Happiness of HP Characters

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26491

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:
> Tabouli wrote:
> 
> "As for the happiness of the characters, there's plenty of room for 
> speculation there: is Dumbledore happy?  Is Hermione?  Dudley?  The 
> Weasley twins?"
> 
> What an interesting question.  As I began to think about it, I 
> realized that NONE of the characters are really very happy in the 
> truest sense of the word.  I can't help but think of the "shadow" 
> premise of my generations theory... they have happy moments (some 
> more than others--Fred and George might have more, Snape might have 
> less) but IMO none of the characters are truly content.

Some interesting responses from everyone one this.  I also wonder if 
it's a slightly different question: being happy vs. being content (as 
Ebony mentioned in her last sentence).

Contendedness in a way to me implies (though there are alternate 
interpretations--this is basically semantics, after all) that you have 
reached some sort of end destination in your goals.  There are lots of 
philosophers who would argue that happiness, however, is a manner of 
traveling, not a place to be reached.  And so it's possible some 
characters might be basically happy, even with mostly negative 
experiences.  Probably not the majority of them, but perhaps a few.

I am reminded of American Beauty, where even with all the trauma and 
upheaval going on in Lester's life, he is still able to honestly 
answer the question "How are you?" by saying "I'm great."

I wonder if someone like Lupin might take this view, even with all the 
hardships he suffers through.  Dumbledore might as well, but I picture 
him as more of the spiritually-centered "Do not oppose what is" kind 
of person, if that makes any sense.

-Luke