Four Humours (wasRe: CHAPDISC: HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm

[JLen1777 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 144245

 

a_svirn:
Nice one, Potioncat. Medieval tradition distinguished between yellow  
bile (choler) and black bile, the former responsible for choleric  
temperament, and the latter for melancholic. I'd say Snape is 
suffering  from the excess of choler. It would have been fitting if 
Sirius had suffered  from the excess of black bile, but I don't 
figure him as melancholic.  





Jaimee:
No, I think you may be on to something with that.  If anyone in the  books 
fits a melancholic personality type, I think Sirius would be the  one.  He is 
quite depressed while stuck in Grimmauld place, and his  sullenness also leads 
to violent outbursts with Snape (which might be hard to  contain even if he 
weren't depressed... ;) )  -- Wikipedia explains an  excess of black bile as 
causing a melancholic temperament, which it says was  probably the same thing as 
someone today who is clinically depressed, other  characteristics may have been 
restless or lazy.  (I don't think Sirius was  lazy, but I think he definitely 
FELT lazy by never being able to leave his  house), so I think you actually 
made a really good point, but you may see Sirius  differently than I do.
 
As for an excess of phlegm, I am not sure I see Tonks or Fleur in that  
light.  Wikipedia describes someone with an excess of phlegm as "calm,  
unemotional, self-content and kind"
I really need to look through the chapter again.  I think some of  Fleur's 
behavior is probably taken out of context, but she does not really come  off as 
calm or unemotional to me, and Tonks is depressed over Lupin, so she isnt  
really seen in this light either.  Hmm, I think Arthur and Ron both have  this 
personality type, but I doubt that the chapter is actually pointing to  either 
of them, I just don't know.  In an argument for this to point to  Fleur though, 
it does say that of Aristitle's four sources of Happiness, that  the 
Phlegmatics have moral virtue, and we do see this in Fleur after Bill has  been 
attacked and she has never even considered not staying with Bill because of  his 
disfiguration (I am sorry I do not have the books with me at the  moment...will 
look up any quotes later if necessary.)
 
As for Snape having an excess of yellow bile, I think it is quite  fitting.,  
Again, wikipedia desrcibes these people as "easily angered, and  bad 
tempered."  
 
Though Sanguine deals with blood, I think the personality traits  
("courageous, hopeful, amorous"), could describe Dumbledore or Harry.  I  had never 
thought of this before, and I don't know if anyone knows through  interviews etc, 
if JKR has used the four humours for personality traits, but I  think it may 
have been in her head in creating some characters OR  possibly in arranging the 
four houses at Hogwarts...  Since they also  correlate with the four elements 
etc...this is a decent possiblity.
 
Here is the Wikipedia Page that I looked at:
 _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_four_humours_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_four_humours) 
 
Jaimee