CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 2: Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 189404



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> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
> Chapter 2: Aunt Marge's Big Mistake
> 
> Summary:
> Harry hears muggle news reports about Sirius Black's escape, but the focus soon shifts to the impending arrival of Aunt Marge, who has been very unpleasant to Harry on her previous visits to the Dursleys. Harry gets Uncle Vernon to agree that he will sign Harry's Hogsmeade permission slip if Harry behaves like a muggle during Aunt Marge's visit. Harry almost makes it through the week, but loses his temper on the last day when Aunt Marge insults his parents. Realizing that he could be in big trouble in the wizarding world for inflating Aunt Marge, he packs up and runs away from the Dursleys' house.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Seriously - what is wrong with Aunt Marge? What kind of person hits a 5-year old in the shins?

Geoff:
I am reminded of similar folk - often women whom I knew 
when I was a lot younger. They were often spinsters, very 
set in their ways who expected every thing to conform to
their idea of the world. Children were considered to be loose 
cannons who got in the way, were unpredictable, noisy 
and liable to undermine the peace and stability of their life 
style. 

I can see something in this, having a three year old 
granddaughter who is just transitioning from the Terrible 
Twos the the Tyrannical Threes.
:-))

Sometimes it can be frustration if they have never married.
I can remember as a child an elderly spinster who had lost 
her fiance in the First World War and had never been married
who had become a rather crabby and self-centred who 
complained bitterly about anyone and anything which did 
not meet her requirements.

In Aunt Marge, Jo Rowling also takes a humorous side swipe 
at a certain type that still exists today. I live nowadays in a 
rural part of the UK, which still thinks that banning hunting 
with dogs was a disaster. Ladies who go around in tweed 
suits and pamper two or three (usually small) dogs at home 
can be found even in 21st century England. If you do not go 
to Hunt balls or ride to see the Hunt meeting start, then you 
are either lower class or need to see a psychiatrist.
:-(