Lockhart - Yuck!

Indigo indigo at indigosky.net
Fri May 25 12:53:42 UTC 2001


No: HPFGUIDX 19458

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Susan Hall" <shall at s...> wrote:
> >Am I the only one who really dislikes Lockhart?
> 
> No.  Lockhart, IMO is interesting and important because he is 
completely,
> unmitigatedly and irredeemably evil (oh yes he is.  Just read that 
scene in
> the lair of the Basilisk.  He's a professional brainwasher and he 
is quite
> happy to leave an 11 year old kid to a horrible death if it will 
sell him
> more books) and  *still *nothing to do with Voldemort.  Which is 
where
> Rowling scores massively over her predecessors, tolkein and all.  
Because in
> other works you have the personification of evil, and all the evil
> characters are working for him.  The idea that you could have 
little clumps
> of evil off on a frolic of their own never even occurred to them
> (manicheeism rules, black or white).  I think he's great.  And 
nothing is
> too bad to happen to him.
> 
> Susan

I don't think Lockhart is evil in that sense of the word.

I just think he is really self-centered to the point where he 
believes his right to fame, fortune, glory and a lifestyle to which 
anyone would like to become accustomed  supercedes anyone else's 
rights.

I know people like that RL, who will step on their friends' toes and 
hearts just because that made it easier for them to get the brass 
ring their friend might've been reaching for, and then blink dumbly 
in honest confusion when asked why they did so.

Gilderoy strikes me as the sort of person it just plain never occurs 
to to think of other people than himself.

Misguided, certainly.

But I don't think he was malicious really.  I think he 
thought, "Shame that the boys will have to have memory charms placed 
on them, but if I'm to keep my image unsullied..."

It'll be interesting to see how he turns out now that he's having to 
be re-taught everything with the backfire of his last Memory Charm.

Indigo





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