jasperjava Member
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#21 · Posted: 23 Aug 2012 07:44
Of course Wolff dies. Otherwise his sacrifice has no meaning. That's what makes the incident so moving and tragic.
Yes, he was despondent at his act of betrayal. I don't think that he was driven to suicide because of his role in Jorgen's death. He was shocked at the moment, and it was clear that he had intended to disarm Jorgen and didn't mean for the gun to go off. More than likely it was Jorgen who squeezed the trigger anyway.
But Wolff felt guilty, and he was guilty. He didn't realize Jorgen's horrible plan when he smuggled him aboard, but when he pushed that big red start button on the control panel, he committed an unfathomable act of attempted murder. Four men would have perished horribly if Tintin hadn't cut the engines.
Though he was compelled to push that button by Jorgen, it's not as if he had a gun pointed at him at the time. It was an act of cowardice, and the ultimate betrayal.
Wolff was miserable with guilt and shame, and clearly would not have made his desperate final act if he had a clear conscience. Still, his leap into space was only "half" a suicide. It was an act of redemption, a sacrifice to save his friends and atone for his crimes. Thus the villain becomes a hero, and it's one of the most poignant scenes in the entire Tintin series. Haddock's change from suspicion to teary admiration, guides the emotion of the reader.
The "miracle" mentioned in his suicide note was not Hergé's idea, but I still think it fits Wolff's character. It's an absurd hope, of course, and no one was fooled by it. I think that Wolff would have written that in order to spare his friends the pain of thinking that his act was purely suicidal. By adding the "perhaps a miracle" bit, he gives his friends the illusion that there was still some hope, faint though it may be. I seriously doubt that Wolff believed it, or that his friends believed it for an instant, but there can be psychological value in pretending.
Personally, I would have felt cheated by Hergé if Wolff had come back in Flight 714. Wolff's beautiful heroic death would have become nothing but a cheap parody of a noble human sacrifice. I'm glad that Hergé never considered it.
I'd like to add that I read Tintin as a child (in its original French), and I rekindled my love for the books when I read them for my daughter.
She was about 8 or 9 when we read this book together. I was truly proud of her sensitive heart when I read that suicide note, and she burst into tears. I cherish that moment.
P.S. I loved Wolff's post-script. Here's a guy about to commit the ultimate sacrifice, and yet he worries about the wires that he cut for the alarm system. A true engineer to the end.
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