Character Critique: Petunia Dursley
You might be surprised that I chose Petunia so soon as her part is relatively minor. The reason is that I'm doing this as characters appear in the series, which will hopefully make it easier to keep track.
So, what are your thoughts on Petunia? Do you see her as a villain or believe her character is more nuanced, even sympathetic?
I went with 2. Eh, not one of my favorites.
Petunia is certainly not a favourite character of mine but I think of her as a bitter woman with a bit sympathetic lens, not the vile creature of absolute hell abused! Harry and Severitus fics make her out.
Petunia's tragedy is tied with her jealousy towards her sister for having magic and being special unlike her. She felt lesser due to her sister being magical, beautiful, favoured by her parents and being centre of attention. She overcompensated by trying to becoming as normal as possible, marrying a man as normal as one can get, living as normal life as one can, to the point of cutting out her sister from her otherwise normal life.
Petunia had some latent feelings of guilt about the way she had cut Lily (whom she knew, in her secret heart, had always loved her) out of her life, but these were buried under considerable jealousy and bitterness. Petunia had also buried deep inside her (and never confessed to Vernon) her long-ago hope that she, too, would show signs of magic, and be spirited off to Hogwarts.
My issue with her is when Petunia later got unwanted custody of her nephew, she did it grudgingly, and spent the rest of Harry’s childhood punishing him for her own choice of raising him. She let her old bitterness overcome her, and let her husband Vernon mistreat him for his resemblance to his father James Potter who he disliked since their first meeting.
Petunia had Harry doing more house chores than a child of his age, gave him old clothes of Dudley over giving him new clothes and worst was keeping him in cupboard under the stairway over a room (which he got later after threats from Hagrid). It was not like Dursleys were poor, Vernon earned well to the point of over spoiling Dudley with him getting over 30 gifts in each birthday, compared to giving none to Harry.
So to conclude, Petunia is pitiable but she doesn't have any excuse for her treatment of Harry. Most she did for him was providing him shelter and protection by blood, she denied him love as a family member, a thing she shouldn't have done.
I went with "Eh, not one of my favorites." as well although I think, from a writing perspective, she's a great character. She has so many edges and insecurities and stuff to build a story on, that's always great! And with the right arc, she could also become more palatable.
But since I'm an avid Snamione shipper, I don't have many opportunities to write with her so she never grew on me and I can pretty well do without her. 😅
I voted for "she's okay" (3), though it probably would've been 2 if I wasn't a writer. As Charlotte said, she's a great character from a writing perspective. The scenes I've written between her and Severus are some of my favorites, both in my own stories and the Round Robin I did with @thegestaltprince.
Canonically speaking? I don't like the way she treated Harry either, but I mostly feel sorry for her. I also can't help seeing parallels between her and Severus, both bitter and biased for different yet oddly similar reasons. Both of them did what they did for Harry out of guilt toward/love for Lily. Both resented him because he reminded them of their own pain. That made it impossible for either of them to see him clearly… like Severus, Petunia was never able to see Harry for who he was, only what he represented.
It's a shame and those cases, because in the end, I think they hurt themselves more than they ever hurt Harry. It might not be as obvious in Petunia's case since she did have a family, but in her own way, she never truly healed or learned to move on from the past.
It's hard to like Petunia because she tried to hit Harry with a frying pen.. First of all, I think I did a good job by buying Harry glasses (an old thing...) and 'probably' taking good care of Harry's teeth.
Eh. She's okay. To be fair, I am indifferent about most characters in the franchise. Severus is my only favorite character so take that as you will. Petunia is pretty much like Lily, in my opinion. She just didn't have the magic in her blood which was the basis of her resentment towards Severus and Lily. After all, the apple doesn't fall far from a tree.
As for her treatment regarding Harry, I don't really have an opinion on that except she wasn't duty bound to treat him like her own child. She did the bare minimum and that's it. Guess, I may be a heartless prick.
Quote from Heatherlly on March 12, 2024, 2:22 amI voted for "she's okay" (3), though it probably would've been 2 if I wasn't a writer. As Charlotte said, she's a great character from a writing perspective. The scenes I've written between her and Severus are some of my favorites, both in my own stories and the Round Robin I did with @thegestaltprince.
Canonically speaking? I don't like the way she treated Harry either, but I mostly feel sorry for her. I also can't help seeing parallels between her and Severus, both bitter and biased for different yet oddly similar reasons. Both of them did what they did for Harry out of guilt toward/love for Lily. Both resented him because he reminded them of their own pain. That made it impossible for either of them to see him clearly… like Severus, Petunia was never able to see Harry for who he was, only what he represented.
It's a shame and those cases, because in the end, I think they hurt themselves more than they ever hurt Harry. It might not be as obvious in Petunia's case since she did have a family, but in her own way, she never truly healed or learned to move on from the past.
I agree with that you said, @heatherlly!
I voted for "She's Okay" because while I don't like how she treated Harry (or Lily and Severus), from a writing standpoint, I like to pick apart her character and see what makes her tick and makes her the way she is in order to understand her.
Petunia has always been a complex character for me. I feel she is nuanced -- like there is something more to her than what we see of her, but yet, she sometimes makes me so frustrated because of it. I do see the same parallels between her and Severus, but I also can't help seeing Lily and Petunia as foil's to each other; Petunia being name after a flower that represents resentment and anger, while Lily is named after a flower that represents purity and love. It's just so meaningful that their names and their meanings fit their personalities, along with the fact that the alternative meaning for Petunia's is "wanting the comfort of another person."
I'm a big fan of character names and meanings playing a part into their personality and explaining who they are, and to me, the author made it loud and clear with Petunia for sure---Petunia is insecure and jealous over her younger sister being a witch. Clearly, Petunia wanted to be a part of that world with Lily, but couldn't because she was a Muggle, which only made Petunia resent her sister and anything to do with the magical world for the rest of her life. And that, in itself, is a tragedy. But it still doesn't excuse her behavior for treating her nephew so terribly.
