Argus Filch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
|---|---|
 David Bradley as Argus Filch in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
|
| Argus Filch | |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair colour | Grey |
| Eye colour | Grey and lamp-like |
| House | Did not attend Hogwarts |
| Parentage | Squib |
| Allegiance | Hogwarts, though he shows particular loyalty to Ministry of Magic employee Dolores Umbridge |
| Actor | David Bradley |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
Argus Filch is the caretaker and (effectively) hall monitor in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books. While he arguably does not act maliciously, and is not an evil character, he is certainly both short- and ill-tempered, which has made him very unpopular with the student body. Filch's attempts to enforce the letter of rules against activities such as being outside the dorms late make life very inconvenient for Harry Potter and many of his friends. His knowledge of the secrets and shortcuts of the castle is nearly unparalleled. It appears that the only people who may have known more were the Marauders and the Weasley twins. Filch and his cat are mutual enemies of Peeves the poltergeist, against whom they are constantly at odds.
Filch has a cat named Mrs Norris; he frequently calls her "my sweet". As for the students, it's the "dearest ambition of many to give her a good kick". If Mrs Norris catches a student putting one toe out of line, Filch will arrive in seconds. She has been known to follow Hagrid everywhere when he goes about to the school, apparently under Filch's orders – which suggests an extraordinary connection between cat and owner.
The name "Argus" comes from Greek mythology, where it was the name of a giant with one hundred eyes who served the goddess Hera as a watchman (much like Mr Filch's role in patrolling the hallways of Hogwarts). Interestingly, in some versions of the myth, Argus is described as having four eyes, not a hundred, which recalls the almost psychic connection Mrs Norris appears to have with her master, as if they share two pairs of eyes. The surname, "Filch", is an English word meaning "to steal", usually in a sneaky manner. The name of his cat, "Mrs Norris", is borrowed from Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park. [1] Mrs Norris is a nosy, interfering character in Mansfield Park who makes life difficult for the heroine, Fanny Price (although Austen's Aunt Norris bears more of a resemblance to Aunt Petunia than to the cat; indeed, it is ironic that the charge Austen's Mrs Norris levels against Fanny, that she 'sees everything, creeping from room to room', could be applied also to Rowling's Mrs Norris).
Filch is played by David Bradley in the films. By the fourth film, he had merely become a comic relief, seen running in an amusing fashion, dancing with Mrs Norris and letting the cannon that announced the tasks for the Triwizard Tournament go off early.
For years Filch has been trying to bring the "old punishments" back, where students are hung by their thumbs in the dungeons for days, are whipped, and so forth. In the fifth book when Dolores Umbridge takes control of Hogwarts, he briefly gets his wish as a result of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Nine. Filch calls Umbridge "the best thing that ever happened to Hogwarts," making him the only staff member to take her side. When Fred and George Weasley release their custom fireworks, Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs, throughout the school corridors, Filch is the sole companion to Umbridge's efforts to rid them from the school.
Filch is revealed to be a Squib in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Harry accidentally catches him trying to teach himself basic magic from a correspondence course. His inability to use magic in a setting where it would greatly help his duties and the fact that students are learning magic all around him are likely causes of his bitterness. Nonetheless, Filch is at least able to use wizarding devices with their own innate magic (such as the Secrecy Sensor used in Book 6), which is fortunate since it is difficult to imagine how else a single individual with no magic of his own could be caretaker of such an enormous edifice as Hogwarts. Although Filch's work presumably brings him into frequent contact with the castle's house-elves, such interaction has not been described to date.
A relationship between Filch and Madam Pince, the librarian, has been hinted near the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and it is unknown if Filch will appear in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
| Preceded by Apollyon Pringle |
Hogwarts Caretaker ? – ? |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
