Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco (was:Re: Snape, Hagrid and Animals)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 144013

> >>Sydney: 
> I'm surprised that nobody's yet brought up the role that the 
> psychological symbolism is playing in this-- you only need a      
> passing knowledge of Jung (who was such an influence on the       
> dreaded Joseph Campbell!), to identify Slytherin with the         
> unintegrated Shadow-side. 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Yes, yes, yes!  I totally agree.  I'm far enough away from my 
literature classes to have just that passing knowledge (or less 
<g>), but I seem to recall that the Shadow aspect is often 
identified with the feminine or female.  Water is a huge element for 
that, I believe, having connections with life and death and 
sensuality and emotion.  (I was thrilled with JKR's elemental 
breakdown of the houses.)

Bringing in Magpie's HBP is the Slytherin book theory (I loved that 
particular essay) it's highly telling that we learn so much about 
Voldemort's mother and finally something about Lily.  And it's 
interesting that both women have ties to Slytherin.  Merope through 
her blood and Lily through her inclinations.

> >>Sydney:
> So anyways the subject that started this was Slytherin House, that 
> is the Shadow side of the wider society;  they are the repository 
> of all the negative traits and live in a dungeon and are excluded 
> from the community of the rest of the school.  This is where JKR, 
> IMO, runs into a bit of trouble because the symbolic role of      
> Slytherin, which necessitates them actually being full of         
> negative, ugly, nasty things, is colliding uncomfortably with the 
> surface role of being a bunch of kids sorted in there at age 11.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I feel like JKR is covering this by showing how Slytherin has been 
scapegoated from the beginning.  Slytherin becomes the mad woman on 
the moors (Virginia Woolf's imagery, I believe?) kept from realizing 
her full self and doomed to be a prisoner of her emotion rather than 
a master of it.  (Snape is such an excellent example of this, I 
think.)

> >>Pippin:
> <snip>
> I think we need to be very careful in distinguishing the           
> reputations of the Houses from the criteria which the Hat actually 
> uses to select.
> <snip>
> The Sorting Hat tells us that the each of the Houses "divided,    
> sought to rule". The substance of their quarrel, according to     
> Binns, was that Slytherin thought the purebloods were most to be   
> trusted with power. But if all four sought to rule, then *all*     
> were elitist. Each thought the members of their own House were    
> most to be trusted. And they were *all* wrong, because Dumbledore 
> tells us that only those very rare individuals who are pure of     
> soul can truly be trusted with power and *none* of the Founders
> were selecting for that.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Yes, exactly.  The split, when it occured, was between *all four* 
founders.  That Slytherin left meant that his "children" received 
the blame.  The Slytherins were repressed and pushed down and became 
susceptible to the type of twisting Tom Riddle (badly twisted 
himself) put it through.  And then we had the Death Eaters -- not 
true Slytherins but certainly the very worst a Slytherin could be 
made into.

For Hogwarts to be whole the rift needs to be healed.  The DA club 
was incredibly strong, but because they didn't include Slytherins 
they were vulnerable.  It's a bit chicken and egg, I think, but I 
believe the Slytherins joined with Umbridge because of their outcast 
status.

So for Harry to be strong he must embrace his Slytherin side (as 
he's embraced his Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff sides), which he does 
start to do in HBP.  And it's interesting that part of using that 
side is using a bit of "feminine wiles".  In a sense Harry flirts 
with Slughorn to get the information he's after.  (Something 
Hermione is unable to do in "Draco's Detour" but something Tom 
Riddle does easily with Mrs. Smith.)

Yeah, so I babbled a bit too. Heh.  But I think this can also go to 
Lealess's thoughts on Slytherin being the "unclean" house and worthy 
of derision.  Because that's how woman or the female aspect of 
mankind was viewed for so long; the bringer and barer of sin.

Betsy Hp