House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180894


SSSusan wrote:
> <snip> I will continue to say I sure wish JKR would have given us an
alternate term/word/concept for this, because I think the house elf
desire to serve and to not be freed complicates the use of "slavery"
as we use it in the RW.
> 
Magpie responded:
<snip>
> But I'm glad there isn't an alternate word or concept because I
think it would just be a euphamism for slave owning. <snip>

Carol responds:

JKR may not have supplied an alternate term, but such a term does
exist in English: "servitude." Servitude can be voluntary or
involuntary. In the case of House-Elves, it's usually voluntary.
House-Elves exist to serve Wizards. That is their nature, their "end,"
their raison d'etre, their be all and end all. They have no other
purpose and no other desire. Their servitude becomes involuntary only
when they hate or despise their masters. The Malfoys were cruel to
Dobby, who, unusually for a House-Elf, tried to aid an enemy of his
masters (but punished himself for disloyalty to the old ones, a
separate problem from the so-called slavery itself). Kreacher, too,
aided and abetted his master's enemy, but only because he didn't
consider Sirius Black his rightful master; he was a traitor to his
parents and the Blacks in general. (Kreacher, too, ends up with
bandaged hands, but serving Miss Narcissa instead of Sirius is worth
it to him.)

Both Kreacher and Dobby turn, not to other Elves or to Goblins or to
their own resources, but to a different Witch or Wizard, whom they
wish to serve in place of their current master(s). Dobby may be a
"free" Elf, but he places himself in voluntary servitude to Harry
(without pay) and Dumbledore (for less pay and fewer days off than DD
offers because he likes work more than he likes money, which he uses
only to buy socks). Winky, "freed" and then hired by DD, still
considers Mr. Crouch her master. She can refuse to work and become a
drunk because the enchantment that forces her to obey has been
removed, but she is miserable. She *wants* to work, just not for
Dumbledore, who is not, in her view, her master. She wants to return
to her wholly voluntary servitude.

So we have the Hogwarts House-Elves, happy in their voluntary
servitude, Winky happy in her voluntary servitude and miserable when
she's "freed"; Kreacher happy in his voluntary servitude to the
Blacks, unhappy and subversive in his involuntary servitude to Sirius
and contented again in his voluntary servitude to "Master Harry" (who
has shown respect for the dead master Kreacher truly loves); Dobby
miserable in his involuntary servitude to the Malfoys but happily
volunteering his services to Harry as a "free Elf" (and, of course,
miserably wandering the WW until he finds a Wizard who will pay him
enough to buy socks in the interim, in company with the newly "freed"
Winky, for whom "freedom" is misery).

Will that do? "Servitude" rather than slavery? That's all there is for
House-Elves, and they likes it just fine, miss, so long as they're not
abused.

Carol, who thinks that human slavery, which is neither natural nor
desirable from the viewpoint of the slaves, is wholly different from
the natural servitude of the House-Elves, who like what they do and
are suited for it, much more so than Trelawney or Hagrid are suited
for teaching