Lupin's Character Development

[Lissa Hess]

No: HPFGUIDX 135772


>Snapesangel:



>1. Am I the only one to be slightly uncomfortable with JKR's
>treatment of Lupin in HBP?
>I find him quite weak and self-pitying in this book, but rather than
>feel sorry for my second favourtie character, I find it irritating
>and a diminution of his character. I also don't know why he was
>paired with Tonks. I'll be disappointed if Tonks only narrative
>purpose turns out to be to give Lupin a girlfriend, since she's a
>very two dimensional character in my eyes and I was hoping we'd "get
>to the point" of her in this book. With only one book to go, I hope
>it happens soon and that Lupin, who doesn't have a tougher life than
>snape does or hagrid did when he was with the giants, shows some of
>the old quiet strength for which I liked him.

Lissa now:

I was sort of disappointed (and really hated the Tonks thing, because he 
sure didn't seem into it and Tonks's behavior- especially in the hospital- 
really bugged me), but then I thought about it.

When Hagrid goes to the giants, he had Madame Maxime, and he also didn't 
have to live among them.  Snape... I wouldn't say Snape doesn't have a good 
measure of self-pity- he just expresses it very, very differently.  But 
Lupin is living among these people, day in and day out, alone.

The werewolves despise him, because he's been trained to live among 
wizards.  (I'm guessing they're pretty obvious about it, too, given that 
we're led to believe that they're quite feral.  The society he's working 
for despises him slightly less.  (At least they only make him 
starve.)  He's lost Sirius, which I think really, really hurt him- and was 
probably the person he could talk to the best.  He's living in abject 
poverty- in fact, I was wondering if HE wasn't living in caves eating rats 
in this one.  And worst of all, he has to live around Fenrir Greyback, the 
man who bit him as a kid.  I can't help but think (especially with the 
immediate parallel everyone and their brother has drawn), that it's got to 
be like living around an unrepentant rapist or child molester when Remus 
was one of his victims.  And when he goes back to civilization, everyone's 
bugging him about his love life.   I also suspect his depression is the 
REAL reason he doesn't write to Harry- he doesn't want to worry him.

Given how little we see of Lupin, I can at least understand why he's so 
down.  Although I do agree I miss the quiet strength, and I really hope we 
see it again in Book 7!

Lissa