Marietta

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 169540

Eggplant:

Again  and again I see the same defense, not just of Marietta but for
Snape too,  that it's OK to do evil things as long as you're sincere;
personally I  think sincerity is a vastly overrated virtue. I'll pick
someone insincerely  right over someone sincerely wrong any day.  


Julie:
If intent and sincerity mean nothing, then you are verging into the  territory
where the end always justifys the means. I realize some do believe  this is
so, especially when it comes to the "bad" guys versus the "good" guys. 
While intent isn't everything, it does have weight when it comes to  judging
someone's actions. At least it does for me. In this case Marietta  knew
exactly what everyone else knew, and she made her decision based  on that
information, not based on Umbridge being a torturer and attempted  murderer.
(Should we also blame Sirius because Peter was an evil turncoat and  Sirius
talked James into using Peter as his Secret-Keeper? He's sincere  and his 
intent is certainly better than Marietta's, but the end result is  much, much
worse than Marietta's betrayal--and not because Marietta stopped  talking
when the hex took effect, but because Dumbledore would have stepped  in
either way if Umbridge tried to expel the students). 
 
There is also a difference between a wrong act and an evil act, IMO. Just  
when
a wrong act becomes an evil act is very much up to individual  
interpretation, I
know. So where you see Marietta committing an evil act, I see  her committing
a wrong act. OTOH, I think Peter committed an evil act in betraying  the 
Potters 
because he *knew* exactly what he was consigning them to, which is  again
where I see a big difference, while you perhaps do not (if you buy the idea  
that
Umbridge's status as a torturer/attempted murderer has any bearing on  what
she can actually do to the DA students, which I find  questionable--Dumbledore
interference again). Marietta knew nothing more than expulsion would  happen--
and there is NO evidence this includes your wand being broken--or even  more
realistically in the current expulsion-as-an-empty-threat environment  of 
Hogwarts,
she may have assumed detention was more likely. She chose to do the  wrong
thing and she was wrong, but she didn't choose to do evil nor is she evil,  
IMO.
 
Julie, resigned to disagreement, but not on the basis that I or anyone else  
thinks
it's okay to commit "evil" acts if one is sincere, but because  our 
definitions of what
constitutes an evil act differ. (It's not even okay to commit wrong acts,  
BTW, but
these acts are usually more understandable and forgivable,  and generally 
with less 
intent to cause suffering, than evil acts.)
 
 
 

 
 



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