Help! i'm trapped in this coffin!

[CyrusL]

It's for that exact reason that I love Christopher Lee as Dracula. Sure the Hammer Dracula movies are a far cry from the Dracula novel, but Lee plays Dracula superbly. He's very feral, very menacing. I LOVE it.

Lee is always truly great. I think its a great example of how an actor can take a role that had been previously seen as having been done definitively and remake it into his own. (likewise George Reeves and Christopher Reeve) I have always absolved myself from Hammer vs Universal arguments noting I truly love both. I think someone once said the first 20 minutes of the 1931 Dracula is the best horror film EVER made. I watched it Monday night and I always love it. Likewise, Hammer was never better than 1958's Dracula. I love the way they lit Mina's seduction in autumn moonlight, with leaves swirling and Dracula's cape billowing like soft leather wings as he walks away.
      One of the reason's I love DS so much is that the vampire films are my favorites and whether he likes it or not, lol  , Jonathan gave one of the best portrayals ever of the undead. And again, it was truly original and a new palate of emotions previously unseen in that genre. The idea of combining a vampire with "soap" elements and gothic romance, added new dimensions to the vampire genre,  is more than anything else, this is why we still watch DS today.

Michael   

[PennyDreadful]

I think Barnabas was conscious during the night and fully aware.  As if that wasn't bad enough, he could probably barely move (if at all) because of the cross on the inside lid of the coffin.  As for daytime, he's dead during the day and has no awareness.

Regarding Barnabas going insane while in the coffin - I don't know that a supernatural being like Barnabas could lose his sanity in the conventional sense.  I think perhaps over the decades he just became more and more consumed by the evil of the curse and by his lust for blood.  I suppose this could lead to a form of "madness" but probably not in the sense that say one of the human characters might lose their sanity.

And I agree with BuzzH,  Barnabas definitely wanted to "live" the life he was cheated out of before.  There was a very tragic quality to that desire. 

[Roland]

A few random questions about Barnabas:

Why, for long stretches of time when he was a vampire, did he not seem to have much of a need for blood?  Sometimes he seems to go for months at a time without dining out on a single neck (1840 comes to mind).

Why was he able to sit at the table during the day when he was in the I Ching trance (the second time he uses it to go back in time), even though he was a vampire?

Why does he not seem amazed by all the modern inventions and conveniences he encounters when his coffin is opened in 1967?

Just some random thoughts.

[PennyDreadful]

A few random questions about Barnabas:

Why, for long stretches of time when he was a vampire, did he not seem to have much of a need for blood?  Sometimes he seems to go for months at a time without dining out on a single neck (1840 comes to mind).

 He must have been feeding.  We just didn't see it.  Maybe he went to neighboring towns near Collinsport.  As I said in another post, just because we never saw the main Collins family eating after early '67 doesn't mean they stopped eating.  Same with Barnabas.  It's just taken for granted that he's getting blood somewhere.

Why was he able to sit at the table during the day when he was in the I Ching trance (the second time he uses it to go back in time), even though he was a vampire?

 Maybe Willie was instructed to dump him into his coffin once he was in the trance!  It's the only explanation I can think of.

Why does he not seem amazed by all the modern inventions and conveniences he encounters when his coffin is opened in 1967?

Again, Willie to the rescue!  He must have given Barnabas a crash course on modern advances.

[BuzzH]

Why does he not seem amazed by all the modern inventions and conveniences he encounters when his coffin is opened in 1967?

Again, Willie to the rescue!  He must have given Barnabas a crash course on modern advances.

I wrote a story about this once!     Imagine his reactions to all that had occured and been invented since 1795/96.  Hell, the fact that America and England were playing nice by 1967 should have been enough to throw him into total shock! 

Can you just see Barnabas walking to CW to meet the present day family w/his head swimming w/all the info Willie MUST have given him (imagine Willie as a teacher, LOL!).  What would he have done if a 707 had flown over the grounds on his way there?  

[Lydia]

I'm sure it was a great comfort to Barnabas when he went to the Blue Whale and saw that, even though the name of the place had changed, the bartender was still the same.

[Sunny_Collins]

I wrote a story about this once! Imagine his reactions to all that had occured and been invented since 1795/96. Hell, the fact that America and England were playing nice by 1967 should have been enough to throw him into total shock!

LOL, Buzz! Yeah, I think the expression on his face would be priceless when he found out England and the U.S. were getting along just fine, (thank you very much), when the last time he knew it, the U.S. had recently gained their independence.

I have to agree with the others about how Barnabas must have been getting his supply of...um...well..blood from somewhere, there were things you know happened on the show that just weren't shown.

There is a great deal of vampire lore, Dracula, and other more recent authors, but IMHO, I think a lot of it is shaped by people's interpretations, and if an author, or person, doesn't like one particular aspect of the vampire lore, then they change it to something more inventive or something more to their liking.

I realize that some things, for example, the cross being a deterrent to vampires is something that is used in DS, but on the other hand, do we really know for certain that Barnabas, or vampires in general must "sleep" in a coffin during the day?

[spoiler]When Barnabas and Vicki were in that car accident just after Vicki's return from 1795, Dr. Lang wants to keep Barnabas in the hospital for observation. Julia tries to convince him to allow her to take Barnabas home, but he refuses. She then insists that all windows, and doors be completely covered so that no amount of sunlight can enter the room. Lang agrees.[/spoiler]

I may not have gotten all the details correct, but the gist of it is, that Barnabas was able to remain out of his coffin as long as no daylight entered the room he was occupying.

It's just something to think about...

[jennifer]

aren't vampires dead all the time hence they don't eat, pee
etc.. anne rice goes into this in her book about the body change when Lestat
changes bodies but i have found that different books have different
opinions about them  as Barnabas should have been insane locked up all that time
but he was a vampire so who knows maybe he could have put himself into a trance
i just read Biten about a female werewolf pretty good!

jennifer

[Nelson Collins]

There is a great deal of vampire lore, Dracula, and other more recent authors, but IMHO, I think a lot of it is shaped by people's interpretations, and if an author, or person, doesn't like one particular aspect of the vampire lore, then they change it to something more inventive or something more to their liking.

I realize that some things, for example, the cross being a deterrent to vampires is something that is used in DS, but on the other hand, do we really know for certain that Barnabas, or vampires in general must "sleep" in a coffin during the day?

[spoiler]When Barnabas and Vicki were in that car accident just after Vicki's return from 1795, Dr. Lang wants to keep Barnabas in the hospital for observation. Julia tries to convince him to allow her to take Barnabas home, but he refuses. She then insists that all windows, and doors be completely covered so that no amount of sunlight can enter the room. Lang agrees.[/spoiler]

I may not have gotten all the details correct, but the gist of it is, that Barnabas was able to remain out of his coffin as long as no daylight entered the room he was occupying.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Saint Germain series  does this, despensing with the traditional fear of the cross, but keeping the idea that vampires are creatures bound to their native soil and so long as they rest on a bed lined with the soil from the land of their birth or line their shoes with it they maintain all their strength and powers even in daylight.  So yes, sleeping in coffins is not compulsory.

DS however takes the view that as dawn approaches they must return to their coffin to sleep and that they become kind of dead and vulnerable at this time, hence the need for a Willie or a Julia.  If this wasn't so, anyone coming to harm Barn at any time other than dusk would get a nasty shock when they open the casket.  However, I think it is more simply a need to be cut off from any source of sunlight, hence Julia's insistance that Dr. Lang keep the curtains closed in Barn's room.

[CyrusL]

I wonder in the case of Barnabas being in the hospital under Dr. Lang, the fact he was simply in Maine constituted his "native soil"?   

[Sunny_Collins]

I wonder in the case of Barnabas being in the hospital under Dr. Lang, the fact he was simply in Maine constituted his "native soil"?  

cyrusL, LOL! 

[Willie]

I theorize that he must have put himself into some sort of trance when he was locked in the coffin for 200 years.  Otherwise I think he would have been totally insane by the time he got out.  It would seem plausible, because he had a variety of supernatural powers.  If you can turn into a bat, have superhuman strength, turn invisible, and summon your victims to come to you via some sort of mental telepathy, I would think that achieving a deep meditative state wouldn't be much of a stretch.

[MagnusTrask]

I theorize that he must have put himself into some sort of trance when he was locked in the coffin for 200 years.  Otherwise I think he would have been totally insane by the time he got out.  It would seem plausible, because he had a variety of supernatural powers.  If you can turn into a bat, have superhuman strength, turn invisible, and summon your victims to come to you via some sort of mental telepathy, I would think that achieving a deep meditative state wouldn't be much of a stretch.

I think P Dreadful was right about it all.    I say though that yes, he was legitimately insane after 175 years of all that, not some supernatural equivalent.     Insane as any conscious being would be after this.    BC later proved he could be a vampire, a supposedly "evil" creature, and have a conscience, though one with weird holes in it.

I say, awake for the 175 years, but at some point someone on DS said something about his not having been in a totally conscious state.     Any conscious being would go off into some other zone.    The fact that hypnosis supposedly exists shows what the mind can do to itself.     But even if we're completely asleep, we have nightmares about what we have been through past and present.

[Lydia]

Any conscious being would go off into some other zone.    The fact that hypnosis supposedly exists shows what the mind can do to itself. 

Here's the problem: Barnabas would not have been continuously conscious for the 170 years that he was in the coffin.  He'd die every morning and come to life every night, so any hypnosis or other consciousness-reducing process would have to start all over again.  Imagine him, coming to life every night for 60,000 nights, and each time finding himself once again in a very small space looking up at the one thing that is the most physically painful to him, and craving blood as only a vampire can.  (Thanks, PennyDreadful, for throwing in the harrowing details.)  Then imagine him saying to himself, "Look for the center of the cross.  Do you see the center of the cross?.  Tell me when you see the center of the cross."  Maybe it works the first few hundred times.  But at some point himself answers:  "No, I don't see the center of the cross, I don't want to see the center of the cross, and HOW COULD MY FATHER DO THIS TO ME?"

[MagnusTrask]

The following may sound strident or pushy or something, you know, rude.   Wasn't meant that way.

Stop thinking of cliche hypnosis.   That's just one popularized manifestation of this phenomenon.    I was never saying he'd say to himself, "Must hypnotize self.    Imagine medallion.   I'm getting sleepy."    170 years in a box takes the mind into some truly undiscovered country that we will never, ever know.     I didn't imagine there would have been anything conscious or intentional about it at all.     The mind does strange things to survive.  In a sensory deprivation tank you eventually hallucinate.

By "hypnosis" I'm referring to going into any sort of trance or state that is different from lucidity and a connection to the real world.    I believe bits of the same phenomenon we call hypnosis happen routinely every day.    We adjust what we believe to be true about ourselves and the world around us on a daily basis, according to our emotional needs and fears, and what messages we are bombarded with by the popular culture.    Some ideas become unthinkable because we are conditioned not to hear them, by the culture.     Dreams could be part of the same thing that hypnosis is.

He'd go into some sort of "altered state" without trying; we just can never know what that state was.     The mind struggles to escape inescapable circumstances, and often (not consciously) works out some pretty ingenious tricks to do this.     Jung said I think that insanity serves that purpose.   That's all I know about Jung by the way.

You're right, those daytimes would interrupt whatever altered state he had going, but I doubt he'd snap back completely into everyday sane consciousness at the start of each night.