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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186400

Montavilla47 wrote:
> > 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.

Carol responds:
Exactly. The right choice isn't right because you'll be rewarded for doing the right thing. It's right, in this case, because it's honorable to share what they think will be the glory of the victory. It would have been wrong for Cedric to take the cup because he could and Harry couldn't, and wrong for Harry to deprive Cedric and Hufflepuff of their chance for glory. Now, granted, this is a schoolboy code of honor, but it has its merits. Both are doing what they perceive as the right thing. Moreover, if Cedric had taken the cup alone, he would have been killed in any case, and if Harry had acquiesced in Cedric's wishes and gone alone, he would still have been tortured and nearly killed, an outcome that Cedric would probably perceive as his fault, just as Harry perceives it as partly his fault that Cedric was killed. There is, IMO, nor real right choice in this instance, only the choice that both boys perceive as right--and which would, indeed, have been the right choice had the cup not been a portkey taking them to Voldemort. (Yet again, the characters' choices have unintended consequences, with good intentions leading to unanticipated evil consequences, rather like Harry's sparing of Wormtail's life, which also has unintended consequences here.)

Right vs. easy is not about consequences, intended or otherwise, or about being rewarded for right choices and punished for "easy" ones. When Harry takes the easy way out, such as cheating on his homework, he usually gets away with it. When he does the right thing, or what he perceives as the right thing (such as going to the MoM to rescue Sirius Black), unintended bad consequences often follow. But the opposite is also true. Voldemort's attempt to kill the child Harry results in his being vaporized. His attempt to strengthen himself with Harry's blood so that he can share Lily's love magic ends up saving Harry rather than himself. And yet, regardless of consequences, right is still right and wrong or evil (a choice that Dumbledore interestingly does not present to his students) is still wrong or evil.

I suppose the moral in this is that the reason for doing the right thing (which is often also a hard thing) is not to be rewarded or even to feel good about having done the right thing. It's that we should do the right thing regardless of consequences. And the right thing, apparently, is to be honorable (like Cedric), (to show mercy (like Harry with Wormtail), to forgive (like Harry with Ron and Snape and Dumbledore), and yet to show courage and fight against evil (like just about all the good characters). Since evil, too, as unintended consequences, you just have to keep on trying to do the right thing, hoping that evil will stab itself in the foot.

As for taking the easy way out in small things, which in the WW appears to have no consequences either intended or unintended, I don't see any moral lesson for the characters or the readers, who are left to draw their own conclusions. (In real life, cheating often does have consequences: plagiarism can get you expelled and cheating on your income tax can land you in prison. But breaking the rules or the law doesn't seem to mean much in JKR's world. Even McGonagall (and apparently Molly) ends up casting an Unforgiveable Curse. Morally right and legally right are clearly not the same in JKR's view. And yet Harry ends up, if we accept interviews as canon, as the head of Magical Law Enforcement. What does it all mean? How can we fit it all together?

Carol, who does believe in doing the right thing regardless of consequences