Captain Haddock in Tintin in Tibet (Hons:Sem-III:CC-VI, Popular Literature)

Captain Haddock in Tintin in Tibet

Q. Character of Captain Haddock in Tintin in Tibet

Answer: Captain Archibald Haddock (French: Capitaine Archibald Haddock) is a fictional character in the Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. He is one of Tintin's best friends, a seafaring pipe-smoking merchant Marine Captain.

Haddock is initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character under the control of his treacherous first mate Allan, who keeps him drunk and runs his freighter. He regains his command and his dignity, even rising to president of the Society of Sober Sailors (The Shooting Star), but never gives up his love for rum and whisky, especially Loch Lomond, until the final Tintin adventure, Tintin and the Picaros, when Professor Calculus 'cures' him of his taste for alcohol. In the adventure Secret of the unicorn (and continuing in Red Rackham's Treasure) he and Tintin travel to find a pirate's treasure captured by his ascendant, Sir Francis Haddock (François de Hadoque in French).

With newfound wealth and regaining his ancestral home marlinespike Hall, Captain Haddock becomes a socialite; riding a horse, wearing a monocle, and sitting in a theatre box seat (The Seven Crystal Balls). He then evolves to become genuinely heroic volunteering to sacrifice his life to save Tintin in the pivotal Tintin in Tibet. In later volumes he is clearly retired.Throughout it all, the Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism. He is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.

Until Haddock's introduction, Tintin's perpetually positive, optimistic perspective was offset by his faithful companion Snowy. Before Haddock, Snowy was the source of all dry and cynical side-commentary for the series. Hergé, however, realized Haddock's potential as a foil to Tintin. After he brought Haddock into the series, the Captain took over the role of the cynic, relieving Snowy and establishing Captain Haddock as a permanent addition to the cast.

Because of his alcoholism and temperamental nature, his character was weak and unstable, at times posing as great a hazard to Tintin as the villains of the piece. He was also short-tempered, given to emotional expletive-ridden outbursts, and capable of infuriating behaviour; at one point he even attacks Tintin when, while traversing the Moroccan desert, he has the sun-induced delusion that Tintin is a bottle of champagne. However, Haddock is a sincere figure in need of reform, and by the top of his first adventure Tintin has gained a loyal companion, albeit one still given to uttering the occasional "expletive".

As Haddock's role grew, Hergé expanded his character, basing him upon aspects of friends, with his characteristic temper somewhat inspired by Tintin colourist E.P. Jacobs and his frankness drawn from Tintin creator Bob de Moor. Harry Thompson has commented on how Hergé utilised the character to inject humour into the plot, notably "where Haddock plays the fool to gloss over a long clarification."

Captain Haddock's taste for alcoholic beverages is a constant feature of the character. He is particularly fond of whisky from the Loch Lomond distillery (which was fictional at the time when the character was developed, the real Loch Lomond distillery was only founded later), and at the end of the album Explorers on the Moon, he falls into a coma upon re-entry to Earth, but he immediately wakes up upon hearing the word "whisky". In the last completed Tintin album Tintin and the Picaros, Haddock is involuntarily cured from his alcoholism by an invention of Professor Calculus's, a pill that causes the taste of alcohol to turn horribly repulsive upon ingestion.

Captain Haddock is especially noble in the pivotal Tintin in Tibet, volunteering to sacrifice his life to save Tintin's own. By the time of their last completed and published adventure, Tintin and the Picaros, Haddock had become such an important figure that he dominates much of the story.

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