Evil or Irritating

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 27842

Megan wrote:
> > I don't think we can classify Rita under that category of "truly
> > evil".  If she's evil, then Dobby and Lockhart are too...because 
> > they irritate me just as much.
> 
Luke wrote:

> 
> But evilness, if it exists, surely has an objective definition?  
> Surely its not just based on our personal opinions like someone 
being 
> deemed "irritating" is?
> 
> So, if we take evilness in literary terms as fulfilling the role of 
> the antagonist, then Rita IS evil.  She is a clear antagonist to 
our 
> protagonists (Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, etc.), because she causes 
> problems for them.  Whether she is irritating is immaterial.  
Lockhart 
> is also evil, under this definition, because he is an antagonist to 
> Harry and Ron.  I suppose he and Rita could be coined as "less" 
evil 
> (if indeed evil can be said to have "degrees") than Voldemort, but 
> this is logical as Voldemort is the primary antagonist.  Dobby, 
though 
> quite possibly irritating, is not evil under this definition.  He 
> assists the protagonists; he does not cause them any detriment with 
> bad intent.
> 
> Or, if we take evilness as being morally corrupted, than the same 
> conclusions generally apply (Rita and Lockhart are evil but Dobby 
is 
> not).
> 


Luke,

I don't think anyone is saying that Evil and Irritating are the same 
thing (right, Megan?  <bg>).  Note the existence of separate Evil 
Meter and Irritant Meter scales.  Although I suppose someone could be 
such an irritant that they cross over into evil.  Perhaps certain ex-
spouses have made the leap across that divide.  :-)

But I really wanted to follow up on the statement "So, if we take 
evilness in literary terms as fulfilling the role of the antagonist, 
then Rita IS evil."  Isn't it possible for the protagonist to be 
evil, such that we can't always say that evilness = antagonist?  

For instance, let's assume that HP were told entirely from 
Voldemort's POV.  Let's assume he and his followers do the same 
overtly evil acts (torturing people, controlling the will of others, 
murder).  Dumbledore would then be the antogonist but would not be 
evil.

Also, (and I fear the following points may be directly contrary to 
everything I just said), I have to wonder whether Rita is Evil 
because I suspect that she doesn't do things specifically to hurt our 
protagonists or anyone else.  She does it to sell newspapers, and if 
people get hurt, they get hurt due to the (possibly forseeable) Evil 
reactions of others.  A third party sent Hermione the hate mail; Mrs. 
Weasley snubbed Hermione.  Rita just told a story based on the 
information provided by Draco and others.  So maybe all of this shows 
that there are degrees of evil.  There is evil for evil's sake, and 
there is evil that is an unfortunate side-effect of legitimate 
actions taken for another purpose, and perhaps there is unintended 
evil.

I fear that my observation brings us dangerously close to a 
discussion of "What is evil?" and "Is evil objective or subjective?", 
which in my experience is quicksand, a bottomless pit, a black hole 
from which it is impossible to emerge.  

But then again, we have months to kill before OoP, so what the heck?

Cindy (painfully aware that this post might make no sense at all, and 
hoping someone will help sort this out)

--------------
Dr. Evil:  "You're not quite evil enough.  You're semi-evil.  You're 
quasi-evil.  You're the margerine of evil.  You are the Diet Coke of 
evil, just one calorie, not evil enough."

-- Austin Powers:  The Spy Who Shagged Me