Strikelgangers: A Guest Post by Daniel Williams
In How Harry Cast His Spell, our dear Hogwarts Professor wrote a chapter entitled “one person, two natures.” In this chapter he introduces the idea of “doppelgangers” in the Harry books. He sets up this paradigm at the Macro level—Slytherin vs Gryffindor, for example, and at the micro level—i.e. Ron and Hermione.
The Strike series shares this thematic DNA.
Strike and Lucy’s Parental Figures.
Strike and his sister Lucy grew up together being pulled between 2 worlds. Their mother, Leda did her best to re-write Pamela Des Barres I’m with the Band. She was referred to as a “super-groupie.” She was impetuous. She was flighty. She was anything but conventional. She refused to have anything resembling roots. She also died of a heroin overdose in a drug den.
Since their mother was such a chaotic figure in their lives, her diametric opposition were Stirke and Lucy’s Aunt Joan and Uncle Ted. These staunch pillars of stability were able to overcome Leda’s flightiness to make very discernible imprints on the kids. Lucy is every bit the mother figure that Mrs. Weasley is. Strike himself joined the Army—no doubt causing his counter-culture mother to roll in her grave. He is also described as being “staunchly tidy.”
The Robin Axis.
In many ways, Robin is the spiritual cousin to Harry. She too is caught between two worlds, even if those worlds are abstractions. Robin is in a long term relationship with the “unimaginative” Matthew. Matthew bears more than a passing resemblance to the Percy we suffer through in Order of the Phoenix. He is much more concerned about what his promotion prospects say about him than if he happens to actually enjoy his work. In Silkworm, while having drink with Strike, Matthew’s “every sentence was angled, like a mirror to cast [Matthew] in the most possible light.” He is the very definition of extrinsic motivation. Even when Robin catches her husband in infidelity, one of his initial horrors is that his work prospects might be endangered. Strike refers to him as “a twat.”
Strike, of course, is Matthew’s mirror opposite. He is, for all intents and purposes, homeless when we meet him, having had a final implosion with his perpetual threat to his sanity, Charlotte.
Paul Stanley from KISS was once asked “what’s it like to be rich and famous?” The Starchild said “I can tell you what it’s like to be famous.” Strike would definitely feel Paul’s pain. Even though his victories in Cuckoo and Silkworm garnered him newsworthy status. His finances are nowhere in the ballpark of the financial solvency he practically needs to accrue to not have to work “8-9 hours a day. Every day, for months on end.” Were it not for his dedication to the work—intrinsic motivation, he would have little to keep him going through the first 4 books.
Robin skews all the way to Strikes side of the axis. She accepts much less money to stay and work with Strike than she would have had working at a job she was offered with an advertising firm. Her enthusiasm for her work is “sneered” at by Matthew throughout their entire relationship. Besides the “unsociable” hours, her “disappointing” salary, and the danger she puts herself in—especially in Career of Evil where she is attacked by a serial killer, Matthew most detests “how (Robin’s) life looks to everyone else.” “Thank you,” Robin would say during this last argument, “for making this so easy.”
Equal Opportunity Serial Killers
Go to any streaming service and you will find no end of documentaries and series’ centered around serial killers. According to the Office of Justice (2022), only 8% of serial killers are women. In Career of Evil, the statistics hold, as the leg-mailing, prostitute praying upon antagonist, Donald Laing is an archetypal serial killer.
In Troubled Blood, another male serial killer, Dennis Creed is a leading suspect for that episodes culprit. However, one of the 8% proves to be the inventive serial murderess. Janice Beaty, a Nurse Ratchet if ever there was one, killed because “(she) wanted to see what would happen” when she poisoned her victims. That’s bad enough, but she would also poison them “so that I could heal them, And then they’d be grateful.” Arguably she’s a bigger monster than either male killers.
The Royal ‘”We”
In back to back novels, Silkworm and Career of Evil the pronoun “we” unites characters in a common cause; one united against Strike himself, the other to distance themselves from an otherwise kindred spirit. In Silkworm the girlfriend and “second daughter” of the deceased Owen Quine ineptly tried to knife Strike because “we know what you’re doing! We’re not stupid!” Strike’s sin was that he was indeed working for Quine’s widow Leonora, whom they are so convinced had done the murder herself that they literally put dog feces through her letterbox.
The other “we” in question are Tempest and Jason of the Body Integrity Identity Disorder (yes, a real thing) community. After an absolute whirlwind of monologue from the most obnoxious character in all of JKR’s work NOT named Dolorus Umbridge, in which she talks about “being the den mother” of their community, Tempest says “we” a total of 6 times in a paragraph distancing herself from the girl whose leg was sent to Robin at the books beginning.
Other Considerations for Further Articles.
Obviously with a series this rich with hundreds of characters over the 7 books that currently exist, many doppelgänger relationships exist than can be covered here.
Other Strikelganger Possibilities to Consider:
- Charlotte Campbell vs Robin
- Charlotte vs Strike’s Girlfriend Du Jour
- Male vs Female antagonists
- A further look at Matthew and Percy
- A further look at Robin and Harry
- Lucy and Aunt Joan vs The Dursleys and the Weasleys
- The Male vs Female clients
- Drunk Strike and Drunk Robin
- Robin and Strike’s injuries
- Strike and Dumbledore
Thank you for reading. Be nice in the comments or I’ll tell Shanker!
Speak Your Mind