The Corruption of the House System

[terri_testing]

A funny thing happened on the way to Harry’s sorting. The reputations of the houses got terminally messed with, and even those of us who eventually prided ourselves on objecting to the distortion never fingered either the culprit or the timing of the crime.

Comments

[mary_j_59]

Great essay! But, do you know, I half-wonder if you aren't trying to find some consistency in the books that isn't actually there?

For one thing, I have never really understood, any more than Jodel on the Red Hen website, why the "pureblood" house should also be the house of ambition? Nor do I understand why ambition is connected with water which connects to open emotionality.

It does seem likely that Dumbledore made the tension between Slytherin and Gryffindor worse than it already was. And I got very bugged that we never really heard what the quarrel between Slytherin and Gryffindor actually was - we're led to believe that it was Slytherin's pureblood agenda, but do we really know? I got even more bugged that the rift between Slytherin and Gryffindor was never healed in the final book. If anything, in spite of Severus's sacrifices, it seems to have gotten worse. And that, too, is largely Dumbledore's fault, I think, since he did so little to curb Tom when he had the chance.

Dumbledore as a Slytherin who has very mixed feelings about his Slytherin qualities makes a lot of sense, though. I think it explains a lot of his actions, but doesn't excuse them. He has a lot to answer for, IMHO.

[oryx_leucoryx]

For one thing, I have never really understood, any more than Jodel on the Red Hen website, why the "pureblood" house should also be the house of ambition?

Not just the specific connection between those two views makes no sense but neither does the idea that a House more likely to have people with political aspirations would cling so visibly to ideas that are supposedly no longer in vogue in society at large. Or perhaps they aren't - but if everyone is making a show of distancing themselves from pureblood isolationism for political expediency then surely the ambitious ones who seek to reach positions of leadership would do so too?