DD, the Dursleys, and Identifying with Muggles in Potterverse

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 158019

 
> 
Sydney:
 
> The Dursleys are just plastic;  I wasn't surprised when JKR
> said Vernon was the character she most disliked in the series.  She
> never bothers to get into his head at all--  I mean, it's not like
> it's ridiculous for a muggle to be afraid of someone who can do 
magic.
>  I'd have an undercurrent of fear myself every time I dealt with a
> wizard, I think.  But, I don't know, I just don't feel JKR really
> engages with the fear as anything other than a joke, and that really
> holds the scenes back, I think.

Hickengruendler:

Not even in OotP? I would argue at the very least the Dementor attack 
on Dudley showed that the Dursleys' fear is at least somewhat 
understandable, even though this idn't excuse the abysmal way they 
treated Harry. She also showed several other scenes involving 
muggles, which emphasize that the Dursleys have a reason to be 
frightened. Tom Riddle senior was pretty much a punching ball by the 
whole Gaunt family. First hexed Morfin, then bewitched by Merope, 
then killed by Voldemort. Frank Bryce was an indirect victim of 
Voldemort's murders throughout nearly his whole life, only to be 
killed by him literally in the end. And then of course there are the 
scenes involving the Muggle torture after the QWC and the mass 
killings Voldemort did in Order to make Fudge resign. Even though 
these scenes didn't involve the Dursleys personally (except the 
Dementor attack), they did help making their fear understandable, 
IMO. In course of the series Muggles, and this includes the Dursleys, 
nasty as they may be, almost consequently play the roles of victims. 

I do like the Dumbledore scene, though, mostly because it is so 
harmless. The Dursleys never were in any harm here, and I do think 
they deserve a few slight hits on the head. (Not to mention that it 
isn't even clear, if he did it on purpose. The moment he realized 
what happened, he made it stop.) I have much more problems with, for 
example, the Ton-Tongue-Toffee scene, which I find really quite mean-
spirited. 
 
Hickengruendler