McGonagall as Deputy Headmistress

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 116768


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "feklar" <feklar at v...> 
wrote:
> When I first read the book and was following it as more of a 
fairy tale, this read to me as a fairy-tale-ization of the classic 
boarding schoolpunishment story--instead of being beaten they 
were sent to the forbidden forest.  But now the tone has 
changed, so we're left with what was clearly a reckless and 
irresponsible act.<

The cruel punishments of fairy tales were not extreme in the 
context of their time, just unusual. Being made to dance in redhot 
shoes until you die -- is that really worse than being hanged, 
drawn and quartered? Or burned at the stake? Beating was once 
thought to be so necessary to the well-being of children that 
princes had to have whipping boys to take their punishments for 
them.

 The wizarding world  thinks that punishments need to 
be cruel to be effective, just as people in our world once did. 
McGonagall is a product of this school of thought just as Snape 
is, although unlike Snape she doesn't get a kick out of being 
cruel. OTOH, McGonagall's punishments are in general more 
severe than Snape's. He's never taken 150 points for a single 
infraction, and while his detentions are often disgusting they've 
never been dangerous.

I think, though, that the terror of the forest was mostly 
psychological, and that the children were being watched and 
guarded far more closely than they knew all the time they were in 
there. 

Pippin