Evil (Rita)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 27848

Cindy wrote:

> 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?

Good point.  Macbeth is the protagonist of Macbeth.  Granting that 
our protagonist in HP is good, though, Luke's logic holds.

> 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

It's an interesting question whether one's actions would be evil if 
one were merely passing along information that others then abuse, but 
we don't have to delve into it, because Rita's actions go beyond 
that.  She doesn't just gossip, she doesn't even just gossip 
maliciously:  she lies.  As for her intent, no, I don't think her 
purpose as such is to harm Harry, or Hermione, or Hagrid.  However, 
pursuing one's selfish purposes even when they require one to stomp 
all over other people *is* evil, IMHO.  Rita is a perfect example of 
using someone else as means to one's own ends; at first she's 
friendly toward Harry (though even then her stories are embarrassing 
and untruthful), by the end she's frankly vicious towards him, but 
they're in the service of the same goals:  Rita's career/the 
newspaper's profit.

Amy Z