If you’ve ever sat through a horror marathon and felt like most modern monsters are just CGI jump-scares with no soul, you probably haven't met Vanessa Ives. Or maybe you have, and that’s why you’re here. She isn't just a character in a show; she is the vibrating, blood-stained heart of Vanessa Ives Penny Dreadful.
Most protagonists in gothic fiction are either the victim or the hero. Vanessa? She’s the apocalypse.
The Woman Who Wasn't in the Books
Here is the thing that trips people up: unlike Dracula, Victor Frankenstein, or Dorian Gray, Vanessa Ives never existed in Victorian literature. John Logan, the creator of the show, basically wove her out of thin air to act as a gravity well for all those other famous monsters.
She's a devout Roman Catholic who also happens to be a reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Amunet. Talk about a complicated Sunday morning.
Honestly, the way she anchors the show is wild. You have these massive literary titans—men who have defined horror for centuries—and they all essentially become supporting actors in her personal tragedy. She is the "Mother of Evil," a prophesied figure capable of unleashing the end of days, yet she spends most of her time trying to find a quiet place to pray without a demon screaming in her ear.
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About the Possession
People love to talk about the "possession" scenes as if they’re just cool horror tropes. They aren't.
When Eva Green (who, let's be real, should have ten Emmys for this role) contorts her body in that infamous Season 1 seance, it’s not just spooky theater. It’s a metaphor for the way Victorian society tried to pathologize female agency.
Vanessa’s "illness" began when she witnessed her mother having an affair with Sir Malcolm Murray. She didn't just see it; she listened. She felt a "whisper" of darkness that she actually kind of liked. In a world that demanded women be silent, porcelain dolls, Vanessa was a storm. The demons—Lucifer and Dracula—are actually brothers in this version of the lore, and they aren't just trying to kill her. They want her to submit because she is the only thing more powerful than them.
The Brutal Reality of the Banning Clinic
One of the hardest parts of the Vanessa Ives Penny Dreadful journey to watch is her time in the asylum. It’s a gut punch.
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They used real historical "treatments" on her that are honestly more terrifying than any vampire. We’re talking:
- Hydrotherapy (basically ice-bath torture).
- Electroshock without anesthesia.
- A proto-lobotomy (trepanning).
The show makes a very loud point here: the "doctors" trying to cure her hysteria were doing more damage to her soul than the Devil ever could. It’s during this time she meets the orderly who eventually becomes Frankenstein’s Creature. Their bond is one of the most moving parts of the series because it’s based on mutual brokenness. They aren't trying to "fix" each other; they just recognize the scars.
The Egyptian Connection: Amunet vs. Amun-Ra
The mythology gets deep. In the show’s universe, Vanessa is the hidden half of a primordial duo.
- Amunet: The "Hidden One," the goddess of silence and the primordial mother.
- Amun-Ra: The sun god, or in this case, the entity represented by the "Master" or Satan.
The prophecy says that if these two reunite, the world ends. Vanessa spends three seasons basically saying "no" to the most powerful beings in existence. She’s the only person in the room who can look the Devil in the eye and tell him to get lost.
Why the Ending Still Divides Fans
If you've finished the series, you know the finale, "The Blessed Dark," is a tear-jerker. It’s also extremely controversial.
Vanessa eventually realizes that as long as she lives, the darkness will never stop hunting her. Dracula has literally plunged London into a permanent smog of death just to get to her. Her choice to have Ethan Chandler—the "Lupus Dei" or Wolf of God—kill her wasn't a defeat.
It was a sacrifice.
Some fans hate it. They think she should have "won" by defeating the monsters and living a happy life with Ethan in a cottage somewhere. But that’s not the world of Penny Dreadful. Vanessa was a character looking for peace, and in her mind, peace wasn't possible in a world where she was a walking trigger for the apocalypse.
How to Lean Into the Vanessa Ives Archetype
If you’re fascinated by the depth of this character, there’s a lot to learn from how she was written and performed.
- Study the source material: Even though Vanessa is original, her world is built on the "Penny Dreadfuls" of the 19th century—cheap, sensationalized serial stories. Reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives you the context for the walls she’s constantly kicking down.
- Embrace the "Monstrous Feminine": This is a real academic concept. It looks at how female power is often portrayed as scary or "monstrous" in media. Vanessa Ives is the gold standard for this.
- Watch the "Nightingale" performance: Season 3, Episode 4 is basically a two-person play set in a padded cell. If you want to see acting that feels like a literal exorcism, start there.
Vanessa Ives teaches us that being "broken" isn't a weakness. It’s often the source of our greatest strength. She accepted her darkness, but she never let it own her.
To truly understand the legacy of the character, revisit the Season 2 episode "The Nightcomers." It features Patti LuPone as the Cut-Wife and provides the most grounding explanation of Vanessa's powers as a "Daywalker"—a witch who can walk in both the light of God and the shadows of the craft. It changes the way you see her struggle for the rest of the series.