OOP: Why Weren't the Weasleys in the Order?; Molly's (and others') flaws

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 66241

Penny wrote:

>>>> It really is *Odd* that the Weasleys weren't in the Order the 
first time, isn't it?  They were certainly old enough ---- they 
almost certainly must be older than Lily and James (if we believe 
that Lily and James had Harry when they were still in their early 
20s for example).  I wonder if this is important in some way. <<<< 

Sounds like the cue for all those Imperius!Arthur theories again.

>>>> MOLLY'S SHORTCOMINGS --  I know I won't be popular for saying 
it, but Molly Weasley is rapidly becoming one of my least favorite 
characters.  I completely agree that she just needs to get a grip, 
and she *really, really* ought to stop smothering her own kids so 
much (and she certainly should *stop* trying to smother kids who are 
not her own, Harry and Hermione).  Her interactions with Fred & 
George really leave me cold.  And my perception is that she's warmed 
to Ron solely because he's a prefect now.  And, I have always 
despised the way she hen-pecks Arthur.  And what is she *doing* for 
the Order anyway?  All I saw is that she was making meat balls one 
night.  ::::rolls eyes::::::  <<<<<

I agree intellectually with most of this (not all, see below), but 
in some respects that makes me like her more.

To me the crucial scene in OOP, which transforms our view of Molly 
(and confirms it for some of our more prescient members, though not 
me) is the boggart scene.  The true Molly is revealed here.  It is 
apparent that her 'woes', as JKR calls them, but really the damage 
done to her in the past, are much deeper than can be dealt with 
by 'getting a grip'.  I think this is why I like her better now: I 
find it hard to like any character who has no vulnerability that is 
bigger than they are.  It seems to me pretty well a dead cert now 
that there is a murdered Weasley sibling lurking in the past, and 
this has haunted Molly's thoughts for all the time we have known 
her.  Full marks to those who theorised that before OOP - as I say, 
not me.

Seeing her family members dead, she is unable to think of anything 
to make that funny, to make Riddikulus effective.  That says to me 
that the fear of her family members being murdered grips *her* more 
than she can fight, and must therefore derive from some past trauma.

Much of what has seemed unsatisfactory about her character than 
comes clearer; like Fudge, she longs for 'normalised' life to 
continue and so strongly supports those sons whose career choices 
affirm the triumph of normality.  Unlike Fudge, she believes Harry 
and Dumbledore, but she still tries her hardest to pretend (by 
keeping them out of the Order) that her younger offspring can be 
kept in a Voldermort-free zone.

I think if we like our 'good' characters to play nice we are going 
to be in for many disappointments in the last two books.  Lupin's 
flaws have yet to be exposed fully.  Dumbledore's have only just 
begun.  It'll be interesting to see if Harry treats Dudley in a 
manner similar to the way James treated Snape (I think, given that 
Harry thought of Fred and George when considering James, that Ton-
tongue Toffee is blatant, in-your-face foreshadowing now, and 
Moody's example at Kings Cross is hardly inspiring - the Order are 
bullying Vernon, and however gratifying that might be to the reader 
and Harry in the short term, in a just universe (which it is more 
and more apparent JKR is writing) it is storing up trouble for the 
long term).  Hermione is starting to show the cracks - her 
assumption that Ron couldn't be a prefect is interesting, no?  And 
what do you all think of her compulsive hat-knitting?  Something 
strange there, I feel, material for a major post in itself.  I feel 
more confident that we may yet get Elkins' sulky!Neville (erm, I 
mean, Prince Renunciate).

I agree totally with Dicey's comments about Book 5 being the 
beginning of an arc (the Sorting Hat's song, by virtue of being 
completely ignored for the rest of the book, is JKR's trumpet blast 
to the reader that that is so): one consequence of this, IMO, is 
that in the end the Order of the Phoenix will turn out to be just as 
ambiguous a grouping as the MOM, or the centaurs.

I still have hopes that Moaning Myrtle will come up trumps, though.

David