Steerpike
| Steerpike | |
|---|---|
| Gormenghast character | |
| First appearance | Titus Groan (1946) |
| Last appearance | Gormenghast (1950) |
| Created by | Mervyn Peake |
| Portrayed by |
|
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Kitchen boy, doctor's apprentice, secretary's assistant, secretary |
| Title | Master of Ritual |
| Significant other(s) | Fuchsia Groan |
Steerpike is a fictional character in Mervyn Peake's novels Titus Groan and Gormenghast.
Steerpike might be called the antagonist of the Gormenghast trilogy, but in truth he is more of an anti-hero; the first book for example is largely focused on him, only covering the first year of the eponymous hero Titus's life. Steerpike could also be considered an archetypal Machiavellian schemer: a highly intelligent, ruthless character willing to justify any and all means to reach his end. In the books, Mervyn Peake describes his personality as follows:
if ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing — flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it. High-shouldered to a degree little short of malformation, slender and adroit of limb and frame, his eyes close-set and the colour of dried blood, he is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast, bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy — some wild, invulnerable eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings.
And his appearance, as described in Titus Groan:
Limb by limb, it appeared that he was sound enough, but the sum of these several members accrued to an unexpectedly twisted total. His face was pale like clay and save for his eyes, mask-like. These eyes were set very close together, and were small, dark red, and of startling concentration.
Steerpike first appears as a youth of seventeen years with an unclear past, working in Gormenghast's Great Kitchen under the chef Abiatha Swelter, whom he hates. On the day that Titus, 77th Earl of Gormenghast, is born. Steerpike escapes from the kitchen after Swelter collapses from drink. He is discovered by the chief retainer of the castle, Flay, and locked in a small room. Steerpike escapes through the window and climbs over the vast roofscape of Gormenghast, spending the night in a great stone square, before arriving by accident in the attic of Fuchsia, daughter to the Earl of Gormenghast.
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Wikipedia