Vanessa Ives
Vanessa Ives is a female television character who features in Penny Dreadful.
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Biography
Vanessa Ives was a female human born in Victorian times as the daughter of Gordon Ives and Claire Ives who were a wealthy family that were neighbours of the Murray family. As a child, she came to be a close friend of Mina Murray where the bond between them was said to akin to being sisters. She also came to have a close relationship with Mina's brother Peter Murray who she intended to marry when she was older.
Later on, Vanessa's innocence came to be forever ripped away from her when she witnessed Sir Malcolm and her mother in one of their sexual escapades. This affair became the start of a bitter falling out between the two families. She grew to resent Mina for all her good fortune and began to demonstrate some scandalous habits, having kissed Peter out of turn and having a sexual escapade of her own with Mina's fiancé. Her downward spiral became most evident when she fell victim to the possession of an evil spirit, which eventually led to the death of her mother. (Episode: Closer Than Sisters)
She came to seek to understand her powers and was also determined to find Mina leading to her seeking out an infamous witch living in the moors of England who was known as the Cut-Wife of Ballantree Moor. Under her tutelage, she came to learn more about her powers and about the people that desired them. During this time, Evelyn Poole and the Nightcomers in service to Lucifer schemed to separate Vanessa from the Cut-Wife so that they could deliver her to their master. To achieve this end, Evelyn came to seduce a lord and convinced him to arrange for a mob to execute the Cut-Wife. Her plan was ultimately successful and Vanessa came to see her mentor being burnt to death whilst she herself was branded. Afterwards, she came to leave the Moors after being traumatised by this chain of events.
In 1891, Vanessa visited the Wildwest Show and grew interested in its primary performer Ethan Chandler. Intending to employ him as an armed assistant, she met him in a bar and presented him with an offer to do some night work. Deducing that his entire performance as the Wildwest show was a lie, she made a few accurate comments about his appearance and behaviour. She was pleased by his acceptance of her offer, and provided an address for their meeting that very night. Vanessa was surprised to see that Ethan was on time. She escorted him into a building on the nearby street, which was an opium den. There, she greeted Sir Malcolm Murray and introduced Chandler as their accomplice. Sir Malcolm took them underground where three suspicious men stood. The men attacked, and amidst the fighting, Vanessa heard tormented wails and sought desperately for their source.
As they continue their search for Mina, Vanessa pursued a romantic relationship with the enigmatic Dorian Gray. During a sexual encounter with Dorian, Vanessa becomes possessed by Lucifer once more. She begins by taunting Malcolm and Victor with their former sins, before the demon completely takes over her soul. She becomes feral and violent, and needs to be restrained. For a month, she battles the Devil inside of her, and he appears to her under many different visages. Malcolm implored Vanessa to reach out to Mina, but she was unsuccessful. Eventually, a priest comes to give a dying Vanessa her last rites, but she attacks him. In a moment of clarity, she begs Ethan to kill her. Instead, he holds a pendant of St. Jude to her forehead, and chants in Latin, begging for divine intervention. The exorcism was successful, and Vanessa collapses. When she woke up, she claimed to know Mina's location.
Overview
Personality and attributes
She came to be known by a number of aliases that included being the Mother of Evil and as Amunet.
Vanessa was a seductive and formidable beauty full of secrets and danger. She is keenly observant -- clairvoyant even -- as well as an expert medium. Her supernatural gifts are powerful and useful to those around her, but they are also a heavy burden. Her inner demons just may be more real than emotional, and they threaten to destroy her relationships, her sanity, and her very life.
True to her personality, Vanessa primarily appears dressed in a stately, polished manner and maintains an air of refinement and inscrutability. When her inner demon is in ascendance, however, she becomes much more instinctive and much less restrained as her behaviour grows increasingly wild. Although she is brave and steadfast, there are times when even she is afraid when confronted with the most terrifying forms of evil. However, upon being released from the demon's possession, Vanessa exhibited a less brooding and more personable attitude.
Despite her outward appearance, Vanessa was a kind and compassionate woman who is very far from incapable of friendship and courtesy. She has since established a close bond with John Clare after meeting him while working in the shelter for cholera patients. She discussed falling in love and religion with John Clare, complimented his eyes, has a shared fascination of poetry with him, taught him to how to dance, and sorrowfully declined his invitation to leave London with him forever, not wanting her friend to be burdened by her. She was one of the few people, if not the only person, who did not cower at his appearance, was not bothered by his cold touch, and treated him with true kindness.
Vanessa assisted Sir Malcolm Murray in his mission to save his daughter Mina, with whom she had shared a close friendship. She is as disgusted with some of his past acts as he is with hers, yet they have a mutual recognition of each other's talents, and she occasionally turned to him as a father figure. Vanessa respects Malcolm as a leader, and reconciles with him following the events of the first season, but begins to doubt him after he light-heartedly shakes off the news of his wife's death. However, when Malcolm was in danger, Vanessa did not hesitate to return and even enter enemy territory alone to rescue him.
She came to be quite friendly with Dr. Victor Frankenstein, as he trusted her to help him purchase appropriate clothing for Lily and even introduced Lily to her first. In her interaction with the doctor, Vanessa displays a capacity for playful banter. Vanessa trusted Victor enough to give him and him alone the address to where she and Ethan would be staying if in case she was needed and reminded him to be patient with Lily before parting.
She has strong feelings for Ethan Chandler, as she has repeatedly made it clear that she is more than willing to accept him for who and what he is. She wanted him to stay with her after surviving the battle with Mrs. Poole and her coven, being reminded of the comfort Vanessa felt with Ethan by her side. She reassured him that he will feel better about himself like she did with him.
Powers and abilities
Vanessa possesses a comprehensive knowledge of plants and their properties when applied to the human body having been taught by the Cut-Wife.
John Clayton came to teach her a little of the Devil's Tongue Verbis Diablo with her becoming quite fluent in it.
She was able to weave an enchantment over a pack of dogs causing them to maul their master.
The practice of creating mystic wards to block evil. Vanessa used her own personal scorpion totem, painted with her own blood around the mansion in order to protect it.
Vanessa has shown a surprising skill in handling firearms, able to shoot down bottles from a distance and in mid-air, all in her first try and with considerable accuracy.
Notes
- Vanessa Ives was created by John Logan where she was portrayed by actress Eva Green with her featuring in the setting of the Penny Dreadful universe.
- In an interview with Logan, he said "This is a show about Vanessa Ives and her struggle with faith—how one woman grapples with God and the devil."
Appearances
- Penny Dreadful:
External Links
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