Pride

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 1553

I ran across a passing reference to the 7 deadly sins today and thought,
hey, if the Harry Potter books are a story about a moral education, what
do they have to say about each of these?

In a way, I already covered pride in my earlier post about ambition,
but, here are some more things to think about.

Harry: Living with the Dursleys, Harry grew up thinking he didn't have
anything to be proud about, until he got the letter from Hogwarts.  He's
developed his Quidditch skills, discovered he has a certain flair for
magic in some of this classes (but not potions!)

Draco offered Harry his first temptation: will Harry reject certain
people who could be friends because they are poor (Ron) or could be
considered odd or oafish (Hagrid) or because they are muggle-born
(Hermione).

Gilderoy Lockhart tempts Harry to succumb to self-conceit, and Harry,
happily, rejects that temptation, too.  I wonder if his experience with
the Dursleys had something to do with this.  After years living with
Dudley, Harry is acutely sensitive to the ridiculousness of people who
have overly inflated opinions about their self-worth.  It's probably a
reason he is also pretty good at resisting the blandishments of Rita
Skeeter in GoF.

I've written in a previous message about how Harry's pride affects his
performance in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.  His pride makes him resist
accepting help (which almost leads to disaster with the second task--he
finally accepts Dobby's help because he has literally run out of time to
try to figure the answer out on his own).  He is ambitious enough to
want to try to win the tournament, which makes him tackle the tasks,
despite the fact that he is aware someone may be trying to kill him.
Pride/ambition (and overcoming it) is a big part of what happens in the
maze at the third task, so that Harry offers to share the cup with
Cedric.

Who strikes me as really proud?  Snape, who seems to need to feel
superior.  Draco and his father.  Voldemort, of course.  Ron, to some
extent, who is touchy about his poverty, and who is too proud to
apologize to Harry for a long time in GoF, leading to their painful
estrangement.

Who strikes me as humble?  Hagrid, Dumbledore, Neville, and oddly
enough, Hermione, who never seems to use her mental superiority to lord
it over others.  By this I mean that yes, she is sometimes accused of
being a know-it-all; she'll correct others when they don't know the
subject.  But she never preens herself because she has the best grades;
she is unfailingly kind to Neville, an often hopeless student, and she
is humble enough to think that she can't coast; she is always trying to
study harder.

Feel free to jump in with other comments, anyone.

Peg