[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR characterizations--oversimplification?

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 115123

> Lisa:
> For example, the whole thing about how one treats one's inferiors
> as it relates to Sirius' attitude toward Kreacher.  Frankly, I just

> don't see it.  Yes, Sirius loathes Kreacher (as JKR confirms, if 
> it wasn't already obvious).  But JKR's own depiction of Kreacher as
> a character (who is horrid, btw, even to the one person who is kind
> to him) and her description of Sirius' background (and Kreacher's 
> place in it) suggests that Sirius loathes Kreacher for who he is 
> and what he represents of Sirius' past, not because he 
> is an "inferior."  Dumbledore even points out that Sirius didn't 
> have this attitude toward house elves in general.  Yet JKR then 
> goes on to use "Sirius loathes Kreacher" as evidence that he 
> doesn't live up to his own pronouncement.  Right.


Sirius knows perfectly well that Kreacher is certifiably deranged
after living in the house with only a portrait for company for over a
decade, that as a House Elf Kreacher is attached to the house and
can't leave and must serve the family members resident there, and
that Kreacher is a product of brainwashing by the Black family in
their own purist, DE beliefs.  In other words, Kreacher was made what
he is in OOTP by wizards and witches and that it is too late now to
undo the damage.  When Dumbledore warned Sirius to treat Kreacher
with respect, he was reminding him of these facts.

And yet Sirius treats Kreacher as if the elf were capable of changing
after all these years and of being something other than he is: old,
deranged, pathetic and mentally warped.  If anything, Sirius should
understand what its like to be a captive in a horrible place and felt
some empathy, even if he didn't like Kreacher at all.

Magda


		
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