When Dumbldore is temporarily removed, Ron laments that he was their only hope. I'm sure that Ron assumes that Dumbledore, leading the rest of the competent wizard faculty and staff, was working, unbeknownst to the students, to solve the mystery and save the muggle borns and all that. They have all the resources and knowledge that Harry and Co spend the whole book trying to get. We see that they are preparing the cure for the petrifications. Otherwise, we don't actually see them Professer D and the rest doing anything about the attacks, except making sure everyone avoids walking alone.
Then, when the mystery becomes a real tragedy and Ginny is taken into the Chamber. The teachers all drop any attempt to actually save her in order to get their (long merited) revenge on Lockheart for being an all-talk poser. If they wanted to make a fool of him by sending him into a danger he was terrified of, but wasn't actually life threatening, that would be one thing. But they send him to accomplish a task they know he is perfectly incapable of, when a girl's life is at stake, just because they have grown tired of his bragging. At that point, I can no longer believe that they have been doing anything but reacting to the events. If that is their plan, no wonder Ginny and Tom weren't caught before.
Someone tell me how I am supposed to think of any of the teachers as anything but immature cowards? Are they all terrified because the headmaster isn't around?
I can't think of an explanation that doesn't reflect poorly on the teachers Rowling clearly wants me to at least respect. The other explanation doesn't reflect very well on Rowling herself. She really wanted Lockheart to go down into the chamber with them (he makes great comic relief) and couldn't, or didn't think of another way that would be consistent with the teacher's characters. It might have been okay for Snape, assuming he is truly a heartless villain who wants Ginny dead. But it makes no sense for the rest of them to agree to it, unless they are less intelligent than Ron, who can see through Lockheart's bragging.
Very good point Karen! And something I failed to notice, certainly as kid and even as a teenager. For the sake of being charitable, I'll assume your final explanation is correct. sending Lockhart down into the chamber allows Rowling to bring about a sort of justice on him (as well as the comic relief). My guess is that was her primary motivation. I doubt that she was thinking about the character of the teachers at all. Perhaps the moral equivalent of a plot hole?
ReplyDeleteI think you will encounter this sort of thing regularly as you continue to read. The older I get, the more I begin to feel (and this is a not-so-charitable comment) that Rowling is often messing with ideas that maybe she doesn't fully understand. Or maybe that she cannot fully execute in a children's series. We expect these books to have a sort of moral value, especially since they are children's books. But Rowling often seems caught between the world of children's lit and adult literature. Of course this could blow open a huge discussion over what constitutes children's lit or adult lit (in my mysteries class, we spent a whole day debating the definition of a mystery novel).
I think my main response to this is, as a reader, I'm pretty willing to take these stories on the author's terms. If, perhaps, the teachers do something out of keeping with what they are supposed to be, I kind of let it go. I know Rowling intends me to respect them (for the most part) and so I dismiss evidence to the contrary, the reason being that I enjoy the other aspects of the story enough that it seems worth it. In fact, there have been very few books that I have NOT had to do this for *coughJaneEyrecough*
Just my two cents.
I don't agree. In the teachers conference they were trying to deal with the problem and Lockhart (who has been a nuisance all year) came in and they brushed him off (a little bit mean perhaps, but hey). I don't think they actually intended for him to go into the chamber, that was Ron and Harry.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is why Ron and Harry went to Lockhart instead of Flitwick or McGonagall.
I would have assumed that they were just trying to get Lockheart to run away, except that they don't make any move to send someone who would really be a threat into the chamber. I refuse to believe that they meant Ron and Harry to go. The boys themselves seem to have taken Lockheart seriously as the teacher's choice for snake battling hero.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that they would at least tell what they know to McGonagall. But then, a irrational reluctance to tell adults anything is part of their character.