Right vs. Easy (Ron WAS: Re: DH reread CH 4-5)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186397

> Montavilla47:
> > That's such an ironic speech.  Because Cedric is one of the characters
> > we actually see make a *right* choice in the temptation of taking the
> > easy way out.  
> > 
> > At the end of the tournament, both Harry and Cedric are in sight of
> > the Cup, but Harry has a leg injury and Cedric does not.  He could
> > easily take the Cup and become the Champion of Hogwarts, but 
> > he doesn't, because, according to his code of honor, it wouldn't be
> > right.  
> > 
> > So, he and Harry agree to take the Cup together--a decision that
> > leads to Cedric's death.
> > 
> > So, when we do get to see someone make the clear choice of
> > "right" over "easy," he dies five minutes later.
> 
> Geoff:
> There is a double irony here because Harry could have taken 
> the "easy" way, acceeded to Cedric's urging to go ahead and 
> take the Cup.
> 
> Instead, he opts for the "right" way which is to coax Cedric into
> joining him.


Magpie:
Heh. The whole's book's kind of hilarious on that score. You have a contest that's judged in a way that's guaranteed to be biased. There's tons of cheating throughout, punctuated by odd pockets of fairplay, usually between the two Gryffindors for each other, making it less about strictly fair play and more about striking the right balance between feeling like you've honestly won your own bragging rights and not being the one sucker left behind when everbody else is doing it. The last moment of fair play winds up sending both Gryffindors to the graveyard. 

I can't remember if Harry's being in first place--which he is partly due to outside help that's sometimes outside the rules of the game (and at least once thanks to Dumbledore making sure Harry's rewarded for his self-sacrifice instead of letting it stay a self-sacrifice)--puts him in a better position in the maze to begin with.

But it's hard to really draw direct correlations since the contest doesn't really follow logical rules. Outside of having crowds watch things they can't see, it seems like one could have wound up touching the cup without being the winner. And in the center of everything we've got Voldemort's plan which is based around a contradiction: He wants Harry to be the one who gets the Portkey, then makes the Portkey the winning cup in a contest Harry oughten to have been able to win. Iow, he makes this nice, tempting Portkey for Harry to touch, then arranges for all manner of vicious beasts and bigger kids to stand between them.

-m