Who Barnabas Loves
There has been an ongoing controversy among Dark Shadows fans as to which of his many conquests Barnabas Collins, our favorite vampire. loved. The choices as I see them are Josette, Angelique, Roxanne, Victoria, Maggie, and Julia. I think there are all kinds of love, and I think that Barnabas loved all of them in various ways, but I’m talking about a specific type of love that exists between people who are each other’s significant other one. I would bet if I took a poll, it would be a close tie between Josette and Julia.
I tend to think that you can rule out Victoria and Maggie, because they were just surrogates for Josette. I think that Barnabas later developed genuine affection for both of these women, but never really loved either in the romantic way.
I think that Barnabas’ feelings for Josette more resembled an obsession than anything else. That obsession was in part fueled by the forbiddenness of their secret relationship, since Josette was engaged to someone else. I do volunteer work for an agency that helps with sexual addiction, something I’m both professionally and personally familiar with.
The old proverb says that stolen waters are sweet. In sexual addiction research, we know that sexual experiences are intensified when the added elements of secrecy, forbiddenness, and risk are present. While this might be a motivation to commit adultery, the sorrows and dangers of sexual addiction are not to be taken lightly. I would personally rule out Josette as a candidate for Barnabas’ true love because he never really made any sacrifices for her that weren’t driven by obsession. I would say that Roxanne fits that same category, even though the element of forbiddenness was not as strong.
That leaves us with Angelique and Julia. That’s a fairly narrow field. As I said before, I think Julia would win if a poll were taken between these two women. I personally tend to prefer to think that Barnabas’ true love was Angelique. I like the chemistry between them and I’m just realistic enough to think that real love involves a lot of conflict and having to grow into appreciation. I based my fan fiction novel, Dark Redemption, on that very idea.
I also take as evidence the admission of Barnabas’ that he did indeed love Angelique. This he did in the 1840 timeline where Barnabas went on trial for witchcraft.
Even more realistically, I think that Barnabas can’t really be pinned down to love just one woman. All of his women he loved in various ways. Most of all, I love the growth of Barnabas from selfish, indulged rich boy wicked vampire to a man who ultimately loved his family and friends with a fierce loyalty. To me, love requires sacrifice and the taking of risks. These Barnabas learned in the end.
I question the “forbiddeness” of the Barnabas/ Josette love.Remember- Barnabas was engaged to marry Josette , then Jeremiah “stole” her away from him.
You have a few details wrong. First Josette was not engaged to anyone other than Barnabas, at least once we enter the 1795 storyline. Before this we learned that she had married Jeremiah but not the exact details of this. We’d been led to believe that she came to Collinwood as Jeremiah’s bride and that Barnabas fell in love with her. But upon entering the storyline we learn that she was engaged to Barnabas but through Angelique’s witchcraft she elopes with Jeremiah and they both regret this later on.
I don’t think Barnabas and Josette knew each other very well but due to the tragedy their relationship had suffered he idealized her and held her to be the perfect woman, so when he is released into the present day world he wants to find another woman who is similar to her to replace her. Maggie looks like her so he tries to change her into Josette but this doesn’t work because Maggie wants to be herself instead of becoming someone else. He tries with Vicki but Vicki is in love with Burke and later with Jeff/Peter so though over time he comes to love Vicki for herself and not just as a Josette replacement, he can’t have her since she loves another man.
Barnabas was not the one on trial for witchcraft in 1840, it was Quentin. Angelique has a part in freeing Quentin and Desmond just as Quentin is fixing to lay his head down on the block. Her testimony was not quite enough to free them but when Desmond shoots Gerard and the head of Judah turns into a skeleton, the judge realizes that Judah had been possessing Gerard and not Quentin. For Angelique’s part in this, Barnabas suddenly decides he loves her and has all along. I am extremely skeptical of this “love” since he seems to have forgotten all the grief she’d caused him in the past (the destruction of his whole family) and even her recent deeds in 1840, the death of Roxanne by vampirism and being forced by her brother to face daylight and the sufferings of his good friend Julia.
Julia, as we know, loved Barnabas and had many times risked her life for him. She had followed him to the past and parallel time to help him and he had finally come to appreciate her and care for her. But he did not love her other than as a friend.
It seems the only way we can truly determine who Barnabas’ true love was is by whether the love was mutual or not. With Josette it was mutual, but IMO it lacked depth, they didn’t truly know each other that well. With Maggie and Vicki it was unrequited since they both loved other men. With Angelique for the most part it was unrequited since she loved him but he did not love her. With Roxanne it was mutual but tragedy intervened both in parallel time and in 1840. I feel that these relationships also lacked depth since they didn’t know each other well (not really having time before the tragedy occurred). With Julia it was also unrequited but they did come to know each other very well.
I think that after their return to the present, Barnabas and Julia eventually got together but that’s just conjecture on my part.
Alondra
Ah, yes. You are right Jim. I had forgotten a lot of that. It became forbidden after she married Jeremiah.
Alondra, thanks. So, it’s been way too long since I’ve seen it all. I probably should watch those episodes again. You are right about the witchcraft trial now that I think about it, but when Angelique died, Barnabas did confess that he loved her. My money is still on Angelique. I don’t think Barnabas and Julia would have ever been anything other than very good friends.
Wow, Alondra, great memory! I don’t recall that we’re ever told how long Barnabas and Josette knew each other before she came to Collinwood. I thought there was mention of some letters too.
Here’s my speculation of the beginnings of the Barnabas, Josette, and Angelique triangle: http://www.readersclubs.com/darkred/?p=24