Sadism or not ? McGonagall and her punishments

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 186638

> Alla:
> When I said it was wrong of [McGonagall], but she felt she had to, I did not mean that her inner nature was calling to her, or something like that. I meant that she may have felt that she had no choice as a teacher. Surely we can agree that even best teachers sometimes have these problems of students misbehaving? I would be very surprised if even Sprout escaped it through years, good as she is.
>
> So what is Hogwarts teacher to do if she needs to give punishment? I do not know how they assign detentions, but I am thinking whatever needs to be done in school at the moment (unless you are Umbridge or Snape in my view).
>
Montavilla47:
Hmm.  I seem to remember that Harry was assigned detention to 
help address Lockhart's fan mail responses.  I doubt that that was 
something that needed to be done for the school.  

Which made me realize something interesting.  McGonagall's 
detentions are almost never served with her, but always with 
another member of the staff.  That's pretty sneaky of her, since 
whatever resentment the kids are going to feel is going to be at
someone else.


Alla:
> So when I say " it was wrong of her", I did not actually mean that for all of her punishments, I meant that sometimes for all I know in some situations her heart may go out to the student, but she still feels that she has to punish it to make sure or try to make sure student will not do it again. When I say it is wrong of her to embarrass Neville in front of the class, I say it is wrong, period.
>

Montavilla47:
What I see hear is that you are projecting feeling onto McGonagall.  We 
don't know what she's feeling.  Nor do we know what Snape is smirking
about (although, I'd say we have more clues about his state of mind
after reading through the books than we have about McGonagall.)

Alla: 
> But while I do not like password punishment at all, I really do not think that she should have let this one go, woudn't you agree? There is of course the irony that password was stolen from Neville and she is wrong in the first place.
> 
> Or when she caught trio off the grounds, she could not just let it go, no? If she knew that Unicorns were killed and let them go, she should be fired, but what if indeed she did not. To me under this condition this punishment really does not look extraordinary under Hogwarts standard.
> 

Montavilla47:

Right, because we see that the punishments at Hogwarts range
from the boring and frustrating (writing addresses or rewriting cards)
to the dangerous (going into the Forbidden Forest) to physical injury
(Umbridge's lines and Filch's thumbscrews).

Now, we know the thumbscrews and whips, which were once 
allowed, are not under Dumbledore.  And we know that Ron (a fair
gauge, I think, of wizarding perspective) felt Umbridge's lines were 
over the line in terms of punishment.

But, social ostracism (Neville forbidden to know the passwords to
the common room), physical danger (the trips to the Forbidden 
Forest), and emotional duress (Harry having to read about his father's
misdeeds or Neville having to disembowel horned toads) is par for
the course.