The GoF Train Scene - and beyond (was:Re: Humanity, Kant, Caricatures, and Draco

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 146759

> > > >>Alla:
> > > Now, I don't know how Draco felt about Fake!Moody after all, 
but I 
> > > am hesitant to consider the revelation that his teacher turned 
out 
> > > to be DE in disguise as huge shake - up of Draco's world.
> > > <snip>
> > 
> > Betsy Hp:
> > I'll go out on a limb and guess that Draco had pretty negative 
> > feelings towards Fake!Moody <g>.  And, yeah, I doubt it was fun 
to 
> > realize that the abusive psycho you'd like to have fired is 
actually 
> > on your side.  

> Annemehr:
> I'm pulling for Draco, and I have been for pretty much the whole
> series.  In fact, my main beef against Snape has always been, not 
how
> he treated Harry or Neville (obviously, they'll be fine), but how 
he
> treated Draco, this boy in his house who's been raised by a Death
> Eater and whose complete ease in Snape's presence suggested that 
Snape
> had never challenged Draco's world view in any way.
> 
> But, I'm not sure this train scene shows there has been any 
challenge
> to Draco's world view either.
>

Magpie:

I think Betsy's argument here may be coming across more strongly 
than she means it in terms of it sounding like Draco is very 
conscious of things that he probably isn't.

I'm not going to speak for Betsy here, but I do recognize some 
important canonical ideas in what she's saying.  The thing with 
Draco is that he's a supporting character but he does have a 
character arc, one that will become important in HBP.  It's rather 
unique amongst the younger characters, the kind of thing he's used 
for--many people had put him in a different role.  

So where I agree with Betsy is in looking for the foundations being 
laid for Draco's crisis in Book VI.  Now, I don't think that Draco's 
worldview has been shaken at the end of GoF in terms of his 
questioning his side.  Cedric's death isn't a big catalyst.  
However, what I think Betsy is saying is that part of Draco's reason 
for provoking Harry and his friends is his own anxiety over what's 
happened and there I would agree a bit.  Not because Cedric was his 
best friend or he's genuinely thinking Voldemort is bad now, but 
because he is trying to process these events in a way that makes him 
comfortable.  When Muggleborns are killed Draco has a built-in 
reason not to care: they're not supposed to be human.  Cedric was a 
Pureblood kid in his class.  He can be unsettled by it.  I'm a big 
fan of Elkins' post-GoF post "Draco the Nutter" where she pointed 
out that at times when Draco was at his most blatantly sociopathic 
JKR seemed to always include some small physical sign of internal 
conflict--in this scene it's the fact that his smirk 
is "quivering."  (With the scene in CoS when he's saying similar 
things about who will be next he seems downright febrile.) Again, 
it's not that Draco is acting or truly sorry.  It's that he's not as 
ready for all this as he claims.

We're not in Draco's head, so it's all speculation exactly how he 
feels.  He doesn't refuse to stand for Cedric, nor does he express 
personal remorse.  Death means nothing to him (every book makes that 
point in some way), and I don't think he's fully aware of what it 
means to say Diggory was the first.  It only becomes real when JKR 
gives him this whole story in HBP where he's forced to deal with 
death over and over, finally witnessing his first murder.

So while any speculation about just what Draco's reaction was is 
just speculation I think the sorts of things Betsy is pointing out 
are important plotwise.  GoF *is* a foreshadowing of what's to 
come.  It *is* important that the book in which Voldemort returns 
includes a DE who attacks Draco.  I *do* think that Draco's bravado 
in the final scene is supposed to seem more confident than it is.  
Every time Draco's involved in anything Voldemort or DE related it's 
bad for him--Lucius loses his spot on the Board of Governors with 
his diary stunt, Barty Crouch smacks him around, Lucius is arrested 
breaking into the MoM.  Draco doesn't react to this by rejecting 
Voldemort. He clings ever more tightly to the idea that Voldemort is 
supposed to make this right.  He seems to always think that being 
more like a DE is what will make things better.

I think that's what Betsy is describing here, that there's a shade 
of difference between Draco just being genuinely excited by 
Voldemort and Draco being instinctively afraid or shaken by 
Voldemort's doings and responding to it by devoting himself even 
more to the cause. Interviews aren't canon, but JKR has said Draco 
has consciously shut down his compassion and repressed the better 
parts of himself because one must do that to become a Death Eater.  
It's not that he's really a good person just pretending to be bad, 
but I think she makes distinctions between bad guys.  Barty Crouch 
seems genuinely sadistic and is genuinely devoted to Voldemort. Tom 
Riddle is a sociopath who literally feels no connection or empathy 
for others.  Snape is perhaps someone who naturally tends towards 
violence and cruelty but is trying to control that.  Lucius hasn't 
been totally laid out for us but clearly he is able to murder as 
well.  

So with Draco I think the point Betsy is making is not that Draco 
was best buddies with Cedric and Krum and secretly cried into his 
pillow over Cedric's death.  She's just saying that we shouldn't 
assume he didn't have to repress any feelings of fear or confusion 
over Cedric ending up dead and that this could play into the train 
scene.  I think he is able to repress them and postpone any real 
awakening in GoF. In OotP he has to deal with some different issues 
connected to his father's involvement with the DEs.  It's in HBP, 
imo, where he's really cracking.  But I do think at the end of the 
series I would not be surprised if we are able to see a shape to his 
story that includes things like Cedric's death.

-m