The Weasley's lack of wealth

[muscatel1988]

No: HPFGUIDX 177933

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tiffany B. Clark"
<minnesotatiffany at ...> wrote:
>
> Though not exactly poor, the Weasleys are more middle class than the
> Blacks, Malfoys, & Potters are.  Both of the Weasley parents earn a
> good salary for their positions, but aren't exactly wealthy.  

Mus is puzzled:

But Molly has neither a position nor a salary.  She's a housewife who
worries about the cost of schoolbooks and clothes, for whom buying Ron
a broom when he is made Prefect is a problem:

" 'Mum,' said Ron hopefully, 'can I have a new broom?
Mrs Weasley's face fell slightly; broomsticks were expensive
'Not a really good one!' Ron hastened to add.  'Just - just a new one
for a change...' " [OotP UK hb: 149-50]

No mother would willingly put her child in secondhand robes if she
could afford to do otherwise - remember Ron's ghastly dress robes? 
Ron certainly knows that they are poor - that's why he's apprehensive
about what Harry will think of The Burrow, and why he's so proud that
he's able to pay Harry back with the leprechaun gold for the
Omnioculars in GoF: he's embarrassed that his family are poor, and
like many poor people, extremely anxious not to be seen as such.

As to why they're portrayed as poor, I have no idea, except that they
fit snugly into a couple of stereotypes: niceness and hyperfertility
as natural correlates of poverty.  

Mus