Existential Angst in Dobby and Kreacher, the House-elves in the ‘Harry Potter’ Series

Abstract

It was a long held belief that essence precedes existence which meant that everyone could blame their nature for each and every one of their actions. But with the arrival of the existentialist movement in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the focus shifted from essence to existence. This resulted in a new kind of claim, existence precedes essence. One of the best examples highlighting this claim can be found in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Its three major characters prove the mettle of this claim with their actions. But this does not mean that they are the only examples which support this claim in the series. Many other minor characters fulfil this claim as well. The most interesting among them are Dobby and Kreacher who are representatives of the class of House-elves. Though they are minor characters and cannot be classified as humans but this does not mean that they do not experience any sort of existential angst compared to the human characters. Dobby and Kreacher, too, are individuals whose decisions and choices decide their essence and not the other way around.