Skip to main content

harry potter - Why did Quirrell stutter?


Why did Quirrell stutter?


Was it an act?


His natural way?


Was it due to effects of carrying around Voldemort in the back of his head, under the turban?



Answer




I agree with System Down who claims it was an act. Let's see some quotes.


In PS chapter 17, when Harry finally meets Quirrel in the stone's hiding place.



It was Quirrel.


‘You!’ gasped Harry.


Quirrel smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.


‘Me,’ he said calmly. ‘I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter.’


‘But I thought – Snape –’


‘Severus?’ Quirrel laughed and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. ‘Yes, Severus does seem that type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrel?’




It's clear that Quirrel has been using stuttering as an act to divert attention from himself, and is giving it up at this point.


I must respectfully disagree with Purefreet who claims Quirrel wasn't stuttering here because Voldemort was in control of him at this point, because he is speaking for himself. Quirrel has a spoken aloud conversation with Voldemort, saying things like ‘Help me, Master!’ and ‘Master, you are not strong enough!’, with Voldemort also replying aloud.



We also learn when Quirrel had started the act. In PS chapter 5, Hagrid says:



‘[…] Even Professor Quirrel was tremblin' ter meet yeh – mind you, he's usually tremblin'.’


‘Is he always that nervous?’


‘Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some frist-hand experience … They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. […]’



Then later, in chapter 17, Quirrel says




‘I met him [Voldemort] when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of riddiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it … Since then, I have served him faithfully, […] When I failed to steal the Stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me … decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me …’



The year off and travelling around the world clearly refers to the same trip. Quirrel meets Voldemort and starts serving him immediately. He takes up the act of trembling and stuttering. He tells the lie that he's met vampires to explain the change: in PS chapter 8 we learn that



[Quirrel's] classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. […] for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrel was protected wherever he went.



Quirrel has never actually met vampires. He wasn't serving Voldemort just out of fear, and Voldemort occasionally punishing him wasn't enough reason for him to genuinely tremble of fear all of the time.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more