Maggie Evans' personality.

[TNickey2003]

New poll for Dark Shadows Forums.

[ProfStokes]

My opinion may be tainted by my first impression of Maggie.  The first episodes of DS that I saw featured her in Windcliff playing with dolls and singing "London Bridge," so for a long time I thought that Maggie was a child.  Even after I realized that she was a traumatized adult who had temporarily regressed to childhood, I still couldn't shake the impression of her as somebody childlike.  By 'immature'  I don't mean that Maggie threw temper tantrums like Carolyn or that she was hard to get along with, but (except for the pre-Barnabas episodes) the character was always portrayed as somebody who was rather naive.

ProfStokes

[stefan]

The best period for Maggie was early B&W when KLS offered an excellent protrayal of a warm, relatively good-natured hardworking girl, not overly intellectual, but grounded with potential. Maggie came from an insecure and interesting family background (alcoholic struggling artist father and where was her mother?) I thought Maggie was a very realistic character probably (because of her background) more immature than mature but with potential. Unfortunately, her insecurity, naivete and beauty also lead to her being exploited all over the place. 

[Barnabas'sBride]

I don't find her immature. Once she was placed in the Victoria-like role (the wrong thing for them to do with her character), she became more naive, but not really immature, IMO. It's sad that they changed her to fit the Vicki mold. If they had to make her be governess, they could've allowed her to keep her own personality. It would've been more interesting that way.

[michael c]

i thought early b&w maggie had that 'wise beyond her years' quality.she basically had to raise herself with an alchoholic father who required more care than he could provide.if i remember correctly her mother died when she was very young(cancer?)and after her death sam began to drink heavily.here maggie was the proverbial 'working girl with a heart of gold'.

after the barnabas abduction they changed her personality and made her more girlish.i thought she started to get really clueless during the period when she was being persued by nicholas blair.after she takes over as collinwood governess she essentially stops being the character we first met.

[Willie]

Same here.  I liked Maggie a whole lot, for the reasons everyone else stated, but by the time she was governess of Collinwood there was nothing left of her character.  She was just a clueless Vicki clone. Of course being exposed to those kids for any length of time would drive anyone over the brink.  Maybe she was hitting on the sherry pretty hard.

[Misa]

Maggie before being abducted by Barnabas was a very independent young woman who had to be mature in order to take care of herself, after all it didn't look as if Sam was capable of caring for anyone. Maggie took care of Sam to a certain degree and was concerned for his well being.

After she was kidnapped she withdrew into her childhood for safety, but when she had recovered she seemed to be herself again. She was ready to get back to her life again. It was everybody else who because of their worry for her wanted her to play it safe until the lunatic who kidnapped her was found.

I didn't see much of the Maggie with Nicholas story, so I can't comment on her nature during that time.

After AM left and the writers made Maggie the governess, they also turned her into Vicki, so this time doesn't really count as Maggie because except for her name she was playing Vicki.

So I say that Maggie was a mature in control sort of girl.

Misa

[Barnabas'sBride]

I didn't see much of the Maggie with Nicholas story, so I can't comment on her nature during that time.

After AM left and the writers made Maggie the governess, they also turned her into Vicki, so this time doesn't really count as Maggie because except for her name she was playing Vicki.

I didn't care for how Maggie was so charmed by Nicholas. But their relationship just seemed false all the way around to me though.

I agree with you about Maggie as governess. That's how it is in my mind as well. She really is a different character. In a way, she isn't Maggie anymore.

[TNickey2003]

It's true that Maggie's personality changed throughout the series from her days as a waitress through her days as a governess.

I would say to those voting, just choose the option that you most readily identify as characteristic of Maggie when you think about her.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I chose more mature than immature, because when I think of Maggie, I think of the working girl with the alcoholic father.

[TNickey2003]

I agree that there's a wide difference between 'early Maggie' and 'later Maggie' personality traits, which makes it harder to pin down a character trait for the entire period of her being on DS.

 For this reason I decided to run a separate poll concurrently with this one. Specifically  covering what I would call the 'middle' Maggie period, for lack of better terms. After the time she's recovered from her experiences as Barnabas' victim and captive, and out of danger, but just before she becomes governess of Collinwood.

The period covered in the separate poll, posted in Poll Archives, is the year 1968, starting just after Vicki's return from 1795, covering episodes 478 to 652.

[Midnite]

the separate poll, posted in Poll Archives

Actually, it's been moved here from the Polls Archive because the latter is, as stated in its board description, an "Archive of past  Dark Shadows Forums Polls."

[michael c]

i can see the appeal that bringing maggie in as collinwood governess must have had to the producers at the time.alexandra was gone and the actresses that they tried to replace her with were not successful.at the same time the character of maggie was in a transitional place.david ford was gone.joel crothers was on his way out.so alot of the characters that created maggie's "support system" were dwindling away.she was sort of at loose ends and bringing her into the fold at collinwood must have made perfect sense.

but at the risk of sounding harsh i think it proved to be a "lose-lose" situation for the character and the show.
as governess i think she lacked the sweetness and naivity that alexandra brought to the role as vicki.she sort of becomes a composit character and in that loses alot of what made maggie different.maggie had her own house,her own job,her own father,her own boyfriend.she was a seperate character with a seperate storyline not always directly linked to what was happening to the collins family.that sort of gets lost.

when i think of maggie evans i think of the cottage.the diner.dates with joe haskell at the blue whale.not collinwood.

all that being said i always like maggie.

[michael c]

one more tid-bit.

if i'm rembering this correctly the episode in today's slide show(#101)marked the first time that maggie was ever at collinwood.i remember thinking how odd and out of place she looked there at the time.little did i know(and she?)how much more time she would one day spend there.

[Charles_Ellis]

People seem to forget that life dealt Maggie heavy blows from early on.  Her mom died while she was a girl, and she had to grow up overnight as her father seemed to give up on life after a) losing his wife, and b) making his devil's bargain with Roger at Burke's expense.  This made her a bit cynical and she had to learn to fend for herself, and the result is the gal we made met in Episode #1, who called Vicki a "J-E-R-K" for wanting to work at Collinwood.

What softened her?  First, she found love in the form of Joe Haskell.  Second, with Sam's revelation of what Roger did to him and Burke in '55-'56, a great weight was lifted from his shoulders and he stopped drinking.  With that, Maggie was no longer burdened with having to worry about her old man 24/7.  Life began to look brighter for her.  Then  Barnabas appeared, and she descended into that nightmarish "existence" at the Old House.  That steely resolve which helped her exist without a mother and an alcoholic father came in handy- no matter what, she never gave up during her ordeal, though she was on her last legs emotionally when Sarah appeared and helped her out of her cell and back into freedom.

Of course, she was deeply traumatized by those months of capture, and in the long run Julia's hypnosis did Maggie a favor- it enabled her to go on living.  Like the survivor of a war or disaster, she now had a new appreciation for life and her earlier cynicsm was gone for the most part.  Remember the scene in '68 when Maggie told Vicki that she and Joe were planning to marry soon?  That would've been unthinkable for the hard-luck gal of '66 we met at the Collinsport Inn!

There were still traces of the "old Maggie" still left in her as she confronted Quentin's ghost to save David in 1969, and as she became suspicious of the going-on at Collinwood as the Leviathans ran rampant.  In her final scene in the series there is still evidence of the inner strength that helped through her early years.  Sebastian may be driving her off to Wyndcliffe, but in her heart of hearts she wants to go back to Collinwood to help Barnabas and Julia save the children from Gerard's ghost.  The Collinses have become her family, and that's why she says to Sebastian if they continue on their journey to Wyndcliffe, she may never see anyone from Collinwood again.  What she really means is "If anything happens to the Collinses and Julia, I'll never forgive myself for not being there with them when they needed me most" Very compassionate, and very mature- beyond her years.