The Do's and Don'ts of Being a Good Character

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 34654

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> 
> I find it difficult to answer questions like this in any kind of 
> consistent way.  When should the Good characters be permitted to 
> deviate from conventions of fair play in the wizarding world?  How 
is 
> it that an author can have her Good characters behave in these 
> morally questionable ways and still remain Good in the readers' 
minds?

In a number of cases, the Good characters are seen as responding to 
provocation by Bad characters.  It's not that the Good character has 
decided to temporarily throw morality out the window and act in 
unacceptable ways.  The Good character is good, we know that, we've 
been shown that they're good, we're on their side, and we can't help 
but root for them to get the better of their antagonists, even if we 
ourselves couldn't imagine taking the same kind of actions in our own 
lives.  

And, if we didn't have characters who had some ambiguity in their 
Goodness, we'd never have all of our lively Snape/Sirius/Remus 
debates.  What a sad day that would be!

Marianne