Harry Potter Series Box Set discussion

Okay, so I had a question about one of the Harry Potter books and I was surprised to see there was not one page discussing them. So, I created one for asking and answering questions that you may have regarding any of the books or characters.

Okay, so my question is...

In the Goblet of Fire, Sirius says that a man should be judged by how he treats his inferiors and not equals. Here, he is talking about how Barty Crouch fires Winky, his house elf. But in the next book, he himself mistreats Kreacher. Granted, Kreacher wasn't a great house elf but don't you guys think that is a little hypocritical of him?

Kind of. But the situation was different with Kreacher. For one thing, Sirius never wanted a house elf. For another, Kreacher represented all the crappy things about his life that he didn't want to be reminded of - that his parents were basically evil, that they disowned him, that they were connected to and celebrated the ones responsible for the death of James and Lily, his only real family.

And don't forget, the feelings of hatred were mutual with Kreacher. He was brainwashed into thinking that Sirius was all the bad things that his mother believed him to be.

In any other situation, I don't think Sirius would have treated an elf or any other person/creature similarly.

This situation perhaps comes to show how it´s "easier" to see what´s right and wrong in another person´s actions (as an external observer) than when you are directly involved in the matter, and emotions, frustrations, hopes etc can cloud your views. Hipocrisy is here a result of human weakness to our own feelings, not of lack of moral standings.
It can also help us see these characters more clearly and shake off Harry´s (and our own) bias; we always see Crouch in a more negative light, like he´s an evil person; he began as good, completely devoted to vanquishing the Dark Arts, he got crazed and carried away but the situation was very difficult (Voldemort when he was young, and Barty Jr. hiding when he fired Winky the house-elf). I think he was a very troubled man, not as evil and hatable as he´s sometimes made out to be.

Well yes, it is kinda hypocritical of him (J.K. Rowling said herself that's one of the reasons she doesn't like Sirius that much, but she made him be mean to Kreacher anyway, I mean she's the author!) but Kreacher sure didn't act like an inferior to Sirius. Inferiors don't insult you all day long and lie to you and try to get you killed.