Harsh Morality

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 121081


Pippin wrote:
"Do we want to consider courage to be a form of love, as it's the 
virtue that JKR has said she values most highly? "

Renee answered::
"You're definitely on to something here, I think. To quote the New 
Testament (1st Epistle of John, 4:18, King James version): "There is 
no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." As courage has to
do with overcoming fear - casting it out as opposed to never having it
to begin with - it very much looks like John is making a statement
about courage as well."

Del replies:
I see it differently. I see courage as being able to force ourselves
to do something we fear. But I understand John 4:18 as saying that
perfect love eliminates fear (casteth out), which in turn renders
courage useless. Someone who doesn't fear anything has no need for
courage IMO.

Renee wrote:
"It's almost as if the opposites courage vs fear function the same way
as good vs evil and right vs wrong in the Potterverse."

Del replies:
An interesting question for me is then : what does this mean
concerning LV? As I said in another post, LV fears only 3 things as
far as we know: death, DD, and now Harry too.
Now we know that he never could face the prospect of death and did his
best to escape from it, so we could say that he has no courage where
death is concerned.
We also know that he never dared attack Hogwarts because of DD. But
then in the MoM he doesn't seem horribly scared of fighting DD. So I
don't know if we can say he's got no courage where DD is concerned.
As for Harry, well I think LV has barely started being scared of him.
It will be interesting to see whether he will dare to go and look for
Harry again.
And as for his past : I would love to know if LV was able to do all
the great and terrible things he did because he was afraid of them but
had enough courage to do them anyway, or because he was never afraid
to do them to start with.
But whichever way we go, I get a bit stumped. If LV was never afraid
of anything but death and DD, then that would mean that love is not
the only thing that can banish fear. If on the other hand, LV was
scared but courageous, then it would mean that courage is definitely
not linked to love.
I'm not sure I'm going anywhere there... Sorry for the rambling!

Del