forms of address

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116194


Geoff wrote:
<snip>
> Looking through my notes above, I hope this will highlight why I find 
> it odd that Professor McGonagall addresses Dumbledore just by his 
> surname. It smacks of the office set-up of a senior speaking to a 
> junior and certainly not of two colleagues of approximately equal 
> standing. I would have been quite offended had any of my teaching 
> colleagues spoken to me as "Bannister" and that would have included 
> the Headmaster. <snip>

Carol adds:
What makes it even odder for me, as an American, is that McGonagall is
a woman addressing a man. As I said in an earlier post that went
unanswered (except for your kind information on sherbet lemons), it
seems to me that most of the female characters call very few people by
their first names. With Hermione and the other female students, it's
first names for other students and Professor plus last name for
teachers. (The one exception, as I noted earlier, seems to be that
Hermione follows the boys in referring to Draco Malfoy and his friends
by their last names. This seems to be the only instance of a female
student using the last name alone.) 

McGonagall, in contrast, rarely uses first names except when she's
addressing certain colleagues (notably Severus Snape) in an unofficial
capacity. I believe she uses first names in the Hog's Head as well.
Ordinarily, though, she'll address her colleagues as, say, Professor
Snape, and her students as "Mr." or "Miss" plus last name. Her use of
"Albus" for that one emotional moment in SS/PS stands out, but so does
her use of "Dumbledore," for the two reasons we've stated: 1) he's her
superior ("boss," as we'd say in America) and 2) she's female. It
seems to put her on the same level as Snape addressing Lupin by his
last name to distance him (contrast Lupin's use of "Severus" to
suggest friendship or equality). But why would she want to distance
Dumbledore? And if she did, why not call him "Professor Dumbledore"?
("Headmaster," which Snape uses, would be *too* formal and would
emphasize her subordinate position--not something McGonagall appears
to want to do.)

At any rate, and I really want a British perspective on this, it seems
to me that men and women follow slightly different traditions in
Britain. Among schoolboys and male colleagues (in private
conversation), last names are the norm and first names indicate a
close friendship, is that correct? Or do last names denote enmity
("Malfoy," for example) while anyone who's not an enemy (say Ernie
MacMillan) would be called by his first name? McGonagall, it seems to
me, is trying to follow the first version of this tradition, with
Dumbledore as a colleague except on those few occasions when her
emotions get to her, in which case she treats him as an intimate
friend. But she's following the *male* tradition if she's following
anything at all.

Carol, who is feeling like a thread breaker because so many of her
posts have gone unanswered and is really hoping for a (British)
response to this one