I somehow ended up on this blog entry and I just can't help to comment in it.
I've never been much of a forum person, and since most of the Harry Potter discussion happened in the time where forums are the places to go to talk about fandom things, I don't really know how people perceive her character and Vernon. Sometimes I lurked around and the one thing that I can remember is when people comparing Petunia's dislike of magic to racism. I have to disagree.
Personally, since the very first book, I always think that Petunia was jealous of Lily. That opinion never changed, and Snape's memory about Lily and Petunia only confirmed it, if the fact that she still remembered things about the magic world she claimed to hate in book three wasn't enough telling that she was once very interested about the magic world.
I'd like to add one more point that adds to Petunia's jealousy towards Lily, besides the looks and the magic ability points that you have already made. Petunia felt that because of all those, her parent adored Lily much much more than her. She felt that Lily robbed their attention from her.
Now I don't know about Vernon. He might be as bad as his sister, he might not. I'm actually leaning towards the first. Then one day he knew about all the magic world from Petunia and... from Petunia's point of view, thus he came to the conclusion that magic is so very evil and all that. I don't know, I see Vernon as more of a jerk (to Harry or to anyone that he thinks is lower in status than him) than Petunia ever be. And that tendencies rubbed to Petunia, and also the catalyst that led Petunia to believe she was the superior one.
This has gotten so long, I'm sorry. I'd like to comment on James-Sirius-Snape matter too but then I'll be writing a blog entry in your comment section. D:
Wow. I'd completely forgotten I'd ever written this until you commented. I took Harry Potter seriously back in the day (who am I kidding, I still do).
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I think Petunia's dislike of magic had everything to do with Lily, not really magic itself. I think it's hard to determine whose personality rubbed off on the other first, Petunia or Vernon, especially since we don't know anything about Vernon before he met Petunia.
Feel free to comment on James-Sirius-Snape. I don't hate James and Sirius as much as I used to (yay maturity!) but I still think their behavior was reprehensible. Sirius' attempt to "trick" Snape into visiting a werewolf should have gotten him expelled to be honest.
That being said, Snape wasn't a saint either. He may not have been a bully, but he spent all his time hanging around people who wouldn't bat an eye if a muggleborn was killed. A lot of them grew up to become Death Eaters and torture Muggles and muggleborns for fun, so it's not exactly shocking that anyone would hate them.
It could be argued that the Slytherins were Snape's housemates and if he didn't go along with them then his life would have been miserable, so he had no choice...but that's not the way it was presented in the book. To anyone in Gryffindor (or the rest of the school in general) Snape was guilty by association. That's not an excuse to bully and torment him, but it sure didn't help.
I'm thinking about this far too much now. Anyway, you can comment again if you'd like :)
Being a victim of domestic violence and constant bulling it is no surprise to see Snape turn bad. Study after study has shown that school shooters were isolated and constantly bullied. One common thread to serial killers as well. Bullies are a huge problem to mental health. We should never accept it and should realize that popular people should not be excused for their behavior.
Petunia should not have abused her own nephew, but Petunia's parents should have done the right thing and gave her the attention she needed. She is a victim of parental favoritism and neglect.
Her own sister seemed to not care how her "special-ness" was hurting her own sister. You see this with celebrity siblings too. They often live in depression because of the limelight their siblings receive and suffer feelings of inadequacies. My main gripe now that I am older is that the story perpetuates the special-ness of magic beings and disregards the feelings and worth of the magic-less muggles (by the way doesn't that sound like an awful name and a bulling word?).
I somehow ended up on this blog entry and I just can't help to comment in it.
ReplyDeleteI've never been much of a forum person, and since most of the Harry Potter discussion happened in the time where forums are the places to go to talk about fandom things, I don't really know how people perceive her character and Vernon. Sometimes I lurked around and the one thing that I can remember is when people comparing Petunia's dislike of magic to racism. I have to disagree.
Personally, since the very first book, I always think that Petunia was jealous of Lily. That opinion never changed, and Snape's memory about Lily and Petunia only confirmed it, if the fact that she still remembered things about the magic world she claimed to hate in book three wasn't enough telling that she was once very interested about the magic world.
I'd like to add one more point that adds to Petunia's jealousy towards Lily, besides the looks and the magic ability points that you have already made. Petunia felt that because of all those, her parent adored Lily much much more than her. She felt that Lily robbed their attention from her.
Now I don't know about Vernon. He might be as bad as his sister, he might not. I'm actually leaning towards the first. Then one day he knew about all the magic world from Petunia and... from Petunia's point of view, thus he came to the conclusion that magic is so very evil and all that. I don't know, I see Vernon as more of a jerk (to Harry or to anyone that he thinks is lower in status than him) than Petunia ever be. And that tendencies rubbed to Petunia, and also the catalyst that led Petunia to believe she was the superior one.
This has gotten so long, I'm sorry. I'd like to comment on James-Sirius-Snape matter too but then I'll be writing a blog entry in your comment section. D:
Wow. I'd completely forgotten I'd ever written this until you commented. I took Harry Potter seriously back in the day (who am I kidding, I still do).
DeleteI agree with pretty much everything you said. I think Petunia's dislike of magic had everything to do with Lily, not really magic itself. I think it's hard to determine whose personality rubbed off on the other first, Petunia or Vernon, especially since we don't know anything about Vernon before he met Petunia.
Feel free to comment on James-Sirius-Snape. I don't hate James and Sirius as much as I used to (yay maturity!) but I still think their behavior was reprehensible. Sirius' attempt to "trick" Snape into visiting a werewolf should have gotten him expelled to be honest.
That being said, Snape wasn't a saint either. He may not have been a bully, but he spent all his time hanging around people who wouldn't bat an eye if a muggleborn was killed. A lot of them grew up to become Death Eaters and torture Muggles and muggleborns for fun, so it's not exactly shocking that anyone would hate them.
It could be argued that the Slytherins were Snape's housemates and if he didn't go along with them then his life would have been miserable, so he had no choice...but that's not the way it was presented in the book. To anyone in Gryffindor (or the rest of the school in general) Snape was guilty by association. That's not an excuse to bully and torment him, but it sure didn't help.
I'm thinking about this far too much now. Anyway, you can comment again if you'd like :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBeing a victim of domestic violence and constant bulling it is no surprise to see Snape turn bad. Study after study has shown that school shooters were isolated and constantly bullied. One common thread to serial killers as well. Bullies are a huge problem to mental health. We should never accept it and should realize that popular people should not be excused for their behavior.
ReplyDeletePetunia should not have abused her own nephew, but Petunia's parents should have done the right thing and gave her the attention she needed. She is a victim of parental favoritism and neglect.
Her own sister seemed to not care how her "special-ness" was hurting her own sister. You see this with celebrity siblings too. They often live in depression because of the limelight their siblings receive and suffer feelings of inadequacies. My main gripe now that I am older is that the story perpetuates the special-ness of magic beings and disregards the feelings and worth of the magic-less muggles (by the way doesn't that sound like an awful name and a bulling word?).