Harry Agonistes (was Re: Ever so evil ? was Dumbledore's role in Sirius' death

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 99185

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:

Pippin:
> I think JKR has made a great leap forward in good-vs-evil novels. 
> She has dared to make the good side morally complex. Unlike 
> Tolkien or Star Wars, everyone in the Potterverse does not draw 
> the line between good and evil in the same place. The 
> characters may not draw the line where Dumbledore  would, but, 
> JKR seems to be saying, as long as they draw it somewhere, 
> and refuse to cross it,  Dumbledore is on their side.

Geoff:
I think that there are plenty of morally complex characters in 
Tolkien. There are some who begin on the good side and fall by the 
wayside - you could probably include Boromir, Denethor and Saruman in 
this lot. Gollum is a singularly complex character and Frodo himmself 
almost succumbs at Mount Doom. And Sauron, in an echo of Tom 
Riddle/Voldemort perhaps, was originally a Maia of Aule before he was 
corrupted by Melkor/Morgoth. And, again, in the Narnia books, what 
about Edmund in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and Eustace 
Scrubb in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"? Not such well fleshed out 
characters but both drawn towards the evil side.