Things We Take For Granted: CUtS

Corrie here. I am by no means the first to think this through, but I did want to talk about this as it was the first time that I've ever really considered it - even after sixteen years of this being one of the most important chapters of a series in my life. We all know about it; it has become an important cultural reference in many places. I'm talking, of course, about the Cupboard Under the Stairs.

This person wrote an entire chapter of the last
book in their CUtS. (Source)

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

In a world that was initially aimed at children (I don't think you can still pretend this by the time you get to the Order of the Phoenix, if not before), JKR glossed over what was almost certainly hideous abuse. For the first ten years that Harry lived with the Dursleys, he lived in a cupboard under the stairs.

I know that many countries do not know the 'typical' layout of a British house, which is, of course, what JKR based this on. The cupboard under the stairs is typically the wedge shaped space underneath a flight of stairs leading to another floor. In many homes, it is converted into a cupboard and used to home cleaning supplies, coats and other sundry items. My own CUtS has my washing machine, small freezer, vacuum cleaner, mop, cat travel case and other pet related miscellany lying around. In the first home I lived in that even had one, we used this space as the space for the dog beds. In the home I spent most of my teenage years in, there was no space for even the dogs. As a (smaller than average) twelve year old, I couldn't even fit into the space if I crawled on my hands and knees.

I do not know if we could ever have fitted a child's bed into the space, in the past or at present - I do know that if we wanted to, and really worked at it (probably doing a few IKEA hacks along the way) we could possibly fit in a bed but literally nothing else. This is perfectly illustrated by the cupboard under the stairs used in the Harry Potter films, which you can examine if you travel to the Warner Bros Studios just outside London for the Harry Potter Experience. It's tiny. (Apparently I didn't take any photos of this. The photo belongs to Lucia.) Look at the size of that (child's) boot, and how big it is in relation to the space.

The Warner Bros Studio cupboard under the stairs.

In Chapter Two, we learn a lot about how Harry is punished for huge lengths of time by being put into the cupboard and locked there. Shortly after the boa constrictor incident, Chapter Three starts by telling us that Harry earned his longest punishment and "By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started..." True, we don't know when he went in...but it can be assumed that it is a lengthy time.

Please think about this for a moment. As a 2/3/4/5 year old, being locked in a dark, confined space with little to occupy you, three walls, a ceiling and a small bed - one wall short of a prison cell. Even a little older and better able to understand, being in a small space, unable to leave, punished for doing things he had no control over - namely, magic. Hours and hours and hours spent lying on a small bed, the ceiling less than a metre from your nose (perhaps this is why Harry is severely short-sighted...more on that speculation later). Alone, with absolutely no prospect of any improvement until he is 'an adult' - and does he know the law on this? Does he know he will be free at 18? Or is he expecting to spend the rest of his childhood to an indeterminate time in this captivity?

Image copyright Warner Bros.

Yet, because these ten years (by the way, the longest period in any of the Harry Potter time-frames where we learn about what happens to him - the whole series only takes place over seven years) take place before the story begins, we never think about it. I have never taken the time to marvel at Harry's character, how easily he makes friends with others his age, how although he hates the Dursley's, he never takes revenge, or even thinks about serious revenge for what they do to him. (At one point he does consider jinxing Dudley, but that comes later). How he gets 'a little angry'...wait until we get to the Order of the Phoenix...but that is really the worst of it.

This gives us one of the biggest themes in the series - certainly, the most important. Harry and Tom Riddle are brought up in horrific conditions - arguably, Harry's are worse. Yet they come out at the opposite ends of the spectrum, with Harry's 'capacity to love' his greatest strength, while Voldemort wants to dominate, control, kill people.

Source unknown.

I've never appreciated this as much as I do now, and it will certainly affect the way I see Harry in the future. There are so many things that come out of this discussion - but I will leave it at that for now, and head back to the book for some more deeply thoughtful reading. 

Much love,

Corrie xx

I'd just like to add a disclaimer that I do not know what spending this amount of time living in a cupboard at home would do to a person. I know he was not in there all the time, went to school, obviously knew how to cook, had been to Mrs Figgs house, obviously visited the optician. But our rooms, as children, are our safe havens. I do not have professional opinions on the issue, and all views are my own and deeply emotional.