Cedric, Snape and carma was re: Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban

pippin_999 foxmoth at qnet.com
Mon Jun 27 23:05:04 UTC 2011


No: HPFGUIDX 190657

 
> Alla:
> 
> And here we are going back to my original disagreement. Here IMO you are again taking Snape's free will away from him. Sirius is putting Snape in the double bind?
> 
> Who is Snape here a Zombie? He cant think for himself at all? I do not even give Harry a pass for going to a duel with Draco, where IMO Harry spent significantly less time before that "challenge" wanting to go there, if at all, sorry Snape gets no cookie.

Pippin:
But that's the beauty of a double bind from the instigator's point of view. It doesn't matter whether the victim would like to comply with the demand or not, because it is impossible and the victim is not in a position to negotiate for better terms. 

The wikipedia example is a boss who gives you an assignment but doesn't give you enough time to do it. If you are in a position where you cannot communicate this contradiction to your boss, for example because you know he'll fire you for asking questions, that's a double bind.  

Snape has been given a demand: ie, enter the willow, but his social superior Sirius is withholding critical information which makes the task impossible; he knows exactly what's down there and Snape does not. Snape knows it would be useless to ask Sirius for this information and humiliating to refuse the demand. That's a double bind. 

That Snape himself would have  liked to enter the willow and find out what's down there stopped being relevant when Sirius introduced a consequence for not acting on the information he gave Snape. The consequence, like the demand itself,  is implied rather than stated; Snape will be humiliated as a coward.

Alla:
 Most importantly because I do not see an evidence that Sirius would have told the whole school. I mean, he would tell the whole school about Lupin and who he is? 

Pippin:
No, the Marauders are just going to tell everyone what a coward Snape is, make Whomping Willow noises whenever Snape goes past, and generally behave the way Draco behaved to Harry about the dementors. Maybe Sirius will throw in a few werewolf howls for good measure, after all, everyone thinks Snape's theory about Lupin is a joke. (I can sympathize with this, LOL). 

And of course if the staff hears there's a  rumor about a werewolf being under the willow, Lupin's hiding place will be changed, and there won't be anything for Snape to discover anymore. He can swear all he likes that he saw Lupin going out there, and no one will believe him. 

Pippin





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