[HPforGrownups] Re: Peeves' function in the story

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 5531

I was thinking specifically of the end of Chapter 8 in PoA, where he gets
the last word: "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."  It was that
assessment of Sirius that resonated for me through most of the book, that
colored everything I read about Sirius' movements, that made me "go along"
with the popular opinion that Sirius was a villain--an impression which was
totally overturned by the surprise twist in the Shrieking Shack.

I had understood that one role the Greek Chorus plays is to be sort of the
voice of popular opinion, reacting to the actions of the hero.  Peeves plays
that role, here, with his assessment of Black, and also in the Chamber of
Secrets (Oh Potter, you rotter!)

Of course, I am operating on a hazy memory of my notes taken while studying
Greek tragedy in school a number of years ago (not to mention my fascination
with Anouilh's _Antigone_)

Peg

Blaise wrote:

> Peg wrote:
>
> "Hmm.  You know, now that I think about it, I cannot remember seeing
> more than a couple of messages on this list EVER about Peeves, which
> seems strange since we tend to discuss everything exhaustively.  And
> yet, when you think about it, he does appear in an awful lot of
> scenes.
>
> What function does he serve in the story?  The Greek chorus?"
>
> You baited your hook well to catch a classicist!
>
> What do you mean by the Greek chorus?  In tragedy, the chorus was
> there to provide some comment on what was happening, or to give some
> information to the audience, or perhaps to express the poet's
> viewpoint (different tragedians used the chorus differently).  They
> rarely played a part in the way the story fell out, except sometimes
> when the Leader of the Chorus would be involved in dialogues.
>
> Mostly, he seems to be there for background colour.  He hasn't played
> an important part in any of the plots (unless I'm forgetting
> something), and he seems to be another of the obstacles that HHR must
> get around, particularly when they're breaking rules (c.f. in PS when
> they go out under the invisibility cloak and Hermione pretends to be
> teh Bloody Baron to get him to go away, and many other incidents).
>
> I don't think he's a Greek chorus, though he does sometimes play a
> similar role, as when he makes up little songs to sing about how
> Harry is the heir of Slytherin etc, in CoS, which keep the events in
> everyone's minds.  He certainly is not only an observer of the events
> who makes moral and social comment on what is going on.  And I very
> much doubt that at the end he'll get a little speech saying 'life's
> like that, you know' the way the chorus always does at the end of a
> tragedy!
>
> So what is he if he's not a Chorus?  I think he provides comic
> relief, bathos at moments of tension and an obstacle for HHR to get
> around.  Do you think he'll ever get a more crucial role than this?
>
> -Blaise.
>
>
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