Draco...Interesting? - Change

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 177016

---  "Katie" <anigrrrl2 at ...> wrote:
>
> I have noticed that many of the same people who like
> Snape and find him fascinating also like Draco and 
> deem him a fascinating and complex character.
> 
> ...
> 
> However, I do not remotely feel that Draco is that 
> kind of character. I think he's pretty stiff and 
> one-note, actually. Far from being fascinating, I 
> think he's a very common little ferrety troublemaker,
> the kind of boring hum-drum bully that appears in many 
> books and films. ...
> 
> So, I guess this is a plea to all those Draco fans
> - why? Why is he so interesting? ...

bboyminn:

I'm not really a Draco fan, but at the same time I
do find him a fascinating character, not so much
because of what I see on the page, but more so 
because of what I imagine off page and in Draco's
internal landscape. 

That fact that I am even willing and perhaps even
eager to examine Draco's internal landscape, that
alone tells me he is a fascinating character. The
fact that I am drawn to examine him tells me he is
worth examining.

Further, I do see a great deal of change in Draco in
the book. The problem is, we see the turmoil the
precedes change, but never the actual moment of
revelation where Draco morphs. 

In the beginning Draco is idealistic. He has a 
fantasy version of how he perceives the world and
his place in it. By the end, Draco is being crushed
by the cold realities of life and of his beliefs.

I've said before that early on Draco sees Voldemort
reign as a vision of Voldemort, Lucius, and Draco
standing shoulder to shoulder on a high balcony
while the rest of the world gathers in the square
below and bows down to them. Draco fancies himself
the Crown Prince of the Empire. Certainly he will
give out 'dirty' orders, but he will never have to 
dirty his own hands.

So, Draco has the grand and glorious vision of what
Voldemort's rule will look like, which in turn makes
Draco eager to be part of it. The part missing from
his vision is the bowing and scrapping, and what must
be done to get him on that balcony and what must be 
done to keep him there. 

I still say that it was Draco who approach, directly 
or indirectly, Voldemort with his knowledge of the
possibilities that the Vanishing Cabinet represented.
Draco saw himself bringing the information, being
rewarded while someone else would have to dirty 
themselves carrying out the plan. Surprise! Surprise!
When it is Draco who must dirty himself.

Suddenly the full realization of what it means to 
serve Voldemort is upon him, and the realization
grows with ever increasing intensity from that point
on through the next two books. Now that Draco sees
it is not all standing on balconies, and now sees
what it means to take and hold power over the wizard
and muggle world, being a Death Eater is not so
appealing. 

Now, I think, the lack of satisfaction in many 
people's minds is because they didn't get a long
Shakespearian monolog in which Draco renounces his
past and embraces his new better future. An endless
dramatic soliloquy in which Draco spells out the
error of his ways and professes his new enlightened
future.

The problem is, that only happens in Shakespeare and
other such pretentious and overwrought drama. In real
life, these accompanying thoughts and revelations
happen on the inside. I think we see Draco at the
peak of his revelation at the end of the last standard
chapters in the last book. Then the actual transition
occurs off page, and 19 years later we see a much 
humbler and transformed Draco. Draco has changed, he
is not the arrogant self-important bully we see in the
beginning. He clearly has had a revelation, even if 
the only evidence we have is a polite nod to Harry.
The old Draco would have been more likely to give 
Harry a one(USA) or two(UK) fingered salute than a
polite nod. 

It is Draco's internal landscape that fascinates me 
and it is in this internal landscape that Draco's
real changes occur. In the outside world, Draco's
struggles and changes are only implied.  

I think that is also what makes all the characters
interesting, not so much what we see on the outside
but what we imagine on the inside. 

I also think that is what makes JKR's books so good.
She doesn't tell and show us everything, she leaves
room for our imaginations to create the world she
only implies. As an example, if you add up all the
descriptions of Ron in all the books, it's still a
pretty thin description. Yet, who among us doesn't 
have an absolutely vivid picture of Ron in our minds.

The power of imagination...embrace it.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn