I don't have great faith in JKR, but that would be a wonderful gift in Book 7, to get a real reason as to why Dumbledore "iron-clad" trusts Snape.
And yeah, i think it's definitely a complicated issue -- that Riddle had horrible things happen to him growing up, but Harry is proof that one can still be a good person after that, and certainly Riddle's circumstances don't justify the horrible things he does.
And having read the whole book, i think Dumbledore does want Harry to understand the factors that drove Riddle, both his personality and his circumstances. Reading that moment at the time, i felt almost like Dumbledore was reproaching Harry for his pity, which felt off to me, but having Dumbledore be making Harry aware of his reactions is definitely a good thing -- knowing how you're inclined to react to situations/people/arguments is a good way to defend against them.
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Date: 2005-07-24 03:54 pm (UTC)And yeah, i think it's definitely a complicated issue -- that Riddle had horrible things happen to him growing up, but Harry is proof that one can still be a good person after that, and certainly Riddle's circumstances don't justify the horrible things he does.
And having read the whole book, i think Dumbledore does want Harry to understand the factors that drove Riddle, both his personality and his circumstances. Reading that moment at the time, i felt almost like Dumbledore was reproaching Harry for his pity, which felt off to me, but having Dumbledore be making Harry aware of his reactions is definitely a good thing -- knowing how you're inclined to react to situations/people/arguments is a good way to defend against them.