Is Julia the Ultimate Squator and Freeloader?

[Roland]

When Julia first moved into Collinwood, she at least had a false cover - that she was writing a history of the Collins family - as a justification.  But once that cover was blown (after the seance), what reason did she still have for staying?  And, why didn't Roger, in particular (who never took too kindly to outsiders in the first place) not eventually throw her out on her keester?   I mean it takes a lot of chutzpah for someone to just worm her way into a permanent place in the area's most lavish and impressive mansion with, one assumes, free board as well (unless she was slipping Mrs. Johnson a weekly stipend for her meals).  Maybe they kept her around for all those sedatives she was so generous about passing around.   

[Lydia]

Elizabeth was the one who had the last word, and I find it very easy to imagine a friendship developing between Elizabeth and Julia.  I haven't specifically looked for that friendship when I've been watching, but they had a lot in common.  They were both intelligent women with experience running a business in a world in which the businesses were usually run by men, and I think each of them had spent much of their adult lives with very few - if any - women friends.  I suppose the sedatives were convenient, but Elizabeth had some little pink pills or some such thing before Julia come along - I think I remember remarking on them in a Watching Project post once.  So I think the deciding factor for Elizabeth was that she just liked having Julia around.  But I haven't any specific scenes to back that up.

[MagnusTrask]

Someone who's rich and lonely and has an inconceivably big mansion that she's paying a fortune to maintain might just let people stay because she needs the company.   It seems odd but their situation is very different from ours.

There was always a perfect justification waiting for DS to use:   Julia is their new family in-house physician.

[Miss_Winthrop]

I don't find it unusual for Elizabeth to invite Dr Hofman to stay indefinitely.  Elizabeth strikes me as a very cordial individual who was raised to be gracious to others. The rich do live differently than the rest of us.  I've read many books where wealthy folks open up their homes to guests.  It makes me wonder about Paul Stoddard and how a man like that may have been welcomed into her home and who eventually ended up abusing his host.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There was always a perfect justification waiting for DS to use:   Julia is their new family in-house physician.

Exactly - similar to the royal courts of Europe.    But there may also be another justification because, even after Julia admitted she was a doctor, she claimed she really was writing a book (even though so far as the audience knew that cover story was a complete sham). So, maybe Liz simply assumed the book was taking a VERY long time to write, but at the same time she was in no hurry to get rid of Julia because of, as others have pointed out, all the services and companionship she provided.

[sallycollins]

It's interesting how in HODS the same premise was given as to why Julia was staying at Collinwood - doing research on the history of the Collins family. The only difference was in the movie she was REALLY doing it - it wasn't a cover story.

Sally

[michael c]

one thing i love about the show is it's time capsule element.it was very much a product of it's times in terms of it's social mores despite the outrageousness of the plots.

hence we have julia as perpetual collinwood houseguest.even though julia spent most of her time at the old house,often until all hours,she never officially "moved in" because it would not have been "proper" at the time for an unmarried lady to live under the same roof as two men.she might be there until nearly dawn but there's usually a point when she puts on her coat and gloves and returns to collinwood.did she ever actually "sleep over"?

for proprieties sake,and respectabilities sake,she needed to be there as the guest of elizabeth stoddard.because julia compromised her integrity in so may other ways for the character to remain a "respectable" lady this detail was important.things like that still mattered then.especially on an afternoon drama.

i always notice too that when the situation at hand requires joe to spend the night at the evans' cottage so that maggie won't have to stay there alone they make a big point of joe announcing that he'll "just stretch out on the couch" so that the impression is not left to the audience that joe and maggie slept together.again these things mattered in a more genteel time.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

did she ever actually "sleep over"?

One time comes to mind -[spoiler]when she was taking care of Joe.[/spoiler] But Barnabas wasn't even home for much of that time because [spoiler]he was off being instructed on how he was to kill Joe by dispensing the poisoned medicine.[/spoiler]And I don't think Willie was supposed to be home either - though I have no recollection of where he was supposed to be or even if we were told. Though even at all that, thankfully Julia slept in a chair in the drawing room. 

so that the impression is not left to the audience that joe and maggie slept together

Joe and Maggie actually sleeping together?!    The shock!! The scandal!! The scene of the townsfolk dragging Joe out into the town square for an immediate tar and feathering - and then running him out of town on a rail!!! Not to mention the shunning of Maggie by all "good and decent" people from that point onward - even without a scarlet letter sewn onto her Junior Sophisticates.

 

[Gerard]

Joe and Maggie actually sleeping together?!    The shock!! The scandal!!

You're so right, MB!  Maggie would never do something like that!  Never!  Just like my parents.  There mere thought.....

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Though presumably your parents had benefit of marriage.    Joe and Maggie would have been vile fornicators!!! 

[michael c]

i think you guys know what i mean...

maggie was a "good girl" and in 1968 "does she or doesn't she?" wasn't just about haircoloring(although maggie's reds sometimes do look a bit enhanced).

hence we have joe's big show of sleeping on the couch.impressions are important...and good soap girls in 1968 needed to maintain a squeaky clean reputation.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

impressions are important...and good soap girls in 1968 needed to maintain a squeaky clean reputation.

Exactly!    Though soap girls now aren't considered tried and true of the genre until they've slept with at least three guys, preferably all without benefit of marriage! And even at that they're still considered "good girls" under most circumstances. 

And I wasn't in any way ragging on your comment, mscbryk - I was just jokingly taking the situation, if it had happened, to its Small-New-England-Town-Not-Yet-On-The-Cusp-Of-The-Sexual-Revolution extreme. Thankfully we saw the end of that sort of scenario a long time ago! 

[Charles_Ellis]

Considering all she did for the Collins family (especially Barnabas ), she EARNED her residency at Collinwood! 

Besides, she didn't spend all of her time there, she did have Wyndecliffe to run, and I think she probably had her own apartment there on the grounds.

[Gerard]

Though presumably your parents had benefit of marriage.    Joe and Maggie would have been vile fornicators!!! 

Even when my parents were married they never did that, MB!  And don't ask me where I came from - I'm not listening!  Mmmmhhmmmhhhmmm...........

Gerard

[Doug]

When Julia first arrived at Collinwood, claiming she is there to study the history of the Collins family
and write a book. But Elizabeth and Roger did'nt check her background and her credentials to see
if she has a college degree in history, also did'nt check if Julia wrote history books in the past.

Elizabeth, Roger and Carolyn can't be that naive.