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Often , certain words or phrases from lit or cinema simply become a part of our routine lexicon . Harry Potter ’s cupboard under the stairs is one such idiomatic expression — believe it or not it ’s actually an computer address in the Potterverse — that has entered the annals of history in the context of popular youngster ’s literature .
Harry Potter hold up in a closet under the stair until he was almost 11 years one-time . A scrawny picayune boy , Potter is introduce when Aunt Petunia bash on the door to this closet — more like a water closet really — in a tender to twitch Harry out of his nap . Although theDursleyshad to give in eventually and move Harry to Dudley ’s 2nd sleeping accommodation , the closet under the stair has become an indelible part of the canyon . lease ’s depend at some details that might have escape us in the procedure .
The Cupboard Was Spider-infested
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer ’s Stonethrew audiences headfirst into the magical world of Harry , with baton and owls who brought in the Wiley Post , disapparating wizards , three - headed dogs , and brilliant little witches with bushy hair and large teeth .
As viewers got sop up into the magical universe of this knobbly kneed wizard , some might have overlooked the little details about the cupboard under the staircase where our hero lived for the dependable part of his puerility . Among other thing , how many remember that Harry ’s cupboard was infested with spiders ? This was not very surprising since , in any other menage , this cupboard would have been a natural choice for a ling closet .
The Cupboard Was Not Well-Lit
nontextual matter byJim Kay .
The impression given by the films is thatHarry’scupboard was perhaps not that bad . For instance , aside from the debris surround his bottom , it could , in fact , be a cosy little den for a piddling boy .
However , the Book confirm that the closet was dark . It ’s not hard to opine that it was very severely light , perhaps with a single palely lit bulb flitter away , and very little light add up in from outside . After all , who build window inside a closet under the stairs ?
Sawdust Would Fall On Harry, Thanks To Dudley!
liveliness with the Dursleys was by no way easy ! Harry ’s immense brutish cousin would jump on the stair at the exact spot above Harry ’s closet and cover the latter with sawdust .
It seems foreign to recollect of ‘ the son who live ’ being torture by his spoilt , pound oaf of a first cousin in his growing up days . Hopefully , some strange thing happened during their childhood ; perhaps , Dudley suddenly started tap terpsichore in the zephyr each time he tried to jump or simply base himself standing at the bottom of the stairs every time he assay to run up and down the stairway . Maybe Rowling merely has n’t revealed that yet .
Harry’s Cupboard Had Electrical Wires & Whatnots
The cupboard under the stairs was , for all intents and purpose , wild to wellness and safety . It had , naturally , not been designed with the idea of someone , specially a baby , live inside it .
InThe Sorcerer ’s Stone , Harry aftermath up in his minuscule closet with a bunch of electrical lines , wires , loge and circuit board on the wall beside him . Odious as they were , did the Dursleys seriously be after to float up their trivial nephew and perchance the intact house , knowing very well he could have magical powers over which he had no mastery ?
Little Harry Had Some Friends Inside The Cupboard
No , we do n’t think the spiders , although more on that later . The Quaker Harry had were , unhappily , inanimate . They were the toy soldiers and Equus caballus that he played with while hanging out all alone in his unhealthy , insecure , wretched little closet .
There is the unlikely possibility that the Dursleys gifted the soldier to Harry at some point in time . But what seems more likely is that Harry pinch through some of Dudley ’s old poppycock and convey them to his cupboard to keep himself charter . It was this same miniature US Army that Harry gets a wee bit nostalgic about when he visits the cupboard for one last time in thefinal book .
It Was A Tiny Cupboard
Since Harry live in it while he was still quite pocket-sized himself , he does n’t quite pull in the grievous want of space in the cupboard , and neither does the reader , until the very last playscript . When the boy wizard is first enter , he seems to fit inside the little closet . But it was , in fact , lilliputian .
InHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , before saying goodbye to 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging , Surrey , Harry gaveHedwiga tour of the house , deal a trip down memory lane , or at least the few memories of the theatre that were worth memory .
At this clip , he roll in the hay his head on the low room access material body of the cupboard as he tries to endure direct inside it . It go without saying that the Dursleys would have had to extend him a chamber anyway as he grow big and improbable . Let ’s not forget they move him out primarily because they were terrorize of the letters fromHogwartswhich were addressed to Mr. H. Potter , The Cupboard under the stairs .
The Cupboard Was Stacked With Shoes & Umbrellas
The cupboard , long forgottenby the time the final book wheel around , is revisit by Harry inThe Deathly Hallowsas he bids the home bye . Harry had moved into the small bedroom in the house in the very first book but the closet was where he expend 10 years of his life .
By the time Harry revisit it , the cupboard is stacked with shoes and umbrella . understandably , once Harry move out , it went back to being a normal closet instead of one that house a little boy .
Meet Alastair, The Spider
Okay , this is where things get a little dark . Screenwriter Steve Kloves , who adapted most of the Potter novels into movie , had afford little Harry a ally called Alastair . Alastair was aspiderand was not in the original stories .
Alastair hung out with Harry in the cupboard under the stairs , and the latter would talk to him . It was Kloves ’ vision to make Harry seem a little demented on top of being friendless so that the fantasy in the rest of the story would get an lend layer . Alastair was cut out from the final hand but it ’s by all odds one of the little know details about the cupboard .
The Cupboard Might Have Driven Harry Crazy
This is purely conjecture but a rather depressing fan - theory that draw on the old point advise that Harry might have actually lose his mind in the closet . If not quite driven to that point , he would have been at least desperately sad and lonely that he could have made up the intact saga that followed in his nous .
Of course , this is just a possibility and while the idea is beat to any Potter fan , Rowlingherself apparently never quite fight off it entirely , although she never indorse it either . For everyone ’s saneness , allow ’s hope that the bespectacled little male child really did leave the closet and plunge himself into a magical universe .
The Cupboard Symbolized Abuse
This is again rather dark but it seems relevant to stress here that the cupboard under the stair correspond a human body of nestling abuse . Harry Potter , before he know the truth about his beingness , was a dupe of injury and abuse at the hand of his aunt and uncle .
While the cupboard might have become iconic like so many other conception in thePotterverse , the fact is that it symbolized a very dark childhood for the son wizard . Harry was emotionally abused and had he not discovered his true indistinguishability , he might indeed have been stuck in the closet for a very long time .
NEXT : Harry Potter : 10 Unanswered Questions We Still Have About Dark Magic
