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

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Alas, your last two sentences are pretty accurate. Certainly, everyone in the Potterverse is flawed, some more deeply than others. And I still say Terri's right and the Wizarding World itself has a corrupting effect on the young.

As to the acne and the scarring, you're right about that, too. It's not something that can be fixed with a little change in diet; it's actually painful and the emotional scars can last a long time.

I wonder if JKR ever had cystic acne?

Oh - and something to remember about Marietta's condition: it wasn't just acne. She had the word "sneak" spelled out across her face. Why on earth wouldn't she and her parents move heaven and earth to try and get that fixed?

[sunnyskywalker]

Not just emotional scarring - I still have physical scarring from cystic acne. Large, obvious keloids. Fortunately on my shoulders, not my face, but I was lucky. And as you pointed out, that kind of acne is also deeply, physically painful even when it is temporary and doesn't scar. If Marietta's pimples are as severe as described - worse than the notoriously pimply Eloise Midgin's, as Hermione said, and recall that Eloise nearly blasted her nose off trying to cure the pimples off - then these pimples hurt, are prone to opening up and bleeding, and may scar even if they do eventually stop being active pimples. That's significant.

And as for any speculation that they "may" fade over a year or so... well, we have no evidence of that. But more importantly, neither does Marietta. Hermione didn't tell anyone exactly how she performed this jinx, so none of them know the possible long-term effects.

In fact, even if it appears similar to a known (to everyone but Harry?) jinx, Marietta would know - via Cho even if she forgot - that Hermione can adapt spells, as she did for the coins, and so this one may not behave exactly as expected. (Let's just hope word that her inspiration for the coins was the Dark Mark didn't get around or people might really worry about those very long-lasting skin disfigurements.)

Either way, this is the kind of thing even a halfway prudent person would want to get checked out, to make sure there aren't any more medical developments in store. Even regular, non-magically-induced cystic acne would rate a check-up and possibly a prescription before the time she went back to school. (Seriously, those hurt like hell.) Especially for teenage girls, at a school where one girl already put herself in the hospital wing trying to cure her completely natural acne.