The Letters from No One

I am just flying through this book. Oh Harry, I've missed you in my life! So glad to be back in this world. On Wednesday I spent about 2 hours sitting in the park and reading in the sun. I literally cannot remember the last time I did that. The weather today has also been amazing, but my conscience has gotten the better of me and so I've resisted the temptation to just forget about work and enjoy rediscovering JK Rowling's magical universe...barely. 

Chapter 3 - The Letters from No One

This chapter is just so much fun, because things finally start happening! Let's recap, briefly, the events:

Harry spends a miserable number of weeks locked in the cupboard under the stairs because he accidentally set free a boa constrictor. It's well into the summer holidays when Harry, for the first time in his life, receives a letter.

I'm going to veer off a bit here to address a comment made on Corrie's Things We Take for Granted: CUtS post by Nicky. In the comment, Nicky raised the question of the 'no meals' part of Harry's punishment. I've gone back and re-read the passages relating to this (p. 26 and 27 in the Bloomsbury Children's Paperback edition from 1997) to see what exactly is written:

• He managed to say, 'Go - cupboard - stay - no meals,' before he collapsed into a chair...
• Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.*

While it's not exactly clear, I take this to mean that in the first instance - i.e. as soon as they arrive home from the zoo - Harry is punished by not being given dinner. I don't think this extends to the duration of Harry's stint in the cupboard. I mean, he must have been let out if for no other reason than the fact that he still had to go to school. The Dursleys are all about keeping up appearances, so afraid to be judged or seen as different - if Harry missed school, questions would be asked. I honestly don't think the Dursleys starved Harry - as much as they hate him, they don't want to kill him!...right?

Also, it says the boys in Dudley's school carry a stick which they use to hit each other. Is this a real thing? Or is JK Rowling taking a stereotype of boarding schools and exaggerating it?

But back to the letter - who is it from?! And why won't the Dursleys let Harry read it? Why does it scare them so much? Also, can we focus on the fact that the perceived solution to this new problem is to move Harry out of the cupboard? Did they honestly think that if it looked like they were treating Harry better, he wouldn't receive another letter? What exactly were they hoping to achieve by this - it's not really in line with their previous behavior towards Harry.

Harry's first letter (photo taken at the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden)

As wonderful as it is seeing the Dursleys so wound up, I can’t help but wonder at the sheer amount of letters that Harry receives. It starts innocently enough – 1 letter each on Tuesday and Wednesday, then 3 on Thursday and building up to 12 on Friday. On Saturday he gets 24 letters and on Sunday I have no idea how many exactly – the book says there are at least 30-40. At the hotel the next morning the owner informs them that there are “about an ‘undred of these at the front desk.” Just think about that for a second – that’s almost 200 letters in the space of a week!

I understand that the reaction of the Dursleys adds great comedy to the story – I chuckled a number of times during this chapter – but it still begs the question: why was it necessary to send so many? This is skipping ahead to chapter 4 but it illustrates my point a bit – the letter clearly states that Hogwarts expects a reply by July 31^st. That means that Harry would have had more than a week from the original letter to decide to go or not. Surely it must happen from time to time that someone doesn’t respond to their invitation immediately by return owl – just think of all the Muggleborns for whom this is undoubtedly a life-changing decision. Do they also get bombarded by letters? I doubt it.

So is it just happening because it’s Harry Potter who’s not responding? Or is it all done on such a large scale precisely to antagonize the Dursleys – I can just picture Dumbledore sitting in his office enjoying himself as Vernon goes slowly crazy. What are people’s thoughts on this?

I also question Vernon’s decision to take the whole family to an abandoned hut on a random rock way out to sea. Let’s not even think about how much danger this poses to everyone on the tiny boat (he is clearly endangering not just Harry, but his precious Petunia and Dudley as well), but did he really think this would work? These are magical people he is dealing with after all. I suppose he is thinking about this in a purely (semi)logical Muggle manner – no postman would try to deliver a letter to them there. However, why doesn’t Petunia just tell him that wizards communicate by owl? Surely, growing up with Lily, she would know this.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever thought about these things in this much detail before – I guess I just took them for granted as simply being a part of the story. And perhaps these are silly things to be focusing on. Whatever the case may be, I leave you here for now.

Until next time,

Lucia

* Disclaimer: Copyright © Text Joanne Rowling 1997