Whose inability to sacrifice the lives of his friends? I fear we may have gotten into pronoun confusion a while back.
I presented two possibilities: either Dumbledore knows about Azkaban but doesn’t see fit to discuss it yet, or Dumbledore doesn’t know. The quoted section in the grandparent struck me as evidence against the first view.
(To answer your question, though, and assuming that “his” means “Harry’s”, if Lilly died because she was unwilling to go on living after having sacrificed her son, it is unsurprising that that aversion to guilt might be hereditary and pass down to Harry.)
Dumbledore is an old man who has learned to be cold through years of pain. Alastor Moody is an old man who has learned to be paranoid through years of conflict.
Harry Potter is a young boy whose “unique genius,” as Dumbledore put it, is in creativity that is willing to consider evil. Dumbledore’s hope was that Harry would behave as Dumbledore and Moody do, without having needing to live through their pain and conflict, simply because he could imagine what would happen if he were soft when he needed to be hard. And so when Harry behaves as Dumbledore and Moody wouldn’t, Dumbledore’s reaction is “if you had lived through the pain and conflict we have, you would behave like we do.” The implication is that Harry has not lived through enough pain.
D’s reaction to H’s “my parents are dead” speech, specifically the phrase about H’s innocence, matches what I would expect if D looked at the 11 year old boy in front of him and saw an 11 year old boy, not someone who had spent long nights contemplating that he was an orphan. When H reveals how much hurt he carries, D realizes that his approach was mistaken, and apologizes.
An alternative interpretation is that D’s surprise and apology were because he didn’t know H had the memory of H’s parents’ death, and thought that because of H’s adoptive parents he didn’t consider himself an orphan / didn’t have much hurt there. That is, D remembered that H’s parents were dead, but didn’t realize how important that fact was. It’s a possible interpretation but I prefer the first.
[edit] It is unclear to me, though, why D doesn’t use the Pensieve to teach Harry about Voldemort, Riddle, or his parents. If the boy lacks in experience, and you have a magical experience transference device, the solution should be obvious.
I read that reaction as being primarily to “Only now I understand, I know what Mother must have felt. She couldn’t step aside from the crib. She couldn’t! Love doesn’t walk away!” After all, Dumbledore’s on record as saying
Rather it is evil which does not know love, and dares not imagine love, and cannot ever understand love without ceasing to be evil. And I suspect that you can imagine your way into the minds of Dark Wizards better than I ever could, while still knowing love yourself.
Perhaps. I didn’t take D to be that infirm of purpose. D already knew that H sided with the Phoenix over wisdom, like the younger D that lost too many friends by softness, and so has been trying to guide H to wisdom. That may have been a “why would I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love,” but D knows why. It looked more to me like a “how can I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love”- clearly, this path will not work. But D still knows what must be done, and why it must be done, even if H is not yet willing to admit it.
Less “clearly this path won’t work”, more “I chose this path for bad reasons”—Dumbledore let it get to him, he was genuinely angry that an eleven year old was unwilling to sacrifice the life of his friend. Sort of “if I can’t be idealistic, neither can anyone else.”
Certainly possible. But H hasn’t presented any reason to be idealistic beyond, well, ideals. And so either D is hard, and is trying to figure out a way to get through to H, or D is soft, and has not learned his lesson well enough to teach it to H.
I am genuinely disappointed with how H botched this whole affair, and would turn that disappointment to anger if I thought it would change H’s behavior for the better.
What do Harry’s dead parents have to do with his inability to sacrifice the lives of his friends?
Whose inability to sacrifice the lives of his friends? I fear we may have gotten into pronoun confusion a while back.
I presented two possibilities: either Dumbledore knows about Azkaban but doesn’t see fit to discuss it yet, or Dumbledore doesn’t know. The quoted section in the grandparent struck me as evidence against the first view.
(To answer your question, though, and assuming that “his” means “Harry’s”, if Lilly died because she was unwilling to go on living after having sacrificed her son, it is unsurprising that that aversion to guilt might be hereditary and pass down to Harry.)
I don’t know how much clearer I can make it: what makes you think that Dumbledore forgot Harry’s parents were dead?
Dumbledore is an old man who has learned to be cold through years of pain. Alastor Moody is an old man who has learned to be paranoid through years of conflict.
Harry Potter is a young boy whose “unique genius,” as Dumbledore put it, is in creativity that is willing to consider evil. Dumbledore’s hope was that Harry would behave as Dumbledore and Moody do, without having needing to live through their pain and conflict, simply because he could imagine what would happen if he were soft when he needed to be hard. And so when Harry behaves as Dumbledore and Moody wouldn’t, Dumbledore’s reaction is “if you had lived through the pain and conflict we have, you would behave like we do.” The implication is that Harry has not lived through enough pain.
D’s reaction to H’s “my parents are dead” speech, specifically the phrase about H’s innocence, matches what I would expect if D looked at the 11 year old boy in front of him and saw an 11 year old boy, not someone who had spent long nights contemplating that he was an orphan. When H reveals how much hurt he carries, D realizes that his approach was mistaken, and apologizes.
An alternative interpretation is that D’s surprise and apology were because he didn’t know H had the memory of H’s parents’ death, and thought that because of H’s adoptive parents he didn’t consider himself an orphan / didn’t have much hurt there. That is, D remembered that H’s parents were dead, but didn’t realize how important that fact was. It’s a possible interpretation but I prefer the first.
[edit] It is unclear to me, though, why D doesn’t use the Pensieve to teach Harry about Voldemort, Riddle, or his parents. If the boy lacks in experience, and you have a magical experience transference device, the solution should be obvious.
I read that reaction as being primarily to “Only now I understand, I know what Mother must have felt. She couldn’t step aside from the crib. She couldn’t! Love doesn’t walk away!” After all, Dumbledore’s on record as saying
Perhaps. I didn’t take D to be that infirm of purpose. D already knew that H sided with the Phoenix over wisdom, like the younger D that lost too many friends by softness, and so has been trying to guide H to wisdom. That may have been a “why would I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love,” but D knows why. It looked more to me like a “how can I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love”- clearly, this path will not work. But D still knows what must be done, and why it must be done, even if H is not yet willing to admit it.
Less “clearly this path won’t work”, more “I chose this path for bad reasons”—Dumbledore let it get to him, he was genuinely angry that an eleven year old was unwilling to sacrifice the life of his friend. Sort of “if I can’t be idealistic, neither can anyone else.”
Certainly possible. But H hasn’t presented any reason to be idealistic beyond, well, ideals. And so either D is hard, and is trying to figure out a way to get through to H, or D is soft, and has not learned his lesson well enough to teach it to H.
I am genuinely disappointed with how H botched this whole affair, and would turn that disappointment to anger if I thought it would change H’s behavior for the better.
I view Dumbledore as having a hard shell around soft gooey insides. Lemon drop anyone?