he knew little about before he went to that island nation. We do not know if this trip is one that Barnabas planned himself, or if it’s Joshua’s wish that Barnabas marry a rich woman with a sugar plantation. Whichever it was, Barnabas meets Angelique, and they have an affair.

Now, we do not know how many girlfriends Barnabas has had in his past. We do not know whether or not he was a virgin before he came to Martinique. What we do know, though, is that such a young man does not just naturally go down to Martinique and act like a frat boy on Spring Break. He does not think he’s there for the purpose of seducing and abandoning anyone. He certainly doesn’t seem the type to have left a string of broken hearts in his past. So, it wouldn’t be too much in the way of speculation that Angelique and Barnabas’ affair was more than “just one of those things.” A man of honor doesn’t deprive a woman of her virtue by sleeping with her if he feels nothing for her. Now, we technically don’t know, from the show, if Angelique was a maiden before Barnabas—we don’t officially know if she slept with any of Josette’s castoff suitors, but we do know that in previous times, a woman’s virtue was a precious commodity if she wished to be married.

I mention this because I believe that both Barnabas and Angelique knew exactly what was at stake when they became a couple. If Angelique and he had been caught in an embrace, Angelique would have not only lost her reputation, she would have lost her position with the du Prés family, her livelihood, and any future prospects of employment, as the du Prés family was not only a rich but also a powerful family in Martinique. Barnabas was no idiot, nor a man of whim and caprice, and so I believe that he would not have taken such a love affair lightly, especially one that could have endangered the present and future of the woman he was with. So, with so much at stake, the affair must have meant something to both of them. In fact, Barnabas admits, later, that it did, then, but after Josette agreed to marry him, the affair was, for him, something he wanted to just be a thing of the past.

More leaves. Poisonous? Who knows? Angelique knows, that's whom.
More leaves. Poisonous? Who knows? Angelique knows, that’s whom.

Now, Barnabas was not exactly a man of the world, but he wasn’t sheltered either. He worked at the shipyards. He knew what sailors are like, and Nathan Forbes, a naval lieutenant (and soldier of fortune) was his friend. 

So… what bugs me is that Barnabas was naïve enough to think that he could marry Josette without having a long talk with Angelique first, knowing that the Countess Natalie du Prés and her personal maid, Angelique, would show up before the wedding!

The only thing I can think of is that Barnabas, understanding that Natalie and Angelique were going to show up a day or two before the wedding, thought that he could avoid Angelique and the difficult discussion that a man of honor should have had with his affair partner. But fate screwed up. Josette’s ship was delayed, so she showed up late. Natalie and Angelique showed up early, because Natalie got tired of New York and decided to check out Collinsport instead. So, Barnabas must have originally thought, I’ll be married to Josette, and it’ll be too late for Angelique to say anything. After all, what could Angelique say that wouldn’t endanger her position with the du Prés family? Then Natalie and Angelique will go back to Martinique, and I can have my safe, Father-approved marriage, and not have to think about the affair that meant something then but which I don’t want to think about now.

If this is so, well, it means Barnabas was, in this one regard, at least, quite the coward.

Angelique, meanwhile, must have thought, If I could only talk to him, if I could only embrace him, if I could only remind him what we meant to each other, Barnabas will come to his senses.

Two awkward conversations later, including a big smooch that Barnabas threw himself into, Angelique is filled with the fury of a woman scorned.

She first does a little voodoo on a toy soldier, and Barnabas starts choking to death. Oops– Angelique, who we now know is a witch, went a little too far, and manages to undo the damage.

Now, if Angelique was truly evil, what she might have done was that she might have just killed Josette with magic, and then she would get to be Barnabas’ comfort in his time of grief. Getting the personal items she’d need to use against Josette would be much easier for her than the efforts it would take to get what she’d need to cast a spell on anyone else!

She does not do that. Why? Well, on a practical level, she and Natalie would probably have to go back to Martinque, and bye bye love, bye bye happiness… But on a deeper level, she doesn’t do it because she does not hate Josette enough to kill her (at that point, anyway, but that’s a story for another time, perhaps).

Instead, Angelique tries to wreck Josette’s reputation by putting a one-sided love spell on Josette to make Josette make a play for Jeremiah Collins, Barnabas’ uncle and friend. Well, that doesn’t work, so, hey, Angelique makes both of them fall in love with each other, and get married. It’s a win-win situation. Josette gets a Collins and Barnabas becomes a free man.

Only Barnabas is an idiot and shoots Jeremiah in a duel instead.

Heavy sigh.

The tragedy of Jeremiah is not Angelique’s fault. It is Barnabas’ fury that caused that death.

I could write more, but suffice to say, I feel Angelique was as sinned against as sinning… at least at first.