Freedom for House-Elves (Was: Kreacher the Plot Device Elf)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162102

Alla wrote:
<snip>
> It is funny when I think about house elves. As I said I totally
think that their situation is slavery, etc, but I just cannot bring
myself to empathize fully with them as characters. Strange.
> 
> I mean on the intellectual level I know what I want to happen, etc, 
> but on the emotional, I am just not touched fully.
> 
> I mean, I understand why I feel that way about Kreacher, but I also 
> find Dobby to be the most annoying character **ever**. I suppose I 
> pity Winky the most, but it is still not much.
> 
> Oh, and I do not think that this has anything to do with the fact 
> that they are non-human race, frankly.
> 
> I think I mentioned it in the past that I totally sympathise with 
> werewolves ( well that is understandable to me - who would not feel 
> for Remus as representative of them), I find centaurs to be totally 
> cool and I so want to know more about goblins and find their 
> rebellions mentioned in passing to be much more sympathetic than 
> house elves plight.
> 
> I can find no other reasons that JKR not making me feel for these 
> three elves as characters.
>
Carol responds:
I know what you mean even though I don't agree with you on house-elf
slavery per se. It's hard to relate to any of the three house-elves
we're familiar with as characters the way we do with, say, Ron. (I'm
choosing a character that you and I both like for the sake of this
discussion. <smile>)

You say that you don't think it's because they're nonhunman and you
cite werewolves as a counterexample. But werewolves *are* human except
for the monthly transformation into a ravening beast, as human as
Animagi, who willingly turn into animals rather more frequently.
Centaurs, granted, are not human, but I find most of them less
attractive than you do. Even Firenze and Ronan, the most reasonable of
the Centaurs, view themselves as superior to humans, which is no
better than humans feeling the reverse. If we had, say, Bane and
Umbridge exchanging insults, it would simply be a matter of two
prejudiced and violent beings neither better than the other, IMO.
Umbridge has a wand and Bane has hooves and a bow. Brute force wins
the day and he carries her off, but if she'd kept her wand and faced
only him, the odds would have been more even. Neither is superior to
the other, IMO. The Centaurs, unlike the House-Elves, have dignity and
a sense of self-worth which keeps them from speaking in that annoying,
grovelling House-Elf manner, but they're also arrogant and
contemptuous of humans, except, apparently, Dumbledore, and they are
as capable as the Death Eaters of acting as a mob. (Or herd, in their
case.) Maybe you like them because they appear to be individuals with
distinct personalities and are less caricatured than the
House-Elves.(?) That's what makes them at least palateable to me, even
though I don't like them (except possibly Ronan, and he's not on my
list of favorite characters by any means).

The Giants are another "race" or species that comes across as
caricatured to me. Ron *seems* to stereotype them in GoF when he's
talking about why it would be wise for Hagrid to keep his mouth shut
about his mother, but we see in OoP that Ron is right. The Giants
*are* violent and are busy killing each other off without any help
from the Wizards. Even "little" Grawp, picked on by the others, roars
and pulls up trees for entertainment, beats up his brother (gives new
meaning to "Am I my brother's keeper?"), and can barely string two
mispronounced words together ("Where Hagger?"). I don't know of anyone
who really enjoyed the chapter on the giants or who considers Grawp a
favorite character. Most of us wish he hadn't been brought into the
books and consider him a deus ex machina brought into the plot because
JKR needed someone or something to chase the Centaurs away and
Dumbledore was not available.

It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the House-Elves are cartoonlike
and hard to sympathize with. When I first encountered Dobby, and again
when I first encountered Kreacher, I thought of Gollum, who uses a
similar speech pattern but, IMO, more effectively and memorably, and
with better reason, having spent the entire Third Age (IIRC) on his
little island on a cold, dark lake beneath a mountain. Gollum, though
in some ways despicable, is pitiable. Dobby is just annoying. Dobby is
just trying to help Harry Potter, sir, but Dobby is getting on my
nerves, sir, with his crying and nose-blowing and head-banging, and
Dobby had better stop soon, sir, or I'll shut the book on him. And
Winky at first is a female version of Dobby, until (hic) she starts
(hic) drinking and at least (hic) shows some spirit in defying
Hermione, who is nosing into her master's business (or is that
Harry?). Kreacher muttering to himself is actually funny in places
("And that's its twin. Nasty little brats of a blood traitor they
are") if you don't take his insults too seriously. But his one-note
monologues get old fast, and, of course, he's partly responsible for
Harry going to the DoM and, indirectly, for his own master's death
(though that wasn't part of the plan). I don't hate him or want Harry
to take vengeance on him (he's too pathetic and perhaps contemptible
for that, and besides, I don't believe in revenge because hatred harms
the hater), but I'd just as soon see as little of him, and all of
them, as possible.

I don't mind discussing their plight on an intellectual level, and it
would be nice to know how the enchantment that binds a House-Elf to a
single family works and who imposed it. I also think that the desire
to serve humans is ingrained, as Dobby illustrates. He's a free
House-Elf and he still *chooses* to serve and obey a human master,
Harry. And I doubt that he would disobey Ron if Ron were to give him
an order because Ron is Harry "Wheezy" and gave Dobby socks and a
sweater. Whatever the enchantment is, it was not what made the
House-Elves want to serve people in the first place. (Winky is also
free of her enchantment, her obligation to serve the Crouches, once
she's given clothes. But her nature, or her indoctrination, or both,
make her want to serve them. Kreacher is the only one still under any
sort of compulsion to obey, and he openly resents and insults his
master, but he would happily serve "the pureblood grand-nephew of
[his] old mistress." No magic compels him to be loyal to the
now-extinct Black family and its offshoots with other surnames. Its
his choice. 

I've strayed back onto the original topic, but my point here is that
it's possible to analyze these characters and their plight, and enjoy
doing so, without feeling any empathy or affection for the characters
as they appear on the page. I'm with you. Intellectually, I care.
Emotionally, not one of them attracts or moves me to anything other
than annoyance most of the time. I would guess that Dobby is the
reason so few people choose CoS as their favorite HP book and the
absence of house-elves is one reason (though probably not the main
one) that so many people love PoA.

Carol, wondering if anyone really likes the House-Elves or if we're
all just considering them as abstractions