[HPforGrownups] Excuses, excuses (more Lupin)

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 34588


On Sunday, February 3, 2002, at 09:56 AM, pippin_999 wrote:

> I see people are having fun thinking up reasons why Lupin
> shouldn't be held responsible for his mistakes. Personally, I am
> finding him a much more enjoyable character now that I think of
> him as a screw-up. I really wasn't looking forward to his return
> before.  He was a bit of a yawn to tell you the truth, noble
> werewolf undone by prejudice and hard luck, too good to be true, 
> ho-hum.

I've been musing over Lupin's character for a little while and thought 
this was as good a place as any to insert my comments. Lupin is one of 
my favorite characters, and the thing I like about the way he's depicted 
is that his flaws seem to be of a piece with his sympathetic qualities.

By this I mean, yes he is a werewolf undone by prejudice and hard luck, 
but this very prejudice and hard luck make him into a less-than-perfect 
character. Specifically, he's internalized the sense of himself as being 
guilty and untrustworthy. He's so used to keeping important things about 
himself secret, that he fails to distinguish which secrets need to be 
exposed and which concealed. To me, the most questionable actions of his 
are when he fails to mention to Dumbledore that Sirius is an animagus 
and that there are secret ways into the castle which could bypass the 
dementors. It's really inconceivable that he should sit on this 
information, and he *does* feel guilty about not telling anyone. But to 
Lupin feeling guilty is standard operating procedure, and it seems like 
he is more inclined to wallow in guilt than to come clean to Dumbledore. 
This is bad, but it's a symptom of the way that he's had to live with a 
'guilty secret' since early childhood. It also explains why he needs to 
keep his emotions under wraps -- he's not sure that exposing too much 
about himself is ever a good idea.

OTOH he is noble about taking responsibility for things that aren't 
exactly his fault, such as when he concedes to Harry at the end of PoA 
that he could have bitten someone the night before and thus maybe 
shouldn't be teaching. Again, since being a werewolf was never his fault 
to begin with, I think he's lost track of what really is his 
responsibility and what isn't; so he tends to err on the side of overall 
guilt and secrecy. I think it's very poignant, however worrisome.


>  Now I am looking forward to the day when Sirius, who
> has begun to grow up, bless him, grabs both Snape and Lupin
> by the scruffs of their necks and bangs their heads together.

I'm actually hoping Lupin will do this to Sirius and Snape; at least 
Lupin recognizes the need to get along with everyone, which appears to 
be past both Sirius's and Snape's grasp at this point. :-)

~~Porphyria


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]