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

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 189397

Quoting Megan Real <poohmeg20 at yahoo.com>:

----------------------------------------------------------
> 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?

Aunt Marge, like the Dursley parents themselves, is a Roald Dahl-esque  
caricature.  That said, her treatment of Harry is intended to mark her  
out as a deserving target for Harry's eventual accidental magic.  If  
she'd been nice to Harry and he inflated her and ran off, the audience  
might be less sympathetic to him.


>
> 2. Given the little glimpse of Harry's life with the Dursleys that   
> we see at the beginning of each book, what do you think the   
> Dursleys' neighbors believe to be the reason that Harry attends St.   
> Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys? And do you think  
>  they are concerned that he is allowed to come home every summer?

I've had my doubts about the Dursleys' relations with their neighbors  
for quite some time.  I grew up in a small town; the adults I knew all  
knew which children went with which parents, and they'd have been  
getting reports from their own kids about the way a Dudley Dursley  
behaved which wouldn't jibe at all with what the Dursleys themselves  
said.  I wouldn't be surprised if the neighbors thought that _Dudley_  
was the one at St. Brutus', (assuming that they believe there is such  
an institution, or that the British type of reform school allows its  
inmates to come home for the hols...they don't, and this is common  
knowledge) and that the Dursleys were throwing all the blame on Harry.


>
> 3. Back to Aunt Marge - would you have been able to control yourself  
>  as long as Harry did? How about when you were his age?

I was brought up to be respectful to my elders, but in Harry's boots,  
I think I'd have figured out a way to make myself _extremely_ scarce  
for the time Aunt Marge was there.  That said, my parents wouldn't  
have tolerated Marge's behavior for one minute---the "Ripper" incident  
alone would have ensured that she was sent back home and told she was  
no longer welcome.


>
> 4. Do you think that students from wizarding families are watched as  
>  closely by the ministry to see if they perform magic during the   
> summer? Why or why not?

How could the Ministry tell when, say, one of the Weasley kids is  
doing magic from when Arthur or Molly is?  Wizard homes run on magic.   
And a family that's "in the know" and not close to Muggle neighbors  
would be less likely to inadvertently let the cat out of the bag.

>
> 5. OK, one more about Aunt Marge - can you think of any way in which  
>  she could have been written to be more unlikeable?

Difficult to say; perhaps if she were making blatant advances on someone?




----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.