Class Discussion: The History of Draco Malfoy- Closing June 15th

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Class Discussion: The History of Draco Malfoy

To kick off the first of discussions for this term we will be discussing Draco Malfoy, paying close attention to his actions surrounding the Final Battle. Is Malfoy a criminal who got away, or is he truly reformed? Let's examine his past, present and future history.

This class will be worth up to 100 pts, but top marks require lots of participation and well thought out posts. Let the discussion begin. Lets start with the Malfoy family, was Draco a product of his envoirnment, or was he a willing participant in his family's muggle hating ways?

I think Draco was a product of his enviroment. But I think we all are. He grew up from a very young age hearing that Voldemort was good and muggles and muggle-borns were bad and not worthy. In a way, I think he was brainwashed because he had never heard anything else or any other opinions or views. His father's words were law. When things got serious, I think that Draco learned that this isn't what he's supposed to be doing. He got in too deep, too fast. He had no way out and I think he paniced. I do think that he wouldn't have killled Dumbledore and after all he is just a kid.

"I really don’t think they should let the other sort in, do you? They’re just not the same, they’ve never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families."
—Draco to Harry Potter before their first year at Hogwarts

This sounds almost like regurgitated information. I agree with Katie in thinking that Draco Malfoy was a product of his environment, and that he was probably almost "brainwashed" from a young age to think the way that he did. What he told Harry was simply what he'd been hearing for years and years and simply assumed to be true, because the world he lived in that supported those views was very comfortable and easy. He had no reason to doubt that there was wrong behind those words. His whole-hearted belief in those views, which were held by most Slytherins, probably contributed to the speed with which he was sorted into Slytherin House.

He learned from his family to support Voldemort, but lay low about the matter so as to not get in trouble with the Ministry. Well, he did this and his easy life continued. Nothing was wrong with what he believed, yet. Probably one of the first up close instances he had of anyone actually disliking his point of view was when Harry Potter refused to be his friend because of the way he treated Ron Weasley. The first seed of doubt that the views he had believed so thoroughly might not be appreciated by everyone, and therefore not on-the-whole-right, had probably been shown to Draco in that moment.

In his fourth year, his parents were apart of the group that tortured the muggles. This did not surprise him, as he believed Muggles are scum. However, I think he was probably shaken up when the Dark Mark appeared, and he and his parents had to flee. Yet another sign to him of the dangerousness of his situation. Later that year, when he mocked Harry for siding against Voldemort (he had been taught to believe he was invincible, after all) and making fun of Cedric Diggory, he was heavily cursed. When he awoke, had another reason to think twice about his beliefs been implanted in him?

There are many other instances that I think, as they began to build up, resulted in Draco's hesitance at the end to side 100% with the Dark Lord, and worry more about others...okay, mostly himself. But I'll pass on the floor to someone else.

I agree with Rachel in her thinking that Draco started to doubt his parents beleifs when he arrived at Hogwarts and realized that no everybody beleived what his father did. In fact, some people thought his father was wrong. However, he knew nothing else so he was in a way forced to behave like he did. He had heard that the Weasley's were blood traitors and poor, which was unacceptable in his father's mind. Now that someone even more well-known than his father was siding with a Weasley, that must of been both confusing and enraging.

I say enraging because he was treated like a little prince. I have not mentioned his mother's role until now. His mother trated him like royality and everything he did was right, not matter what. I wouldn't be surprized if his mother never scolded him or told him to stop doing what he wanted. And now he's here and Harry Potter is telling him to stop. I bet he was thinking "How dare he." Nobody, besides possibly his father, has ever told him that.

In my opinion, it is probable that Draco Malfoy was by and large made into a willing participant by his environment. Of course he was brought up to believe in the superiority of purebloods, the inferiority of muggles and the ignobility of muggleborns, and there was no way around being brainwashed up until he started school. He was constantly around his family, being taught their view of the wizarding world and their support to Voldemort, and when he wasn't with his mother or father, he was presumably spending time with other members of the 'pureblood society', who either shared the same opinion or where just as well brought up to do so. He had not a single reason to doubt what people told him, not when all those he knew where pure-blooded, well-off and seemingly very content with their lives. Why would he question their lifestyle if it obviously meant quite much the perfect life?

Even when he met Harry Potter and was rejected because of his values, was there an actual reason to bother? That boy was the arch enemy of the person he, Malfoy, had learned to value, so why query anything? So what if rejection was something new for him? He could put himself at ease by concentrating on the fact that this new behaviour came towards him from someone he was expected to loath anyway, and from a bunch of muggleborns and blood-traitors. It might have bothered him to be rejected, but it wouldn't make him doubt all his li the final battle and in the epilogue of DH is an instinct that always seemed to be deeply seated within his charactfe was based upon.

But I do agree that when he arrived at Hogwarts, things started to be different, it wasn't as easy to put off the idea that there was another way of thinking. On top of other things mentioned by Rachel and Katie, there was the offending intelligence of Hermione Granger. It seems Draco always was eager to be the best at what he did, and now someone who was not only a Gryffindor, not only a girl, but on top of it all a muggleborn one beat him to that in very much each and every class. And a hideous boy, pampered by the wizarding world for having sheer luck, made a fool out of him by beating him in match after macth of Quidditch.

This overpowering, combined with the situations given by Rachel and Katie, might in the end very well have changed the way Draco Malfoy perceived the wizarding world. I do not think that he would be keen on befriending a muggleborn or even a muggle after his time at Hogwarts, but I do think that he does not hate them just as much as he did before. Now his prevalent emotion towards them might very well be indifference, maybe even a normal amount of respect. But it is also easily possible that the mainspring of his newly found behaviour displayed iner: The will to live the most comfortable and pleasant life possible, without taking a risk to die rather soon.

After reading what Gemma wrote, I happen to agree with most of her points. However, I think that Draco stayed with the path his parent's laid for him more out of fear than anything else. Maybe that fear was selfish, he wanted to be successful and safe, not to mention wealthy. He fearful of not being important, or popular. I think he was scared of what his father would think. He had been raised to be superior and therefore, wanted to excersize that to show his father, that he was a good kid, and deserved everything he ever got. Or maybe he was fearful of his mother. That she wouldn't love him the way she did if he stopped beleiving in the things her family held dear.

Most importantly, I think he was afraid of himself. He was afraid of not living up to the standards he had set for himself: to be important, well-known, well-liked. I think he felt the only way to have a good life would be to join Voldemort, the wizard who made his father important, the wizard his father respected so much. The wizard everyone regarded to be so powerful. And maybe he felt that if he was with someone so powerful, he would be regarded as powerful too.

I believe that Draco at first listened to his parents and believed everything that they had told him beacuse that was all that he was taught. HE was taught that the Dark Lord was a powerful wizard and whomever followed him would someday would rule the wizarding and muggle world with him. He was surrounding by Death Eaters and purebloods who didnt tell him otherwise so he knew not of what else there was.

Then he came to school and like everyone else said he saw that not eveyone followed his own believes. This was probably was when he was having seconds thoughts but still he followed what his father and motehr said. As the series continue we see that he is having trouble with seeing things the same way as his father and in the last book we see, I believe, that he finally decides that his past life is not the life worth living and he decides not to follow the Dark Lord.

I have to disagree with you on one point, stephy!

While you seem to be of the same opinion as me in general, I do doubt that he decides in the last book that his past life is not worth living and that he won't follow the Dark Lord any longer, as you put it. I rather consider this act of his a cowardly way to rescue his life instead of dying for his cause. In a way, this shows that he is not anywhere near certain about his believes but actually does not care about them enough to die for the greater good, as is a major subject of the seventh book. This makes him the character who, in a mass of people giving their life for their believes and causes, their greater goods, shows what happens if you do not really believe in that cause and are not sacrificing your life to it. To me this means that as he is not willing to give his existence up for the Dark Lord, he is not a truely evil person but just a boy lost in the maze of opinions and believes of the wizarding world, through which his parents failed to lead him securely.

Of course, this does not decide whether he is reformed or just a criminal person gotten away, but if he has never been evil, there is possibly not a need for him to be reformed, but rather to be guided safely to a path he could continue on without danger, however nobody should constrain hm to chose a specific secure path, as that is his personal decision still to be made reasonably uninfluenced by those surrounding him. If he then chose a path not absolutely dark and evil, in my opinion he would not be a criminal gotten away but simply a selfish, careless boy with his own interests.

Draco Malfoy was as he was raised to be. He was raised to believe muggleborns were less than him. He was raised to believe the Dark Lord was all powerful. Once he got into school little by little he did realize that it all wasn't true. The only reason I believed he ever kept his dark act was out of fear. His family was too far in with Voldemort to just run away. Draco was only attempting to kill Dumbledore to protect his family. I never did think of Draco as evil, just as another misguided youth.

Also I used to believe he did certain things out of the fear of his father. I used to always see Lucius as abusive. I mean haven't any of you think he flinched when his father would barely touch him with his cane? Now I am not too sure because he seems a bit of a wimp, but then again he did helplessly kill muggles. Who is to say he wasn't abusive? (Nancy don't hurt me XD)

Of course you may never know whether Lucius Malfoy is a father abusing his son, but I do doubt it as we do not find many clues pointing towards this opinion. Also, the end of book seven with the Malfoy family being - as far as I remember - kind of united at their own table shows that obviously, Draco does not feel the need to get away from his father. But even if we would say that he was indeed abused, I do not think this would influence my point of view too much, as he still seems to change slightly throughout the course of the book. Oh, and one of the things you said also makes me think he was not abused: He might be trying to kill Dumbledore in order to protect his family, and given that this is true, why would he protect an abusive father and a mother probably standing by this father's side and doing nothing to help her son?

I believe that Draco was both influenced by his Muggle-hating parents and already had a small bit in him that already despised Muggles. That small bit was in there because he came from a long line of Muggle-haters. The influence was that he was never given the chance to be with Muggles and he didn't know what they really were and so he thought, as his parents may probably have been saying, he was superior over them.

Aside from that, like what everybody has already said, he was probably driven to hate Muggles because they were proving that their blood isn't mud. The little bit probably "grew" and made him hate Muggles as time passed.

The thing is, he never got around to killing anyone because he couldn't bear to do so. He was a good boy damaged by his father, whom I believe to be an abusive father.

Because Draco isn't evil, he probably sometimes questioned his parents' Muggle-hating ways, reasoning out that they were just the same and such. Because of that, Lucius probably punished Draco for not believing what he "should" be believing.

I believe that Draco was a product of his enviroment. He was brought up to belive that purebloods were better and so that is what he thinks. I also believe that by the time he was starting Hogwarts, he had begun to doubt these narrowminded views. He uses them to insult muggleborns only when he has been embassesed or had his pride injured. He simply uses this as an insult because he cannot think of anything else to say. He desperatly seeks approval, and when the rest of his house praise him for these views, he keeps them.

I feel Draco was a product of his enviroment. His mother probally only let this happen to her son because her hsband stood for it, and so did "Aunty Bella" We saw her keep Harry alive in the seventh book. So, yeah, for the first 10-15 years of his life, he just wnet with his parents views.
Then he turned 16. He got the dark mark burned into his arm, and he acted cocky and even snobier than before. That, I feel, was his own choice.

This class is closed, points are as awarded:

Gryffindor:

KatieBellaTrix- 45 points

Hufflepuff:

Just_Ginny- 30 pts

Ravenclaw:

stephy- 20 pts
Alice Cullen- 20 pts

Slytherin:

Gemma_Cullen-Malfoy- 55 pts
drkangelcat- 20 pts
Dragonflydare- 20 pts
Kathrineeeanne- 20 pts

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