hey I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series and was wondering what your thoughts were on the house-elves and SPEW?
I understood where Hermione was coming from, because FUCK SLAVERY—but SPEW was set up all wrong. I believe it was mentioned in an interview that all of the house-elves were under a spell that compelled them not only to be slaves to the wizards, but to be good and devoted ones. (Dobby seems to have been something of an anomaly.)
Hermione never tried to break this spell, which would have at least restored their ability to choose whether they wanted to serve or not. She never did any research about the house-elf culture that had grown up in hundreds of years of ensorcelled servitude; she never bothered to learn about their values, their traditions, their beliefs, or their ways of coping with horrible masters. She never asked the house-elves what they wanted from wizards.
And I can see why she reacted the way she did. She was a kid, and a rather idealistic one. More important, she was a Muggleborn. She didn’t grow up with the idea (as Ron did) that house-elf slavery was normal. She saw something that was wrong, and she wanted to fix it.
The problem was that she attacked the effect and not the cause. Instead of eliminating the spell compelling them to serve (for they still would have been able to serve if they chose), she started trying to give the house-elves clothing in order to free them—clothing which she knew that they didn’t want and regarded as an insult. It never occurred to her that she was doing the same thing that the wizard who originally enchanted them had done: deciding to impose her will on an entire race because she believed that she knew what was best for them. That, in fact, her opinion mattered more than theirs did. Most of the time, the text (I think unconsciously) presented Hermione’s considerable efforts to create clothing and drum up dissent among the ranks as attempts to save lesser beings who didn’t understand that she was trying to help them. That the people she’s trying to help might have opinions of their own, might have things that they wanted more than Hermione’s agenda, or might have actually been trying to make their situation better in a very different way before SPEW came along…none of this is ever considered, either by Hermione or the narrative.
The worst part is that SPEW strengthens Hermione’s conviction that she has the right to impose her will on those who are weaker for their own good. She does the same thing in Deathly Hallows to her parents, taking away their choices, their decisions and, fundamentally, who they are because she believes that she knows best. Admittedly, she has more status than the house-elves and more magic than her parents, and yes, she means well. But…I’ve never believed that oppression is less oppressive when it’s imposed out of well-meant benevolence.
I would have been a lot happier if, after founding SPEW, Hermione had learned that she was doing it all wrong. I would have been delighted if removing her parents’ memories had had horrible consequences that taught her that imposing her will on others without their consent was wrong and damaging—even if she meant well. But that didn’t happen. The narrative presented SPEW as naive and foolish but not harmful, while removing her parents’ memories without telling them was presented as clever and completely reasonable…if emotionally painful for Hermione.
I really, really feel that Rowling dropped the ball by presenting this entitled attitude as a sign of Hermione’s goodness. Well-intentioned, yes. Good…no.
