#i am so soft for them
Le Soir,June 26,1942
Tintin and Haddock (2/2)
Following the South America trip, Tintin moves - whether gradually or immediately isn’t clear - to live in Marlinspike Hall, attaining roots, companionship and domestic peace that he’s never had before (and sometimes doesn’t seem all that keen on).
At the start of ‘Destination Moon’ he and Haddock have returned to Marlinspike from a ‘trip’ somewhere of at least 3 weeks duration, apparently purely for relaxation. It is good that they are now so comfortable in each other’s company, because the Moon trip throws them together in a situation of claustrophobic intimacy anyone would find hard to cope with.
Their attachment to each other, however, seems stronger than ever. When Tintin is severely injured by a blow to the head, Haddock is gripped with such retributive rage that he tears a chair apart, and insists on waiting at Tintin’s side through what appears to be long weeks of recovery. When Tintin does emerge (against doctor’s orders), Haddock keeps a careful hold on him. Tintin shows a reciprocal concern when Haddock’s spacesuit test goes awry.
Tintin’s concern for Haddock is such, in fact, that when they reach space and Haddock attempts, whilst drunk, to leave the rocket, Tintin goes out into the void to rescue him, at severe risk to himself. The emotional intensity causes him to shout angrily at Haddock, a rare show of unbridled feeling. But it is Tintin’s sheer panic at the end of ‘Explorers’, when Haddock remains unconscious after the landing, that most strongly demonstrates how far they’ve come - his detachment about Haddock’s fate back in ‘Crab with the Golden Claws’ seems from other people in another world.
Not surprisingly after all this, Haddock expresses a sincere wish in ‘Calculus Affair’ to retire from adventures and remain in the countryside, and here we see the first real glimpses of their new domestic set-up at Marlinspike, the two of them sharing breakfast and going on country walks together. Then international intrigue arrives, as ever, and Tintin determines to set off to Geneva - ‘And I suppose you think I’ll let you go alone?’ Haddock demands, which brings a smile to Tintin’s face. Tintin’s days of undertaking the bulk of his adventures solo are most definitely at an end.
Haddock is no more keen to follow Tintin to Khemed in ‘Red Sea Sharks’, but follow he does, after another sight of their ‘off-duty’ life where they visit the local cinema and spend the evening in town. In this adventure Haddock is, for the first time since ‘Rackham’, able to display his own particular expertise at the helm of a ship.
It is the events of ‘Tintin in Tibet’ which put the friendship under its greatest-ever strain. Thus far, Haddock has joined Tintin at least nominally in order to help mutual acquaintances - Calculus, the Emir, Calculus again (and again!) - but now Tintin’s quest is devoted to a person Haddock has never met, a person indeed who represents Tintin’s single other most important human friendship.
And yet Haddock meets Tintin’s determination with his own; his need to stay at Tintin’s side and protect him at all costs, even to sacrificing his life to save Tintin’s, as he tries to do when they run into difficulties climbing a mountain roped together. Repeatedly, Haddock shouts that he will not follow Tintin another step, and yet repeatedly he appears again, shortly after, following all the same.
‘Either we’re both saved or we die together!’ Tintin declares during the life-line incident; he will risk his own life and Haddock’s life for Chang, but in the end he - once the ultimate loner - cannot seem able to contemplate life without Haddock any more.
When, after collapsing on the mountainside and being taken to a monastery, they are reunited, Haddock rushes to draw Tintin into a hug. He’s still not sure about following Tintin further, and yet he does - ‘Rumbling Thunder,’ the Grand Abbot tells him, ‘you have the faith that moves mountains’. This we see again when Haddock decides to trust Tintin’s telepathic ‘voices’ in ‘Flight 714’.
Tintin and Haddock are now well-established as a unit. In ‘Castafiore Emerald’ Castafiore, inviting herself to stay with Tintin, seems to assume Tintin has as much say over what goes on at Marlinspike as Haddock does, and General Tapioca in ‘Picaros’ does not hesitate to locate Tintin with Haddock in ‘their mansion’. Fascinatingly, in this, their last published adventure, it is Tintin who wishes to stay at Marlinspike rather than depart to confront danger on all sides. This is symbolised, perhaps, by the sight of him on the first pages petting the Marlinspike siamese cat, Snowy’s one-time antagonist and symbol of the settled, domestic existence Haddock has brought to Tintin’s life.
Indeed, like Snowy and the siamese, whose early fights resolve into a united front against disturbers of the peace, Tintin and Haddock have developed from individuals who seem only to mutually antagonise, to one unit. They have changed and grown together, and seem destined to remain companions for life, in lives they owe, in many ways, to each other.
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