Merope (wasLily the popular girl)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 168138

Magpie:
> Isn't Dumbledore saying to Harry that he can't expect from Merope
> what he could expect from his own courageous mother, comparing the 
> two? Merope's ultimate despair still seems like something he's 
> saying would not afflict someone with courage.  At least I think
> that's what people react negatively to in the line when they do.
> It's just hard to hear it for me and not have it sound 
> condescending or judgmental. Being a courageous person doesn't make
> one immune to depression...

Jen:  I definitely think he's comparing the two and does consider 
Lily to have more courage, although I didn't quite take his 
assessment to mean a courageous person could be immune to despair or 
depression.  Dumbledore doesn't say Merope is without courage, just 
that he believed Lily to be the more courageous of the two.  And DD 
doesn't definitively say what led to Merope not using magic to save 
herself: maybe she stopped using her powers because she no longer 
wanted to be a witch after Tom Sr. walked out, maybe it was despair 
that sapped her powers.  The end result is Dumbledore doesn't know 
the full story (which begs the question how he knew she chose to die 
other than the story calling for it?!?).
 
I'm guessing part of the problem with DD's explanation is the same 
thing that bothered people when JKR said in an interview that Lily's 
bravery was of a 'higher caliber' than James' bravery.  By hanging 
her story on Lily's tremendous courage and ranking everyone else 
below her, it's hard for a reader, for me, to assess whether I 
personally agree Lily is more couragous because I've hardly seen the 
woman!!  

Magpie:
> Although ironically for me that line of Dumbledore's actually
> seemed to validate it in a strange way. Because it was sort of
> saying that Merope had chosen to die despite magic offering life.

Jen: Yeah, I agree.  I believe it must be one of those fine 
distinctions Dumbledore is so good at making because JKR wouldn't 
want that to be the implication for her story.  I'm reminded of the 
Force and how a Jedi can be healed by the Force, but they can't be 
brought back from death or dying.  And on another thread just now the 
point was made that Fawkes couldn't heal Dumbledore's hand because it 
was dead and not capable of returning to health.  Those types of 
ideas are behind my thinking that Merope was dying from starvation 
and exposure when she reached the orphanage, things she possibly 
could have remedied with magic, and not that she could have brought 
herself back from death or near-death with magic as Riddle, Jr., 
believes is possible.

Jen