Dumbledore "failing" Harry (was: Adults "failing" Harry (was: Themes in OotP)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 119965


Betsy:
> Oh, Dumbledore screwed up, no doubt about it.  The thing is, this 
> royal screw up deepened the character of Dumbledore for me.  One 
> of the reasons I love OotP because it takes the rather two 
> dimensional Puppetmaster!Dumbledore and fleshed him out into a 
> somewhat flawed though still wise and knowledgeable man. 

SSSusan:
An excellent point.  In showing his fallibility, we see a more 
complex character, one who's not this perfect, omniscient, 
omnipotent total genius, but a man who can be ruled by the heart 
like the next man, capable of making an unwise decision like the 
rest of us.  


Betsy:
> Yes, Harry has shown time and time again that he will take action 
> against Voldemort.  In the very first book he practically had the 
> prophecy figured out. "If I get caught before I can get to the 
> Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for 
> Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I 
> would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side!" (SS, 
> pg. 270, paperback)  As early as that, Harry knew that it was a 
> death struggle between him and Voldemort.
> 
> But Dumbledore admits at the end of OotP that he still wanted to 
> keep Harry safe and out of the battle. 


SSSusan:
You may have put your finger on a big part of the reason why, when I 
first read about the prophecy, I said, "Huh?  That's IT?"  It just 
wasn't a shock to us, the readers, and as you're noting here, it 
really *probably* wasn't that much of a shock to Harry either. Well, 
he's known all along that Voldy wanted to kill him, and *maybe* he 
didn't know the other side of it -- that only he could possibly 
vanquish Voldy -- but I have a feeling that down deep he suspected 
something like that. 

Do some of you think Harry was truly & totally surprised by that 
part of the prophecy?


Betsy:
> I do agree with you, SSSusan, that Dumbledore made a catastrophic 
> miscalculation with how he handled Harry.  And that mistake ended 
> in the death of Sirius.  He admits this himself at the end of 
> OotP.  So I will be shocked if he backslides in book 6.  What I'm 
> trying to show is that the mistake was believable for the 
> character of Dumbledore.  I see Dumbledore thinking, "Yes, Harry 
> likes to take matters into his own hands, so keep him ignorant of 
> what is going on and that will keep him safe.  Watch him, protect 
> him, but don't bring him into play."  Of course, he fails to take 
> into account Harry's own resourcefulness and Voldemort's 
> ruthlessness.
<snip>
> Dumbledore really, really messed up.  But not in an out-of-
> character way, IMO.  And his mistake provided the catalyst for a 
> really good story and some major character unfoldment and/or 
> growth.  For the sake of Harry, I wish Dumbledore had not made the 
> choices he made.  For the sake of the story...  well, it made a 
> sad kind of sense to me, and threw an interesting light on past 
> events.

SSSusan:
And in addition to Harry's resourcefulness, DD failed to take into 
account Harry's impatience and rashness and "saving people thing."  
Believable?  On one hand, I think you've convinced me yes.  Just 
disappointing still. :-|

Siriusly Snapey Susan