Angelique: Heroine or Villainess?

At first, Lara Parker hated the role of Angelique. “I always wanted to play the heroine”, Lara would lament. Lara won the role of the evil witch, Angelique in the late fall of 1967 at an audition at the Dark Shadows studios in a love scene with Jonathan Frid. Lara remembers that when she first came on the show, she wanted to play the heroine. “Jonathan used to admonish me often. ‘You have the plum role. Don’t weep,’ he would say, ‘Don’t snivel and play the victim. You’re not the heroine, you’re they heavy.!’” Jonathan advised Lara that she must “dig deeper” within herself to find the rage, hatred and jealously that motivated Angelique. Lara did take Jonathan’s advice and often credits Jonathan Frid for her realization that playing the part of the villain was indeed the ‘best role’. Lara did begin to enjoy playing the role of Angelique, (and as Lara puts it), “with a vengeance!” The introduction of “Angelique” came a few months after the introduction of Barnabas Collins in late 1967 during a story flashback to the year 1795 in order to provide the history of how Barnabas Collins became a vampire. Angelique, the beautiful, young servant girl of Barnabas’ fiancé, Josette DuPres and Barnabas become lovers. Not realizing this lovely young woman is a witch, he jilts her in favor of marrying her mistress. Deep rage, jealousy and revenge fill Angelique and she unleashes her ‘dark powers’ against the inhabitants at Collinwood. Barnabas learns of her use of witchcraft and attempts to kill her. Believing that death is near, Angelique curses Barnabas to eternity as one of the living dead and he is fatally bitten by the bat she summons. Instead, Angelique recovers and deeply regrets the curse she has placed on Barnabas and attempts to remove it. Angelique’s power fails her and in a final attempt to spare Barnabas from his eternal doom, goes to his crypt to destroy him. He awakens before the deed is done and in his incredible rage with the discovery of his new monstrous existence, strangles Angelique killing her.

​​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​The character of "Angelique" catches on quickly with viewers, making her important, permanent character on Dark Shadows who continues to return in an ageless immortal form as the series continues. Hard to ignore, and atypical of the stereotypical caldron-stirring crone that we usually associate with witches, Angelique is beautiful, young and brings some much needed sexuality to the show. As a result of Lara’s talent and popularity, she consistently places in the top 10 daytime TV actresses for her role on this very unusual daytime drama. Today, Lara is seen as a cultural icon for her role on Dark Shadows and considers this very first professional role of “Angelique” to be the ‘best role she ever had’ in over 25 years of an active career as an actress.

​

Initially, Angelique is viewed as an inherently evil character and vengeful enemy of our hero, Barnabas, she begins to grow out of her rage at his betrayal of her and viewers begin to relate to her as a woman scorned and treated badly by the man she loves. Angelique continues to believe in, and remains committed to the love she and Barnabas had and is determined to see it realized despite his refusal to acknowledge her very ‘capacity’ to love because she is a “witch”. He continues to reject her, failing to see the very similarity of their circumstance and existence. In an article Lara Parker wrote for the “Dark Shadows Companion”* states it best: “Barnabas and Angelique are the perfect couple. Only they truly understand one another. They alone know one another’s darkest secrets. They could relate to each other as no other couple could.” The continued ‘tension’ between Barnabas and Angelique throughout the series became integral part of the show’s appeal and endurance.

​​

​

​In the same article Lara wrote entitled “Out of Angelique’s Shadow”, Lara explains how her interpretation of Angelique came about: “The witch… was a common character, or archetype, in literature and drama, going back as far as the story of Adam and Eve. She was often seen as a wise old woman or as an angry, righteous goddess in mythology. She was separated from the others by her intelligence. “ “From this”, Lara explains, “I began to think of Angelique as smarter than the others. She saw through their false protestations of virtue, and knew that even the best were corruptible. She was impatient with virtue, and saw it as hypocrisy, naivete, or simply weakness. Her irritation with others’ stupidity caused her to use her powers heartlessly, but her contempt for the tiresome and the obtuse kept her from feeling any guilt.”​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​DS devotees appreciate Angelique’s intelligence as a woman/witch who keenly recognizes the treacherous supernatural world that surrounds the inhabitants of Collinwood, threatening the man she loves. Angelique is torn between by her desire to punish Barnabas for his continued rejection of her to using her powers to protect him from the very ‘evil’ she is expected to be aligned with. She wholly believes in the love they shared and that her evil nature will not exist if he can once again, love her in return. She often risks great punishment from the dark lords that rule her for submitting to the human emotion of “love”; and at one point suffers the irony of being forced to live as a vampire without her supernatural powers as punishment for loving Barnabas. 

​

​Barnabas, on the other hand, is convinced that Angelique can only be contemptible and evil because of her ‘nature’ and that he could never again love her.  However, in spite of his attempts throughout the series to destroy Angelique and to keep her out of his life, our hero-Barnabas finds himself more often than not, imploring this lovely sorceress to utilize the very dark powers he despises her for in order to affect the results he desires. Time and time again, it is actually Angelique who rescues Barnabas and his family from the forces of evil and impending doom, making her every bit the heroine to Barnabas’ ‘hero’. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Storylines that best illustrate Angelique’s intervention cannot be ignored: In the 1897 flashback, Angelique changes the fate of Quentin Collins, raising him from the dead so his malevolent ghost doesn’t threaten the present day Collins children. She interferes with the plans of the powerful Count Petofi frequently, refuses an alliance with him and destroys the Phoenix, Laura Collins from killing her own children, saving the direct line of Collins descendants that Barnabas went back in time to rescue. Most importantly, she releases Barnabas from his curse when she creates a doppelganger (duplicate/replica) of Barnabas that is destroyed instead of the real Barnabas when Charity Trask drives a stake through his (the doppleganger’s) heart. In the present time, Angelique defeats the powerful warlock, Nicholas Blair twice as he carries out their dark master’s plan to create new races of humans through Adam in 1968 and the Leviathan’s in 1970.  Finally, in 1840 Angelique fights her most feared enemy when she successfully defeats the ultimately evil disembodied warlock Judah Zachary who possesses the body of Gerard Stilles. By doing so, she saves the entire Collins family of that time period and preserves the Collins family in the present time and in the future.  Angelique does so at the ultimate sacrifice of her own life when she becomes human in is shot, fatally wounded and never hears the long-awaited confession by Barnabas of his love for her as she dies in his arms. Angelique was truly the heroine in each of these storylines. The present day and future of the Collins family is to exist largely due to her intervention. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Angelique is easy to demonize, but we are enthralled when she propagates evil and enjoy the horrific special effects we see from her use of her powers. We resist viewing Angelique as a “heroine” in spite of any role she plays in resolving the conflict in Barnabas’ because we are taught to reject and fear such power as being the work of the devil and is evil.  Largely due to Lara’s portrayal, Angelique is attractive to us, not just because of her physical beauty, but for the strengths and convictions she demonstrates time and time again. She’s represents an intriguing paradox that breaks many stereotypes related to women—and she is certainly everything but a broom-stick-riding, ugly old crone.      

 

Dark Shadows originally aired in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s when the women’s movement marked a great transition of the evolving roles of women in our society. Women began to assert themselves more dynamically by demanding equal rights and seeking validation in a male dominated world. The notion of the stereotypical gothic heroine (originally Victoria Winters) just didn’t appeal any longer. The solid turn DS had taken toward the supernatural and the meteoric rise to popularity of the vampire, Barnabas Collins made him the perfect hero for the series. The only other character that was able to influence the type of evil prevalent at Collinwood, was Angelique, who became in many ways, a role model, especially for women. 

 

Tough, yet feminine Angelique was independent of the man she loved, but certainly dependent upon his love to make her whole. Certainly anything but subservient or weak, she was her own person, unafraid to assert herself or demonstrate her intellectual skills. She was a far cry from the typical helpless innocent we normally associated with our notion of a “heroine”—and this intrigued many followers.  Angelique had the unique ability to protect herself and those she loved by inflicting profound regret on anyone that chose to cross or hurt her. Who among us can honestly claim that we haven’t occasionally wished for our very own voodoo doll representation of someone who has hurt or treated us badly?  Male viewers saw her as mysterious and dangerous yet alluring and ultimately desirable. Angelique was a bright strategist who could play at a higher level, making it her business to know the game and how to most effectively play it to win-even when the stakes were very high in her world. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

The enduring appeal of Dark Shadows seems to rest in the viewer’s ability to truly relate to true human condition.  Gone were the portrayals of the “Ozzie & Harriet” type families that we all knew did not really represent family life in our own experiences. Though certainly exaggerated by the supernatural component of Dark Shadows, we especially found people at Collinwood that that represented a combination of good and bad, of people that struggled with the duality of their own nature and people that were different than we may have been trained to look at them in our world.

 

Lara’s portrayal of Angelique shows a woman who possesses enormous power she could exploit to her every whim (the ultimate temptation for any of us)! Yet, with so much power within her grasp, she would happily choose to forfeit it all for the ultimate of all “goodness”—a true and enduring love!  Angelique is not by her nature, a ‘good-deed-doer’. She does what she does for her own end result (really, don’t we all?) and makes no excuse otherwise. She is well aware that she could pay a very high price for how she chooses to use her powers. She triumphs as a heroine, not just because she puts an end to the conflict Barnabas fights for, but most importantly, because she demonstrates great perseverance and strength of will as she continually wages war with her own duality. She resolves it by choosing a higher course of action that sometimes she doesn’t want to take, but one which not only saves the inhabitants of Collinwood, but in many ways provides redemption of past acts and certainly shows the depth of her commitment to Barnabas.    

 

Lara Parker always says she wanted to play the heroine—well, she did!  Probably not the stereotypical heroine Lara had envisioned, but a heroine nonetheless! Conscious or not on Lara’s part, she certainly dig deeper within herself to bring out the evil side of Angelique that she admits to struggling with. Yet, amazingly she was successful in not only scaring millions of viewers each afternoon during the run (and subsequent runs) of Dark Shadows, but she created a character that has become so well loved and popular and certainly one that has undeniably endured now, for over 40 years! Without realizing it, Lara had the best of both worlds: the “plum role” Jonathan Frid told her she had, AND the heroine she wanted to play—all rolled into one character!