Dumbledore's Trusting Nature

[spotsgal]

No: HPFGUIDX 146636

> Carodave:
> In re-reading HBP (US edition), I noticed a comment regarding 
> Dumbledore's trusting nature.  Unfortunately, now that it is time to 
> post my question, I can no longer find the quote, but as I remember 
> it, someone remarked that Dumbledore's weakness is that he HAS to 
> see the best in people.  Not that he looks for the best, or would 
> like to believe the best, but that he HAS to, which implies lack of
> choice in the matter.  Of course, I could be reading into this based
> upon his continued trust of Snape and Malfoy in the face of all 
> evidence, but it struck me as an odd choice of wording.

Christina:

You're thinking of Snape's words to Bellatrix, on page 31 of the
Scholastic ed:

"And you overlook Dumbledore's greatest weakness: He has to believe
the best of people.  I spun him a tale of deepest remorse when I
joined his staff, fresh from my Death Eater days, and he embraced me
with open arms -- though, as I say, never allowing me nearer the Dark
Arts than he could help."

The argument over "Dumbledore's greatest weakness" has come up a LOT
when talking about Snape and how truthful (and/or insightful) he was
being while talking to Bellatrix.  One thread in which we discuss it
starts here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/140731

but there are many more, I'm sure.  This thread talks a bit about
instances in which Dumbledore *doesn't* believe the best in people,
ie, keeping an eye on young Tom Riddle (even though the rest of the
staff at Hogwarts had fallen head-over-heels for the boy), and his
uneasiness about Sirius being the Potters' Secret-Keeper.

Snape's choice of words here (the *has* to) is meant, I suspect, to
emphasize how weak Dumbledore is - as in, he can't help but to think
with anything but his heart.  It is also interesting that Snape makes
Dumbledore's need to believe the best in others absolute, then
qualifies it by saying that Dumbledore basically never trusted Snape
himself enough to let him near the Dark Arts.

Now, about Draco.  JKR has said herself that Draco would not have
killed Dumbledore.  Now, you might say that Dumbledore went beyond the
call of duty in his efforts to *protect* Malfoy (which is a valid
opinion), but Dumbledore's judgements about his inherant character
*were* on the mark.  Dumbledore certainly didn't believe the "best" in
Draco during his sixth year; he suspected that Draco was trying to
kill him and asked Snape to keep an eye on the boy.  A man that has to
believe the best in people would never have believed that a child
would have attempted to commit murder.  And yet, Dumbledore believes
that Draco is not a killer, which is true.  It seems to me that
Dumbledore has neither under- or over-estimated Draco's character;
instead, he's almost directly on the mark.

As for Snape - well, only the seventh book will tell how correct
Dumbledore was in estimating *his* character.

Christina