[HPforGrownups] Ron & Dumbledore

[Jenett]

No: HPFGUIDX 30776

On Tue, 4 Dec 2001 Chelsea2162 at aol.com wrote:

> i dont think that that'd be true, because Ron and Dumbledore have different 
> personaltites. Ron has more of a temper, and seems to be lacking 
> self-confidence, while Dumbledore rarely loses his temper, and seems very 
> self content

I'm not entirely sure they have the same personality, but the issues you 
raise wouldn't be the deciding factor for me. 

Dumbledore is about 135 years older than Ron - if he *hadn't* learned
self-confidence and how to control his temper by that point, I'd be rather
suprised.

Ron has always struck me as quite a reasonable teenager. No, he's not 
perfect. Yes, he gets upset when his best friend consistently gets the 
limelight, including in areas where Ron wishes he shone. (Quidditch) Yes, 
he gets upset when Draco is being a particular git. That's all relatively 
normal teenage stuff, in my opinion. It's also stuff that many people grow 
out of (and that you can see Ron working on dealing with and getting a 
grip on the jealousy, in particular.)

We don't see Dumbledore doing the same - in large part because we don't 
exactly see Dumbledore as a teenager, for one, and also because we don't 
see a whole lot of Dumbledore's personal life, for two. But it strikes me 
that as a teenager, they might have been quite a bit more similar. 

They do strike me as similar in a certain sense of attitude - and I'm not 
quite sure how to explain this, except to say that it makes sense to me. 
There's something about their sense of priorities, in general, and their 
take on what's important in the world that makes sense. And a certain 
similarity in humor. I'd have to really go through the books with a fine 
tooth comb to figure out what specifically was hitting me that way, 
however. 

-Jenett