Lord Barkis Bittern

"Oh I'll leave but, first a toast to Emily always the bridesmaid never the bride. Tell me, my dear, can a heart still break once it stopped beating? Hmm?"

- Lord Barkis Bittern

"Well said...."

- Lord Barkis' last words.

Lord Barkis Bittern (simply known as Barkis Bittern) is the main antagonist of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. He is a greedy, arrogant, and manipulative aristocrat who has bent on getting married to women in order to kill them, so he would be able to gain their fortune and wealth. He was voiced by the legendary actor, Richard E. Grant, who also played Dr. Zander Rice.

History
Although he is the main antagonist, he doesn't reveal his true colors until near the climax. Lord Barkis Bittern is a wealthy newcomer of an unnamed European village. He attends and watches the wedding rehearsal between Victor Van Dort and Victoria Everglot which fails when the former doesn't perform well. Barkis criticizes him, as if he doesn't want Victor to marry her.

When Victor is abducted by Emily, Barkis tries to make it look like that he left with another woman at the night. Victoria's parents Finis and Maudeline decide to get Victoria to marry him instead due to his apparent wealth. He pursues the Everglots to make Victoria marry him and afterwards, reveals his true plan to steal the dowry after the ceremony and to murder Victoria after that. Later, after the undead shows up, Barkis tries to flee with Victoria along with her money. However, as he discovered, her parents were actually broke, and that they were marrying Victoria to him for wealth that he didn't actually had.

He shows up in the church attempting to get Victoria back, as she was his wife. Emily recognizes Barkis as the man who left her waiting in a tree, so that he can kill her and get her family jewels and a satchel of gold that was her dowry. He attempts to take Victoria hostage and planning to kill her just like what he did to Emily, but Victor stops him, and he attacks him with a sword from Bonesapart. After a fight that Victor was just defending himself with a fork and Barkis trying to kill him, Victor fell at the ground and Barkis nearly killed him.

Emily intercepts the sword and orders Barkis out of the church, but he realizes that the undead must obey the living. However, he unknowingly drinks the poisoned wine, while insulting Emily because of her death and mocking her because he was very alive, accidentally killing himself and allowing the vengeful undead to drag him off as he pays the price for what he did to Emily. It is unknown what happened to him later, if he was murdered completely by the undead or just severely punished.