House Elf Loyalty

[richter_kuymal]

No: HPFGUIDX 151636

Alla: The problem is we ONLY know about TWO freed elfs, that's all. 
Winky  and Dobby indeed react to situation differently. Just as 
people  react to same situations differently. Winky is unhappy with 
the  freedom indeed, but Dobby is very very happy. So, I don't think 
that  Winky's unhappiness necessarily represents how House Elfs in 
general  would react to being freed. For all I know Winky is an 
exception and  Dobby is a rule? I mean, I think that both 
possibilities are equal. 

PAR: but we DO see how the house elves respond, at least in part.  
We see their response to Hermione in the kitchen at Hogwarts. AND we 
see that they are insulted about the "hats" set about in the 
Griffindor dorm.  If House Elves WANTED freedom, they would take 
Dobby as an example, they would enthusiastically respond to her 
discussion about being paid, they would take the hats she offers.  
Is there any real reason to believe that if all the House Elves at 
Hogwarts wanted to be paid for their work that DD would not do it?  
DD has been in charge for enough time that this could have occurred 
at least as early as when the Marauders were in school.  In fact, 
one has to wonder WHY DD did not do this as part of the LV round 1 
if in fact it would be better to have House Elves free.  What we see 
instead is that DD tells Harry (OOP) that Kreacher cannot be freed 
because he knows too much about the Order (and yes, I blame DD for 
failing to accept his part in the responsibility for that in his 
talk about Sirius at the end of the book.  There's no doubt in my 
mind that Sirius would have preferred to set Kreacher free rather 
than deal with the house elf).  And we see DD and Hagrid both 
disagreeing with Hermione on the issue of HE freedom.

So the analogy of slavery is less apt than an analogy of the 
old "sweatshops" and workhouses would be.  Being "free" does not 
mean that one is necessarily better off.  Many of the labor laws in 
industrial countries were created specifically because of the worse 
treatment workers got from employers.  Once the worker 
wasn't "property", those employers no longer had an incentive to 
provide a living wage or to care about their worker's health and 
welfare.  Things like Child Labor laws and the like have had to be 
passed to prevent abuse.  

House Elves can be abused –"treated like vermin", as Dobby says.  
But is treated like vermin mean that they are overworked?  The worst 
punishment appears to BE freedom ("clothes").  
 
PAR