Stereotypes - Goblins are to PS Movie as Jar Jar is to Episode 1?

[heathernmoore]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "ftah3" <ftah3 at y...> wrote:
> Heather wrote:
> >   Hrm... I think it's fair enough to say the movie goblins are 
> modeled on Shylock, though, and many people dislike that character 
> because they take it as a slur on Jews. <snip> 
> > By that token, you could accuse Snape of being Shylock, too <snip>
> 
> Right ~ and isn't it just possible that we don't trace the stereotype 
> back far enough, to the idea that Shakespeare's description of 
> Shylock is based on a stereotype that has nothing to do with Jews?  
> 
> Because the fact is that the whole sallow faced, hook-nosed, etc. 
> etc. description is not relegated to Shylockian (i.e. cold money-
> grubbing Jew) characters ~ rather, it's a combination of physical 
> traits used to make a quick sketch of your basic detestable creep 
> type character, and it's a descriptive stereotype that pre-dates 
> Shakespeare and his Shylock.
> 
> On the other hand (let me talk myself in circles for just a moment, 
> please, thanks) removing the *visual* stereotype does leave a 
> relevent goblin-Jew stereotype comparison.  I.e., the whole money-
> grub substandard human = Jew stereotype is something that shows up in 
> Western literature partly as a result of the Christian literary 
> tradition (wherein the money-lenders et al are nasty folks and also 
> Jews in some of the parables etc).  And I suppose it's arguable that 
> giving the same non-physical stereotypical attributes to the goblins 
> shows a parallel prejudice.  
> 
> 
> Mahoney
> off to ponder whether Madame Pomfrey's Skele-Gro could provide me 
> with a few extra hands in the event of future tangential ramblings.... 


  This is getting OT, I think, so I'll bow out after this post -- after first making that Snape/Shylock comparison, I've been doing some web research on the Shylock character and I'm actually finding a *lot* of interesting parallels. Usury in Shakespeare makes for a fascinating parallel to Curses/Potions in Rowling. The whole concept that Shakespeare created Shylock to fit the current stereotypes of "evil Jew," but then explored the idea that he actually had quite conventional hurts and motivations and actually got stuck with a raw deal due to everyone else's prejudices, is also strikingly reminiscent of Snape.