Is Draco Malfoy to be blamed?

Majority of us think that Draco Malfoy is an evil character. And we can see evidence of that in the books as well.

I know that girls like Draco because Tom Felton plays him in the movies. Let's forget about Tom Felton and his good looks for a moment and lets think about the character - Draco.

Draco Malfoy has lived a very sheltered life. Everything has been handed to him on a silver platter. Moreover, he has been constantly been exposed to the idea by his parents that "Pure bloods" are the only wizards worth knowing. He is a self-centered and egoistic boy who loves being at the center of everyone's attention. Hence, he goes green with envy whenever Harry comes into the picture. Harry is also a better Quidditch Player which further fuels Malfoy's hatred for him.

He detests Hermione as she is a Muggle and is a better student. As we remember from COS, Lucius scolds Draco for getting lower marks than Hermione. From here we get the indication that Draco is a good student and is very eager to please his father. That is one positive trait we see in him.

From the time he was very small, he has developed a prejudice against half-bloods and mudbloods. But, as we know, this has been propelled by his father who is a Death Eater and his Mother who is also a pure-blood fanatic.

After all, parents do play a very important role in our upbringing. Its questionable if Draco is really to be blamed for his ideas.

What do you guys think?

i agree with what u say , mystica . but we still can't help hating him?

but he is not the only one to be blamed . he has been spoiled by his parents . he has inherited his parents' traits . its their influence which has made malfoy so bad .

As I was reading book 5, I felt that Draco might join Harry in the fight against Dark Lord. All the house members except Slytherin were present in DA.

But in the end, Harry gets his dad arrested... obviously he will hate Harry even more now.....

I feel Draco has more role to play other than just making life difficult for Harry.

Hmmm... as far as blaming Draco is concerned, I donno if Draco has to be blamed or not... Might be, he alone cannot be blamed...

well i agree that draco is spoit by his parents who always kept telling him that there r only pure bloods who r good and the rest r bad......... but as in the first book he hated harry cause he was with ron and hermione but he wanted harry as a friend..........

i think that draco is not 2 be blamed coz it's his parents who kept on telling him that the mudbloods and the halfbloods r bad

so i don't think that draco is 2 be blamed

That's true Mish...we cant help hating him. And you're absolutely right, Mona...Draco will hate Harry even more for sending his father to Azkaban.

On the one hand, we could argue that Draco is to be blamed as he made the choice to join Slytherin, he made the choice to be a bigot by following in his father's footsteps...

As Dumbledore said, "It is our choices that matter, far more than our abilities".

Another good example would be Sirius whose family was immersed in the Dark Arts, but he still turned out OK. Or even Snape, who still works for Dumbledore. They made the choice to work against Voldemort in spite of having similar backgrounds to Draco.

On the other hand, we could also say that Draco can't be blamed as he is a weak character and needed guidance from day one. Perhaps he would have been better if his parents had been different.

However, I personally feel that Draco is to be blamed as he made his own choices; he never questioned if his parents were right or wrong.

well i think that draco has 2 be blamed and is not ........... i am preety confused........