Hello, I'm back from the dead. Well, not really. But it seems like it doesn't it? Like I said, I've been focusing more on school work, so sorry.
Anyway, I know I said that I wouldn't be posting or writing anything new, and that's still true. Yes, I am posting now, but I didn't write this for fanfiction. I wrote it as an article for my media assignment, and decided to post it after I finished typing.
You know how people say that when you study Psychology, you start to analyse all your friends? Well that's not true for me. I'm a fangirl, so I analyse characters instead. It's fun! I made a Prezi one on Maximum Ride for psych class last year. Now I'm doing Draco. I guess this doesn't really count as 'fanfiction', but whatever.
When most people hear the name 'Draco Malfoy', the image the first comes to mind is that of a nasty, spoiled and privileged bully who enjoys tormenting Harry Potter and his friends for fun. While this is true of Draco, what most people fail to realise is that there is a whole other layer to his personality.
Draco Malfoy is the pure-blooded son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. During his childhood, he led a highly privileged life and got anything he wanted without question. This caused him to be self-centred, impatient and selfish. He was raised to have the same racist beliefs of his Death-eater parents, that Pure-blooded wizards were better and more important than Half-blood or Muggle-born wizards. He despises anyone who does not have pure blood status, or is a 'blood traitor' simply because of the racist prejudice he was taught from a young age. Draco is very much a racist, a bully and a bad person in many ways, but is there actually a reason for this?
Psychologically speaking, yes, there is a reason for Draco's negative behaviour and traits.
One of the main theories in psychology is known as the Humanistic Theory, which first proposed in the mid-20th century, largely by an American psychologist named Carl Rogers.
The theory states that 'all humans are born good' and that negative or unpleasant qualities and behaviours are learned later in life. This also draws largely on the idea of 'Nature vs Nurture'.
Growing up, Draco would have witnessed his parents treating other people or certain groups of other people, such as half-blood or Muggle-born people, or even those who had a lower economic or social standing than that of the rich and influential Malfoy family negatively. A small child would have watched his parents behaving in this way and taken it as an example of how he himself should behave. This idea of the 'proper behaviour' would have been further re-enforced when he was praised and encouraged for his actions. All his life, he believed that treating others like something dirty he had stepped in was normal and he acted accordingly.
When he arrived at Hogwarts, he was sorted in to Slytherin house, which traditionally had a heavy emphasis on pure-blood supremacy and other traditional, but now mostly outdated, wizarding beliefs and values. Here, he was surrounded with other children, many of them who were also very rich, that possessed that same views on blood status.
As Draco gets older, he seems to grow up and realise the consequences of some of his actions.
Towards the end of the sixth book, 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince', it is revealed that Draco was given a task by Lord Voldemort, a mission to murder Professor Albus Dumbledore. Draco works on planning and preparing for this action throughout the novel, seemingly without question. But when the time comes to actually kill the headmaster, Draco is unable to perform the spell. He hesitates and ends up trying to convince himself that he is not just doing it to prevent Voldemort from killing his parents, but because he wants to do it. Ultimately, he is unable to murder the older wizard.
While never being actual friends with Harry, towards the end of the final novel, Draco seems to warm up to Harry, Ron and Hermione. When the trio is captured by the snatchers and taken to the Malfoy Manor, Draco is asked to identify a beat-up Harry and lies to his parents, when he says that the boy is not Harry Potter, effectively saving Harry's life.
If Draco had been raised differently, it is very likely that he would have had a different personality.
But some people may argue that Sirius Black had a similar upbringing, and he turned out fine. While it is true that Black's childhood was in fact similar to Draco's, this does not change anything. Firstly, every person reacts and deals with things differently, and not everyone's behaviour is easily influenced by that of their parents. Secondly, while the two pure-bloods had very similar childhoods, there were some key differences. Sirius Black was sorted into Gryffindor house during his school years. This meant that unlike Draco, Black had some positive role-models to look up to who had more modern views on blood status and was not constantly surrounded by negativity and racism.
In the end, Draco is not a very good person most of the time. He sometimes had good moments, but is usually a jerk. But this is not entirely his fault. He is, of course, partly to blame for his actions- after all, Draco has free will- but Lucius and Narcissa must also take responsibility for the things they taught their child from a young age.