Servants and Slaves

Abstract

At the beginning of Stone Harry appears to be a sort of boy Cinderella in the Dursleys’ home, being maltreated and made to do all the housework (he is set to fry bacon and eggs pretty much as soon as he is properly introduced to the reader), while his cousin Dudley is showered with presents and spoiled. He lives in a cupboard under the stairs, a space that serves as both bedroom and punishment chamber. Cousin Dudley and his friends bully Harry constantly, his Aunt and Uncle shout abuse at him as often as they set eyes on him and otherwise neglect him. When the move to secondary school is imminent, the reader is informed that Dudley will go to Vernon’s old school while Harry will go to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive (Stone 28). In being transported to Magic world Harry’s lot in life changes substantially. Instead of being abused and put to work he finds himself in an environment where he is particularly favoured (he is famous already), and where work is apparently not an issue. At Hogwarts the food seems to appear spontaneously on the plate, and no one mentions the need to dust or clean the sumptuous apartments that the students occupy — at least in Stone. Domestic chores in Magic households, judging from the Weasleys’ Burrow, also seem to be relatively painless: while Mrs. Weasley does take the trouble to fry sausages and sends her sons off to ‘de-gnome’ the garden, cleaning is automatic with the use of a wand (Chamber 31), and there is even magical help with cooking (books in the kitchen have titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking and One Minute Feasts — It’s Magic, all literally meant no doubt [Chamber 31]).