Well, idlerat makes a clarifying point about Winky's division of loyalties. But when I think of Winky, there are two images I can't get out of my head:
"Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty; it was as though someone invisible were tying to hold her back. 'There is bad wizards about!' she squeaked . . . "(GoF US Paperback p. 124)
And then a little later, pp 134-139. when she is being interrogated by Crouch and Diggory and a dozen armed Ministry people, she sticks to her story, refusing to implicate Crouch Jr, even though she's trembling and "tears are pouring down her cheeks," and even after Crouch dismisses her with clothes.
I really do think there's evidence here of a very strong will battling a very strong compulsion, and I think it's even more complicated than a two-way conflict of loyalties. She's defying Crouch Sr. for the sake of Crouch Jr., but she also wants to be able to denounce "bad wizards" on her own account, even though she must have seen Jr. cast Morsmordre, and even though Jr. himself may have been holding her back from approaching Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the first scene above. Under what must have been an unbelievably intimidating interrogation, she tries to play her own game on her own terms: she tries to stick to the literal truth -- that she didn't cast the spell, that she doesn't know how, that she picked the wand up off the ground -- but finally tells a direct lie when asked if she saw anyone. So not only is there a conflict of obsessions here, there is I think a three- or four-cornered internal moral struggle where Winky is trying, perhaps not successfully, to assert her own voice and shape events according to her own judgment and choices, in a situation that clearly bewilders and pretty much overwhelms her. That takes some toughness and independence of mind, even if it's she's not entirely successful.
As for Kreacher, although the morality of the situation is perhaps reversed, the principle I think is the same as with Dobby. Under the terms of whatever enchantment is operating on House Elves, he's bound to the Master of Grimmauld Place, who happens to be Sirius, even though his loyalties and inclinations lie elsewhere. Sirius won't dismiss him, because then he'd be free to run off to the DE's with all the Order's secrets -- which suggests that as long as he remains bound to Grimmauld and to Sirius, he is not free to do that, or at least that it causes him the same kind of fearful internal conflict as Dobby's defiance of the Malfoys. Nevertheless, Kreacher asserts his own will as much as he can, and engages in limited conspiracy with Narcissa and Bellatrix, and runs to them as soon as he is free.
Interesting speculation on the curse's relation to Imperius. I confess I don't remember whether it's canon or fanon that Imperius works by eroding your will, by making you feel like you don't care, that resistance isn't worth the trouble, rather than by the electric-shock-dog-collar principle that seems to be the case with the House Elves' enchantment. But the parallels are very suggestive. I wonder if individual House Elves have differing abilities to throw off the curse, or even defy it completely?
As for the war-alliance question -- I wonder what kind of leadership or large-group cohesion the House Elves have? It's just like the imperial overclass of wizards to assume they're atomized, have no loyalty or connections beyond their immediate place of service. But do you suppose that, under the wizarding radar, they have clans and chiefs and leading families and articulated relations? I wonder if anyone has speculated about this in fanfic.
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Date: 2004-10-04 04:49 am (UTC)"Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty; it was as though someone invisible were tying to hold her back. 'There is bad wizards about!' she squeaked . . . "(GoF US Paperback p. 124)
And then a little later, pp 134-139. when she is being interrogated by Crouch and Diggory and a dozen armed Ministry people, she sticks to her story, refusing to implicate Crouch Jr, even though she's trembling and "tears are pouring down her cheeks," and even after Crouch dismisses her with clothes.
I really do think there's evidence here of a very strong will battling a very strong compulsion, and I think it's even more complicated than a two-way conflict of loyalties. She's defying Crouch Sr. for the sake of Crouch Jr., but she also wants to be able to denounce "bad wizards" on her own account, even though she must have seen Jr. cast Morsmordre, and even though Jr. himself may have been holding her back from approaching Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the first scene above. Under what must have been an unbelievably intimidating interrogation, she tries to play her own game on her own terms: she tries to stick to the literal truth -- that she didn't cast the spell, that she doesn't know how, that she picked the wand up off the ground -- but finally tells a direct lie when asked if she saw anyone. So not only is there a conflict of obsessions here, there is I think a three- or four-cornered internal moral struggle where Winky is trying, perhaps not successfully, to assert her own voice and shape events according to her own judgment and choices, in a situation that clearly bewilders and pretty much overwhelms her. That takes some toughness and independence of mind, even if it's she's not entirely successful.
As for Kreacher, although the morality of the situation is perhaps reversed, the principle I think is the same as with Dobby. Under the terms of whatever enchantment is operating on House Elves, he's bound to the Master of Grimmauld Place, who happens to be Sirius, even though his loyalties and inclinations lie elsewhere. Sirius won't dismiss him, because then he'd be free to run off to the DE's with all the Order's secrets -- which suggests that as long as he remains bound to Grimmauld and to Sirius, he is not free to do that, or at least that it causes him the same kind of fearful internal conflict as Dobby's defiance of the Malfoys. Nevertheless, Kreacher asserts his own will as much as he can, and engages in limited conspiracy with Narcissa and Bellatrix, and runs to them as soon as he is free.
Interesting speculation on the curse's relation to Imperius. I confess I don't remember whether it's canon or fanon that Imperius works by eroding your will, by making you feel like you don't care, that resistance isn't worth the trouble, rather than by the electric-shock-dog-collar principle that seems to be the case with the House Elves' enchantment. But the parallels are very suggestive. I wonder if individual House Elves have differing abilities to throw off the curse, or even defy it completely?
As for the war-alliance question -- I wonder what kind of leadership or large-group cohesion the House Elves have? It's just like the imperial overclass of wizards to assume they're atomized, have no loyalty or connections beyond their immediate place of service. But do you suppose that, under the wizarding radar, they have clans and chiefs and leading families and articulated relations? I wonder if anyone has speculated about this in fanfic.