House Elves: Enslaved by Mind?

[catorman]

No: HPFGUIDX 30957

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jenny from Ravenclaw" <meboriqua at a...> 
wrote:
> Okay.  I just came up with this theory while I was in the shower 
and I 
> thought it was great.  > What if part of the tragedy of the House 
Elf situation is that their 
> enslavement is in their minds?  I mean, what if they have been 
utterly 
> convinced that serving witches and wizards is their lot in life, 
but 
> really, they can leave *whenver they want to*?  What if there was 
no 
> spell at all that kept them in servitude to their masters?  
Wouldn't 
> that add a sad and complicated twist to the whole House Elf 
subplot?  

An excellent theory, and I don't know if I'm adding much here, but it 
put me in mind of the fact that they may not perhaps have 
been "utterly convinved" of their roles in life, but were 
initially "conditioned" into it.  It made me think of the 
conditioning which takes place in Brave New World from conception - 
and also the conditioning which takes place in Clockwork Orange.  

We know that the House Elves have a powerful magic of their own, so 
it seems very strange that they are subjugated by Wizards.  Perhaps, 
many centuries ago, the Elves were seen as a potential threat/rival 
to the wizarding world, and someone came up with the idea of 
enslavement.  If this kind of conditioning took place over the 
centuries, with the older generations of House Elves taking over the 
conditioning process by doing the same with their offspring, then 
there would be no need to keep the Elves in place by wizardry.

If this is the case, throwbacks such as Dobby wouldn't be as rare as 
we might think, but he is likely to be unusually strongminded, if the 
House Elves' mentality has been developed into one of servility and 
loyalty to their families.

It does seem to me that some kind of mental manipulation must have 
taken place, because we see no other real evidence of how exactly the 
House Elves are forced into this servitude.  

Another thing which strengthens the whole of Jenny's argument is the 
routine punishments they are forced to give themselves.  They don't 
want to do it - they are compelled to.  Their masters don't even know 
whether they have punished themselves or not, most of the time -and 
probably wouldn't even know if their elves had had a bad thought 
about them to make punishment necessary.  But they still do it.  Even 
after Dobby is free, Harry has to stop him from punishing himself for 
saying something bad about the Malfoys.  If this were mere physical 
enslavement, this wouldn't be the case, but it is obvious that it 
goes far deeper than that and that the House Elves have been or are 
controlled in this way.

It is really like an imperious curse which has been deeply ingrained 
into the House Elves' psyche over the centuries - which is triggered 
by bad thoughts or disloyal actions.  How evil.

This is all probably a little far-fetched, but it had me thinking, 
anyway.  Thanks!

Catherine

Catherine