Shades of Blonde — A Short Look at the Symbolism of Blonde Hair in The Originals
Symbolism in fiction takes many forms. Sometimes it’s the crowd favourite of an old man singing in the background of a suicide. Yes, Madame Bovary really had this. Other times it’s a sprawling desert with a wrecked statue or a lovely title which subtly references a bondage-based movie series. In the case of “The Originals” it’s just a hair colour. And in two different cases, no less. Seems a bit underwhelming, I admit. Not quite as exciting as bondage, but I promise you, just as interesting.
You see, both Klaus and Marcel share a prediliction for blonde-haired woman. In fact, neither has ever shown deep feelings towards anyone that doesn’t fit this Barbie doll mould. And while some people may sigh and say “mere chance, old chap” (cuz all my critics are aristocratic brits, apparently) I think this may actually have been a very intentional move by the writers.
So then you may rightfully ask: If this is symbolism then what the hell does it mean? Well, do you have a blanky on your feet? Because your socks… they’re about to go bye bye.
Why Blondes?
Let’s start by examining what blonde bombshellness means to dear old Kneeeeeklaus.
There are really three pretty blonde women for whom Klaus shows affection throughout the story: Rebekah, Caroline and Camille.
Let’s start with the OG, the one and only Barbie Klaus herself: Rebekah Mikaelson.
Klaus’ behaviour towards Rebekah is what you might call… a teensy weensy tiny bit controlling.
Whenever she threatens to leave he sticks his dagger in her. Seemingly determined to keep her close at all times. In season 1 of “The Originals” the only way he can even let her go is by framing it as “exile.” And even in season 4, after much character development, when she says she wishes to leave Klaus is clearly struggling.
But it doesn’t stop at some light daggering. Oh no, no, no. He also consistently tries to intimidate or kill her romantic partners much as a jilted lover might. And just have a look at how he talks to her or about her to other people:
“They come and go for her, but I am the constant.”
That’s a direct quote from S1E2 “House of the Rising Son.” A quote in which Klaus is essentially admitting that he’s trying to keep all other men away from his sister. And in a way that suggests he’s placing himself in that boyfriend role instead.
And if that wasn’t incestoulicious enough, just pop in the season 3 TVD DVD and have a looksie at how he handles her in the scene where we first see them together.
In “The Vampire Diaries” S3E3 “The End of the Affair” we see Stefan and Rebekah having some good ol’ PG-13 fun by torturing young men and drinking the blood of innocents, as you do. Then Klaus suddenly arrives. When he does, Klaus immediately grabs Rebekah close and pulls her away from her lover. After which Rebekah tells him, as if to emphasize the opposite, “I’m not your girlfriend.”
A subtle winky wink at the underlying nature of this behaviour from the writers mayhaps?
So the pattern of behaviour towards Rebekah is clear: A lot of how Klaus acts towards Rebekah (the possessiveness, the jealousy and the way he touches her sometimes) point to incestuous undertones. And sometimes overtones because, let’s be honest, the dagger thing is… interesting.
Wait, he sticks it in Kol too. Oh, and poor Finn. I’ll be having nightmares about that now.
Creepily suggestive dagger symbolism 1, Analyze 0.
But why? Why does he show this possessive, almost incestuous behaviour towards her? The answer is as simple as it is disturbing. I am, of course, referring to repeated mother of the year award winner and part-time homicidal maniac, Esther.
The True OG Blonde Bombshell
It’s no surprise to any fan of “The Vampire Diaries” or “The Originals” to hear that Klaus’ childhood was not exactly a happy-go-lucky romp along the beach. Mikael was an abusive father who tormented Klaus and, in-between beatings, took some time off to make Klaus feel small and worthless through verbal “encouragements” like “We can’t feed off sad-eyed apologies, they’re your one and only skill.”
However, amidst all these displays of fatherly love the young Klaus did have one safe haven: His dear old mommy.
We see in the flashbacks of early season 2 of “The Originals” that, while Klaus’ relationship as a child with Mikael was painful and contentious, his relationship with his mother was by contrast relatively close.
She called him “special” and gave him gifts to make him feel like her special little pogchamp. Gifts that included one that he later found out would weaken him and lead to further abuse, but why dwell on such trivialities?
The point is: to a young and perpetually distressed Klaus she seemed a caring, loving and affirming presence. She was everything Mikael was not. And then Henrik, the little shit, selfishly ruined everything by getting himself turned into werewolf chow.
After Henrik died and they turned into vampires everyone learned the truth of Esther’s infidelity. Mikael was furious, as is his default mood, and Esther, in her motherly wisdom, turned her back on Klaus in response. She rejected him.
This means the one parent who had been a safe haven to him all his life, who had shown him the love he wanted and called him special, had now rejected him just as his father had done for years. This was so painful to him that, in what would turn out to be an auspicious start to quite the killstreak, he killed her in a rage.
But Klaus would soon learn the thing that every wide-eyed young man must learn at some point: That not every problem can be solved with murder. And so even after killing his mother those feelings of rejection never went away. Klaus was scarred permanently by this experience, both by the one parent who loved him rejecting him and the horror and guilt of killing his own mother.
The murder of his mother made him feel like a bit of monster. Huh, imagine that. He tells Aurora as much in a season 3 flashback. And it’s a secret he carried with him and that made him feel even more worthless. Like a bad person. As if he had confirmed to himself that he was the abomination his father always said he was.
On top of that, while his mother had shown him great love throughout most of his life, after she found out the “truth” about him she’d retracted all of it. Upon finding out the truth she rejected him suddenly and utterly.
This sudden and unexpected loss of the little love and acceptance he did enjoy gave him a lifelong fear of abandonment. A fear that other people, even those who seemed to love him just like mommy dearest had, would suddenly and without warning do the same.
These two things, well, they do not work well together. A lot less peanut butter and jelly and a lot more peanut butter and gasoline.
On the one hand he had a big honking secret on the other hand he felt that those who knew him for real were guaranteed to abandon him. And so he lived with the fear of that secret coming out and them abandoning him for 1.000 years. He desperately clung to them. And clung most of all to Esther 2.0, Rebekah.
Because Rebekah is much like her mother. Rebekah is motherly. Rebekah loved Klaus throughout his childhood. And Rebekah, as a blonde, physically resembles Esther. Mikael even alludes to this fact in “The Originals” S1E15 where he tells Marcel that Rebekah “reminds me so much of my departed wife as a girl.” To Klaus, she may as well be Esther’s ghost haunting him from beyond the grave. Constantly reminding him of the worst thing he felt he’d ever done.
And so after Esther’s death, a death about which Klaus felt incredibly guilty, Rebekah became an Esther stand-in.
Klaus’ actions towards Rebekah then are informed fundamentally by the actions he wishes he could take towards Esther.
Throughout much of his life he fears that if Rebekah finds a partner then she will abandon him, as Esther did. He fears that if Rebekah finds out what he did to their mother then she will abandon him, as Esther did. He fears that if Rebekah goes anywhere else outside of his sight for even a year or two then she will learn to hate him and abandon him, as Esther did. And so he wants that desperately not to happen.
As a result he clings to her with all his might. And due to the magnitude of this fear, caused by the magnitude of the trauma he suffered from Esther’s betrayal and death, this behavior turns possessive and obsessive and all-encompassing. Until it resembles obsessive romantic jealousy.
The Many Blondes of Klaus Mikaelson
But Rebekah is not the only blonde bombshell this happens with. “Coincidentally” after Rebekah is put down with the dagger by Elena (heyo), Klaus seems to inexplicably take an interest in another blonde: Caroline Forbes (thank you to Samcarter34 from The Vampire Diaries Wikia for pointing this out to me).
And when I say “inexplicably” I do mean inexplicably.
At the point he supposedly fell head-over-heels with Tyler’s favourite chewtoy he had seen her exactly once before. And that in the incredibly romantic context of turning her boyfriend into a hybrid against his will. And he didn’t even talk to her in that scene.
Then suddenly after seeing her exactly twice and talking to her exactly once he seems to start to constantly seek Caroline’s approval. In a way otherwise uncharacteristic of him. He seeks this pure, blonde girl’s approval almost as if he desperately needed it. As if, mayhaps, she was a parent he wished would pat him on the head and call him a good little boy.
He wants to know everything about Caroline, as if he wants to own her mind and soul just as he did Rebekah’s. And he will not rest until she’s his. He will not rest until he has that approval.
Because at that point, to Klaus, that approval is not the approval of some random teen vampire. No, no, no. Don’t be silly, that would be too sane. To Klaus it is the approval of the mother he killed. It is the approval of the sister he just left daggered. It is the reinforcement that whatever Mikael’s voice tells him in his head about how bad he is, no matter how bad his actions towards his mother and sister were and how guilty he feels about them, that he’s still good. That they will love and forgive him.
We can see this clearly in his specific reactions as well. Because it is when Caroline tells him how terrible she thinks he is that he bites her. Why? Was it merely a power move? Merely practical? No. It’s because her saying that feels like deja vu. Because in that moment he’s reliving his mother’s rejection of him. And that’s met with incredible, murderous rage.
In quite a contrast, it is when Caroline says that “there is good in you” that he cures her from the bite he gave her. It is when he gets the approval he so desperately craves from his mother and sister that he loves her most.
And what happens when he gets to New Orleans? He’s away from Caroline. He’s on the outs with Rebekah. He is unable to get her approval either. And, oh look, he conveniently meets yet another blonde woman who’s approval he increasingly seeks with whom he becomes romantically involved: Camille.
And what, pray tell, does Camille tell him? You might recognise this refrain she sings just a little: She tells him he’s not such a bad guy. That people aren’t born bad but made bad. That there is good in him.
Ding ding! Jackpot for Niklaus!
And so all this being said there is a clear pattern: Esther and Rebekah were both close to him and both blonde. And (with the exception of the ever-so-lovely Aurora sticking her sticky fingers into an otherwise perfect theory) the only other women in which he has ever shown any genuine romantic interest, Camille and Caroline, were blondes as well. All of them at different points in their lives (even Aurora) told them he was good even though he felt like he was bad.
Overall this is a huge case of projection. Klaus projects his desperate desires for his mother’s love and approval and forgiveness, which he feels he lost after she put the hybrid curse on him, unto these three women. And when they reject him, he feels again rejected by his mother. And when pleasing them, he feels he gets Esther’s approval. At least the closest he can get to it without busting out his Ouija board.
That’s why he seems to fall for them so quickly and why his actions towards them are often so extreme and controlling. Because he’s literally trying to make up for his murder of his mum. And that would drive anyone slightly batty.
Klaus 2.0
Now on to Marcel… Because Klaus is not the only one who displays this charming little character trait. In fact in S1E2, when Rebekah first meets Camille, she specifically tells Marcel that “I see you still have a thing for blondes.”
Marcel had a very close relationship with Rebekah when he was younger. First she acted as a guardian of sorts, an adoptive aunt. As he got older she also became, presumably, his first love. Much like his adoptive father’s behaviour, there’s an almost incestuous idea here, even though in this case Rebekah isn’t actually his blood relative.
We don’t know very much about what happened in the early relationship between Marcel and Rebekah. It isn’t exactly explored much. But if I had to guess it was quite the example of history repeating.
Much as Esther was a safe haven to Klaus, Rebekah was a safe haven for Marcel. With Elijah snubbing him to protect Klaus, Klaus’ overbearing and often mercurial nature and no one else in sight, I bet the beautiful, kind Rebekah was the only person in the young Marcel’s life who offered him some sense of stability and safety.
Under these conditions that is bound to bring a person closer together with someone.
In addition, as often happens between siblings, it’s quite possible that Rebekah became the standard by which Marcel ended up judging all women.
In this context his instant attraction to Camille (another strong-willed, beautiful, blonde woman) is part of this unfulfilled desire that he has towards Rebekah.
He always wanted Rebekah’s love, yet was never truly able to get it because Klaus stood in the way. But that feeling of wanting her never left.
To Marcel, Rebekah was the one that got away and that left its mark on him. Ever since then he’s sought some way to regain her, even if he has to regain her indirectly through a proxy like Camille.
It’s also worth noting that Camille, just like Rebekah, is a way of continuing his competition with Klaus, his father figure, who also wanted to date Camille.
I know that is some Olympic level squick. So must we really discuss it? Well, sadly, this is a competition which is repeatedly shown to be at the core of Marcel’s character. So, we must.
The episode “Brotherhood of the Damned” beautifully illustrates this conflict. Marcel wants to get from underneath Klaus’ shadow. To be a strong man. His own man and free to make his own choices. Even his chosen name “Marcel” being a rebuffing of Klaus’ attempts to control him. The character from then on asserting confidently that “I am Marcel!” when Klaus belittles him as “Marcellus.”
As Marcel alludes to in S1E20 Klaus instilled in Marcel that he should be strong and dominant. Yet at the same time Klaus tries to constantly assert his dominance over Marcel. Something which Marcel, therefore, resents and takes every opportunity to fight. Including in his romantic choices.
And so Marcel’s attraction towards blondes is two-fold: On the one hand it’s an attempt to finally get the love of the woman he always wanted but could never have (Rebekah). On the other hand it’s yet another way in which Marcel tries to assert his independence towards Klaus, who was the person who denied him this love in the first place and constantly tried to tell him what he could and could not do.
To Marcel this is a way to once again defy the overbearing father figure who’s control he’s wanted to escape his entire life. And to get the love of his first love. For our little soldier boy, to be with these blondes is to be the ruler of his own life.
In a rather delicious bit of irony, something “The Originals” is a big fan of when it comes to parent-child relationships, this results in Marcel resembling Klaus even more as he displays exactly the same prediliction for blondes as his adoptive father. Something which heavily ties into a central idea on “The Originals” about children behaving like their parents, even as they desperately try to be nothing like them.
A Final Confession
So, it’s all wrapped up in a nice little package with a boy, right? Article over, see you later!
No need to stay!
Alright, alright. It’s time for a confession. To fall on my knees and tell you I have committed Medium’s greatest: speculation.
Because, as is usually the case with symbolism, it’s not straightforward. This is all speculative. And you could be a little fussy pot and argue about what the writers did and did not intend.
Aurora appearing in season 3 does appear to at least be an outlier, with her being decidedly unblonde, but there are a few things to mention here.
While she wasn’t blonde, Aurora (just like Caroline and Camille) also told Klaus he wasn’t a monster and made him feel good about himself. In that sense was still an Esther proxy.
On top of that you could quite convincingly argue that maybe Klaus’ pattern hadn’t entirely taken shape that early on in his life. This was only a very short while after his mother’s death and patterns take time to form.
In addition, the collapse of his relationship with Aurora actually seemed to push him further in this direction (meaning the I-might-be-a-monster-for-killing-my-mummy direction). Something you might expect from Aurora literally saying she could never love someone who’d murder his own mother. And this did end up being exactly the feeling that would drive the pattern for the rest of his life.
So while Aurora doesn’t fully fit the pattern, maybe for good reason, she does still generally. And more importantly she seems to push him in the direction of forming that pattern by further rejecting him and making him feel even more monstrous over murdering his mother.
Regardless of anything else though there is an undeniable amount of blondness in Klaus’ dating book. And, in the end, does it matter more what the writers intended, or what is actually shown on the screen? A question for the discount Youtube philosophers.
What do you guys think? Is it all just coincidence? Am I reading into this issue too much? (Probably) Do I deserve to be locked in a padded room with the key swallowed by my jailor? Possibly. Or do you too, think there’s more to it? Do be a dear and leave a comment in the comment section telling me what you think.
Up next time, a real gem: An article explaining exactly how Hayley managed to become a hybrid without needing Elena’s blood and a theory about how doppelganger blood actually works. Hmn, intriguing, no?
To read that article and read much more fascinating character analysis on “The Originals”, “The Vampire Diaries” and other fantasy series, be sure to subscribe to us here on Medium, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to us on Youtube where we post the video essay versions of these articles. See you on the flipside!
Read More
- Selfless Redeemer or Selfish Controller? — Why Elijah Made Klaus a Worse Person
- The Pint-Sized Powerhouse — Uncovering the True Power of Hope Mikaelson
- Every Stone and Flower Tells a Story — The Symbolism of the Almsivi’s Skin Colour
A previous version of this article was originally published in the blog section of The Vampire Diaries wikia on September 26th of 2015 and then republished on analyticalmadness.com at that site’s launch. This is the second republication.
Copyright: The images used in this article are screenshots taken from the episodes of the show. We are allowed to use them under section 107 of the US Copyright Act of 1976. The Originals belongs to the CW and Alloy Entertainment.
