[HPforGrownups] Re: McGonagall as Deputy Headmistress

[feklar]

No: HPFGUIDX 116780

> > 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.<
>

pippin--

> 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.

feklar--

yes, but in the later books, it's made clear that they now disapprove of
punishments that harm or endanger the students--MM herself stops Moody from
beating Draco as a ferret.  Hence, my comment about the changed tone.  To
me, sending kids into the FF (let alone at night, when you know there's a
killer wandering around) is at least on the same level as Moody's ferretting
and Umbridge's blood quill.  Potentially, it was worse as one of the kids
could have been killed.  The fact that MM is a good guy and likable
shouldn't change that fact.


pippin--

> 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.


feklar--

I prefer not to assume too much into cannon.  In any case, I would like to
think psychological torture would be frowned upon as well.  Ultimately, as I
said in another post, the whole event strikes me as a ham-handed plot
device.  I can't help but think there are easier and more graceful ways to
get Harry out into the FF.

Feklar