Lucius & other villains

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 21194

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Cai Hui" <sprsun at y...> wrote:
> Susanna wrote:
> 

> 
> Slightly OT here. But Iago isn't just an inhuman embodiment of Evil.
> There're many interesting aspects of his character and if you want,
> you can interpret his reasons for doing the things he does. He is
> an experienced soldier from a lower class and the Moor passed
> over him to a clearly less competent Cassio;

Again OT (but the Bard can never be totally OT) - we really are not 
shown Cassio as being less competent - we only have Iago's less than 
reliable word for it.  Iago is consistently identified with Hell and 
demonic powers, and although he gives some reasons for his hatred of 
Othello, he rarely mentions them more than once (and no one has ever 
been better at portraying obsessiveness than Shakespeare). 

> 
> What do we have from the canon that reveals Lucius' inner
> motivations to us? Right now he just looks like one of those
> rich and evil aristocrat to me. I'd like to know why he hates
> mud-blood so much and why he chooses to follow Voldemort
> who is a half-bred. 

Next to Voldy himself, Lucius strikes me as the most evil individual 
in the narrative to date.  Like Voldemort, he acts with a supreme 
consciousness of his personal evil, and rejoices in it.  I'm reminded 
of the taunt that the Auschwitz-imprisoned Father Riccardo hurls at 
Dr. Mengele in Rolf Hochhuth's holocaust tragedy The Deputy: "I have 
never seen a man more wretched than you, for you *know* what you 
do..." (That's an allusion to Luke 23:34 for all you Sec Hums out 
there)

  - CMC