Happiness of HP Characters

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26546

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., caliburncy at y... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:
> > Tabouli wrote:
> > 
> > "As for the happiness of the characters, there's plenty of room 
for 
> > speculation there: is Dumbledore happy?  Is Hermione?  Dudley?  
The 
> > Weasley twins?"
> > 


Then Luke wrote:

> Contendedness in a way to me implies (though there are alternate 
> interpretations--this is basically semantics, after all) that you 
have 
> reached some sort of end destination in your goals.  There are lots 
of 
> philosophers who would argue that happiness, however, is a manner 
of 
> traveling, not a place to be reached.  And so it's possible some 
> characters might be basically happy, even with mostly negative 
> experiences.  Probably not the majority of them, but perhaps a few.
> 


Now that you mention it, there aren't many characters who are overtly 
happy in HP.  I hadn't really thought about it before.  The only 
clear case of a happy character, IMO, is Dobby.  But look what it 
takes to make him happy:  used and mismatched socks and a sweater.  
And getting paid a pittance because he's used to enslavement.  And if 
we believe Ron, all of the Hogwarts house elves are happy, although 
I'm not sure I believe him.

Another candidate for "happiness" perhaps is Percy.  He has what he 
wants:  a job at MoM.  But again, the bar is set awfully low.  Being 
called "Weatherby" and handling cauldron bottom reports is just fine 
with Percy.  I certainly get the sense that Bill and Charlie are 
happy, but there really isn't much support for this in canon.

Life must be awfully tough in the wizarding world.

Cindy