[HPforGrownups] House-elf pay - Susan's filk - Mrs. Norris - Lockhart Flint

[Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 26897


--- Amy Z <aiz24 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Rowena wrote:
>  
> >    He could ask his human hosts for it. 
> 
> Hosts?  

   Yes hosts. A Brownie is free to leave whenever he
likes if he finds the conditions no longer
satisfactory. This is the only difference between
Brownies and House-elves, House-elves are magically
bound to continue to work for the wizard family
whatever their feelings. This can and must be changed.
 
> Rowena continued:
> 
> >It was
> > customary to put out gifts for Brownies yarn, if
> it
> > were made clear it would be welcome, wouldn't be a
> > problem.
> >    According to my 'Encylopedia of Fairies,
> > Hobgoblins, Brownies Bogies and other Supernatural
> > Creatures' (yes, it is a real book) Brownies
> avoided
> > the appearance of payment because it would put
> them
> > under obligation to their Humans. Food or other
> items
> > 'left out' didn't count as 'pay' and so were
> > acceptable. 
> >    This of course is the behavior of free
> Brownies.
> > Dobby, coming from a long line of magically bound
> > House elves, is presumably unaware of these
> > traditional practices and values.  
> 
> Or maybe he is a lot more like a human being than
> that.  I can just 
> imagine my reaction if my employers tried to pay me
> in goods instead 
> of in money.  No matter how generous they might be,
> I like to choose 
> my own wool, clothes, place to live, etc., thank you
> very much.

     It is possible Dobby feels like that, but the
fact he drives Dumbledore down on his salary suggest
that 'pay' is more symbolic of his freedom than
anything else. His Brownie ancestors regarded
'payment' and putting them under obligation and thus
resented it. To Dobby it is a symbol of his freedom.
> 
> We really don't know whether house-elves are more
> like brownies or like slaves. 

   They are Brownies, or rather the descendants of
Brownies who have been magically enslaved. They don't
need pay, or pensions or vacations, they need the
spells forcing them to continue to work for particular
Wizardly families removed.  
     
> All we can do is go by the descriptions we have so 
> far.  Winky (sacked simply because she couldn't
> restrain Jr. and 
> because Sr. thought she wouldn't stand up to
> interrogation by the MOM) 
> and Dobby both seem very unhappy to me.

   Dobby is unhappy because he is being abused and
cannot escape, (a Brownie would simply leave such an
unsatisfactory family and find a new one). Winky on
the other hand is unhappy because she has been sent
away against her will and is justly fearful over what
will become of the Crouches without her. Not quite the
same thing.
   And you seem to be forgetting the hundred or so
other House elves at Hogwarts who are visibly content
with their lot and quite offended by Hermione's
suggestions of reform.
 


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