Okay, clarifying: Harry is perfectly good at empathy, as long as the person he's being empathetic towards already reminds Harry of himself. Which actually isn't all that great in the empathy stakes. When it comes to Snape or Draco - or even, hell, Luna, before the bonding over death - people he doesn't get, he absolutely has no idea where they're coming from. I don't read Harry as being empathetic at all - look at his stunned response when Cho or Draco is crying, he seems unable to even think about their motives and emotions.
Draco, on the other hand, seems to have far more empathy. I think this is a perfectly natural product of their upbringing: Harry hates the people he was brought up by and isn't at all like them, and thus thinks of people he doesn't understand as people he does not wish to analyse, merely dismiss.
Draco loves the father who brought him up and who he doesn't appear to be like, and so he's been able to develop more empathy. He shows understanding of Harry (the comment about wanting revenge in PoA), understanding of Snape, who he's not much like either, and understanding of Hagrid, three very different personality types. He doesn't use the empathy for much besides knowing quite accurately how to needle people, but I think it's definitely there.
And as I've said, since I read him as feeling extremely guilty over Ron and Katie in a way Harry just doesn't about him (not that I'm arguing Draco was innocent as Ron and Katie are), his behaviour seems to indicate he found it easy to put himself in their place. So the empathy seems to have come in handy, after all.
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Re: butting in to interesting conversation
Date: 2006-11-21 03:11 pm (UTC)Draco, on the other hand, seems to have far more empathy. I think this is a perfectly natural product of their upbringing: Harry hates the people he was brought up by and isn't at all like them, and thus thinks of people he doesn't understand as people he does not wish to analyse, merely dismiss.
Draco loves the father who brought him up and who he doesn't appear to be like, and so he's been able to develop more empathy. He shows understanding of Harry (the comment about wanting revenge in PoA), understanding of Snape, who he's not much like either, and understanding of Hagrid, three very different personality types. He doesn't use the empathy for much besides knowing quite accurately how to needle people, but I think it's definitely there.
And as I've said, since I read him as feeling extremely guilty over Ron and Katie in a way Harry just doesn't about him (not that I'm arguing Draco was innocent as Ron and Katie are), his behaviour seems to indicate he found it easy to put himself in their place. So the empathy seems to have come in handy, after all.