Harry's character development: Static or Dynamic? Was: Saving Private Draco

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183720

Carol earlier:
>  
> > But is Harry "static" (unchanged by the events around him) or 
dynamic (changed in some fundamental and lasting way by those events)?
> 
> 
> Potioncat:
> I do so enjoy this type of thread.

Carol again:

I'm glad.
>
Potioncat: 
> Questions:
> 1. Is static and dynamic simply types, without value? 

Carol:

I'm sorry. I don't understand the question. They're not absolutes, if
that's what you mean. And "static" is not a bad thing or a value
judgment. For example, Faramir in LOTR is a static character. He
begins and ends as wise, brave, and good, untempted by the One Ring or
by power. Mr. Weasley in HP is likewise a static character, kindly,
Muggle-loving, and dominated by his wife to the end.
> 
> 2. Is there some literary rule or tradition that a character should
be one or the other?

Carol:
No. It's only a way of looking at a character. Does he (or she) change
fundamentally, learn a lesson or undergo an experience that alters his
(or her) behavior or outlook on life permanently? 

Potioncat: 
> 3. What are some examples of other static and dynamic characters?

Carol:
Take David Copperfield, who takes half the book to realize that his
ideal wife is not Dora but Agnes. That's a fundamental, life-changing
decision even though it relates "only" to domestic bliss (which was a
big deal to the Victorians). Even Pollyanna, who preaches optimism to
everybody then falls and becomes bedridden and has to learn to
practice what she preached is an example of a dynamic character, if a
rather simplistic one.
> 
> 4. Sirius Black went from a reckless, wild youth to a marose, bitter
man. Is that dynamic?

Carol:

We need to look at Sirius Black as we see him in the books, not his
off-page, youthful self. He goes from a half-mad escaped prisoner
intent on murdering his former friend to a man Harry is happy to
accept as his godfather in a few short chapters, changed, I suppose,
by Harry's act of mercy, so in PoA he seems to be a dynamic character.
When we next hear of him, he's something like he must have been before
the Potters' death, fleeing from WW "justice" on a stolen hippogriff
which probably provides the same sort of thrill as a flying
motorcycle. Still in the Harry's concerned godfather phase, he comes
to Hogwarts to live off rats and sleep in a cave just to be near and
(theoretically) protect Harry. As an Order member confined to the
house, he changes again, becoming moody and morose, happy only when
Harry is near him (perhaps living in the past and half-believing that
Harry is James). He continues to live vicariously through Harry, again
becoming the recklessly brave Order member who dies fighting
Bellatrix. Aside from the escape from Azkaban-induced near-madness,
are these fundamental changes or are they all aspects of his inborn
personality: recklessness, arrogance, brooding when he can't find an
outlet in action, living in the past? Or is the brooding a remnant of
his time in Azkaban? I don't think there's an absolute correct answer.
He fluctuates, certainly, but does he develop? I'd say that he has two
life-changing experiences, twelve years in Azkaban and Harry's mercy.
After that, he's what circumstances make him, depending on whether
he's free to be his reckless self or confined to a home he hates. Had
he been sent back to Azkaban for murdering Wormtail (assuming that he
didn't have his soul sucked) I think he'd have slid quickly into
madness--which would, of course, have made him a dynamic character
albeit a tragic one.
> 
> Potioncat, who only threw in the Sirius question to keep the post 
canon based.
>
Carol:
Now she tells me! :-)

How about Percy Weasley? He's still more concerned with rules and
authority than the rest of his family, to judge from the epilogue, but
he learns that authority isn't always right and that family is more
important than his career. That moment when he makes a joke and Fred
laughs and suddenly Percy is holding the dead Fred in his arms is
almost unbearably poignant. I think it's a permanent lesson even
though Percy will never stop being pompous.

Carol, who doesn't have any absolute answers but is only presenting
these categories as a way of examining character development