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Q is for Quentin
Apr. 19th, 2018 12:28 pmThere’s been several remakes of Dark Shadows. Barnabas Collins is in all of them. Quentin Collins has been in none of them.
Perhaps it’s because his character is drawn from so many classics; from The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Perhaps because unlike Barnabas, whom is consistently shown as a vampire, punctuated by moments of humanity, Quentin has been many things.
A hostile ghost. A werewolf. An immortal suspended in time by art. A completely different person all together.
Quentin is complicated. It takes some doing, figuring him out. He dabbles in forbidden practices and indulges in forbidden passions.
Unlike Barnabas, whom was an upright young man whom made one big mistake (Angelique). Quentin has made a lot of big mistakes. One might argue he goes from mistake to mistake.
Like Barnabas, love made him linger beyond the grave after death. For Quentin, it’s the sadness that the one person he truly loved, his little nephew, Jamison rejected him. He’s unable to rest because of that rejection.
Alas, feelings beyond the grave have a way of turning sinister on Dark Shadows. Barnabas’s desire for Josette compelled him to recreate her in the girls he stalked and fed upon. Quentin’s yearning for Jamison led him to possess young David Collins.
It was powerful stuff. It easily played upon the metaphor of abuse. Perhaps this is one of the reasons a lot of people shy away from the character of Quentin.
On Dark Shadows, you have the monsters and the humans. There are human whom love the monsters. There are monsters that struggle to be human, to be good, but often fail. And there are the shadowy characters in between.
Quentin is one of these. He isn’t easy to classify. He had a sinister side, often willingly flirting with the darkness even though he was human. He has a softer aspect, though, even when he’s being bad. There’s a playfulness to Quentin, a sarcastic honesty as he says and does openly what others do covertly.
This often inspires a self righteous wrath in other characters. This wrath is usually hypocritical. I find myself cheering Quentin on silently at times even when I’m shocked by him.
It’s not a simple task, classifying or defining Quentin. Perhaps this is another reason why the remakes shy away from him.
It may also be why he’s one of my favorite characters in the Dark Shadows cast, past and present. It’s why he keeps popping up in my imagination, often appearing in my Dark Shadows fanfics.
Some characters are impossible to resist.
Thank you, Dark Shadows for daring to add such an interesting and complicated character to your menagerie of monsters. Thank you, David Selby for doing such a marvelous job of bring Quentin Collins to life.
Perhaps it’s because his character is drawn from so many classics; from The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Perhaps because unlike Barnabas, whom is consistently shown as a vampire, punctuated by moments of humanity, Quentin has been many things.
A hostile ghost. A werewolf. An immortal suspended in time by art. A completely different person all together.
Quentin is complicated. It takes some doing, figuring him out. He dabbles in forbidden practices and indulges in forbidden passions.
Unlike Barnabas, whom was an upright young man whom made one big mistake (Angelique). Quentin has made a lot of big mistakes. One might argue he goes from mistake to mistake.
Like Barnabas, love made him linger beyond the grave after death. For Quentin, it’s the sadness that the one person he truly loved, his little nephew, Jamison rejected him. He’s unable to rest because of that rejection.
Alas, feelings beyond the grave have a way of turning sinister on Dark Shadows. Barnabas’s desire for Josette compelled him to recreate her in the girls he stalked and fed upon. Quentin’s yearning for Jamison led him to possess young David Collins.
It was powerful stuff. It easily played upon the metaphor of abuse. Perhaps this is one of the reasons a lot of people shy away from the character of Quentin.
On Dark Shadows, you have the monsters and the humans. There are human whom love the monsters. There are monsters that struggle to be human, to be good, but often fail. And there are the shadowy characters in between.
Quentin is one of these. He isn’t easy to classify. He had a sinister side, often willingly flirting with the darkness even though he was human. He has a softer aspect, though, even when he’s being bad. There’s a playfulness to Quentin, a sarcastic honesty as he says and does openly what others do covertly.
This often inspires a self righteous wrath in other characters. This wrath is usually hypocritical. I find myself cheering Quentin on silently at times even when I’m shocked by him.
It’s not a simple task, classifying or defining Quentin. Perhaps this is another reason why the remakes shy away from him.
It may also be why he’s one of my favorite characters in the Dark Shadows cast, past and present. It’s why he keeps popping up in my imagination, often appearing in my Dark Shadows fanfics.
Some characters are impossible to resist.
Thank you, Dark Shadows for daring to add such an interesting and complicated character to your menagerie of monsters. Thank you, David Selby for doing such a marvelous job of bring Quentin Collins to life.
