Hermione & the Elves (was: Wands and Wizards)

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 183775

> > Mike:
> > SPEW was all well and good during GoF, when 
> > there was no Voldemort threat (that they knew of).
> > 
> 
> Montavilla47:
> Do you mean by the end of GoF or OotP?  In OotP, Hermione is
> so committed to freeing the slaves that she tries to trick them
> into it with the hats.

Mike:
Umm, Hermione knit the Elf hats/cozies in GoF. 
So yeah, I meant GoF.


> Montavilla47:
> She *may* have changed her mind by HBP, but IIRC, she doesn't say
> *anything* about elves in the entire book, so it's hard to tell.

Mike:
You're right about HBP. There's really only the one scene where 
Kreacher and Dobby are making their Draco reports wherein Hermione 
says anything about elves. I'm not even sure that she knew Harry was 
Kreacher's master until this scene. Harry inherited Kreacher and sent 
him off to Hogwarts all in that one evening at the Dursleys. He 
doesn't see Kreacher again until he's in the hospital wing with Ron, 
and Hermione wasn't there.

I thought she changed her stance by the beginning of OotP. Well, 
sorta. She does one time suggest to Sirius that he set Kreacher free. 
Which Sirius shuts down flat, as both Kreacher knowing too much about 
the Order and that the shock of leaving 12 GP would kill him. But 
mostly she seemed to talk of improving Kreacher's lot. I think she 
has decided to concentrate on the last two letters of her acronym, 
which was after all "Elfish Welfare" not Elfish Freedom.


> Montavilla47:
> This is something that real life slaves did, too.

Mike:
I shouldn't write posts late at night. I'm surprised you could 
understand what I wrote well enough to respond. You're right, of 
course, there wasn't any distinction between RL slaves undermining 
their masters and elves doing it.


> > Mike:
> > There is nothing in canon that makes me think
> > of human slavery when I see the House Elves.
>
> 
> Montavilla47:
> Well, I would assume she was drawing parallels when she had Dobby
> call himself a slave, and Hermione calling the House-Elves at 
> Hogwarts slaves.  I think that qualifies as canon.

Mike:
Sheesh, my post was awful, wasn't it? OK, what I was trying to say 
was that JKR's elves read like brownies or Hobs from familiar 
folklore. I know that story of the little people-like creatures that 
are rarely seen or come out only at night to clean the house they've 
been magically linked to. JKR makes her elves a lot more visible. 
That's fine, that's her spin on the tale, she's making them her own 
version.

But then she adds some nebuluous charm or enchantment or something 
that wizards have somehow tacked onto the natural elven enchantment 
to serve the house they've adopted. She never tells us what this 
charm was, how it came into being, how it now seems to now apply to 
all elves when they're born, etc. No, the only thing we get is the 
ramblings of the one odd-ball elf of the whole species that seems to 
want his "freedom". We don't know what part this added charm plays in 
the elf enchantment. 

Is it what causes their desire to serve? I doubt it. Nor do I think 
it binds them to the house, I think that's part of their natural 
state. Self-punishment? Yeah, probably added by wizards. Unable to 
disobey a direct order? I'm not sure if this is endemic to elves or a 
wizard enhancement.

Still, I'm not seeing a parallel to RL slavery, I'm seeing a parallel 
to those other elves of folklore with an added twist. I think Pippin 
said it brilliantly when she called them satire. The elves were 
mostly there for comic relief. Even Kreacher was played mostly for 
fun. What with his "once more for luck" and his antics in HBP.

IOW, JKR may have tried to draw the parallel between human slavery 
and elf enslavement by having Dobby and Hermione use the word "slave" 
or "slavery", but the elves weren't portrayed as anything like human 
slaves in the book, IMHO.

One more thing about Kreacher. The smart thing to do would have been 
to give him clothes *before* the Order took up 12 GP as its HQ. But 
I'm sure DD saw that as a death sentence for Kreacher and instead was 
hoping for Sirius to treat Kreacher with more compassion and turn him 
into an ally instead of an enemy. Sirius obviously couldn't see past 
Kreacher's adoration for Ma Black and the rest of the Black 
"royalty" to do that.

So the Order end up treating Kreacher as a captured enemy combatant, 
but without keeping him under lock and key. If they had captured a 
human enemy, they wouldn't just let him go back to the enemy either. 
So I don't see the not letting Kreacher go to serve Bellatrix or 
another Black LV supporter as worse treatment than what would have 
been given to a human.

Mike