The Problem with Lupin (long) was Re: How Close Are Harry and Lupin?

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 96913

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
>  
> These two posts point out the central problems with Lupin's 
> character.  How is it that he seems racked with guilt  and yet we 
> perceive him as the innocent victim of circumstances?  If he isn't 
> doing anything terrible, why is he so hard on himself?  

A possible answer for both of the above questions: because he is 
particularly sensitive and conscientious. It's almost always the case 
that people are hard on themselves because they have a tendency to be 
that way. Going with your line of reasoning here requires that we 
think of perfectionists, for example, as people who continually screw 
up. 

> 
> You know, in real life there'd be something fishy about a 
>thirtyfive 
> year old man who's always the victim of circumstances. Maybe 
> life handed him the shovel, but you'd have to wonder who dug 
> the hole.

Lupin is sick. Not only does he suffer the physical symptoms of his 
illness, he is treated as an outcast because of it. I'd say he is the 
perfect example of a victim of circumstances. 

> 
> You'd have to wonder about somebody who says he felt guilty, 
> but didn't change his ways. Lupin's fans say his guilt is 
> needless, the product of his overly tender conscience. And if his 
> conscience is that tender, well, he just *couldn't* be  up to 
> something, could he? 
> 
> Well, I'm afraid he could. 
> 
> Because even though Lupin is endlessly remorseful about his 
> actions, he never takes any responsibility for the  consequences. 
>  Think about it. It's all shoulda, woulda, coulda. 
> 
> He deceived his friends and they *could* have rejected him.

He is not remorsful about having deceived his friends, nor should he 
be. Clearly, it was DD's policy to keep Lupin's condition a secret 
from the student body. The very choice of the Shrieking Shack for his 
transformations demonstrates this. In fact, not only was it DD's 
policy when Lupin was a student, it was also his policy when he took 
Lupin as a teacher.

>  
> He led his friends into being illegal Animagi, and they *could* 
> have gotten in trouble, but Dumbledore never found  out

He *led* his friends into being illegal Animagi?! Where is that said 
or even implied? My impression has always been that it was 
James/Sirius' initiative. True, they did it for him, but it wasn't 
his idea. (In fact, I've always had this vague notion that they 
learned to be Animagi in secret, to surprise him.)

<snip> 
> If Snape had found his way to the Shrieking Shack during the 
> prank, he *would* have encountered a fully grown werewolf.

But Lupin didn't entice Snape to the Shack - it's not his action to 
be remoreseful about. He is horrified to think of the consequences - 
in the same way that I would be horrified to think of running over 
somebody, even if it's completely not my fault.

<snip> 
> 
> Now, setting aside the things that didn't happen, many of these 
> things had  real, damaging consequences.  But Lupin  ignores 
> them. 
> 
> Poor Remus, he feels so terrible about the marauder days even 
> though he never bit anybody and nobody ever found out. What 
> about the stuff they actually did?  Lupin ignores all that, so we 
> don't know what it was. Tresspassing?   Vandalism?  Stealing 
> sweets from Honeyduke's?  Baiting anybody James thought was 
> messing with Dark Arts?  

Do you really expect Lupin to feel remorse for *harmless* childhood 
mischief? If so, should George and Fred at thirty feel remorse for 
nicking food from the kitchens? If they don't, do they become ESE 
candidates in your eyes?

> 
> Poor Remus, he's *so* ashamed of thinking Sirius was a spy, 
> when he actually wasn't. But does he relate that to the years  his 
> innocent friend spent  in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit?

*So* ashamed? I didn't see that at all. Sorry for having believed 
Sirius guilty, yes, but no terrible shame or guilt. And regarding 
the "real consequences" - it wasn't his action that put Sirius in 
Azkaban, so why do you blame him for "ignoring" it? What was he 
supposed to do, beg Sirius' forgiveness for something he wasn't 
responsible for? 

> 
> Poor Remus, he feels *so*  terrible about not warning anyone 
> that Sirius was an Animagus. Good thing Sirius wasn't really a 
> murderer after all. But does it once occur to Lupin that  the 
> Dementors would never have been brought to Hogwarts if 
> anyone had realized that they couldn't detect Sirius in his 
> Animagus form? 

Right. I have to say this - Lupin not telling DD about Sirius being 
an Animagus is the weakest part of the PoA plot. I don't think you 
can really explain it away from within the story. It's a weak point, 
necessary for the plot (because if Lupin had told DD, PoA, not to 
mention GoF and OoP, wouldn't have happened). In many mystery novels 
there is the problem of the silent heroine (or hero, but it's more 
often a heroine). Agatha Christie's novels are rife with them - the 
characters are forever keeping silent to nobly shield somebody else, 
because they are blackmailed, because they didn't think it relevant, 
because they didn't want to be mixed in with police business, etc. 
Lupin plays this role in PoA, and like most silent characters, the 
reason he didn't speak sooner is, let's face it, improbable: he feels 
bad about owning up to mischief he had done as a child?! Especially 
after having been through the Voldemort era, fighting on DD's side? 
Please.  
 
I've said it several times before, so why not once more? JKR isn't 
really very good with mystery plots. It doesn't make sense for Lupin 
not to have told DD, in the same way that it doesn't make sense that 
Crouch was able to fool DD for ten months. The solutions feel 
contrived, even when they are not flat out unreasonble - both in PS 
and CoS the revelation that Quirrel and Ginny are possessed by 
Voldemort feel flat, of the "the butler did it" type. Except in OoP, 
the solution never feels inevitable (the way it does in Agatha 
Christie). I prefer this simple (though disappointing) explanation 
rather than read against the grain* of Lupin's characterisation. 

* I have to thank Nora for this very illuminating expression. I've 
often tried to articulate why certain interpretations seem so wrong 
to me, and "reading against the grain" exactly expresses that 
scratchy, uncomfortable, "wrong" feeling.


Naama