Etiquette WAS Re: polite Dumbledore? - cont'd

[Bruce Alan Wilson]

No: HPFGUIDX 142778

Valky wrote:
Now it's my turn to suggest a comparison. I can't take credit for the
idea because it was actually suggested by someone else. (Thanks Carol! :D) My suggestion is that we compare the visit by Dumbledore to the Dursleys to Narcissa and Bella's dropping in unexpectedly on Snape at Spinners end. 

Narcissa calls on Snape very very unexpectedly. And Bella arrives with her, striding into Snapes sitting room uninvited and snarling.  By the rod some of us are measuring Dumbledore with Snape should have slammed the door in Bella's face. But he instead plays the charming host to both ladies, offering drinks and seats etc, even making a proper toast. Narcissa then apologises for turning up 'like this', which does suggest that she has arrived improperly in some sense. My guess is that she means to apologise for arriving without announcement or invitation.

In general, I think that the arrival of the Black sisters at Spinners
End demonstrates the reception that Dumbledore expected to see when he got to the Dursleys. Well perhaps not as warm, but the same sorts of gesture - humouring the visit with a polite and customary few minutes of your time and playing charming host even though you are caught off-guard. Anyone doubting that this seemingly antiquated sort of formal etiquette is written into HBP should read this chapter again. 


Bruce Alan Wilson:
I do like this comparison.  You must remember that the Wizardling World is a much more conservative one than ours; this is not unsurprising given that wizards live much longer than Muggles  Consider Dumbledore's age.  If you have ever read Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, Dickens, or other 19th C. authors you will see that in that era middle- and upper-class people had a fairly strict protocol about 'paying a call.'  It seems that these protocols have survived to a greater extent among Wizards than among Muggles.  According to the rules of his culture, Dumbledore is behaving perfectly correctly; under the Victorian codes of manners it was possible to manipulate the conventions in such a way as to deliver a fairly stinging rebuke--indeed, verbally rip someone into tiny
little shreds--without raising one's voice, using profanity, or otherwise putting oneself in the wrong, and that is exactly what he did; he has made the Dursleys squirm--as well they should--without giving them any opportunity to raise any objections without seeming even more boorish than they are.  

Bruce Alan Wilson