Draco, perspective, Why Ask Why?

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 38833

Pen wrote:
> I'm fascinated (snake/rabbit kind of thing) by this
> talk of Draco as a
> potential romantic hero. 

Has there been such talk? I hadn't noticed. I've been talking about 
Draco being something other than evil, possibly becoming a three 
dimensional character in canon, and the reasons why I don't think a 
relationship between him and Hermione in canon would necessarily be 
impossible but none of those things make him into a romantic hero. 

Pen also wrote:
>  what are these fertile signs
> that Draco Malfoy is
> going to be a reformed character Real Soon Now?  

I also haven't seen anyone who argues that Draco might end up 
something other than evil say it'll happen Real Soon Now - I certainly 
don't expect it to be obvious before Book 7, and perhaps towards the 
end of that (although I expect him to move toward something other than 
evil during book 6, if not book 5, but I don't think the reader will 
learn about it until Book 7).  

> But Harry
> has not liked Snape
> either, yet we have been given information to show
> that Snape is,
> underneath it all, on the right side.  In fact,
> Snape's behaviour is nasty
> and spiteful, but his *actions* have shown good
> intent

Absolutely true, and I think that's because Snape is *now* on the side 
of good. But clearly he wasn't always - Dumbledore even says that 
Snape *was* a Death Eater but by the time Voldemort fell, he was a 
spy. In other words, he had chosen to become a Death Eater, but made a 
subsequent choice to spy - not that he had joined the Death Eaters 
*as* a spy. To state it another way, he was once on the side of Not 
Good, and changed his mind.

If Snape, if Death Eater Severus Snape, can make that decision in 
either his very late teens or 20s (depending on how you read the 
chronology and when he turned), then why can't Draco make it at 15? 
16? 17?

And I can point again to Draco's warning the Trio to get out of the 
area during the World Cup. That action can certainly show good intent. 
How could it show malicious intent? It's possible that it shows 
cowardace (if he was unwilling to take on Ron and Harry at the same 
time to call the Death Eaters' attention to Hermione) but that doesn't 
mean it also showed malice.

Marina wrote:

> All the more reason why the first character cannot
> be used as a basis
> of comparison for the second.

I think it's important, now, to go back to the first of my recent 
posts on this matter:
<<And if he follows in the footsteps of Fitzwilliam Darcy, he'll be a 
better match for Hermione, as Elizabeth Bennett, than anyone else 
could be. Yes, I admit it's a big if... but they've both got a bit of 
growing up to do, and it could happen. >>

Following in the footsteps of is different from "is a complete 
parallel to". While I see that there are parallels in the descriptions 
about Darcy provided by Elizabeth, or in his statements from the early 
parts of the book, it's more that I see in the narrative the ability 
to modulate Draco's character to give him a chance to separate the 
principles that he was raised to believe were right (in this case, the 
belief that he could act with self absorbtion and in pride and 
conceit) from the way that one actually *should* behave. 

I have never said, and I do not think, that she's rewriting the 
character of Darcy through Draco Malfoy. I do, however, think that the 
sharp shock of Elizabeth's denial of Darcy's proposal, which caused 
him to make a sea change in his outward personality (at least towards 
her or for her benefit), may be paralleled in the narrative by having 
Draco experience something that shakes the foundations on which he 
lives his life- and thus cause him to make a sea change as well. 
That's the fundamental parallel, at it's basest level. It's not 
superficial, it's an underlying narrative structure.

> Draco's problem is that he has the overweening pride
> of aristocracy
> without the corresponding sense of noblesse oblige. 
> He doesn't feel
> that his inborn superiority requires him to behave
> with superior
> virtue. 

Well, if he follows his parents' guidance, at least he'll make 
lovely-sized donations to charity, as the Malfoys have done (see: 
Fudge's response to the accusation against Lucius at the end of GoF, 
which was also established in the Top Box scene).  

It never occurs to him that the Malfoy name
> may be ill-served
> by such crass actions as using his father's wealth
> to buy a place on
> the Quidditch team, 
Again, why do people think this? I've posted about this before, but 
Draco is a good flyer (see: PS/SS, the flying lesson scene) and in 
PoA, wins over both Cho and Cedric (Gwendolyn Grace did an excellent 
post about this a few weeks ago). Isn't it just *possible* that Lucius 
bought the brooms for the team in an effort to get the whole team to 
play better and fly faster? In other words, it's not for Draco - it's 
for house pride. 

> or spreading rumors about his
> rivals to a tabloid
> reporter.  
Well, yes, point taken. Darcy was impeccable at not discussing 
Wickham's behavious publicly (as it might have reflected badly on his 
family) and see what nearly came of that? (see OT chatter for further 
discussion of Lydia and her parallels to (oh heck, who am I 
kidding...))

> given that Draco
> is what he is,
> and was brought up the way he was, what will
> motivate him to change? <SNIP>  It will
> take a lot more than that to spur Draco's conscience
> to action. <SNIP> Some
> future sequence of events will have to break through
> his selfishness
> and arrogance and force him to start caring about
> how his actions
> affect other people. 
Since this post is so long already, am I forgiven for a "Yes, I 
agree!" in the middle of it? Great!

Dave wondered:

> It is certainly technically possible for Draco to be
> made more 
> complex without a re-alignment with Harry, and I for
> one would 
> welcome such a development
It's not only technically possible - it's narratively reasonable. If 
he decides that he wants to save his own skin, it's entirely possible 
that he'll turn against his father for some fault of Lucius' that he 
'only now realises the horribleness of' or something like that. In 
other words, if it serves his interests to make an alliance with 
Dumbledore's side, it might have nothing to do with choosing the side 
of the right because it's the Right Thing to Do (then again, we don't 
even know why Snape did, so...). In that case, I have to concede, the 
Draco/Hermione Ship pretty much hits the rocks, unless she takes the 
approach that he's starting on the road to being Something Other Than 
Selfish & Evil, and sets herself to change it and him. 


heidi