Trelawney's negativity (Which Face Did Harry See?)

[davewitley]

Paula wrote:

> Humm... Why are you so hard on poor Trelawney?  We all know that 
she's a "fraud", but negative?  

I think it is true that Trelawney's fortune-telling is consistently 
negative.  That's particularly the case with Harry, but Neville is 
told not to be sure his grandmother is well and that he will break a 
cup, Lavender about 'that thing you are dreading', the class that 
one of their number will leave for ever, and so on.  She also 
mutters dark forebodings about Lupin, is ghoulish about thirteen at 
the table, and McGonagall testifies that she always predicts a death 
(which has never yet ocurred).  The only non-negative instances I 
can think of are those that are blatantly self-serving, such as the 
prediction that their exam will concern the orb, or that she sees 
herself dining at the Christmas table, and these are hardly 
positive, just neutral.  She refuses to believe Harry's positive 
prediction about Buckbeak, urging him to look for a negative outcome.

Quite why this should be, I'm not sure.  In POA it fits with the 
themes of fear and depression represented by the Boggart and 
Dementors; in terms of internal characterisation it may perhaps 
suggest that a lifetime of deception does not lead to happiness, and 
that an unhappy person will unconsciously produce gloomy predictions.

Should this go to the main list?

David