Does the Sorting Hat sort too early? | Wizarding World

Does the Sorting Hat sort too early?

分院帽分院太早了吗?

 

The first thing that happens when you arrive at Hogwarts is you find out which house you belong to. But as Albus Dumbledore once pondered, are students sorted too early? Two writers make the case for and against.你到达霍格沃茨后的第一件事就是弄清楚你属于哪个学院。但就像阿不思·邓布利多曾经想过的那样，给学生分类是不是太早了?两名作者提出了支持和反对的理由。

 

Yes, the Sorting Hat sorts too early

是的，分院帽分院太早了

‘And are you tempted to join him?’

‘No,’ said Snape, his black eyes on Fleur and Roger’s retreating figures. ‘I am not such a coward.’

‘No,’ agreed Dumbledore. ‘You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff. You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon …’
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“你也想和他一起去吗?””
“没有。”斯内普说，他的黑眼睛盯着芙蓉和罗杰远去的身影。“我不是这样一个懦夫。”
“没有,”邓布利多。“你比伊戈尔·卡卡洛夫勇敢得多。你知道，我有时觉得我们的分院太早了……”
《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》

Dumbledore said it himself to Snape when he highlights how brave he has been, perhaps suggesting Snape could’ve been a Gryffindor in another lifetime. And it is true that there are certain Hogwarts students who turned out to be very different people than first impressions let on. The Sorting Hat uses a degree of Legilimency when it decides a student’s Hogwarts house, but surely it can’t know everything when looking into someone’s head. Peoples’ heads are complicated! Especially when they are so young.

当邓布利多强调斯内普是多么勇敢时，他自己对斯内普说了这句话，也许是在暗示斯内普下辈子也可能是格兰芬多的一员。的确，霍格沃茨有一些学生和他们的第一印象大不相同。分院帽在决定学生的霍格沃茨学院时，会使用某种程度的摄神取念术，但当它观察一个人的大脑时，它肯定不可能知道所有的事情。人们的头脑是复杂的!尤其是当他们这么年轻的时候。

 

The best example to consider is Peter Pettigrew – who was sorted into Gryffindor and ended up befriending James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. But even when we dip into an old memory – Peter seems out of place, always following the others around, more of a parasite than a friend. And yet he was in the house of chivalry, where ‘dwell the brave at heart’? You could argue that he was brave in the sense he betrayed his friends and took Lord Voldemort’s side. But that feels determined more so than chivalrous... the trait more naturally attributed to a Slytherin.

最好的例子就是小矮星彼得——他被分到格兰芬多，最后成了詹姆斯·波特、小天狼星布莱克和莱姆斯·卢平的好朋友。但即使我们回忆起过去，彼得似乎也不太合适，他总是跟着其他人，与其说是朋友，不如说是寄生虫。然而他是在骑士精神的殿堂里，哪里才有“内心的勇敢”呢?你可以说他很勇敢，因为他背叛了朋友，站在伏地魔一边。但这感觉更坚定，而不是骑士风度……这个特征更自然地归属于斯莱特林。

 

This is not to say all ‘bad’ wizards and witches should immediately go to Slytherin, though. Although the likes of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were usually to be found in that house - is that because Tom Riddle, a cunning Slytherin, simply led the others astray? Even though founder Salazar Slytherin permeated his house with so much of himself and his own views – he was still only one person – and there are so many Slytherins that didn’t share his mindset. Even Draco Malfoy, who was taught to embody the values of Salazar in his youth, showed a more compassionate and softer side in his later years – and his son, Scorpius, was notably kind and hyper-intelligent – far more a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw on paper than a Slytherin. Is this an instance of the Sorting Hat simply assuming the son of Draco Malfoy would be just like him? Because it more feels like Scorpius represents a different side of Draco that got lost, due to all the pure-blood standards Lucius Malfoy was stamping into him as a child.

不过，这并不是说所有的坏巫师都应该立刻去斯莱特林。虽然那所房子里经常能找到伏地魔和他的食死徒之类的人——难道是因为狡猾的斯莱特林的汤姆·里德尔把其他人引入歧途了吗?创始人萨拉查•斯莱特林把自己和自己的观点渗透到自己的房子里，但他仍然是一个人，而且有很多斯莱特林人与他的想法不同。即使是德拉科·马尔福，他在年轻时被教导要体现萨拉查的价值观，在晚年也表现出了更富有同情心和柔弱的一面，他的儿子斯科皮乌斯，显然是善良和超级聪明的，比起斯莱特林，他更像赫奇帕奇或拉文克劳的学生。这是分院帽认为德拉科·马尔福的儿子会和他一样的一个例子吗?因为感觉更像是天蝎座代表了迷失的德拉科的另一面，这是由于卢修斯·马尔福在他小时候强加给他的纯血统标准。

 

So, does a person’s influences affect which Hogwarts house they go to? Look at Regulus Black, Sirius’s brother – who showed great bravery towards the end of his life, making a choice to defy Lord Voldemort. Regulus started off just like many Black family members, as a Slytherin, and later on, as a Death Eater. But did the Sorting Hat foresee this – or did the Sorting Hat inadvertently end up carving this path out for him? Why did the Sorting Hat not see the same bravery in Regulus as he did in Sirius, who was placed in Gryffindor despite the odds? Had Regulus’s family simply instilled too many of Salazar’s values into him already, whereas Sirius seemed to have a far clearer viewpoint at a young age? But if the hat had seen the bravery in Regulus that he later showed – this could’ve ended up re-shaping Regulus’s life. Who knows – Regulus might’ve made different friends and never ended up a Death Eater. Look what the Sorting Hat did for Neville – it saw a fire in him that Neville was yet to see himself.

那么，一个人的影响力会影响他去哪个霍格沃茨学院吗?看看雷古勒斯·布莱克，小天狼星的哥哥，他在生命的最后时刻表现出了巨大的勇气，选择了对抗伏地魔。雷古勒斯和许多黑人家庭成员一样，一开始是斯莱特林，后来是食死徒。但是分院帽预见到了这一点，还是分院帽无意中为他开辟了一条道路?为什么分院帽在雷古勒斯身上没有看到小天狼星的勇气呢?小天狼星尽管运气很差，还是被分到格兰芬多。难道雷古勒斯的家人已经向他灌输了太多萨拉查的价值观，而小天狼星似乎在很小的时候就有一个清晰得多的观点?但如果帽子看到了雷古勒斯的勇敢，他后来展示的这可能最终会重塑雷古勒斯的生活。谁知道雷古勒斯可能交了不同的朋友，永远不会成为食死徒。看看分院帽给纳威带来了什么——它在纳威身上看到了一团火，纳威还没有看到自己。

 

It’s true that the Sorting Hat seems to see things in people others can’t – but at the end of the day, it is still just a hat with an opinion. And although it was right most of the time, even sentient objects can make mistakes.

的确，分院帽似乎能看到别人看不到的东西——但说到底，它仍然只是一顶有见解的帽子。尽管大多数时候它是正确的，但即使是有知觉的物体也会犯错。

 

No, the Sorting Hat doesn’t sort too early

不，分院帽不会太早分院

 

First things first, there have been a couple of occasions when the Sorting Hat has possibly made a mistake. The most obvious example would be Peter Pettigrew – who rather than demonstrating courage and chivalry, was weak with a real knack for self-preservation. You could say he probably should have been in Slytherin, but that is quite insulting to the many excellent students who are members of that house. However, out of all the witches and wizards who have passed through the corridors of Hogwarts, that is just one example of where the Sorting Hat may have made a mistake. He was the exception – not the rule. On the whole, the Sorting Hat has got it spot on.

首先，分院帽有几次可能犯了错误。最明显的例子是小矮星彼得，他没有表现出勇气和骑士精神，而是表现出了自我保护的能力。你可以说他应该在斯莱特林，但这是对该学院许多优秀学生的侮辱。然而，在所有穿过霍格沃茨走廊的男女巫师中，这只是分院帽可能犯错误的一个例子。他是个例外，不是普遍现象。总的来说，分院帽说对了。

 

Also, you need to remember that the Sorting Hat is one of the cleverest magical objects to exist within the wizarding world. It contains the intelligence of all four of the Hogwarts founders. Not only can it speak, but it can also use Legilimency to look inside the mind of the person who is wearing it to determine their capabilities. It can even respond to what the wearer is thinking and take their choices into consideration. This is what it did with Harry, changing its initial idea of placing him in Slytherin to Gryffindor. This is important because it shows that the Sorting Hat considers who you want to be too. It doesn’t just pluck a house out of nowhere, but really gets to grips with the person as a whole before making its decision.

另外，你需要记住分院帽是魔法世界中存在的最聪明的魔法物品之一。它包含了霍格沃茨四位创始人的智慧。它不仅会说话，还能用摄神取念看穿戴着它的人的内心来判断他们的能力。它甚至可以回应穿着者的想法，并考虑他们的选择。它就是这样对待哈利的，把最初把他分到斯莱特林的想法改成了格兰芬多。这一点很重要，因为它表明分院帽也会考虑你想成为什么样的人。它并不是凭空把房子拔出来，而是在做出决定之前真正地把人作为一个整体来考虑。

 

And while it is true that people can grow and change as they get older, and their personalities can evolve – you could say that the core of who you are and want to be remains the same. This is what the Sorting Hat looks for – even if the house it settles on doesn’t seem like the clearest choice at the time. It considers the different ways you can belong to a Hogwarts house, that don’t necessarily conform to the stereotypes, and judges which one you would make the best contribution to.

诚然，随着年龄的增长，人们会成长和改变，他们的个性也会进化——你可以说，你是谁以及你想成为谁的核心是不变的。这就是分院帽所寻找的——尽管它选择的那所学院在当时看来并不是最明智的选择。它会考虑你属于霍格沃茨学院的不同方式，这些方式不一定符合刻板印象，然后判断你对哪一种贡献最大。

 

The perfect example of this would be Neville Longbottom. There is the belief that Neville would have done better in Hufflepuff and that he didn’t have the necessary traits to belong in Gryffindor. Yet, that proved not to be the case, and the Sorting Hat knew that from Neville’s very first day at Hogwarts.

最完美的例子就是纳威·隆巴顿。有人认为纳威在赫奇帕奇会做得更好，而且他没有属于格兰芬多的必要品质。然而，事实证明并非如此，从纳威到霍格沃茨的第一天起，分院帽就知道了这一点。

 

When we first met Neville as a nervous first-year, he didn’t scream bold and daring Gryffindor. Nevertheless, by the end of the schoolyear he had already begun to demonstrate a courageous side – which only continued to grow. From the first time he stood up to Harry, Ron and Hermione in Philosopher’s Stone (which Dumbledore even said took a great deal of strength) to running the DA and keeping up the resistance during Harry’s absence in Deathly Hallows, he more than proved that he belonged there. In fact, he even pulled sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat – which could only be done by a true member of that house.

当我们第一次见到纳威时，他还是一个紧张的一年级学生，他并没有大胆地尖叫，并不是勇敢的格兰芬多人。然而，到了学年结束的时候，他已经开始表现出勇敢的一面，而且这种勇气还在不断增强。在《魔法石》(邓布利多甚至说这需要很大的勇气)中，他第一次对抗哈利、罗恩和赫敏，在哈利离开《死亡圣器》时，他管理D.A.，并保持抵抗，这充分证明了他属于那里。事实上，他甚至从分院帽里拿出了格兰芬多宝剑，这只有学院里真正的成员才能做到。

 

Ultimately, for the many centuries that the Sorting Hat has been doing its job, it has got more right than it has wrong. Its mistakes are few and far between – and it really knows how to spot the true nature or potential of budding witch or wizard. As it is filled with the intelligence of the four founders, it knows exactly what capabilities they want in their houses, and it considers the entire person before making its decision.

最终，几个世纪以来分院帽一直在做它的工作，它做对的比错的多。它的错误很少，而且它真的知道如何发现真正的本性或潜在的女巫或巫师。由于它充满了四位创始人的智慧，它确切地知道他们想要在自己的房子里拥有什么能力，并且在做出决定之前，它会考虑整个人。

So, what do you think? Do you think the students of Hogwarts are sorted into their houses too soon? Or do you still think there isn’t a clear-cut answer?

你觉得怎么样?你是否认为霍格沃茨的学生被过早地分到不同的学院?还是你仍然认为没有一个明确的答案?