Draco...Interesting? - Change

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177030

bboyminn wrote:
> 
> 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. 

<snip> 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. <snip>
 
> 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. <snip>

Carol responds:

"Pretentious and overwrought drama"? That's an interesting way to
refer to the greatest dramatist of all time. However, I don't want to
argue since, to some extent, I agree with you. 

I think what we're dealing with here is a difference in genre
conventions (and a difference in taste between our era and
Shakespeare's). Shakespearean drama of necessity uses monologue to
reveal thoughts and motivations; in fiction (written rather than
performed, read rather than viewed), we can read the characters'
thoughts, motivations, and perceptions on the page. In the HP books
specifically, we're usually limited to Harry's not always reliable
point of view. Only a few chapters (e.g., "Spinner's End" in HBP) use
a pov resembling that in a drama, with the characters seen only from
the outside and their thoughts are concealed from the reader (and each
other), no one is going to make a Shakespeare-style soliloquy (which,
in any case, occurs when the character is alone onstage).

JKR never allows us into Draco's head, any more than she allows us
into Snape's. We don't even get any "Spinner's End"-style chapters for
him until "The Dark Lord Rising" in DH, in which we see both Snape and
Draco but Harry doesn't. Most of the time, we see Draco (as we do
Snape) through Harry's eyes. We can catch details that he misses (easy
enough to do given that he frequently overlooks or misinterprets the
details), but still, Draco is off-page most of the time, either
because he's nowhere near Harry or because what he's doing or saying
isn't important to the story.

We can contrast for ourselves the difference between his threats to
Borgin in "Draco's Detour," along with his boasting that the Dark Lord
has entrusted him with an important mission in "The Slug Club," and
his fears and tears in "Sectumsempra" and slightly lowered wand in
"The Lightning-Struck Tower." We can also compare and contrast our own
reactions with Harry's, especially during repeated readings. Draco's
behavior in DH is an extension of his behavior on the tower. The
blustering and defiance are gone; the hesitation and fear remain. He
is clearly disillusioned, to say the least, but he's still almost
powerless to act. Only when we contrast his behavior with his father's
willingness to give Harry to Voldemort in return for a restoration of
the Dark Lord's favor can we see how far Draco has come. 

Whether Harry sees it, too, is unclear because he's understandably
concerned with his own predicament and doesn't hesitate to snatch
three wands from the injured Draco's hand, but I think his willingness
to save Draco's life later does indicate a changed perception of
him--more pity and less contempt than he felt at the end of OoP.
Harry, of course, doesn't speak these thoughts aloud. He's not very
introspective and is only gradually learning to interpret his own
emotions, and he's certainly not going to say to Ron and Hermione,
"Hey, have you noticed that Draco Malfoy is in a tight spot and not as
obnoxious as he used to be? Maybe we should feel sorry for him instead
of hating him." And yet that seems to sum up his perception, and, at
the same time to sum up Draco's actual situation.

At any rate, the cardinal rule of modern fiction is "Show, don't
tell." Neither Draco nor Harry nor the narrator is going to announce
to the reader how we should perceive Draco. Even Harry's own
perceptions must be inferred by his altered behavior toward Draco.
(The same, of course, is true for Harry's altered perception of Snape,
except that we can infer them from his public vindication of Snape and
the name he gives his second son.)

Carol, who thinks that observing Draco's (and Snape's) suffering at
firsthand has led Harry to a new understanding and tolerance of
Slytherin in general reflecting JKR's own view of that House and those
characters