SHIP: Authorial intent, Hermione's Secrets, and Ron's Problems

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 50609

David asked some interesting questions that haven't received much in the way of response:

> The first is that the text might support variant readings in a way 
> that is more than just different reader interpretations.  I find it 
> hard to express this without referring to author intent, but then we 
> do have at least one book definitely to come, and two more 
> apparently in the pipeline.  Hence the subject line of my previous 
> post.
> 
> So, your exam question:  does the text go out of its way (whatever 
> that means!) to string along opposing shippers?  

I believe your question was addressed at the shippers, but I still want to answer, because it is exactly why I don't ship, per se.  My answer is YES!  I don't find either the R/H or the H/H *analysis* of any given scene persuasive, because I think they were intentionally written not to reveal Hermione's feelings or alternatively, to show her feelings as conflicted.  To me, every reading of every scene cited to support either ship is equally compatible with a neutral reading (meaning that it has no shipping implications, not that it supports a no-ship) or, in some cases, an opposite reading.  

For example, the statement that I believe is most often cited by the R/H shippers as unambiguous supporting their ship, "Next time there's a ball, ask me before somebody else does, and not as a last resort!" doesn't say anything about her feelings.  Nowhere does it suggest why Hermione is suggesting that he ask her next time.  There are three possibilities here:  (i) she likes Ron as more than a friend (the R/H position); (ii) she likes Harry but knows she can't go with him since Rita Skeeter reported that Harry has "found love" with her, and she would have liked to spend the ball with her friends; or (iii) same as (ii) except that she likes both of them only as friends.  Which is correct?  We might as well toss up a coin.

I could do the same analysis of the kiss at the end of GoF:  (i) she likes Harry and in light of recent events and her overriding concern about Harry, she can't restrain herself; (ii) she likes Ron, who is still standing on the platform, and will kiss him as well; or (iii) the kiss was a platonic gesture.  Same result:  it's impossible to tell what Hermione really means by her action.

>Is the ambiguity in 
> Hermione, JKR, or her readers?

I think this ambiguity is all JKR's.  Whether it is plot-related or whether it has to do with the fact that (as she's stated) Hermione is based a good deal on herself, she has created a character that I suspect we don't know quite as well as we think we do.  We see clues in her behavior that we can use to extrapolate from.  However, we don't get much direct insight about how she feels, in contrast to Harry, whose feelings we know because the story is told from his POV, or Ron, who's easy to read from his actions.  

I think that many of us readers tend to identify very strongly with Hermione, especially on this list.  Many of us see in her ourselves at a similar age; plus, having been raised in the muggle world, her reactions to the WW often reflect our own point of view.  We therefore unconsciously project ourselves into her character and, as others have said, become emotionally involved in her actions.   

My point, however, is that JKR seems to have avoided revealing a great deal about Hermione besides whether she likes one of her two best friends as more than a friend.  For example, she hasn't even told us about Hermione's wand.  

We don't know what her greatest fear is.  Yes, we did see her panic in the DADA exam, and we know she had an irrational fear of failing her exams.  But a person's greatest fears (like a person's greatest desires) change over time.  Harry didn't see the same thing in the Mirror of Erised in June that he saw in December.  What he saw in June, in a moment of crisis, was focused on the particular crisis.  Likewise, we don't know what the boggart would have turned into in September if Hermione had been given a chance to face it.

We don't know what Hermione's relationship is with other female characters, for example, what kind of mentoring she gets from McGonagall, or whether she has a real friendship with Ginny, or with anyone in her dormitory.  We see *only* interaction that Harry sees and that JKR chooses to show us.  And Hermione doesn't spend on-screen time talking about herself.  She talks to Harry and Ron about things she's learned or seen, or about them, or problem-solving.  So, we learn how she *thinks* more than how she *feels*.

This is very consistent with her character, of course.  She was able to keep the secret of the time-turner quite well.  I have no doubt that she has many other secrets, that JKR is deliberately keeping them hidden from us, and that Hermione will be the agent of many more text surprises than just the time-turner episode, none of which will have anything to do with shipping.

>The second concerns the implication of one answer, which is 
approximately the one Amy and Penny give.  This is to look at 
Hermione's choice as essentially undetermined at this stage (ie at 
any point in the first four books) and look at how events may be 
shaping her choices.  IMO most shipping discussion about specific 
incidents such as the Yule Ball focuses on what they *reveal* about 
Hermione's current state of mind.  I think it might be an 
> interesting endeavour to looks at how they might *affect* her 
> ongoing state of mind.
> 
> So, a starter: can you support from the text a shipping position in 
> which Hermione is torn and trying to sort out how she feels?  Do you 
> feel that the difficulty of knowing her true feelings is because she 
> conceals them, or because she is still forming them?
> 
I believe it's important to the narrative that we *not* know Hermione's true feelings and that we believe that any result is plausible.  We know she likes both of her best friends (despite her frequent irritation at Ron in GoF).  I have my doubts whether, at this stage, her feelings for either one have moved beyond storge to eros, but the text allows us to think that either is possible.    This allows JKR to use Hermione as a sort of ace in the hole in her romance subplot.

>For example, that we have what I think of as a post-
>modern situation in which we would have two equally valid endings as 
>happens with some books.

I think both endings *are* equally valid based on what we find within the text to this point (I also see a no-ship ending as quite valid, and equally if not more satisfactory, but will set that aside, since it wasn't the focus of David's question.)  My reasons for betting on the R/H ship have less to do with the characters, though, than with my sense of the development of the series' themes.  The series is many things, one of which is a coming of age story.  It's primary Harry's story, but Harry's own journey to adulthood is compared and contrasted against the similar journeys his companions and classmates are undergoing at the same time, with particular focus on Ron, Hermione, and IMO Neville and Draco (this last is based on my expectation that Draco can be expected to receive further character development in OoP, as Neville received in GoF).  

We *know* that H/H is a valid ending and consistent with the story to date regardless of anyone's present state of mind, simply because Harry is the hero, the story is his journey, and we've been told by JKR that she considers the series to be a moral work.  Therefore, we can make certain assumptions about his development and suitability. 

Despite the textual evidence of Ron's feelings, we don't have similar assurances regarding R/H.  That's because of where JKR has left Ron at this point in the text -- with many readers believing that he has lost his way and has fallen behind.  However, looking at the series from the outside (rather than trying to look for evidence of the characters' present feelings and suitability), I think it's impossible to dismiss R/H on this basis.  Because this is a novel and not real life, I don't see Ron overcoming his crush and then moving aside in favor of H/H, especially considering where JKR has left him at this point (though I'd be happy to see that happen without H/H).  Instead, I see R/H's likelihood as depending on what JKR has in mind for Ron as a character, not on anyone's present feelings.  In other words, the issue is not what Hermione's choice will be.  It's how Ron's choices would influence Hermione's choice.  

There are a lot of possible places JKR can take Ron based on his development to date:

First, she could be using Ron's growing pains simply as a plot device.  Though I like him very much as a character, I confess that when I put down GoF after my first reading my reaction was that Ron was on the road to evil.  In other words, I was set up perfectly for an Evil!Ron Under Imperius!plot device in OotP, and had I been able to pick up OoP right away, in the same manner as I read the first four books, I would certainly have fallen for Imperius!Ron.  So this is a very real possibility that could be written with the same kind of plot twist surprises that we saw in PoA.  

Second, she could make Ron turn to evil of his own volition.  On rereading GoF, I concluded that his sense of loyalty is too strong for Evil! Ron, but JKR has not written the text so clearly as to preclude an outcome in which Ron falls victim to his jealousy and his insecurities and does something from which he cannot recover in the eyes of his friends.

Third, he could die (or one of the others could die).  This would resolve the shipping issue rather neatly.

Fourth, and perhaps in combination with Imperius!Ron, he could address all of his emotional baggage that he's carrying around in a satisfactory manner. 

Scenarios 2 and 3 leave the road clear for H/H.  However, my bet is on 4 with a side helping of 1 (a scenario that would reveal to Ron the danger of his passivity).  That's based primarily on my belief that there is a thematic reason and a plot reason that JKR has spent so much time developing Ron's fears and contrasting his development with Harry's.  There are also sub-issues that, I think, favor resolution 4.  For example, take an issue as WW prejudice, much of which is established for us through the Ron-Hermione dynamic.   My expectation is that this issue will evolve with Hermione realizing that her black-and-white analysis is too simplistic ("It's the same prejudice that people have toward werewolves . . . . It's just bigotry, isnt' it?") and Ron reexamining his received prejudices, as his reaction to Hagrid's half-giant status suggests ("'Well, they're . . . they're . . .' Ron struggled for words. ". . . not very nice,' he finished lamely.")  This is nicely set up and would have to be dropped like a hot potato if Ron simply turns out to be evil.      

I don't believe that scenario #4 necessarily entails Ron "winning the girl" as a reward.  However, I do have trouble with #4 and H/H happening in tandem.  Since this story is Harry's, and since JKR has clearly revealed to us what Ron's feelings for Hermione are, I just don't see him winning the struggle with himself and then conceding the girl to the hero.  It contracts the Trio into a duo and a hanger-on, rather than both Ron and Hermione as equal best friends with the hero and with each other, and I would find that thematically very unsatisfying.  

Nor do I see Ron's struggle as one where he learns to accept an inferior role in the Trio; his growth, assuming that it comes, will come from coming to realize that he is *not* inferior but that he can't succeed unless he believes in himself.  This theme is established for us when he says, gloomily, on the train to Hogwarts, "You could say I've got a lot to live up to. . . . Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first."  To me, that quote indicates that he is perfectly well talented.  That he appears to be falling behind in GoF is all a part of his own self-perception; what he needs to learn is that some of the things that make him feel inferior, such as wealth and fame, are simply unimportant, and that the real question is what he chooses to do with himself.  
  
As a result, I have exactly the same demands for OotP as Ebony does:

"I want a subplot that is tied 
into the main that is All About Ron, his abilities, and what his 
place in the narrative is.  I'm not satisfied with the usual 
answers.  I want more about Ron, independent of Hermione (who's 
gotten far more narrative space in the last two books than I would 
have thought given supposed future R/H)... and as something other 
than his associations with people (Weasley son; Harry's best 
friend)."   

One final thought on David's "two valid endings."  If JKR chose *not* to ship the Trio to one another within the four corners of the series, but to conclude it with the Trio as still (or perhaps again) best friends, would that not allow us to continue to view either ship as valid?  Or any other ship?  Or no ship?  The more I think about this, the more I think that would be the best possible result.  I'd still put my money on R/H, but not till the very end of the series.

Debbie
who had less self-confidence than Neville at that age


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