DD at the Dursleys: Better Manner to Accept.

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 158162

> Laurawkids:
> 
> I just did a quick search and this popped up.  I don't really know 
> much about this site, but I liked how they stated the hospitality 
> obligations:

Tonks:
Thank you for fresh input into this scene. The website you mentioned 
also says:
"Hospitality is an act of redemption as well as a celebration. It 
not only forgives faults in others, it doesn't notice them. The 
hospitable person is only too aware of her own needs and 
shortcomings and of her own need for forgiveness. She is not only 
generous with what she has; she is generous in her assessment of 
others; in forgiving and accepting people. She exhibits an attitude 
of humility that looks for ways to serve the needs of others rather 
than being served. The hospitable person is not envious or covetous 
for all of us have been the stranger, the one on the outside, poor 
or weak in some way. In the ancient world, hospitality to the 
stranger was a holy obligation."

This puts a different slant on the whole DD at the Dursleys scene. 

In Benedictine monasteries every guest is seen as Christ.  It is 
said that one welcomes the visitor as one would welcome Christ. One 
goes the extra mile for a visitor.  Hospitality is a very big thing 
in any monastic community.  They take in anyone that comes to the 
door. Just as in medieval times when they would take in the stranger 
give them a place to sleep and food. 

If we look at the scene from this perspective what we get is DD 
offering forgiveness to the Dursleys and the Dursleys refusing. 
Instead of the Dursleys acknowledging their sins (which they are 
blind too) and asking forgiveness, DD is opening their mind to 
seeing their follies and still offering them forgiveness through 
the "hospitality" that they did not offer to him.  I think if we 
look at the scene from this POV we see something quite different 
than we have before and the scene takes on a whole new meaning.

Tonks_op