CHAPTER DISCUSSION PS/SS 8, THE POTIONS MASTER

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188267



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jelly92784" <jelly92784 at ...> wrote:
>
> Marianne:
> For some reason it surprises me that Dumbledore, at times, calls the teachers by
> their first names in front of the students. Severus, Minerva, Sybil Trawlney,
> Argus Filch. Madam Pomfrey. Is it Poppy???? Are there any other names that I
> can't think of? I'm going by what I can remember right off the bat. Sorry.
> I'm butchering the spelling of some of the names.
> 
> Janelle:
> That's an interesting point.  I know that he does this in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione (and possibly the other Weasleys, too), but do we see him address any teachers by first names in front of other students?  Maybe it's because he has a bigger relationship with the trio than merely teacher and student and he considers them to be closer to an equal level with him than the other students?
>
Carol responds:
Although he apparently expects the students to refer to the teachers as "Professor Snape," etc., and generally but not always refers to them in the third person by their titles (at least when he's addressing Harry--the chief exception being the references to "Severus" when he's desperately weak from the cave potion), Dumbledore himself addresses almost everyone, adult, student, or portrait, by first names--not only Snape and McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey but Petunia Dursley and Fenrir Greyback and the Carrows and Fudge. I suppose it's the privilege of the very old to be on a first-name basis with just about everyone.

Carol, wondering if this tendency is part of DD's superiority complex since it clearly doesn't reflect his affection or lack of it toward the person addressed