Character Summary: Professor Trelawny

[Scott]

No: HPFGUIDX 6452

When I hastily raised my hand to do this summary I thought it would 
be easy, but I'm not so sure. While Trelawny isn't the most complex 
character in the series, IMO at least, she is far from dull.

"Tripe, Sibyll?"

This obvious comment of McGonagall at the Christmas dinner in PoA is 
a great way to start a character summary of Sybill Trelawny.  One of 
the biggest things which stood out to me when reviewing her role in 
the books was that her interactions with McGonagall and Hermione are 
very much the same.  I know in the past comparisons between the two, 
Prof. Mcgonagall and Hermione, have been made but it really does seem 
to me that their reactions show something about both their characters 
and Trelawny's.  

It struck me that Hermione, being a very logical person, and by 
Trelawny's defintion "one of the most mundane people...", is the 
complete antithesis of Trelawny. Trelawny isn't thinking about what 
makes sense just what she believes.  This is evident with Mcgonagall 
too (p. 228 PoA, American Ed.) and with Hermione throughout PoA.

According to Ellie's etymology page Sybill comes from mythology and 
Trelawny comes either from a Cornish poem "And Shall Trelawny Die?" 
or from the play "Trelawny and the Wells" (1898)

We, along with Harry, first meet Prof. Trelawny in the chapter 
"Talons and Tea Leaves," PoA.  Harry's first impression is that she 
is like a large and glittering insect.  Her large glasses magnify her 
eyes, and she is very thin.  Her inner eye however is supposedly 
clear, and she explains that she doesn't mingle with those in 
Hogwarts as not to cloud her inner eye.  

I stated above that Hermione is one of the only one's to quickly see 
through Trelawny's manner.  The only "gits" who actually seem to buy 
into it are Lavender and Parvarti.  However Harry must at least have 
believed it for a while because it isn't until the start of GoF that 
he thinks Hermione was probably right.

Now this above paragraph is only true if you believe that you can't 
believe much of what Trelawny says. If we go along with Peg (message 
#526, Bless you this gave me some great additional insight!) then we 
see JKR as writing Trelawny as a character at which to poke fun, and 
not to be taken very seriously. 

So when the disscussion of Trelawny comes down to it, the real 
question is CAN we take her seriously.  While she may have only made 
two true predictions it seems that many of her predictions do come 
true in vague and slightly unrelated ways. She, so it seems, is 
either an extremely gifted diviner or a pitiful excuse for a 
Professor and a big fraud.  My money is on the latter especially 
since the only real prediction she's made is one she did w/out 
knowing it. 

Another thing about Trelawny is that I view her as a very selfish 
character (I think that I may be stealing this idea from Peg's 
earliar posts but I didn't know if I had read this or thought of it 
or what) since she is always so sure that she is correct and yet she 
can't remember the one time (of which we know) that she really was 
right. I'm presuming that she probably didn't know she was giving her 
1st accurate prediction. 

Ok, anyway a great example of her selfishness is when in GoF Harry is 
clutching his forhead, clearly in pain. Her immediate reaction is 
that his vision is being caused by her, not that she could help him 
or even that he needed help. Gilderoy Lockhart was a fraud and he 
knew it, but Trelawny is (possibly) a fraud and yet has no idea.  Now 
I ask you- which is worse?

OK, her are some questions to jumpstart discussion (hopefully)...

1) Is Trelawny fighting a losing battle?  Is there anyone who 
believes in her powers (besides Lavender and Parvati)?
2) Is she totally nutty or is there more to her skills than we think?
(and of course I HAD to ask it-)
3) What was her first true prediction? Does she know she made it?  
Has it been fufilled yet?

Well, this WAS on short notice so I hope it will suffice.

Scott

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"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in
fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your
mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real asthe 
here and now?
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." - John Lennon 

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