Theoretical boundaries

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 120526


Alla wrote:
<snip>
>> I mean, sure, Dursleys looked much more caricature like in the 
> earlier books, BUT Harry's suffering was VERY real, starting from 
> him spending ten years in the cupboard. 

Carol responds:
I won't go into the abuse theme, which I agree is presented in a
Cinderellaish way in SS/PS, especially, but forgive me for nipicking
here. Harry didn't spend ten years in a cupboard (or closet, as we'd
say in America--"cupboard" (= cup board) suggests enclosed shelves for
dishes in the kitchen!). We don't know at what point he was
transferred to the little room under the stairs. I doubt if he was
there from the time he was fifteen months old until just before his
eleventh birthday. And in any case, he only slept there (and was
occasionally sent there for punishment). He didn't spend twenty-four
hours a day there (except when he was punished). He walked around the
house and presumably the neighborhood, and on school days he spent his
waking hours in school. Many children up until the nineteenth century
at least had similar sleeping quarters with no ill effects. And Harry
takes the spiders in stride. (Placing Ron in a tiny room he shared
with spiders would be a different matter.) It's *his* (Harry's)
cupboard and he seems used to it, but he doesn't spend ten entire
years there. (I'm not defending the Dursleys, just trying to stick
with the fictional facts of the story.)

Carol, wondering how "cup board" got transmuted into storage closet