[HPforGrownups] Why is the bathroom so important in Potterverse?

[shane dunphy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47531

Xandersgirl18 wrote:
> >Why is the bathroom so important in Potterverse?

GulPlum wrote:
>I suspect it's mainly an in-joke on JKR's part - bodily functions are 
>glossed over in just about all fiction (what other books in *any* genre 
>mention toilets?) and it's just another little touch which makes the 
>Potterverse more real.

Certainly, (and someone else on list commented on their total absence in 
Star Trek), you don't often hear of them in other genres.  I know we're not 
supposed to mention Lord of the Rings, but during that entire very long book 
noone seems to need to head off into the undergrowth to take a leak, and we 
never hear Frodo commenting on how good it is to be able to use the fine 
Elvish facilities when they at last reached Rivendell!

A couple of things occurred to me while reading the posts on this thread:

1.  Moaning Myrtle's behaviour is very reminiscent of a victim of sexual 
repression, often after abuse.  Blocking or clogging up toilets is a common 
behaviour of individuals suffering sexual identity crises, or, more 
controversially, individuals who are fixated in the Anal Stage (as referred 
to in Freudian discourse).  Myrtle's living in the toilet, spending time 
down the U-Bend in the pipe, and even allowing herself to be flushed out 
into the lake (amid the detritus deposited from above) is certainly a 
parrallel of this type of behaviour pattern.  Could it be that her death, 
right in the midst of adolescence, has left her with some unresolved issues?

2.  Hermione hiding in the toilet when she is upset due to Ron's comments in 
PS is also indicative of Hermione's developmental stage.  Hermione and Ron, 
as we see later in the canon, appear to have a burgeoning attraction.  Once 
again using a Freudian analysis, at age eleven, Ron and Hermione are just 
coming out of what Freud called the Latency stage, where children force 
themselves not to notice the opposite gender and instead focus on gender 
specific roles and behaviour.  At around age eleven, they begin to shift 
into the Genital stage, where they begin to see the opposite sex in a more 
attractive light, but will still have Latent feelings, and be slightly 
confused and uncomfortable with this attraction.  When Ron says the hurtful 
things he does about Hermione, he underscores the feelings of discomfort she 
is already feeling about boys in general.  She seeks a sanctuary where boys 
are not permitted access - the girl's toilet!  Here she can feel secure and 
safe in the knowledge that this is solely a female domain.

3.  Gulplum wrote:
>The one thing I find strange is that although we've had several mentions of 
>toilets and bathrooms, they've never been introduced in their normal 
>context.
This is a good point.  Toilets in JKR are what Bettelheim referred to as "in 
between places", places where kids can hang out when they need to be on 
their own, free from the prying eyes of adults, or when they are feeling 
vulnerable (other examples of in between places would be stairs, hallways, 
back-of-the-bike-sheds).  I don't know about you, but when I was in school, 
toilets were places where older kids would hang out to smoke cigarettes - 
another activity that Hogwarts seems to be completely free of.  Do wizards 
smoke at all I wonder?  They do in Tolkien, but JKR's wizards seem to be 
nicotene free.

Well, those are my thoughts on the toilet debate.  Somehow I feel that we 
will be visiting the conveniences in Hogwarts many more times in the 
following books.  It seems that JKR has a real sense of their importance, in 
a symbolic way, to young people.  And iritating or not, Myrtle is a fun 
character!

Shane.






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