Hermoine, compassion, and idealism

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone

First post, hope this works!

This started out as a comment in response to DH chapter 9, below, but I decided to put it where it can be seen more easily because I'd really like to learn what people think.

The discussion was about Hermione as compassionate and/or ruthless, which grew out of a discussion of her changing her parents' identities.

To me it seems that she cares about the rights of others as an ideal, from her own perspective. That does show compassion but it's patronising. I think that's something pretty common among Western do-gooders (and probably do-gooders more generally) and it's something I have to struggle against myself. It's entirely likely in someone so young.

The scary thought is her level of potential power and the lack of guidance in the WW to help her really consider those she's trying to help. Ron points out that house elf values are different - whether because he actually considers them or to protect the status quo - but Hermione doesn't respect anything he says. Her approach agrees perfectly with the most 'enlightened' wizarding attitudes to muggles, and there are plenty of wizards who've grown up with them. I can easily see a 'greater good' type attitude developing as Hermione gains power in the Ministry.

Since JKR worked for Amnesty I wonder if this aspect of Hermione is based on what she found there?

Also, I wonder what message she was trying to send. Is it supposed to be a good or bad part of Hermoine's character? Or, with unusual subtlety for these books, both? The message almost seems to be that 'do-gooding' is pointless - SPEW is a misguided joke, compassion is wasted on goblins and giants, and no-one questions the inferiority of muggles. At the same time I'm sure it's meant to show Hermoine's courage and goodness.

What does anyone think? Is JKR really trying to turn people off idealism? If so, does that have anything to do with the actual wishes of the 'helpees'?

Comments

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

To address your actual question.... Authorial intent is a tricky one, but JKR seems quite sincerely to have admired her own heroes and not seen any of their behavior as truly problematic. (Wise Dumbledore, loving Harry's gallant Crucio, etc.)

I expect she felt it humanized Hermione a bit, making her the brainy girl who's still a bit clueless about how people work and whose idealism leads her to go overboard a little.

And, as madderbrad delights in pointing out, Hermione's competence and preparation repeatedly save the day for the Trio. And the same idealism that led her to found SPEW is part of what led her to follow Harry on the Horcrux-hunt. (The rest being personal loyalty).

So I think we are meant to see her idealism as positive. As long as, like the good gril she is, she uses it, like her intelligence, in Harry's service. it's only when she gets too carried away with her opnions that run counter to Harry's that she goes off-track.