Hermione's not Miss Perfect ! Was : Why to Like and Not Like OoP

[ebeth0000000000]

No: HPFGUIDX 70712

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sabrina" 
<honeycakehorse03 at h...> wrote:

About the characterization of Hermione as "Miss Perfect":

"Has she ever really been different? Her charactersation isn't only
unrealistic in OoP, but also in the other books. Yes, she definitely 
is too perfect and I'm just waiting for the second shoe to drop."

Maybe if by "perfect" you mean good at school and always thinks 
she's right.  

I just wanted to counter with the opinion that I've NEVER, ever, 
viewed Hermione as little miss perfect.  First of all, Hermione 
messes up all the time!  She gets emotional, she makes mistakes in 
dealing with her friends, sometimes she comes to the wrong 
conclusions (okay, so not very often), and, although she is 
certainly empathetic, she still has a lot to learn about how to 
interact with others.  She has her own struggles with her own 
character development--becoming more rebellious, learning when what 
is right is not the same as what the rules are, when she's bitten 
off more than she can chew, how to respect others' opinions, etc.

JKR has said that she sees a lot of her younger, school-aged self in 
Hermione (as do I, for that matter--have you ever seen Election with 
Reese Witherspoon?--I was always the girl bouncing on my toes to 
answer the question--every class has one of us--how is this 
portrayal unrealistic again, exactly?!), but JKR has also stated 
(and I'm sorry that I can't remember where I read this) that she 
sees a lot of vulnerability in Hermione's character.  

As a recovering perfectionist, I see this too.  Usually people who 
are so driven base a lot of their self-worth on external measures 
(i.e. grades) and have extreme difficulty accepting and forgiving 
themselves when they mess up and make a mistake.  I don't think 
that, as you said, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I 
do think that Hermione will have to learn to deal with her 
perfectionism.  In a way, it is her perfectionism in and of itself 
that is her character flaw.  

But I like her anyway;)

EBeth