Billy Bunter - Character

Character

Bunter is essentially a comic anti-hero, whose actions puncture and deflate the serious world of the English public school, inverting conventional values like a 'Lord of Misrule'. His main physical characteristics are obesity (he weighs about 14 stone, or 200 pounds, which, at a time when many people did not get enough to eat, was huge), brought about by over-eating, and short-sightedness (hence his nickname 'the fat owl of the Remove', because his round glasses and short-sighted squint give him the appearance of an Owl blinking in the daylight). He is dishonest, greedy, pathologically self-centered, snobbish, conceited, lazy, cowardly, mean-spirited and stupid. Nevertheless, he succeeds in achieving reader sympathy by virtue of the humour the character generates, partly through his brazen effrontery and partly through his persistence in the face of inevitable failure: for his schemes (generally involving 'snooping' other fellows' tuck) never succeed and always bring punishment.

His one talent is that he is a skilled ventriloquist, able to mimic any voice and to make it appear to be coming from any location. This unlikely ability often forms part of his schemes of deception, and thus serves to advance the storylines. It got himself and others into trouble many times. He also borrows clothes, wrecking them because of his size. He is such a poor fighter that even his younger brother Sammy, in the second form, doesn't fear him.

He is allowed very little pocket money by his father, so is perpetually attempting to raise a loan on the strength of the legendary postal order he always claims to be expecting. Owing to his insatiable appetite, his life at Greyfriars is taken up with devising ways of pilfering food; he has little or no interest in anything else, especially classwork and sports. His schemes are invariably discovered, leading to physical chastisement - both from masters (canings) and schoolfellows (kickings).

His speech is notable for a series of frequently-repeated catchphrases. These include his invariable opening line, "I say you fellows"; his reply to criticism, "Oh really Wharton" (or whoever is speaking); his characteristic giggle, "He, he, he"; and his exclamation of pain, "Yarooh" (which is "hooray" spelled backwards).

George Orwell described him as "...a real creation. His tight trousers against which boots and canes are constantly thudding, his astuteness in search of food, his postal order which never turns up, have made him famous wherever the Union Jack waves." (Orwell 1940)