Is Dudley...slow?

[Elizabeth Morgan]

No: HPFGUIDX 117731


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ericoppen" <technomad at i...> 
wrote:
 
> I've sometimes wondered if a lot of Petunia's attitudes couldn't 
be explained by saying that Dudley's...slow of wit.

(me now (Eilis):I think it's that exactly, and not anything medical.)

 What I think is now called a "special-needs child", although the PC 
authorities may have come up with fresh euphemisms. If she and 
Vernon knew they had a child with special needs, that would explain 
a lot of their resentment of Harry.  Here they are, with the child 
they had longed for turning out defective, and, to rub it in, they 
get their already-unwanted nephew, son of Petunia's much-resented 
sister-who-was-the-star-of-the-family, dumped on them, and he's 
bright and normal!
 
(I've never thought that they considered Harry normal, really by any 
means,and I think that they believe the magic out-weighs anything 
positive about him.)
 
Having a child like the sort I'm referring to is really, really hard 
on the parents, and some of them take refuge in proving that denial 
isn't just a river in Egypt.  They'll insist long and loud that 
their precious child is _normal,_ and don't you dare forget it, 
Mister! If anything, they're even more protective of their children 
than ordinary parents...and doesn't _that_ sound familiar?I can't 
remember anything at all in canon that implies that Dudley's even 
normally intelligent.  He never reads (while reading wasn't as big a 
thing for my classmates as it was for me, they all could and 
did), his grades are lousy, and he often behaves a lot like a person 
a lot younger than his chronological age.

(I've always put this down as Dud being spoiled all his life; if you 
think of normally mature people you think of someone who is  
reasonably in control of their emotions, and able to accept that 
life dosn't revolve around them, then you're really describing 
someone who's been raised with a sense of disipline (sp?), and at 
least SOME limits on what is allowed. a.k.a. not Dudley.)

 True, he got into Smeltings---but not being familiar with that sort 
of pseudo-public-school, I don't know whether or how much Vernon was 
able to pull strings to get him in.  About the only school system 
I'm personally familiar with is the US public system.

(as am I, so I can't comment on that)

About the only thing in canon that militates against my theory is 
that Dudley, unlike _most_ mentally-slow children, has a nasty 
disposition.  However, that doesn't mean anything in and of itself; 
_most_ such people are gentle and sweet, but that doesn't preclude 
individual variance.

Comments?  *donning Howlerproof armour*
(if someone knowledgable about British public schools 1990-1997 
wants to chip in, PLEASE do,
Eilis, who really does need to finish 'Tom Browns Schooldays' soon)