HBP 5: An Excess of Phlegm

[seicat]

Harry and Dumbledore end their broom shed tryst with that flighty temptress, adventure (Yeah, let's see how long we can keep this gag going...) and knock on the back door of the Burrow. They are greeted by Mrs. Weasley and, oddly enough, Nymphadora Tonks (sans Atomic Pink Hair and feeling a bit on the melancholic side. Poor dear.) But Tonks

Comments

[cadesama]

I pretty much agree. I think that Hermione's huge, underlying insecurity is that she's got nothing to offer but her smarts -- and since she could never handle that being confirmed, it's the dimension that she defends herself along (by continually making herself "indispensable" to the boys with her notes) and attacks others along. I think there's another element that leads to her condemnation of the Parvati and Lavender, which is the contempt she holds for her own lack of emotional control. Hermione wants to be eminently logical, but she isn't. She bursts into tears at seemingly random time over things that are often trivial -- seemingly, because I think her tears at those moments are usually tears that have been repressed for some time until she doesn't have anyway to avoid crying anymore. Part of her repressing process, I think, is condemning people who indulge into the type of emotionality that she disdains in herself.

I do think the sting of Ron's impersonation is that a friend of five years mocking her (er, what page is that on) and, like most impersonations, that it's largely true. But I think you have a good point about Lavender and Parvati's roles there. As much as Hermione likes to pretend to be about social politics, she wouldn't look down on it so much if it didn't affect her. Anytime her failure in that arena is presented to her (like all failures), I greatly upsets her.

[madderbrad]

I'm afraid that we're analysing this all too much; after JKR's interview post HBP I think we're *supposed* to take Hermione's umbrage at Fleur's hold over Ron to be a simple case of personal love-lorn jealousy, she's in lurrrve, don't you know. Prior to HBP I was agreeing with you people, in that it was Hermione's general disgust at boys/men in principle and how they can be swayed by the Veela looks.

I enjoy hearing what you have to say about Hermione's insecurities about her appearance in GoF, but after the events of that book - her teeth are straightened out, the handsome champion and Quidditch star makes her a belle of the ball, general jaws dropping all around her - wouldn't her ego have been bolstered by all that? Were there signs of her still being worried about her appearance, etcetera in OotP? If so I'm afraid I've forgotten them. Mind you, these days I think we's supposed to forget that OotP existed and just pretend that HBP followed from GoF ...

[cadesama]

I actually think that much of Hermione's jealousy of Fleur is actual romantic jealousy over Ron. But, since Hermione has hated Fleur since before gave Ron a second glance, I think that it's deeper than that. Her hatred of frivolous girls (despite having those inclinations herself) plays into her hatred of the fact that boy fall for such frivolities.

but after the events of that book - her teeth are straightened out, the handsome champion and Quidditch star makes her a belle of the ball, general jaws dropping all around her - wouldn't her ego have been bolstered by all that? Were there signs of her still being worried about her appearance, etcetera in OotP?

Well, the fun thing about the type of insecurity Hermione has is that there's no external fix to it, and it goes far deeper than her looks. Hermione knows she's smart, but she thinks that's all she is. She's not pretty, or funny, or a lot of fun to be around. No matter how pretty she actually becomes, because she refuses to gamble and put herself forward as anything other than the smart girl, she will still think that it's secondary to her smarts, or something people are just saying to be polite. And, of course, she justifies this to herself by saying that she's being true to herself and that if people liked her for not being the smart girl it would be worse than them not liking her as she is -- which lets her being down on herself, not change, and hold moral high ground in her own head.

We don't have any examples of her being insecure about her looks in OotP, I don't think, but neither do we have any examples of Hermione being suddenly secure. She puts all of her stock in intellectual ventures in OotP, which she considers her strength, yet still preens under "unexpected" praise and doubt her own plans (like with the DA). Still, romance never comes up for her, so I don't think we see the full breadth of her insecurities in that book. And, well, JKR has this habit of putting characterization aside when it's not integral to whatever plot is going on, and then picking it up again when it's relevant.

[jabbamacmilly]

You both seem to have hit the nail on the head conserning Hermione, and I think that is what JKR was trying to convey to us during this book with Hermione's OOCness. But I had to rethink over that more then once after finishing it to really get what was going on with Hermione. I think if JKR is planning on writing after HP then that is something she needs to work on desperatly.

And would it kill either of the boys to say that she(Hermione) looks nice once in a while, it would do so much for her poor ego. Grrr stupid boys.

[cadesama]

. . . I don't think Hermione was actually OOC. Well, I do. To a degree. I think when you focus entirely on the worst of a character you are writing the character off-balance, and therefore OOC. I just don't think that the way Hermione behaves is outside the normal range of possibilities for her. It's simply that it's not all there is to her.

And would it kill either of the boys to say that she(Hermione) looks nice once in a while, it would do so much for her poor ego. Grrr stupid boys.

Of course, it would kill them. They're boys. But I don't think it would help much. The problem is how Hermione thinks about herself, not how the world treats her, so the solution isn't going to any external fix. Hopefully age and some degree of happiness will mellow her enough so that she can get beyond her insecurity, but happiness is awfully hard to achieve while so insecure.

[prellyree]

I can remember one reference to Hermione's looks in OOtP. She tells Harry he should have called her ugly, to Cho. It's added as an afterthought, and in my opinion, was some serious fishing for compliments. He counters beautifully with "But I don't think you're ugly."

That's the only one I remember, though.