house elves

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 102409

Sherry G wrote:
>>The whole idea of house elves has bothered me ever since the first
introduction in COS. It got even worse in GoF. Lines like Ron's saying
that house elves are happy .... the whole attitude toward them has 
really bugged me. It seems so reminiscent of the slave masters in the 
South, who always said that the slaves were "happy" in there 
slavery.<<

HunterGreen:
It bothered me a bit at first, but the more I read (in GoF, at least) 
the more it started to make sense. They *are* happy. When the trio go 
down to the kitchens the house-elves trip over themselves to try to 
serve them, and are offended by the idea of getting paid for their 
work. Dobby himself asked for *less* money/time off than Dumbledore 
offered him. In this same thread Lady Macbeth said:

>>And what did he do with those supplies? Made socks to give to
the humans around him. His needs of food, shelter and companionship 
were covered by his "place of employment" as are all elves. He 
doesn't seem inclined to leave Hogwarts and find his own place. He 
won't accept money that could be banked or used excessively on 
himself in any way. He's using his money and his freedom to BETTER 
SERVE THOSE HUMANS AROUND HIM.<< 

And that's just it, he doesn't really value the same things that 
wizards (humans, I suppose) do. They value loyalty and honor and 
praise (there's some old thread I came across once describing the 
house-elves as praise-junkies). They don't want leisure or material 
things.

Sherry G:
>>There were times in GoF that I could hardly stand to read Winky's 
parts, because of her attitude of sickening loyalty to a man who had 
owned her and treated her cruelly. I hope that JKR is going to take 
this further and have a major house elf revolt or something.<< 

I don't think that's necessary. Its really the mistreatment of house-
elves that needs to be fought against, not the enslavement.
Lady Macbeth continued:
>>The only problem I personally have with the house elves' situation 
are those who AREN'T happy with where they are and are mistreated by 
their masters.
The house elves at Hogwarts are happy, otherwise they'd have taken
Hermione's hats and run while they had the chance. The house elves at 
the Malfoys may or may not be happy, but they are being mistreated, 
some probably more than others. Winky was being mistreated in 
Crouch's care, but she was happy there. The "win-win" situation would 
be in turning around the HUMANS' attitude toward house elves - making 
laws and restrictions regarding the care and treatment of house 
elves.<<

I completely agree with that. House-elves don't necessarily want to 
go off and live on their own and have little house-elf families, I 
think they very much enjoy servitude, they just want to be 
appreciated for it. And to some degree they want to be respected, or 
at least have their position respected (the hogwarts elves don't like 
Hermione's suggestions of being paid for their work, Winky gets very 
upset at the idea of dilvulging Crouch's secrets, & Kreacher cannot 
stand to see people in his mistress' house that she wouldn't have 
approved of, and he doesn't like seeing her things destroyed). 

I think I should point you to post 92482 where Steve (bboy_mn ~ 
although I think he has a different moniker now), catalogued many 
previous posts on this subject, which are rather interesting if you 
are curious at all about house-elves.