[HPforGrownups] Humanizing Myrtle and Why is the toilet so important...

[shane dunphy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47604

Scheherazade and Porphyria have commented in great depth on this subject 
(and many thanks to Porphyria for the kind things she posted about 
Scheherazade and my own thoughts).  Isn't it amazing how a discussion about 
something as mundane as the toilet can become so fascinating?

Well, after the most recent posts, I've kind of gone off on some other 
tangents, considering some of the other issues listies have been thinking 
about re this topic.

Scheherazade wrote:
>Anal-Retentive Personality: Individuals who fail to progress pass >this 
>stage (the Anal stage) are obsessively clean and orderly, and >intolerant 
>of those who aren't. They may also be very careful, stingy, >withholding, 
>obstinate, meticulous, conforming and passive-aggressive >Withholding? 
>obstinate? passive-aggressive? I'd say that our Myrtle >does have these 
>traits.

Me:
Well spotted!  I think that Myrtle classicly fits the anal retentive 
personality mould.  Her lack of popularity while alive, which we can 
possibly attribute to her ...challenging...personality, and her highly 
unigue response to her death mirror this perfectly.

Twileen wrote:
>We often only see Myrtle as sort of comic relief, and we gloss over how 
>tormented she really must be.

Me:
Twileen goes on to suggest that Myrtle may become a kind of link in the 
books, helping us to understand more what the afterlife must be like for 
people who are trapped, as she is.  I think that this is a particularly 
interesting idea.  Myrtle is a particularly tormented soul, who seems to be 
using the afterlife as a way to create her own hell, punishing herself when 
she has finished punishing Olive.  Myrtle is creating her own hell: living 
down the toilet.  Doesn't this illustrate what she really thinks of herself? 
  She has also began using her ghostly abilities to spy and stalk (we learn 
that she sometimes hangs out in the Prefects bathroom, and spied on Cedric 
Diggory while he was in the bath working on the clue for the second task of 
the Triwizard Tournament (GOF, Chapter 25)).  Her life (if that's what you 
can call it) has become squalid and sordid.  She truly is a spectator, 
coveting what she cannot have - a normal teenage life, intimacy with others, 
physical contact.  She is left to try and recreate this by spying on other 
in private, intimate activities: bathing or using the toilet.  Isn't this 
really very tragic?

Porphyria wrote in refernce to the importance of toilets:
>Heck, even Dumbledore isn't too proud to expound on the necessity of 
>chamber pots.

Me:
Again, excellently spotted!  That was one reference I had completely 
forgotten about!  Dumbledore is always so gloriously uninhibited!  He even 
comments during that scene about the fact that he had a particularly full 
bladder at the time.  Brilliant, and something that one would only see in 
the Harry Potter canon.

Porphyria again:
>The Wizarding World as a whole has a problem with a repressed past which 
>they haven't dealt with -- Joe Average Wizard can't even utter Voldemort's 
>name -- and it's coming back to haunt them in a big way. This is analogous 
>to the 'anal' qualities that Shane and Scheherazade have mentioned -- an 
>individual (or society) is 'uptight' because they have stuffed down some 
>unpleasant repressed issues that they cannot 'digest' properly.

Me:
This is taking the "anal" theme to an even broader level, but I think it 
works, and works very well.  In the WW, the real problems haven't been dealt 
with.  Hatred, poverty, prejudice, superstition, fear are all still as 
virulent as ever.  In fact, LV wasn't really beaten, he was just out of 
action for a while.  If it was believed that he was really still alivew, why 
didn't a group of Aurors find him and finish the job?  If Pettigrew could 
find him, I bet a team of Moody-like Aurors could have done!  No, the 
attitude of the WW was to think that the problem was gone, and they cleaned 
house as well as they could, and by never mentioning his name, tried to 
pretend that nothing ever happened.  People like Moody, who remained 
vigilant, and Dumbledore, who through example and understanding tried to 
build bridges and encourage tolerance, are seen as odd-balls, even in 
wizarding circles.  The entire WW have a problem with dealing with the more 
unpleasant aspects of life.  They much prefer to live on with the wool 
pulled firmly over their own eyes.  As Porphyria has said, this is now 
coming back to haunt them, but even in the face of overwhelming evidence, 
individuals like Fudge prefer to live on in the illusion that all is well.  
Typically, it is Dumbledore who is ready to act.  It is quite likely that he 
was always expecting this particular piece of excrement to hit the fan 
again.

Well, that's all on this subject for now.  Time to drag my mind out of the 
toilet!

Shane.



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