OOP: James, Lily and Pride and Prejudice

[corinthum]

No: HPFGUIDX 67807

Elanr wrote:

> Comparisons have been made in the past between Pride and Prejudice 
> and Harry Potter to show how relationships which are at first 
> mutually antagonistic can turn into love.  Usually it's used in 
> reference to something like Draco/Hermione, but after OoP it seems 
to 
> apply much better to what we see of James/Lily.
> 
> From the short interaction between them in the Pensieve scene, 
Harry 
> (and the reader) comes away wondering how they could have fallen in 
> love just a few years later.  Harry should read more Jane Austen.  
> Elizabeth hates Darcy (for a mixture of good and mistaken reasons) 
as 
> soon as she meets him, but within two years they are happily 
> married.  

I have the same reservations with this explanation as the Princess 
Lea-Hans Solo example given a while ago.  In both cases, the girl had 
an immediate dislike of the guy based on first impression.  However, 
Lily does not dislike James based on first impression.  They are in 
the same year, so I assume they see a decent amount of each other, if 
only in classes.  And at the point of the Pensieve memory, they have 
known each other for five years.  I think Lily, by this point, has 
had time to make a first impression, reevaluate that impression, 
second guess her opinions a couple of times, and decide quite 
decisively that she doesn't like James.

I still find Sirius' "Nah, she didn't" in reponse to Harry's comment 
that Lily hated James to be wholely unsatisfactory.  Neither Sirius 
nor Lupin seemed to really make any attempt to explain the 
relationship that developed.  Which makes me think they were hiding 
something.

For the record, I don't think James and Lily were forced together.  I 
think they truly loved each other.  I have no problem accepting 
that.  I simply think something big had to happen between James' 
fifth and seventh year.  Even in the Elizabeth/Darcy an Lea/Hans 
situations, something semi-big happened.  Darcy went out of his way 
to help Elizabeth's sister, thereby losing some of his arrogance and 
demonstrating his better traits.  Hans and Lea were forced to work 
together while risking their lives, thereby getting to know each 
other on a much more personal level than they otherwise would have.  
Something similar would be needed for Lily and James, but an even 
stronger stimulus, since the dislike here is based on reinforced 
experience rather than forst impression.

-Corinth