The Weasley's lack of wealth

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178038

Lorelei wrote:
<snip>
> 
> I have been wondering if there could be a deeper reason for making
the Weasley family poor.  My first thought is it was simply a way to 
separate them from the rest of the elitist pure bloods.  However, it 
was also written that the fact Harry had money and Ron didn't was a 
source of conflict or jealously.  It just seemed to me (after
rereading COS, POA and especially GOF) that it is mentioned alot to
maybe be an important point.

Carol responds:

I've read the whole thread but decided to go back to the original post
rather than respond to a response.

Obviously, the Weasleys' lack of wealth in some cases operates as a
plot device, and certainly the Burrow is as different from Malfoy
Manor as possible. Possibly, JKR believes that penury (as opposed to
poverty; cf. the Gaunts) is character-building. However, she doesn't
believe that wealth is bad in itself (setting aside her own life; she
wasn't rich when she created Harry) or she would not have made the
Potters and Sirius Black wealthy, but the Weasleys show that money is
not essential for happiness (as long as you have enough to make ends
meet; as we see with Ron on the camping trip, basic needs, especially
food, *must* be met for people to interact civilly). 

As someone pointed out, Ron and Harry are envious of each other, one
longing for wealth and fame and the other for a family. In the end,
Ron can joke about fame and both have a family (the same extended
family and wives and children of their own) and at least a sufficient
income; I imagine that Harry still has piles of gold in his vault,
inherited from both his parents and his godfather, in addition to his
income as an Auror (and Ginny's as a Quidditch commentator, IIRC) and
Ron has either a job as an Auror or a share in George's shop (JKR
can't seem to make up her mind) as well as Hermione's income from her
job at the Ministry. The best of both worlds (with fame just something
to be dealt with when people stare at your scar). It just occurred to
me that Harry's happy ending exactly mirrors JKR's life in 2007 (2017
being just a dream of the future).

As for the Weasleys' penury (it isn't poverty) specifically, I think
it's there to fuel Percy's ambition and Fred and George's, erm,
entrepreneurial spirit (greed, if you prefer), as well as Ron's
discontent (the youngest son who gets hand-me-downs from five older
brothers: "Why is everything I own rubbish?"). It creates a bit of
friction in the Weasley family (not as much as it might in less loving
households) and gives "character" to their house, which has a ghoul
instead of a House-Elf (if "all the Weasleys have red hair and more
children than they can afford" is anything like a true statement,
despite the fact that we only glimpse the relatives at Bill and
Fleur's wedding and never at Hogwarts, most likely the family
House-Elf of Weasley Manor, if there ever was such a being, went to
the oldest son of a distant branch of the family hundreds of years
before) and gnomes in the garden and it's held together by magic. It's
as different from the super-clean, middle-class, suburban Dursley
house as possible, and it provides a haven for the Muggle-raised
Harry, however ordinary it may seem to Ron.

So the Weasleys' lack of wealth ties in with plot (Ron's dress robes,
for example) and occasionally provides a source of humor or conflict.
It helps to shape character. It makes the point that money isn't
everything, however much it serves as a motive for certain characters
(we can contrast Bill and Charlie, who seem not to care about it, with
their younger brothers, all of whom are motivated by money to some
extent, or Arthur, who would rather have a job he enjoys than wealth,
with Molly, who is ambitious for her husband and sons and wishes that
Fudge and Slughorn and others would recognize Arthur's abilities.
Where Ginny fits in, I'm not sure. She seems to echo Ron's discontent
in her diary in CoS, but she's only a little girl at that point.
Perhaps being the youngest child and only girl in a relatively poor
family makes her resourceful, but at least, unlike Ron, she doesn't
have to cope with hand-me-downs.) 

The Burrow itself provides a colorful setting and creates its own
atmosphere of eccentricity combined with comfort despite occasional
cramped conditions (contrast the Lovegood house, where eccentricity
predominates or the Dursleys' house, filled with nice furniture and,
unless Dudley's on a diet, good food, and yet without comfort or
affection for Harry. Places are as important as characters in terms of
their effect on the protagonist, and they help to shape the atmosphere
and circumstances in which the action takes place. Life at 4 Privet
Drive (with the Dursleys) helps to shape Harry just as life at the
Burrow (with his own family) helps to shape Ron.

JKR has managed to give her hero a taste of poverty without adding to
his burdens by making him actually poor. Ironically, Harry, who has
piles of wizard gold in his vault and can afford to give away a
thousand galleons to the Weasley Twins to start up their business, is
inured to poverty by ten years of sleeping in a cupboard under the
stairs and occasional bouts of near-starvation when he's confined to
his room or Dudley is on a grapefruit diet. He's as used to wearing
hand-me-downs as Ron (or the young Severus Snape)--though he no longer
has to wear them in the WW. Ron, in contrast, resents his hand-me-down
robes and wand (not having a separate new world in which he's suddenly
wealthy) and deals poorly with near-starvation because his mother has
always found a way to provide delicious meals. (No doubt it helps to
have chickens and a garden, not to mention knowing "householdy"
spells.) Circumstances have made Harry indifferent to wealth and Ron
covetous of it. Harry, though rich, can deal with hardship (and
spiders) and Ron can't--until the Sword of Gryffindor episode (and
perhaps the spiders in the Battle of Hogwarts--I've forgotten how he
deals with them).

At any rate, the penury of the Weasleys is an important motif for a
variety of reasons. I'm sure that other posters can add to the list.
Harry's wealth, in contrast, is mostly a convenience, IMO. JKR didn't
want her hero struggling to find money for books, robes, and a wand
when he had so many other things on his plate. And possibly his
indifference to both wealth and poverty is just one more virtue that
she grants her hero. Thank goodness for his procrastination and
obstinacy and outbursts of temper and occasional rashness or he'd be
too virtuous to be likeable.

Carol, who feels that she's short-changed poor Ron in this post and
actually likes him better than Harry or Hermione most of the time