Quirrell gradually brought Harry into the plot, getting him to make a series of commitments so that by the time the full plot was revealed it would be hard for him to back out. The gradual escalation of commitment is reminiscent of the Milgram study, more than the Stanford prison experiment. Quirrell framed each step in general terms that would activate Harry’s noble motivations for going through with the plot or undermine his defenses and objections at later steps. And Harry was rushed, so that he wouldn’t have time to think things through fully on his own and analyze them from different angles, which made it much easier to lead Harry’s thoughts down the path that Quirrell wanted.
In chp 49 Quirrell revealed his secret illegal animagus form, which seemed innocent enough—Quirrell had voluntarily disclosed it for no clear benefit, which made it hard to hold it against him. But in doing so, he brought Harry into a conspiracy, where they had secrets from the rest of the world which Harry was comfortable with even though they might look bad to other people. He got Harry to set aside the law as a standard for evaluating what was happening. Harry knew that the law is flawed, but he also should have recognized that rules are often there for a reason (like the transfiguration safety rules) and so the law is a useful heuristic which should only be ignored with extreme caution. Proclaiming his lack of respect for the law also made it hard for Harry to later ask himself “what would Hermione think about this?” since he’d already crossed boundaries that she wouldn’t cross and it had seemed innocent enough.
At the start of their meeting in chp 51, Quirrell asked “do you trust me?” Harry considered and answered yes, since he trusted Quirrell on the whole, more than not. But trust should not be a binary yes/no question, but rather a question of how far and in what ways. Bringing a Dementor into Hogwarts was at the edge of how far Dumbledore would trust Quirrell, and Harry could have imagined what Dumbledore would think of the prison break, but at first the question was just “do you trust me?”, not “do you trust me for this very suspicious-sounding plot” or “do you trust me over Dumbledore?” (plus, Quirrell had had some success at getting Harry to distrust Dumbledore). Establishing trust in general made it harder for Harry to doubt Quirrell about the most relevant particulars. If you’re concerned that someone seems kind of Dark and has hidden motives, then it’s not smart to trust them to have good reasons for freeing Bellatrix Black, no matter how intelligent & clear-thinking they are or how helpful they have been to you personally. But with trust established, Harry didn’t think things through and connect those particular reasons for distrust to those particulars of what Quirrell was doing; he was willing to defer to Quirrell. Part of Harry’s problem was a kind of Aumann failure—since he trusted Quirrell’s rationality, he didn’t reason everything through on his own, which made it easier for Quirrell to trick him. There’s also the UFAI mistake where being impressed by someone’s intelligence makes you think that they share your goals—exacerbated, in this case, by how much Harry identified with Quirrell.
Quirrell introduced the Azkaban breakout plot as a way to free some unspecified innocent person. Harry wants to end Azkaban, and framing the breakout in this way makes it seem like a smaller version of that, which can be based on the same noble motives that capture Harry’s imagination (as we see at the start of chp 52). The sense of heroism makes Harry willing to take dramatic action—otherwise, he’d probably balk at something so extreme. In this heroic state of mind, and in a rush, Harry doesn’t stop to consider that Quirrell’s reasons for wanting to free Bellatrix probably aren’t the same as Harry’s reasons for wanting to end Azkaban or free innocents.
When Quirrell finally identifies Bellatrix as the target, is Harry really going to back out now? He’d break someone out of Azkaban, just not her? Sure, the case for Bellatrix’s innocence seems a little sketchy, but if Quirrell says it’s true then the details must fill out the argument convincingly—Quirrell can definitely think clearly about these things, and you trust him. And there’s no time now to get all the information that you’re missing and think it all through yourself. Sure, this would look bad to other people, or to the law, but this is a big dramatic heroic thing which is judged by a higher standard, which those other people don’t understand. Even Hermione wouldn’t understand what I want to do here.
So I can see how the versions of Hermione and Dumbledore that Harry has in his head could be neutralized. His inner Gryffindor is caught up in a heroic fervor about saving someone from the Dementors of Azkaban. His inner Ravenclaw is overawed by Quirrell’s superior intellect and has been wasting its efforts trying to impress Quirrell by guessing what he’ll say next. His inner Hufflepuff was shut down early in the process, and is being ignored by the time its warnings could seem most plausible to the rest of him. But what happened to his inner Slytherin, and the Draco inside his head? They, ironically, are the ones whose warnings (about suspicious plotting) should have the best chance of getting through to Harry. So I guess the question is whether it’s plausible that all of these psychological tricks would’ve been enough to quiet Harry’s suspicion. Is it plausible that it could happen, and is it likely enough to happen for Quirrell to try this risky plot?
But what happened to his inner Slytherin, and the Draco inside his head? They, ironically, are the ones whose warnings (about suspicious plotting) should have the best chance of getting through to Harry.
That’s an interesting point. In context of that, consider the following—Harry is now [end of chapter 54] without protection from the Dementors, thus gone entirely to the ‘dark side,’ which in Harry as in most is rather Slytherin. That means that Harry is now in the perfect position to see how he’s been manipulated, and act against on it: specifically, betraying Quirell and going with his first story “He made me do it.” He can even attribute his attacking an Auror who thought about Moody* to the Dementors and potentially get away with the whole thing.
Quirrell gradually brought Harry into the plot, getting him to make a series of commitments so that by the time the full plot was revealed it would be hard for him to back out. The gradual escalation of commitment is reminiscent of the Milgram study, more than the Stanford prison experiment. Quirrell framed each step in general terms that would activate Harry’s noble motivations for going through with the plot or undermine his defenses and objections at later steps. And Harry was rushed, so that he wouldn’t have time to think things through fully on his own and analyze them from different angles, which made it much easier to lead Harry’s thoughts down the path that Quirrell wanted.
In chp 49 Quirrell revealed his secret illegal animagus form, which seemed innocent enough—Quirrell had voluntarily disclosed it for no clear benefit, which made it hard to hold it against him. But in doing so, he brought Harry into a conspiracy, where they had secrets from the rest of the world which Harry was comfortable with even though they might look bad to other people. He got Harry to set aside the law as a standard for evaluating what was happening. Harry knew that the law is flawed, but he also should have recognized that rules are often there for a reason (like the transfiguration safety rules) and so the law is a useful heuristic which should only be ignored with extreme caution. Proclaiming his lack of respect for the law also made it hard for Harry to later ask himself “what would Hermione think about this?” since he’d already crossed boundaries that she wouldn’t cross and it had seemed innocent enough.
At the start of their meeting in chp 51, Quirrell asked “do you trust me?” Harry considered and answered yes, since he trusted Quirrell on the whole, more than not. But trust should not be a binary yes/no question, but rather a question of how far and in what ways. Bringing a Dementor into Hogwarts was at the edge of how far Dumbledore would trust Quirrell, and Harry could have imagined what Dumbledore would think of the prison break, but at first the question was just “do you trust me?”, not “do you trust me for this very suspicious-sounding plot” or “do you trust me over Dumbledore?” (plus, Quirrell had had some success at getting Harry to distrust Dumbledore). Establishing trust in general made it harder for Harry to doubt Quirrell about the most relevant particulars. If you’re concerned that someone seems kind of Dark and has hidden motives, then it’s not smart to trust them to have good reasons for freeing Bellatrix Black, no matter how intelligent & clear-thinking they are or how helpful they have been to you personally. But with trust established, Harry didn’t think things through and connect those particular reasons for distrust to those particulars of what Quirrell was doing; he was willing to defer to Quirrell. Part of Harry’s problem was a kind of Aumann failure—since he trusted Quirrell’s rationality, he didn’t reason everything through on his own, which made it easier for Quirrell to trick him. There’s also the UFAI mistake where being impressed by someone’s intelligence makes you think that they share your goals—exacerbated, in this case, by how much Harry identified with Quirrell.
Quirrell introduced the Azkaban breakout plot as a way to free some unspecified innocent person. Harry wants to end Azkaban, and framing the breakout in this way makes it seem like a smaller version of that, which can be based on the same noble motives that capture Harry’s imagination (as we see at the start of chp 52). The sense of heroism makes Harry willing to take dramatic action—otherwise, he’d probably balk at something so extreme. In this heroic state of mind, and in a rush, Harry doesn’t stop to consider that Quirrell’s reasons for wanting to free Bellatrix probably aren’t the same as Harry’s reasons for wanting to end Azkaban or free innocents.
When Quirrell finally identifies Bellatrix as the target, is Harry really going to back out now? He’d break someone out of Azkaban, just not her? Sure, the case for Bellatrix’s innocence seems a little sketchy, but if Quirrell says it’s true then the details must fill out the argument convincingly—Quirrell can definitely think clearly about these things, and you trust him. And there’s no time now to get all the information that you’re missing and think it all through yourself. Sure, this would look bad to other people, or to the law, but this is a big dramatic heroic thing which is judged by a higher standard, which those other people don’t understand. Even Hermione wouldn’t understand what I want to do here.
So I can see how the versions of Hermione and Dumbledore that Harry has in his head could be neutralized. His inner Gryffindor is caught up in a heroic fervor about saving someone from the Dementors of Azkaban. His inner Ravenclaw is overawed by Quirrell’s superior intellect and has been wasting its efforts trying to impress Quirrell by guessing what he’ll say next. His inner Hufflepuff was shut down early in the process, and is being ignored by the time its warnings could seem most plausible to the rest of him. But what happened to his inner Slytherin, and the Draco inside his head? They, ironically, are the ones whose warnings (about suspicious plotting) should have the best chance of getting through to Harry. So I guess the question is whether it’s plausible that all of these psychological tricks would’ve been enough to quiet Harry’s suspicion. Is it plausible that it could happen, and is it likely enough to happen for Quirrell to try this risky plot?
That’s an interesting point. In context of that, consider the following—Harry is now [end of chapter 54] without protection from the Dementors, thus gone entirely to the ‘dark side,’ which in Harry as in most is rather Slytherin. That means that Harry is now in the perfect position to see how he’s been manipulated, and act against on it: specifically, betraying Quirell and going with his first story “He made me do it.” He can even attribute his attacking an Auror who thought about Moody* to the Dementors and potentially get away with the whole thing.
Just something to consider.
* I misread, but the point remains.
Not Moody, but a cameo Auror who thought about Moody
I was surprised that we basically did not get to hear Quirrell explain how he knew Bella was innocent nor Harry ask.
Quirrell explicitly said that he couldn’t tell him. There are a number of other interesting and important questions Harry could have asked, though.