Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Irma Pince
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Irma Pince | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Unknown |
| Eye color | Unknown |
| Related Family | Unknown |
| Loyalty | Her library and its books |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Irma Pince is the librarian of Hogwarts School of Withcraft and Wizardry. She is described to be a "thin, irritable woman who looks like an underfed vulture. From the very little description of who she is, we can guess that she is very impatient, and stereotypically we would guess her to have small glasses on her nose, which would probably be pointy. It is most likely she is in Ravenclaw house, guessing from her job and the location of the library.
[edit] Role in the Books
[edit] Philosopher's Stone
Madam Pince is largely in the background, moving around the library and making sure nobody damages any of her books. When Harry discovers that the name Nicholas Flamel is important to the story, it is Madam Pince who initially prevents his entering the Restricted Section of the library to search for him.
[edit] Chamber of Secrets
Hermione hits upon the scheme of using Polyjuice potion to disguise the Trio as Slytherins to determine what Draco Malfoy knows about the Heir. Hermione secures a permission slip for the necessary book, Moste Potente Potions, from Professor Lockhart, which she presents to Madam Pince. Madam Pince is not entirely certain about this, but accepts the note, eventually, and gives Hermione the book.
[edit] Prisoner of Azkaban
[edit] Goblet of Fire
[edit] Order of the Phoenix
Harry is studying in the library when Ginny brings him his Easter gift from Mrs. Weasley: a large chocolate egg. Harry is distracted; he has just learned something extremely disturbing about his father and needs to talk to Sirius Black about it. Ginny tells him that, living as long as she has with the Twins, she has learned that nothing is actually impossible. Harry has been distractedly eating his chocolate egg while they have been talking, and Madam Pince spots this source of damage to her precious books and chases them both out of the library.
[edit] Half-Blood Prince
Madam Pince spots Harry's potions book, with the annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, and accuses him of defiling one of her precious books. Harry is barely able to hold on to the book as he is chased out of the library.
[edit] Deathly Hallows
[edit] Strengths
[edit] Weaknesses
[edit] Relationships with Other Characters
It has been suggested that Irma Pince and Argus Filch have a relationship, by many fans, and in fact by Harry and Ginny in conversation. There is no evidence supporting this relationship anywhere else in the series, though some fans have suggested that the "Half-Blood Prince" of the title of the sixth book might actually be the son of these two, and "Prince" might be a typo for "Pince". We are told that the Prince's mother is named Eileen, however, which rules out that possibility.
Irma is apparently obsessed with her books, and she treats students and teachers with almost equal suspicion, worried that they might be putting her precious books at risk. We never see anyone with whom she seems to be on reasonable terms; of course, we also never see her away from her precious library. Away from her books, she may be completely different.
[edit] Analysis
One thing that anyone who uses a Muggle library is aware of is the helpful nature of the librarians there. By and large, if there is something you need to research, a librarian can help you to find it. In many places in the Harry Potter story line, it becomes necessary for the Trio to find some historical fact from the books in the library: in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, for instance, it is necessary to find the identity of Nicholas Flamel; in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban the Trio are researching cases where dangerous creatures won their trials, and later won their appeals; and in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry needs a way to survive for an hour underwater. In all of these cases, a helpful librarian would have short-circuited the process of finding the answer and would have decreased Hermione's participation. Madam Pince's monumental obstructiveness thus can be seen as important to the story, both as a means of pacing, and as a means of making Hermione, with her library research skills, more valuable to the partnership.
[edit] Questions
- What are Madame Pince's interactions with the staff like? How does this compare with her relationships with students?
