The House of Slytherin (was Alchemy)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 176258

 


>  Magpie:
<snip>
> Gryffindor faults have a totally different  weight than 
> Slytherin faults, and do not add up to them both being  
> the same, but different, imo.

Mike:
I don't agree, or I  should say, I don't agree with your statement 
that Slytherin faults are  worlds worse than Gryffindor faults. Not if 
you look at them objectively  as opposed to through the Gryffindor 
prism. 



Julie:
Well, I do think we automatically make certain judgments based on  our
own societal influences and upbringing, and as far as I know, in the 
English-speaking world, ambition and cunning are very ambiguous  traits
that are more often used with negative connotations, while courage is  a
trait that almost always has positive connotations. That doesn't mean  those
traits *can't* be used in opposite ways (I'm sure Bella would have been  very
"courageous" in her refusal to disavow or repent her alliegiance to the  Dark
Lord under any amount of torture, for instance), but we don't really see  them
used in opposite ways in the books. (For instance, Peter doesn't turn  the
Gryffindor traits into negative ones, he simply doesn't actually *have*  any
signature Gryffindor traits. Heck, Bella would have made a better  Gryffindor
than Peter did, given her physical sort of courage and nutty  impulsiveness,
not to mention her zero sense of self-preservation!)

It would have been more balanced if even *one* Slytherin had  used his/her 
traits toward something good. Snape used what is commonly considered
a Gryffindor trait, courage, to prove his (relative) goodness. (Cunning  may
have come into it a bit--for instance Snape punishing the Gryffs in DH  by
sending them to the Forbidden Forest--but both Dumbledore and Harry 
note that Snape's *best* trait was his un-Slytherinish courage.)  Regulus
also used courage, and loyalty to another--Kreacher, also not standard 
Slytherin traits.
 
For instance, what if we found out Kingsley Shackelford was a  Slytherin?
A Slytherin who 19 years later is the Minstry of Magic, using one of  his
signature Slytherin traits, ambition, to actually better the WW!  *That*
would have made the point that the personality traits of Slytherin  House
are not automatically more negative or of lesser value than  Gryffindor
(Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff) traits. 
 
Julie, who is going to consider Kingsley a Slytherin from now on,  unless
someone pops my bubble by pointing out that I missed some reference
assigning him to another House ;-/



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