Dumbledore's letters to Petunia (Re: Petunia's Eyes)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 169999

> Carol:
> 
> Thank you! Small correction; I didn't say that JKR avoided using
> Petunia as the narrator (JKR doesn't use first-person narrators), 
just that, IMO, she avoided having the limited omniscient narrator 
report events from Petunia's perspective and chose Vernon's instead 
because, as Jen states, using Petunia's more knowledgeable 
perspective would give too much away. 

Dung:
Right. ::rolls up sleeves:: 
I'm going to attack PS chapter 1, and work out where Vernon could be 
wrong...

::loading::

p7-8 (UK).
*************************
Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and 
Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley 
into his high chair.
None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.
*************************

None of them noticed *at the time*. But then Vernon goes out to work. 
A fluttering owl is not an owl on a long journey, it's an owl near 
its destination, isn't it? It could be going to Mrs Figg, although 
she lives two streets away, but it could equally be going to Petunia. 
Someone sending their condolences on the death of her sister?

It's after this that we're fully into Vernon's point of view, btw, 
for the first page and a bit we are talking in generalities about 
both the Dursleys. So here are all the bits which are from Vernon's 
pov, where he talks about Petunia, and where Vernon (and therefore 
the reader) could be being misled .

P9 (UK).
*************************
There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley, she always got so upset 
at any mention of her sister. 
*************************

Vernon could obviously be misled about *why* Mrs Dursley got so upset.

P10 (UK).
*************************
Mrs Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all 
about Mrs Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had 
learnt a new word (`Shan't!'). 
*************************

Ha! That's what *she* says. Vernon's no legilimens.

P11 (UK).
*************************
"Er – Petunia, dear – you haven't heard from your sister lately, have 
you?"
As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, 
they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.
"No," she said sharply. "Why?"
*************************

But does Vernon know *why* Petunia looks shocked and angry this time? 
Her response, the `no' is said sharply, rather than bemusedly, 
surprisedly, or even reproachfully. And then the immediate `why?'


P11 (UK).
*************************
Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the 
name `Potter'. He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as 
casually as he could, "Their son – he'd be about Dudley's age now, 
wouldn't he?"
"I suppose so," said Mrs Dursley stiffly.
"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"
"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."
*************************

If he *had* dared to tell her he'd heard the name `Potter', would 
Petunia have been obliged to say something JKR didn't want her to?

P11-12 (UK)
*************************
The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and 
their kind ...
*************************

Again, this is Vernon speaking for Petunia. I think it unlikely that 
he's completely misjudged her feelings about her sister, but I think 
it's possible that he doesn't know the truth about the source of 
those feelings, and that she's hiding something from him.

Carol:
> (I think that she uses Frank Bryce's naive pov in
> GoF for a similar reason; she doesn't want the reader to know what
> Voldemort and Pettigrew are thinking or how they interpret their own
> conversation. In "Spinner's End," she doesn't use a pov character at
> all because all of them know more than she wants the reader to know.
> Instead, she uses a third-person dramatic narrator who reports the
> actions and conversation from an objective pov without entering the
> minds of any of the characters.)

Dung:
Heh. You're soooo right. But back to Petunia in PS


In chapter 2 we're in Harry's pov, but there's one thing worth 
pointing out


P22 (UK).
*************************
"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (He'd be able 
to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even 
have a go on Dudley's computer).
Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.
*************************

If DD gave Petunia a thorough explanation of what happened (or what 
he suspected) happened at GH in the letter he left with Harry (or the 
hypothetical one delivered by the tawny owl the morning PS begins), 
Petunia may be under the impression that it was Harry who blew up the 
house at GH. She certainly knows the house blew up.

I can't find anything else at the beginning of PS which could be read 
differently, so I'll stop there.

Carol:
> BTW, we have more of what I suspect to be the unreliable narrator 
when Aunt Petunia looks out the window in PoA after seeing the escaped
> prisoner Sirius Black on the news:
> 
> "Aunt Petunia . . . whipped around and peered intently out the 
window. *Harry knew* [Neri alert!] Aunt Petunia would simply love to 
be the one to call the hot line number. She was the nosiest woman in 
the world and spent most of her life spying on the boring, law-abiding
> neighbors" (PoA Am. ed. 17). 
> 
> But suppose that Aunt Petunia "knew" that Sirius Black had been the
> Potters' Secret Keeper and had reason to fear that he would show up 
on Privet Drive? Maybe he's also "that awful boy" who told Lily about
> Dementors--"awful" because he grew up to "betray" her sister and
> brother-in-law to their deaths and "murder" thirteen people?

Dung:
Indeed. Similarly, it's also intriguing that at the end of PoA it is 
only Uncle Vernon who goes to meet Harry at King's Cross. There is no 
mention of Petunia being there. And given what they talk about... 

*************************
"What's that?" he [Vernon] snarled, staring at the envelope Harry was 
still clutching in his hand. "If it's another form for me to sign, 
you've got another –"
"It's not," said Harry cheerfully. "It's a letter from my godfather."
"Godfather?" spluttered Uncle Vernon. "You haven't got a godfather!"
"Yes, I have," said Harry brightly. "He was my Mum and Dad's best 
friend. He's a convicted murderer, but he's broken out of wizard 
prison and he's on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though 

 keep up with my news 
 check I'm happy 
"
*************************

We can speculate that Petunia may have had something to add, had she 
been present.

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