The Characters of Arabella and Mundungus (WAS: Dumbledore's useful spies)

[psychic_serpent]

No: HPFGUIDX 55906

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "erisedstraeh2002" 
<erisedstraeh2002 at y...> wrote:
> Not to mention that [Mundungus Fletcher] tried to hex Arthur 
> Weasley when he had his back turned in Ch. 3 of CoS.  (btw, it's 
> actually *Percy* who says in Ch. 10 of GoF "I know for a fact he 
> [Mundungus] was sleeping under a cloak propped on sticks.")

Yes, thanks for that.  The hex, which I failed to mention, does also 
contribute to his dodgy character.

> Barb again:
>  
> > JKR said something like "well-spotted!" to someone who asked 
> > whether Arabella is the same as Mrs. Figg and everything we know 
> > about Mrs. Figg paints her as an extremely unpleasant person 
> > (although how much of that was for the Dursleys' benefit, as 
> > they certainly wouldn't want someone PLEASANT taking care of 
> > Harry, remains to be seen).
> 
> Me again:
> 
> While Harry dislikes being dumped at Mrs. Figg's house while 
> Dudley gets to go and have fun, I never got the impression that 
> Mrs. Figg herself is an unpleasant person. Harry thinks of her as 
> a "mad old lady" whose house smells of cabbage and who makes him 
> look at cat pictures, but IIRC she doesn't submit him to any 
> physical or emotional abuse.  So while she's obviously not the 
> most enjoyable companion an 11 year old boy might want and is 
> obviously very peculiar, I don't think of her as an unpleasant 
> person.

Me:

Well, I was using 'unpleasant' as a very mild way of saying that 
Harry certainly doesn't seem to care very much that she's broken her 
leg, and given the chance, it seems that he'd rather go to the zoo 
with his horrid relatives than sit around looking at cat pictures 
and eating stale cake in a house that smells like cabbages.  I don't 
think that based on these descriptions one could say his stays at 
Mrs. Figg's were 'pleasant.'  One doesn't need to abuse people 
physically or emotionally for them to want to avoid your company.  
You can just be a really bad host.  (I think activities that don't 
take one's guest's tastes into account, not airing out your smelly 
home and feeding your guest stale food qualifies you as a bad host, 
IMHO.)  Plus, just after the 'mad old lady' description, there's a 
very terse sentence that says simply, "Harry hated it there."  Hate 
is a rather strong word, it seems, if he doesn't at the very least 
find her 'unpleasant.'

Harry seems to be perfectly happy that he's avoiding her, even 
though he has to be with the Dursleys plus Dudley's obnoxious 
friend.  While he may think getting to go to the zoo may offset the 
unfortunate fact that he has to go with these particular people, if 
Mrs. Figg were in any way pleasant, it seems there'd be something 
about Harry genuinely hoping she was going to be all right, at the 
very least.  Instead, it says, "Harry knew he ought to feel sorry 
that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he 
reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at 
Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws and Tufty again."  So any sympathy he had 
managed to muster would only have been out of obligation, not 
genuine feeling.  Harry, not feel sorry for someone breaking their 
leg, other than a Dursley or a Malfoy? Given what we know of Harry, 
that seems to be the most telling clue to whether she is a pleasant 
person.

--Barb


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