7 Heavenly Virtues: Charity (Long)

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 4434

> 
> 
> 
> He learns to care about Ron and Hermione.  And make no mistake, his
> caring for both of them is tested--for Hermione in Book 3 (over the
> incident with Scabbers and Crookshanks) and for Ron in Book 4 (over 
the
> Goblet of Fire).  Both tests of friendship are tests of Harry's 
charity,
> and he nearly gets both wrong.  "I gotta tell yeh," Hagrid says,
> reproving Harry and Ron for the quarrel with Hermione, "I thought 
you
> two'd value yer friend more'n brooksticks or rats."  Again, with 
Ron in
> Book 4, Harry behaves badly--for example, the scene in the common 
room,
> where Harry loses his temper and throws the button at Ron.  But all
> comes out in the end--Harry chooses to set those friendships aright,
> partly because events clarify the things that led to 
misunderstandings,
> but partly because he misses the caring and friendship he had with 
both
> Ron and Hermione when he was on the outs with them.  And that is 
good;
> it shows Harry's development.  He has gone from someone who lived
> without either giving or receiving charity, who reacted as coldly 
toward
> the Dursleys as they acted toward him, to someone who realizes that
> something is missing when relationships go awry.  He is coming to
> genuinely care for other people, and not just Ron, Hermione and 
Hagrid.
> 
> As I discussed in the last essay, on hope, Harry sees in Book 3 the
> playing out of the drama from the previous generation's struggle 
with
> Voldemort, which foreshadows what he himself will go through, in 
Book 4
> (and presumably beyond).  Specifically, he witnesses Sirius' and 
Lupin's
> confrontation of Peter Pettigrew, which brings this theme of charity
> right to the foreground.  Let's look at that pivotal scene again:
> 
> "He [Voldemort] was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew.
> "Wh--what was there to be gained by refusing him?"
> 
> "What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who 
has
> ever existed?" said Black, with a terrible fury in his face.  "Only
> innocent lives, Peter!"
> 
> "You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew.  "He would have killed me,
> Sirius!"
> 
> "THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black.  "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY
> YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
> 
> <snip>
> 
> "NO!" Harry yelled.  He ran forward, placing himself in front of
> Pettigrew, facing the wands.  "You can't kill him," he said
> breathlessly.  "You can't. . . We'll take him up to the castle.  
We'll
> hand him over to dementors.  He can go to Azkaban. . . but don't 
kill
> him."
> 
> Note Peter's question.  "What was there to be gained by resisting 
him
> [Voldemort]?"  That is pure selfishness speaking.  For those of you
> familiar with Lawrene Kohlberg's theory of the stages of moral
> development, Peter is stuck at the very first stage, the need to 
avoid
> punishment.  For further reading on Kohlberg's theory, see:
> http://moon.pepperdine.edu/gsep/class/ethics/kohlberg/Stages_Moral-
Development.html
> 
> That is pure HUMANNESS speaking, the natural urge for
> self-preservation.  Sirius' answer is profound: the only thing to be
> gained when you lose yourself is the knowledge that your gain is for
> others, the ones that you love.  Which you can care about ONLY 
because
> you love.  Because Peter did not truly love, he did not truly 
understand
> the enormity of his crime.
> 
> But this points up a very hard thing about charity--if you do it 
right,
> you may get nothing for it (if you look at it from the human selfish
> point of view).  Just as Lily gave up her life for her son, the true
> virtue of charity may mean giving up everything for the one you 
love.
> The comfort you have is knowing that the ones you love would be 
willing
> to do the same for you.

I'm not sure I agree here, Peg (and this may not be the most
confident and SURE and COHERENT of your essays, but may be the best
because you are struggling, and in struggle, and analysis, there is
great potential for knoweldge).

The comfort you have in risking your life for your friends or your
children is that you love them, and that you have the courage to 
do it. You are at that moment, your best self, and there is nothing 
that feels better than being your best self. I don't think it's based
on the knowledge of reciprocity at all.


  It is like faith, in that having faith may not
> mean that you get what you want.  Having charity may gain you 
nothing
> but death at the end of Voldemort's wand . . . and the knowledge 
that
> the lives you have saved have gained a few more seconds, which they 
will
> hopefully use to fight on.
> 
> Sirius and Lupin, although they understand the nature of
> self-sacrificing love, do not embody charity perfectly.  They would 
have
> died for Peter--but since Peter refused the deal, as far as Sirius 
and
> Lupin are concerned, the deal is off.  "You should have realized," 
Lupin
> said quietly, "that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would."  This 
is a
> higher level of morality than Peter showed--which was pure 
selfishness
> and wish to avoid punishment--but it is not yet pure charity, as it 
is
> still based somewhat on a tit for tat reasoning.
> 

Hmmm, maybe yes, but maybe no. Tolkein does this with Gollum, that
because someone had mercy for Gollum, the world was redeemed. But
I'm not sure (if this were real life) that Sirius and Lupin should
have listened to Harry. It's nobler to spare Pettigrew...well in a 
way...some would prefer death to Azkeban.....but it might have
been more heroic to take on the sin of killing Pettigrew and 
preventing him from aiding in Lord Voldemort's return.....



> But Harry intervenes and demonstrates something related to charity: 
he
> shows mercy, something that Peter doesn't deserve.  Harry is 
profoundly
> insightful at this moment, because when Peter admits as much, Harry
> tells Peter that he isn't doing it as much for him but for Sirius 
and
> Lupin: "I don't reckon my dad would have wanted them[Sirius and 
Lupin]
> to become killers -- just for you."
> 
> I'm not quite sure what exactly has brought Harry to this point in 
his
> moral development.  Bonds with friends, the bitter experience of the
> Dursleys to teach him what it was like to live WITHOUT charity, or
> perhaps the lingering effects of his mother's sacrifice . . . or
> something else, who knows?  Whatever it is, Harry shows here that he
> understand charity, and although he wavers and wobbles sometimes, 
he has
> chosen his side.
> 
> A few other points, which I am not quite sure how to work into a
> coherently flowing essay, so I'll just attack them gracelessly one 
by
> one.
> 
> Hermione and the house elves:  I think Hermione thinks she is 
showing
> benevolence and mercy in her dealings with the house elves, but 
somehow,
> her efforts don't seem to be appreciated by anybody.  I'll try to 
deal
> with this in more depth when I do the upcoming essay on the Virtue 
of
> Justice.
> 


Someone else has struct the true chord here. Hermione does not 
go to the House Elves and talk with them, ask them what they want and 
need. She takes over and makes decisions for them. This is really
not ethical (although it comes from compassion and righteousness).
It is condescending and mistaken to tell oppressed people what they 
really need and want. Hermione needs to learn humility around this 
issue



> Also: Harry, I think, will have to face moral decisions about 
charity in
> the upcoming books which I think will come closer and closer to
> resembling his mother and Peter Pettigrew's dilemma.  He will need 
to
> decide, am I willing to stick my neck out for someone I care 
about?  In
> a way he has faced this before to a lesser degree: he did it for 
Ginny
> in the second book, and for Ron during the Second Task in the Fourth
> book.  But I think that the upcoming decision(s) will be more stark,
> more hope-less.  He took a risk for Ginny, but when he went down 
into
> that tunnel, he still hoped that he would come out alive.  
Similarly,
> when he went down for Ron, he knew that there was a theoretical 
risk of
> death, but he really didn't think that he would die there at the 
bottom
> of the lake (although he was afraid that Ron, Hermione, Cho and
> Gabrielle might).
> 
> In the past books, when Harry has been truly cornered and really 
looking
> death in the eye, he has been in situations where he is simply 
trying to
> save himself.  He was alone at the climax of the first and fourth 
books,
> and he wasn't facing Voldemort directly in the third.  In the 
second, he
> thought that Ginny might already be dead.  But I think that in a 
future
> book we might see something different.  We will see him be put in a
> situation where he must decide whether he would willingly sacrifice
> himself for someone else, or perhaps for many other people.
> 
> In a way, I think it is rather unfair that I'm trying to do this 
post in
> the middle of the series, because we haven't had a chance to see 
whether
> Harry will truly fall in love.  Perhaps, if he had a relationship 
with
> someone he loved in a special way (with Hermione? Ginny? Cho? Down, 
all
> you 'shippers!  Down!), he would gladly sacrifice himself.
> 

Ah, but this is not truly agape, but Eros....the sacrifice of a lover
for the beloved is one thing...but the sacrifice of friend for friend,
teacher for pupil, etc. is another......I don't think "falling in 
love" is really a predictor or predicator of self sacrifice...is this 
making any sense?

For example, I think the person who Harry might be most likely
to sacrifice himself is Sirius Black.



> But perhaps it won't be someone he loves that way, with eros-love.
> Perhaps he will face Peter Pettigrew's dilemma defending Ron
> (philos-love), or Hagrid, or Dumbledore, or Hogwarts as a whole.    
But
> I think he will have to face it.  Someday.  And to do it 
successfully,
> he will have to demonstrate agape-love, as his mother did for him.
> 
> One final note: I don't think anyone has ever mentioned the special
> poignancy of the fact that in the scene Harry has with Cedric's 
parents,
> he is seeing a mirror of his own tragedy.  Here he sees a pair of
> bereaved parents whose world has fallen apart because they have 
lost a
> brave, beloved son, just as his own world fell apart because he 
lost a
> pair of brave, beloved parents.  In seeing their grief, he 
experiences
> his own grief all over again, from a different, almost opposite, 
angle.
> 
> The final sign of charity I want to mention that Harry demonstrates 
is
> his benevolence in giving the money from the Tri-Wizard Tournament 
to
> Fred and George.  In part, it is not even a sacrifice for him, 
because
> he truly doesn't want the money.  But he doesn't throw it away, as 
he
> threatens to George and Fred to do.  He uses it to light a candle to
> drive back the darkness--to give Fred and George the opportunity to
> start the joke shop, so that they can create the laughs they will 
all so
> badly need.  And he tells Fred and George to buy dress robes for 
Ron--in
> a manner that will not hurt Ron's pride.
> 
> Harry stands at the end of GoF, weary and wounded, but among 
friends.
> He does not have to live apart and alone, as Peter Pettigrew did, 
who
> chose to become a rat, literally, rather than accept the hard 
demands of
> living by the precepts of charity.
> 
> Yet the greatest test of Harry's charity is probably still to 
come.  "As
> Hagrid said, what would come, would come . . . and he would have to 
meet
> it when it did."
> 
> 
> 
> I'm not very satisfied with this essay.  I don't think it's one of 
my
> best.  I can't remember who it was who remarked at the end of a 
letter
> to a friend that he didn't have time to write a four-page letter, 
so he
> had written an eight-page one (Chesterton, maybe?) This essay has 
rather
> that feel.  Long and sprawley because I haven't had time to tighten 
it,
> and I'm too fried now anyway to try and so will send it on its 
way.  I
> hope you will all forgive me.  Comments?
> 
> For those of you who would like to review the earlier essays I have
> written about the 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Heavenly Virtues up until 
this
> one, following are the message numbers:
> 
> 7 Deadly Sins:
> Pride: 1553
> Envy: 1699
> Gluttony: 1878
> Lust: 2118
> Anger: 2545
> Covetousness: 2877
> Sloth: 2998
> 
> 7 Heavenly Virtues:
> Faith: 3468
> Hope: 3660
> 
> Related essays, possibly also of interest:
> 
> Loyalty: 788
> Secrets: 957
> Courtesy and Ambition: 1209
> 
> Peg