Is Lupin Passive Aggressive? was Re: Sirius' Prank etc

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 34420


Cindy said:
Eloise wrote (about Lupin's mild-mannered behavior): 

> But to me, Lupin's silence in the face of Snapes nastiness is a 
sign of his 
> maturity. <snip> He's not on the verge of being a 
> doormat, he's just too big to get involved in such pettiness. 
 
to which Cindy added:

>>Good points. I guess I'm not saying Lupin should get right 
down in 
the mud with Snape and sink to Snape's level to prove he's not a 
doormat. But there are ways to stand up for yourself without 
getting 
immature about it.<<
 
There are ways to stand up for yourself without going behind 
people's backs, too. I am not so sure all of Lupin's behavior is 
really mild-mannered. (Pippin peers over the top of her bunker 
and prepares to lob another grenade at  G.R.A.B. ) It could be 
passive-agressive.  He seems to show some suspicious 
behaviors: resisting authority, forgetting to do things, putting 
things off, alternating hostile assertion (breaking rules) and 
dependent contrition, complaining of being victimized.

 Lupin agrees to Dumbledore's plan to keep him safe but 
secretly abets the animagi capers. He feels guilty about that, but 
eagerly takes part in planning the next adventure. He takes a 
teaching position but puts off telling what he knows about Sirius 
and about the One-eyed witch. He's reasonable in the face of 
Snape's provocation but ridicules him behind his back. He 
doesn't leave a lesson plan for his sub though he knows he'll be 
absent.  He agrees to take his potion but forgets to do so.  He 
displays all this poor behavior on the job but blames his lack of 
work entirely on his lycanthropy. He finally confesses to 
Dumbledore but doesn't mention the Map. Instead, he  returns 
the Map to Harry, saying that James would have been 
disappointed if Harry never found his way out of the castle. 
Contrast that with Sirius' advice to Harry to stay put in GoF and 
his continuing correspondence with D.

Whew! I wouldn't claim that all Lupin's actions above are the 
result of veiled hostility. But they do seem to form a pattern, don't 
they? Lupin doesn't grumble much, except about the taste of the 
potion, and he never shoots any one a resentful look, so I could 
be wrong. But I wonder. How much hostility there is in Lupin's 
shack lines depends on how you read them, IMO. Even spoken 
in a light voice,  "No one's going to try and kill you till we've sorted 
a few things out, "could sound very ominous, depending on 
where you put the emphasis and the pauses. Can we hear from 
the actors on the list about that?

IIRC, the animal companions in folktales represent the id: the 
part of the self that seeks immediate gratification and has no 
concern for others. Ultimately, the animal character is either 
restored to human form or killed (sometimes as a prelude to 
restoration). This symbolizes the ability of the mature self to 
restrain the id. IMO, Rowling is playing off this archetype by giving 
the major male characters  animal forms or metaphors. To 
some extent they are all stuck in immature behavior patterns, a 
situation which should be resolved by the end of the story. Of 
course I would like to see Snape quit picking on Neville. But I 
would also like to see Remus become forthright enough to 
confront Snape directly. I notice it was Remus' decision not to 
revive Snape in the shack...if they'd brought him around Snape 
would have seen Pettigrew and had to accept the truth.

On the question of their progress toward maturity, they all didn't 
start in the same place. To say that Snape is the most "stuck" 
ignores his  progress away from being a Death Eater. If he used 
to be like any of the other DE's we've seen, he's come a long way 
already. Actually, I'd say Lupin is also "stuck" at this point, though 
he's stuck in a better place than Snape. But I have hopes for 
Remus, I really do.

Pippin
who admires Cindy and Amy Z for standing by their wolf

and who thinks the answer to the bonus question is: 
Dumbledore would have stunned Pettigrew, given Remus his 
potion, awakened Snape and sent him to get Fudge.