The more I think about the way Sirius is depicted in this chapter, the more fascinated I am with JKR’s trickiness. Many things about the way the chapter is set up, many conventional aspects of the scene in the Cave, reinforce Harry’s sense of excitement at seeing his godfather, reflect his sense of admiration and sympathy for him, heighten a dramatic sense of Sirius as a kind of romantic hero. At the same time, we also notice a set of descriptions and images that are radically subversive of Harry’s view, and that suggest that Sirius is a remarkably unsympathetic personality.
I should say at the outset that I find Sirius is a disturbing and creepy character throughout the series, and I resist (and think JKR intends to subvert) the generally sentimental way that Harry tends to see him. And I don’t just mean that Sirius is reckless or a bad boy. Fundamentally, I see Sirius as a born User, someone who almost instinctively misrepresents himself and manipulates Harry for his own ends, taking advantage of Harry’s emotional neediness while pursuing an opportunistic agenda that has little to do with Harry. Without going into an obsessively close reading here, I want to make some suggestions and then invite people to re-consider the scene and see if these suggestions seem plausible.
The very concluding words of the chapter nail down the basic irony here: Ron says, “Poor old Snuffles . . . he must really like you, Harry . . . imagine having to live off rats.” This is precisely the impression that Sirius has worked to create, leaving Harry with the sense that Sirius is ferociously devoted to him, self-sacrificing, etc. I don’t buy it at all.
First, why has Sirius gone to such lengths to station himself outside Hogwarts? To watch over Harry? How exactly does living as a dog in a cave, half an hour from Hogsmeade, help him accomplish that? I think Sirius is there for an entirely different reason – to watch for an opportunity to avenge himself on Crouch Sr., who is supposed to be attending the Tournament as a judge. It’s very similar to the situation in PoA, where Sirius allows Harry to believe that he escaped from Azkaban to protect him, while I think you can make a case that what drove him in PoA was the hope of revenging himself on Peter once he had learned his whereabouts. It’s a tricky case to make in either example, but I think what makes it persuasive is, first, the ability of the “revenge” theory in either case to explain details of Sirius’ behavior – the way, in GoF, he preserves his distance from Harry; or the way, in PoA, he tries to ingratiate himself with Harry by giving him a broom but seems oddly indifferent about frightening him or hurting Ron. The revenge motive is hinted at but de-emphasized, and covered by a convenient parallel story that plays directly to Harry’s emotional needs.
In this chapter JKR certainly signals some wariness, even disgust, about Sirius as a personality. She is very careful to reinforce doglike or animal-like aspects of his behavior throughout the cave scene. At the moment Sirius changes back into a human being, he still has newspapers in his mouth. (Featuring stories about Crouch!) Once he spits out the newspapers, the first thing he says isn't "How are you, Harry?" It's “Chicken!” Sirius is hungry, and his hunger comes first. He bolts his food like a dog, and guzzles his pumpkin juice like a dog (I like your theory about taking a drink but I think it’s more just a matter of crudeness.) He even “barks” his laugh at one point.
It’s not at all clear that Sirius takes much emotional interest in Harry. The very first significant thing he says to Harry, when Harry asks him what he’s doing there, is that he’s “doing my duty as a godfather.” This comes off, to me, as strikingly passive-aggressive, insincerely self-pitying, mainly calculated to manipulate Harry’s emotions.
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Thoughts on Sirius - I
Date: 2006-01-18 07:18 pm (UTC)I should say at the outset that I find Sirius is a disturbing and creepy character throughout the series, and I resist (and think JKR intends to subvert) the generally sentimental way that Harry tends to see him. And I don’t just mean that Sirius is reckless or a bad boy. Fundamentally, I see Sirius as a born User, someone who almost instinctively misrepresents himself and manipulates Harry for his own ends, taking advantage of Harry’s emotional neediness while pursuing an opportunistic agenda that has little to do with Harry. Without going into an obsessively close reading here, I want to make some suggestions and then invite people to re-consider the scene and see if these suggestions seem plausible.
The very concluding words of the chapter nail down the basic irony here: Ron says, “Poor old Snuffles . . . he must really like you, Harry . . . imagine having to live off rats.” This is precisely the impression that Sirius has worked to create, leaving Harry with the sense that Sirius is ferociously devoted to him, self-sacrificing, etc. I don’t buy it at all.
First, why has Sirius gone to such lengths to station himself outside Hogwarts? To watch over Harry? How exactly does living as a dog in a cave, half an hour from Hogsmeade, help him accomplish that? I think Sirius is there for an entirely different reason – to watch for an opportunity to avenge himself on Crouch Sr., who is supposed to be attending the Tournament as a judge. It’s very similar to the situation in PoA, where Sirius allows Harry to believe that he escaped from Azkaban to protect him, while I think you can make a case that what drove him in PoA was the hope of revenging himself on Peter once he had learned his whereabouts. It’s a tricky case to make in either example, but I think what makes it persuasive is, first, the ability of the “revenge” theory in either case to explain details of Sirius’ behavior – the way, in GoF, he preserves his distance from Harry; or the way, in PoA, he tries to ingratiate himself with Harry by giving him a broom but seems oddly indifferent about frightening him or hurting Ron. The revenge motive is hinted at but de-emphasized, and covered by a convenient parallel story that plays directly to Harry’s emotional needs.
In this chapter JKR certainly signals some wariness, even disgust, about Sirius as a personality. She is very careful to reinforce doglike or animal-like aspects of his behavior throughout the cave scene. At the moment Sirius changes back into a human being, he still has newspapers in his mouth. (Featuring stories about Crouch!) Once he spits out the newspapers, the first thing he says isn't "How are you, Harry?" It's “Chicken!” Sirius is hungry, and his hunger comes first. He bolts his food like a dog, and guzzles his pumpkin juice like a dog (I like your theory about taking a drink but I think it’s more just a matter of crudeness.) He even “barks” his laugh at one point.
It’s not at all clear that Sirius takes much emotional interest in Harry. The very first significant thing he says to Harry, when Harry asks him what he’s doing there, is that he’s “doing my duty as a godfather.” This comes off, to me, as strikingly passive-aggressive, insincerely self-pitying, mainly calculated to manipulate Harry’s emotions.
[continued . . . ]