TBAY: Crouch - Where Three Roads Meet (2 of 9)

[lucky_kari <lucky_kari@yahoo.ca>]

No: HPFGUIDX 47979

"Elkins, Cindy, TBAYers, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Crouch, not to praise him. 
The evil that men does lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
So let it be with Crouch." 

"Which good was that?" asks Elkins, who unlike a certain naive
conspirator of long ago, was wise enough to stick around for Eileen's
speech.

"Protecting the wizarding world by fighting Voldemort," says Eileen.
"I mean, really. The noble Elkins hath told you all that Crouch was
ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously has
Crouch answered it."

"Not nearly grievously enough," says Elkins. "You have no idea of the
extent of his fault," Elkins takes out her pipe, and lights it. "Let's
call this The Case of the Greying Hair."

"Grey hair is sexy," says Eileen nervously. "I admitted that."

"There's more to the grey hair than that, m'dear," says Elkins,
puffing on her pipe. 

"So," says Eileen, rearranging her small cups of CRAB CUSTARD with an
ill-concealed air of insufferably smug self-satisfaction.  "Now that 
you've conceded that Crouch Sr. was indeed Dead Sexy, what next?"

"I have conceded no such thing," protests Elkins.  "I have merely 
conceded that the text does indeed *facilitate* such a reading.  For
those Sick and Twisted and Warped and *Bent* enough to take the text 
up on its offer, that is."

Eileen sighs.  "You know, Elkins," she comments.  "I really am growing
inured to your habit of calling me Sick and Twisted and Warped and
Bent. I hardly even notice it anymore.  I hope that doesn't disappoint
you too terribly much."

"It elates me," says Elkins coldly.  

"Though actually," says Eileen rather hastily. "This time around I'm
feeling alone and isolated. As if I was the only sick, twisted, warped
and bent person on the list. What's worse? Saying Crouch Sr. is dead
sexy or shipping Crouch/Winky?"

"We'll talk about that later," says Elkins. "I'm afraid, you know,
that I really must take umbrage at this...*insinuation* of yours that
poor dear Bartemius Junior was the one responsible for the graying of
his beastly father's wretched hair.  I simply can't allow that to pass
any longer.  It really is the most vile slander imaginable, and--"

"You can't call Barty Crouch Sr. beastly in the middle of an
argument?" says Eileen. "What sort of objectivity is that?"

"Objectivity?" says Elkins with a sniff. "I beg your pardon. Anyway,
Crouch's hair would seem to have started going grey somewhere around
the time of Rookwood's arrest.  During Karkaroff's testimony,
"Crouch's hair was dark." At Bagman's trial, "Mr. Crouch looked more
tired and somehow fiercer, gaunter..."  By the time we get to the
sentencing of young Crouch and his co-defendents, "Harry looked up at
Crouch and saw that he looked gaunter and grayer than ever before."

"By jove, you're right," says Eileen. "I mean, it's not like I sat
down and thought "Barty Jr's caused his father to go grey, as
evidenced by points a, b, and c. It was just a flippant remark. Not
important at all."

"On the contrary," says Elkins, "Crouch's Graying Hair Timeline is 
highly significant!The Devil's in the details," she says softly. 
"Isn't it, Eileen."

Eileen experiences a sinking feeling in her stomach. 

"The Crouch's Greying Hair Timeline," Elkins says, still smiling 
rather predatorily over at Eileen.  "Is relevant because it speaks 
to Crouch's political situation in the years following Voldemort's 
fall.  Which in turn speaks to his state of mind at the time of his 
son's arrest.  Which in turn speaks to his motivations in regard to 
his son's trial.  Which in *turn,*" she concludes.  "Has direct 
bearing on the nature of his _hamartia._"

"His what?" asks Cindy.

"His fault, his failing.  The error that leads to his destruction."
 
"His tragic flaw," explains Eileen wearily.

"Oh."

"And that, in turn, has direct bearing on Eileen's reading of Crouch 
as Tragic Hero."

"So you *did* read my Crouch As Tragic Hero post," exclaims Eileen.  
"I'd wondered. All that silence after I asked for your opinion. Well,
I guess I'm getting it now."

"Yes, I did read it.  I liked it very much. But Crouch as Tragic Hero
just doesn't hold together for me, because...well..."

Elkins' smirk quivers.  She shifts uncomfortably in her saddle.

"Eileen," she says slowly.  "Do you remember back in message #44636, 
when you told me:

> > Let me confess that I like nothing better than seeing you attack 
> > Crouch Sr. It makes me feel beleaguered and under pressure?"
 
"Yeeees," says Eileen cautiously.  "I do seem to remember saying 
something like that to you once.  Despiadado Denethor, wasn't it?
Look, you're not going to say that points to my bent character, are
you, because I think I already know that."

"You really did mean that, didn't you?  I mean, you weren't just
saying that?  You really *meant* it?"  

"Uh-oh," mutters Cindy.

"Yeah," says Eileen. "I did mean it. Nothing so delightful as nine
posts of vituperative language, imho. So, there will be some?"

"Almost certainly," Elkins assures her.  "Vituperative language 
galore.  Also stridency, hostility, and bile.  Possibly even some 
spitting.  I *did* tell you that I hadn't even begun to touch on  Mr.
Crouch's iniquities, didn't I?  And you *know* how I feel about 
the man.  I just couldn't *believe* that he wasn't included as an 
option on that 'who do you hate the most?' poll on OTC.  I mean, 
the pathetic Cornelius Fudge?  The sad sad Dursleys?  That mild-
mannered fellow Voldemort?  And yet no Barty Crouch Sr.?  Really!  
What on earth is *wrong* with people?"

Eileen opens her mouth to speak, then seems to think better of it.

"So yes," Elkins concludes.  "There will likely be vituperative
language.  No Cruciatus this time, though.  I promise."

Eileen breathes a sigh of reflief.

"Have you noticed, by the way, that the Crouch's Greying Hair Timeline
contradicts Sirius' accounting of events?"

"Not the greying hair timeline specifically," says Eileen frowning.
"But I did notice that Crouch Sr. was already in trouble before the
Pensieve scene. I've been sitting on it, wondering if you would catch
me out on it, and use it against me."

"Well, yes," says Elkins, with a parsed smile. "I'll do exactly
that.Crouch's hold on his political power was slipping even before the
Longbottom affair happened. At Ludo Bagman's trial, the public turns
against Crouch.  They cut him off with angry murmers before he can even 
finish delivering his recommendation to the jury, and they cheer the 
defendent he is trying to prosecute.  In the end, they effectively 
overturn his verdict: Ludo Bagman walks free.  Furthermore, when 
Crouch tries to intervene:
 "....there was an angry outcry from the surrounding benches. 
 Several of the witches and wizards around the walls stood up, 
 shaking their heads, and even their fists, at Mr. Crouch."
 Shaking their *fists* at him? And that is when his hair is first
beginning to go grey."

"Oh dear," says Eileen.

"This looks to me like a man whose political star is already 
 beginning to fall. I don't think that it was his son's arrest that
destroyed Crouch's  political career at all," says Elkins firmly.  "I
think that it was peace."

"Peace?" 
 
Elkins nods. "What we are looking at here is a man whose rise to power
was itself a by-product of the war.  We are looking at a man who was
*made* by the war."

Eileen nods. 

"Really, Voldemort's rise would seem to have been very good to Crouch.
 By the end of the conflict, it seems that he had even managed to
wrest for himself somehow the right to make unilateral decisions
regarding the disposition of prisoners. That's an extraordinary amount
of power for one man to hold."

"Well, you know, Elkins," Cindy says.  "There *was* a war on."

"Right," says Elkins, "but take a look at this."

 "'He had his supporters, mind you -- plenty of people thought he was 
 going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches 
 and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic.'"

"Yes," says Elkins.  "'Supporters.'  'Clamoring.'  'Clamoring for 
 him to take over.'  What does that sound like to you?"
 
Cindy's eyes light up.  "A *coup!*" she cries.  "It sounds like a
 bloody *coup!*"

"Elkins," says Eileen reprovingly.  "Now look what you've done."

"Bloody Coup!  Bloody Coup!  Bloody Coup!"  

"You just *had* to set her off, didn't you?  Elkins, you know 
perfectly well that you're exaggerating again.  Crouch wasn't 
Stalin, and he wasn't planning a bloody coup either."
 
 "No," agrees Elkins.  "He wasn't planning a bloody coup. However, I
do think that there are some elements of that dynamic implied by the
text.  He does seem to have seized for  himself quite a few unilateral
powers by the end of the war.  People  are always talking about what
*Crouch* did. Who was the Minister of Magic while Crouch  was the head
of the DMLE?" 

"I asked that in Post ," says Eileen smugly.

Elkins looks vaguely annoyed. "Yes?"

"Well, I said, 
>We don't know who the Minister for Magic was
>then. Sirius's testimony in GoF gives an impression 
>that Crouch was very much in charge, but I pointed out 
>in Post 44636 (Despiadado Denethor et. al.) that there 
>are many indications that Crouch's hands were actually 
>tied on certain things. Do you think Lucius Malfoy could
>have got off on Imperius if Crouch had his complete way?

"So, see there. He hadn't usurped all the power," says Eileen.

"Uh-huh. Right. Let's try this one, then. In Harry's day, in 
the time period of the canon, who is the person we see authorizing 
all extraordinary legal measures?  Who decides to place Hagrid into 
custody? Who authorizes the Dementor's Kiss to be used on Sirius 
Black?  Who gives Harry a pass on his violations of the Restriction 
on Underage Wizardry?  Who is the person we consistently see making 
those decisions?"
 
There is another brief silence.

"Cornelius Fudge," Eileen answers, at length.
 
"Yes.  Cornelius Fudge.  Who is the *Minister of Magic.*  And the 
current head of the DMLE is...?"

"A hit,a palpable hit. I do confess," says Eileen. "Though with
limitations, as outlined above."

"I'd say that the war treated Crouch pretty well," Elkins says softly.
 "Wouldn't you? But it ended.  Voldemort fell, the war ended, and once
that  happened, Crouch started to lose his influence.  We see it
happening, right there in the Pensieve.  We see the public turn
against him at Bagman's trial.  We see them shake their fists at him,
and cheer on the defendent.  We see his signs of exhaustion, his
evident signs of aging. All of that happened *before* the arrest of
the PensieveFour. The Pensieve scenes show us that  Crouch's career
was already in trouble.  It was in trouble even before the assault on
the Longbottoms took place."

"Because the war had ended," murmurs Eileen.

"People always talk about Bagman's trial as if it is just an 
illustration of the jury's bias in favor of a popular celebrity, you
know, but I think they were conveying the message that the time for 
witch-hunts was over.  As was the time for dictatorial unilateral
powers."

"I think you're right," says Eileen, with a glum smile. 

"It's a funny thing, though, you know," continues Elkins, "the way
once the immediate danger is past, then  people do often start to feel
rather differently about those they allowed to strip them of their
liberties 'for their own good' while  the threat was still active. 
They sometimes get a wee bit *resentful* about that.  *Especially* if
they come to suspect that their protector's motives were perhaps never
really all that pure to begin with.  We see that with Crouch Jr., I
think.  And I'd say that at Bagman's trial, we see it with the
wizarding world as a body politic."  

"Ungrateful little brats," mutters Eileen.
 
"Hating tyranny is *not* ingratitude, Eileen," snaps Elkins.  "Hating 
tyranny is a moral *imperative!*" The question of tyranny and
obedience in the books really brings us right back to that old
question of rule-breaking in the series, doesn't it?  In the HP books,
the virtue of obedience is largely dependent upon the intentions of
those giving the orders. Were Crouch's motives pure?"

"Yes," answers Eileen instantly, if in a little too high-pitched voice.  

Elkins closes her eyes.  
 
"That was a rhetorical question, Eileen," she says.  "Obviously *I* 
don't think that Crouch's motives were pure.  And that's my real 
problem with Crouch as Tragic Hero, you know.  I'm not seeing any 
purity of motive there."

"Why does that matter?" asks Cindy.

Eileen sighs.  "Because of Nobility of Stature," she explains.  
"Tragic heroes possess nobility of stature, and properly that 
ought to apply to virtue as well as to social standing.  It's 
the very first question on the Tragic Hero Quiz. But what about Macbeth?"

"Macbeth?"

"Macbeth's a tragic hero, and where was his purity of motive? He was a
good guy at first (noble in stature) and then he was corrupted."

"Well," said Elkins, "Do Crouch's choices reveal nobility of stature?
 Does he display any true nobility or purity of motive at all? At any
time? What can we deduce about Crouch's motives, in light of what we
have deduced about his political situation in the wake of Voldemort's
fall?  What was Point Five of your CRAB CUSTARD manifesto again?" 

Eileen pulls out her own yellowed copy of message #37476 and reads 
aloud:

> > 5. If Crouch had survived GoF, he would very likely have finally 
> > been made Minister for Magic. With Voldemort back, he would not 
> > have stayed silent, and people would have rallied behind him. 

"Yes," says Elkins.  "You know, I think you're absolutely right about 
that?"  

"You do?" says Eileen with astonishment. "And all this time I thought
people had just laughed that assertion off."

"I do. And I think that Crouch himself knew it, too.  Remember when 
Sirius claimed that he had developed a mania for catching one last 
Dark Wizard?  Because if only he could do that, then it might restore 
his lost *popularity?*"

"Because we always believe Sirius," says Eileen. "Honestly, Elkins,
where did Sirius get than information?"
 
"You know you believe it," says Elkins. "Now let's have Point Four of
the CRAB CUSTARD manifesto."

"It wasn't a manifesto!" cries Eileen. "It was just a little of
thoughts and discussion points I came up with after my computer
crashed, and I lost my mega-Crouch post. (Though it was nothing as
mega as this one.)
 
> > 4. Crouch did not sacrifice his son to his career ambition. This 
> > seems to be a red herring in the plot.

"But I am not so sure," says Elkins quietly.  "I see plenty of
indications in the text that Crouch was indeed in the habit of 
sacrificing people to his political ambitions, and that the 
Pensieve Four, guilty though they may have been, were indeed among 
the people so sacrificed, just like Sirius Black was. The 
Pensieve sequences suggest that Crouch was a war-time leader, one 
whose popularity was largely dependent upon the fear and paranoia of 
a war-time mentality.  Absent that mentality, his grasp on the 
 affection of the public begins to slip.  Really, after Rookwood, he 
doesn't seem to have had much left in the way of big game, does he?  
He's been reduced to trying to prosecute hapless morons like Ludo 
Bagman, who are guilty of things like passing on information to old 
family friends.  It's just sad, really.  Not at all advantageous 
to Crouch.  Not at all good for his *career.*  Politicians like 
Crouch can only maintain their power for as long as they have an 
Enemy.  Preferably one with a Capital E.

"I think that the assault on the Longbottoms must have seemed like a 
golden opportunity for Crouch," says Elkins.  

Eileen flinches. "You're not saying that Crouch Sr. was all, "Oh look,
Longbottom, whom I knew personally, who worked for me, and his wife
were tortured to insanity. WOOHOOO!"

Elkins ignores her. "His department was  under pressure to make an
arrest.  People were outraged.  They were out for blood. The Longbottom 
case put the public right back under Crouch's thumb, didn't it? It 
made them want him *back.*  And he was right there for them when they 
did.  Just look at the performance he gave them at his son's 
sentencing!"

"Performance?" says Eileen thoughtfully. "And I'd thought that loss of
temper was his downfall."

"Well, it was," says Elkins, "but not in the way you think."
 
"Are you saying that was all an act?" asks Eileen doubtfully.

"I don't think that it was *all* an act, not on any of their parts. 
I'm sure that Mrs. Crouch was genuinely distraught.  I'm sure that
Crouch Jr. was genuinely  terrified. And I'm sure that Crouch Sr. was
genuinely furious with his son,"

"Good, so he wasn't celebrating Frank's downfall, thankyou for saying
that," says Eileen snarkily.

"as well as genuinely conflicted, and probably also feeling rather
angry with the crowd for putting him in such an awful situation.  I
also agree with Charis that he was 'acting to himself' to a certain
xtent: psyching himself up, steeling his nerve, trying to divorce his
feelings from what he felt that he had to be doing... But he was
playing to his audience as well. He wasn't *just* 'acting to himself.'
 Crouch was playing the crowd."
 
 "You're just saying that because you don't like him," says Cindy.

"No, I'm not," snaps Elkins irritably.  "Look.  That particular 
expression of rage, with all of the bellowing, and the eye bulging, 
 and...well, doesn't that entire routine strike the reader as awfully 
*familiar?*  Hadn't we seen all that somewhere before?  Somewhere 
else, long before the Pensieve chapter came along?"

Eileen nods.  She flips through her copy of GoF, finds the page, 
and begins to read:

"'And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a 
long career, that I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those 
 who practice them?" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again."

"It's quite clearly written as a parallel scene," says Elkins. Eileen
nods.  "You said yourself that the scene at the QWC showcases Crouch's
manipulative talents, Eileen."Given that the two scenes *are* so
obviously and blatantly  parallel, doesn't that almost beg us to take
a closer look at what is really happening in each of them?  In both
cases, Crouch is not *just* renouncing a disobedient member of his
household.  He is very specifically doing so for the benefit of an
*audience.*  And in a situation in which it is very much to his own
personal advantage to put on a good show of hard-line severity to
protect himself: his reputation, his position, his standing, his
freedom, his fugitive son."

"All right," says Eileen, "I concede the point."

"You do?" says Cindy in surprise.

"Parallel scenes. I have a weakeness for those," says Eileen. 

"I can't agree that 'Crouch sacrificed his son to his career ambition'
is a red herring," continues Elkins.  "That's a gross
over-simplification of a rather thematically-complex plotline, to be 
sure.  It's hardly the whole story.  But I can't see it as precisely 
a red herring because in fact, Crouch *did* have very strong 
political reasons to behave exactly as he did in regard to the 
 Longbottom Affair, and the text itself encourages us to consider 
them: by showing us the trajectory of his post-war career in the 
Pensieve scenes, by drawing such a strong parallel between the scene 
 at the sentencing and the scene at the QWC, and by giving us Sirius' 
comment about Crouch's 'mania' for catching just one last Dark 
Wizard -- to restore his lost *popularity.*"

"Yes," says Eileen wearily. "You're right."
 
 "That witch-hunt atmosphere we see at the trial of the Pensieve Four 
was exactly what Crouch needed.  It was what he thrived on.  His 
political power depended on it.  The Longbottom Incident was Crouch's 
one great chance to regain what he had lost when Voldemort fell.  And 
he *seized* it.  He exploited the opportunity.  At his son's 
sentencing, we see him encouraging that atmosphere.  He's really not 
doing a thing to combat the mob mentality in that courtroom, is he?  
On the contrary, he is actively fostering it, with all of his 'crime 
so heinous we've never seen the like,' and his 'resume the lives of 
violence you had led' talk.  Really, he's spurring the crowd on, 
isn't he?  He's whipping them up. He is *pandering,* pandering to all
of their very worst instincts, and he is doing it deliberately, 
because that sort of mass hysteria was the source of Crouch's 
personal power. That atmosphere of hatred and anger and paranoia is 
precisely what the likes of Crouch batten upon.  That witch hunt 
atmosphere was exactly what he *needed.*"

Eileen groans. Elkins has far too much of a gift for rhetoric. 
 
Elkins pauses for breath.  
 
"But he overstepped," she concludes, with a kind of grim relish.   "He
overstepped, he miscalculated, he misjudged.  And because his  own son
was involved, it all backfired on him.  Evil oft will evil mar.  Hoist
by his own petard.  Sic.  Semper.  Tyrannis."

"They weren't tough and Livian enough," says Eilen to herself. 
"And Brutus was an honorable man," she says cautiously.  "But so 
was Bartemius Crouch.  You said so yourself, you know, Elkins.   You did."
 
 "Did I?  Did *I* say that?  Did I really?"  Elkins thinks for a 
moment, then sighs.  "Yes," she admits.  "I suppose that I did say 
that once, didn't I.  Well, you know, Eileen, your Crouch Sr. 
Apologetics are really very persuasive.  Dangerously so, at times, 
with all of those Tough and Steely Livian parallels that I find so 
hard to resist, and all of that lovely meta-thinking that you do so 
well.  They're positively *fiendish,* they really are.  Imperius-
like, in fact.  And I am vulnerable to Imperius, you know.  I'm even 
worse than the Weasleys that way."

Eileen looks stunned. "You mean you liked my Crouch apologetics? You
weren't just sitting there laughing at my mundane attempts to turn the
Potterverse on its head?

"Don't get too swollen a head," says Cindy. "I sense a 'But' coming."

"Well, she can't completely "but," I did prove to her that Crouch
wouldn't Avada Kedavra the neighbours for the ping-pong table."

"*But.*," says Elkin, clearing her throat. "There's one thing that
they always seem to overlook.  One absolutely vital aspect of Crouch's
character that they never seem  to touch upon, or even to acknowledge
somehow.  And it's a very curious omission, too, because it's a thing
that strikes me as quite  possibly Crouch Sr's most notable
characteristic.  I also feel that it is absolutely vital to the
question of whether or not we can read  him as a tragic hero."
 
"Oh?" asks Eileen.  "What's that?" 
 
Elkins smiles at her gently, almost pityingly.
 
"Why," she says.  "That he was the most appalling hypocrite, of course."

"Oh dear," says Eileen. 

> *********************************************************************
> 
> REFERENCES:
> 
> Oedipus committed his act of parridice at a "trivium," a place where 
> three roads meet.
> 
> The CRAB CUSTARD Manifesto: message #37476
> 
> Crouch as Tragic Hero: message #45402
> 
> Also referenced or cited: #37574, #37769, #37781, #43010 and many of 
> its downthread responses, #43447, #44636, #45662, #45693.  One line 
> of Eileen's dialogue swiped shamelessly from off-list correspondence.
> 
> JOdel's message #45662 outlines her pet "the Pensieve Four conspired 
> to bring down Crouch" speculation.  Although this theory is obviously 
> incompatable with my own interpretation of the timeline of events, I 
> am nonetheless exceptionally fond of it.
> 
> On How Dangerous Buried Things Can Be: for a discussion of the motif 
> of burial (as well as parricide!) in GoF, see also message #38398.
> 
> For further explanation of the acronyms and theories in this post, 
> visit Hypothetic Alley at
> http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/faq/ 
> and Inish Alley at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?
> method=reportRows&tbl=13