Petunia... Where to begin? I thought that she would be a relatively easy character to write, bearing some signs of almost Roald Dahl-ish small-time villainy. Petty, small-minded, and relatively one-sided.

However, upon writing her, I'm discovering that Petunia isn't quite like Vernon. She seems more... complex and multifaceted, especially when it comes to the potential dynamic between her and Snape.

How would you characterise her (contradictory) personality? She doesn't like Harry, but she was willing to clothe him. She is jealous of Lily, avoiding her wedding, but she still maintained some contact with her: they exchanged Christmas gifts.

Moreover, if James was still alive, how would he interact with Petunia? Would Petunia be bitter? Angry? Snobby? And how would her interactions with James be any different to her interactions with Snape, whom she knows was the childhood friend and truly "one who stole Lily away" into the Wizarding World?

Urgh, damn Rowling for creating deceptively complex characters...

 

I think she, in classic small villain method, changes to suit the circumstances that she finds herself. So when its just her, Vernon and Harry she acts more like Vernon, but when its just her and Harry she acts a bit more kindly towards him. When she's with the neighbours she is the perfect wife for Vernon, when she is dealing with the school/doctors etc she is the perfect mother. She puts on a new skin for every situation and perfectly fake in all of them.

 

As far as I remember, this entire exchange wasn't because Vernon was showing any heart, but moreso because he was dreading that there seemed to be something going on regarding his nephew and he REALLY didn't want to become involved in any of it. He was merely trying to determine if the 'Harry Potter' he'd heard about on the street could have been the same one, and was more disappointed that it seemed it was.

 

... I fail to see how that undermines anything what Sesc was trying to say (which I agree with).

 

I've always seen Petunia as a small minded, bitter, self-hating individual with a huge inferiority complex. She was pissed because Lily was more special than she was (letter to Dumbledore begging to go to Hogwarts), and she felt that she could never match up with Lily.

IMHO Petunia seemed to be a driving factor at times against Harry (trying to hit him with the frying pan, butchering his hair, giving him shitty clothes). Vernon doesn't force her hand to make Harry's life miserable, she does that herself. These actions, and also her ridiculous spoiling of Dudley, were likely done to 'even the score' with Lily. She thought Lily was so special and her parents favored her, so she favored Dudley and fucked Harry over out of petty spite.

That said, she didn't want her sister dead, and thus she provides the most essential things for Harry to survive.

If James was alive (assuming Lily was dead), I think Petunia would wash her head of the Wizarding world entirely. She would want nothing to do with the 'freaks' and would probably do her best to forget Lily.

If they were forced to interact, I think Petunia would be very standoffish, angry, and a little fearful -- she doesn't understand magic, and it killed her sister. Under no circumstance would I say she would be repentant or contrite in her beliefs, nor would her behavior change towards Harry just because James is alive and Lily isn't. In fact, she might go out of her way to show how much 'better' Dudley is than Harry in front of James just to belittle his 'magical' son.

 

@Addicted: Of course not, I was trying to expand on it using my own perceptions of their personalities. Is that wrong?

I can't imagine James wanting anything to do with the Dursleys if Lily's dead--or if she's alive, for that matter. Lily might want it, but I don't imagine either Vernon or James being enthusiastic about the others' family in any way, and at best grudgingly tolerant or outright ignoring each other. Petunia's relationship with Lily was fairly complex; I have no doubt there was a lot of jealousy, but I also can't deny that she probably still loved her sister in whatever way her emotionally stunted, arrogant mind was capable of. She's by no means a good person, but I find it hard to deny that she felt something for her own family.

 

As Sesc rightfully quoted, Petunia runs shit, and vascilates between resentment of Harry and outright hatred. Unless Harry's limited POV is obscuring something, it takes a particularly unhinged person to swing a frying pan at a child.

 

Okay, I can understand Petunia's behaviour towards Harry: petty, small-minded, and cruel. I've gotten that much from the books.

What I was really concerned about, as alluded in the OP, was how Petunia would interact with James and Snape. Would she behave any differently between the two of them? One's the man who married Lily, while the other is the "one who stole her away". Would she be more virulent towards Snape?

And how would her interactions with these adults be any different to her interactions with Harry in canon? Granted, she'd be less aggressive towards the adults, since they won't have the patience to deal with her crap.

But how differently?

 

I think she would feel the most resentment towards Snape. She barely seems to know James and despises him on principle. But Snape's the one that took Lily away from her and brought that awful world into her home. She might not really think about it now, but the moment she sees him, he'd going to be the fault of everything.

 

I can agree with Violent's logic. I think she'd still hate James as much as any other wizard (perhaps a BIT more since he married Lily), but she would definitely LOATH snape.

 

Come on we all know Petunia is only bitter because she didn't get the awesome green eyes. Duh

 

"A wild NOOB appeared!

Go! ACERBIC COMMENT!"

@ViolentRed: So her reactions to Snape would be more virulent than her interactions with James and even Harry? I imagined that Petunia would be angry/bitter towards Harry, since he would remind her of Lily, and frosty/indifferent towards James, with perhaps a layer of fear and/or aversion.

Is it possible that Petunia's hatred towards Snape would outweigh even James and Co's aversion towards him? Somehow, Petunia's bone to pick with Snape seems more personal, beyond mere schoolyard grudges...

 

I actually feel that Petunia has some of the worst characterization of any character in fanfiction. Possibly because people see her in one light only, or try and justify her actions as those of a timid, bullied housewife.

Imagine, if you will, a relationship you had with a peer when you were very young where you were both very close. Now imagine that the person in question was told they were and proven to be better and more important than you. Then imagine they are taken away to have an amazing life filled with constantly amazing and incredible things while you had to carry along with the dull pointless life that the pair of you were supposed to share. Now imagine that for the next seven years you only see this person for three months at a time and they're full of stories that sound amazing about a world you can't possibly relate to and about people who think of you as nothing.

If you can imagine all this, you will understand everything you need to know about Petunia Dursley.

A theme of Harry Potter (or at least one that I've seen) is how people deal with lesser and greater traumatic events in their childhood. Dumbledore, Harry, Voldemort, Luna, Sirius, Lupin, Snape and Petunia (I'm sure there are more) all have a pretty terrible time of it when they were young and each is a product of where and how they grew up.

You can't exactly justify the way that she treated Harry, but you can at least understand quite how broken she is.

 

You are a genius mate. Did JKR have any traumatic events in her childhood which compelled her to write this story? Or is it just a common theme for writing a children story? Because in almost every fucking children story the hero somehow suffers in his childhood. They are children stories for fuck's sake.

 

I find it lame to be honest, there is no justification but every hero needs evil relatives. It shows how the hero remains "pure" under terrible circumstances.

 

Petunia as the bullied housewife is bullshit. I never thought Vernon bullied her into being a cunt, it seems that she turned Vernon around to her way of thinking, not that it would be hard but still.

Yeah, what they said ^^.

 

A lot of these cliches are starting to spiral out of control

 

I was under the impression that Petunia was terrified of Snape. Didn't she refer to him somewhere (Book 3?) as "that awful, horrible boy," before getting too shaken up to say anything more on the subject ?

As for how she'd act around James...who knows ? If she'd been exposed to him before sixth year, he'd most likely pranked or hexed her enough to inspire loathing. Anytime after that, she'd most likely be indifferent - and still a bit fearful.

 

I suspect that Dudley is the only person Petunia truly cares about besides herself. She would even betray Vernon if she felt it were in her long term best interests to do so.

If the Dursleys were ever facing prison time for their treatment of Harry, you can bet she would try to use hubby as a patsy as soon as she realized the police weren't buying her attempts to blame Harry. Vernon, of course, would return the favor.

Has there ever been a story were the Dursleys turned on each other?