Seeing gray in a black and white book/Free passes to characters

[kibakianakaya]

No: HPFGUIDX 165102

> Alla:
BIG SNIP
> And not that I do not do it myself. For example, to go back to 
> Harry's using Unforgivables.
> 
> As I mentioned in another thread, I honestly do not see **any** 
sign 
> of intent on Harry behalf, except to defend himself in bathroom 
> scene, but I was always surprised why JKR said that Harry did not 
> have an intent to complete Crucio in OOP.
> 
> I guess it goes back to what I consider her being very unclear on 
> Dark magic in general and the unforgivables as well ( what kind of 
> intent is needed, etc), but I always thought that Harry had plenty 
of 
> intent to hurt Bella. And I thought that he could have ended up in 
> Azkaban for that.
> 
> Having said that, I absolutely excuse Harry here because of the 
pain 
> he was in, etc. It does not mean though that I would call his 
action 
> right, not at all. I am not going to say that there is any sound 
> reason for him to do so, except the pain he was in, but this 
**is** 
> an excuse.
> 
Lilygale:
I'm responding to the idea of "intent" just to make the point that 
intent is a multi-layered thing.  Taking the neo-Freudian view, our 
intentions come from our conscious (ego) but also unconscious 
elements (the "Dark Side" id and the "Light Side" superego, to 
oversimplify shamelessly).  
In OotP, what could JKR mean when she says Harry does not really 
want to use Crucio?  My (neo-Freudian) interpretation is that Harry 
really and truly has an instinctive, id-driven desire to hurt 
Bellatrix in retaliation for killing Sirius.  At the same time (and 
this is what determines Harry's moral stance), his ego and superego 
restrain his behavior by tempering his emotions.  That is, Harry's 
sense of self and sense of morality will not allow his id to act 
with full, infantile emotional force.  They hold him back to the 
extent that, when he casts Crucio to satisfy his id, he also cannot 
really cause harm because his ego/superego will not allow that.  
Harry wants to hurt, but he could not live with the consequences of 
that evil.  Harry's actions reflect his surface conscious 
wishes/desires, but he is also controlled by layers underneath, 
without conscious awareness.  

In HPB, when Harry's id *may* be  more strongly in control (we don't 
know for sure but perhaps his hatred may be stronger towards Snape 
than Bellatrix), we as readers are not allowed to see if his 
ego/superego would overcome his id – Snape acts as his conscience 
for by blocking the curses.  

So how does this neo-Freudian analysis translate to the bathroom 
scene?  Harry thinks of the Prince as his friend and ally.  But the 
Prince has allied himself with Harry's id.  The Prince has offered 
Harry an illusion of superiority (over Snape) by allowing him to get 
superior grades and high praise in Potions.  The Prince has seduced 
Harry into thinking that offensive spells are OK.  (I agree 
that "for enemies" is most likely interpreted by Harry as an 
offensive rather than defensive spell).  By casting Sectumsempra 
instead of another known spell, Harry is trusting his "friends" 
judgment.  But why?  Because his id really really wants to hurt 
Draco (Harry's felt that urge for years) – and he justifies this 
urge by rationalizing that he can trust his friend.   Harry has  
made a serious error in judgment – never trust an inanimate object's 
judgment over your own, to paraphrase Arthur.  That error in 
judgement occurred before the bathroom scene, I believe, in that 
canon shows us that Harry wanted to try out the spell.  In the heat 
of the moment, Harry was governed by his darker side (id) rather 
than his ego.  It's an understandable error given the heat of the 
moment, but I agree with others who hope that Harry learns to 
understand his own impulses and desires more thoroughly.

Lilygale who hopes that Harry will achieve the "moral alchemists'" 
goal, the spiritual equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone.