Symbolism & Metaphors; Ron at the DoM; some Snape (WAS: Hermione's growth, symbols

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 82816

David wrote:

As I understand it, Debbie's was making a symbolic point, not 
describing Hermione's magical abilities.

Hermione is a great book-lover, and here she is shown being hurt 
instead of helped by books.  In real life, of course, that would be 
meaningless, but this is fiction.

Debbie:

That's right, Hermione is being harmed by books here.  However, her magical ability is also on display.  Because she successfully fires off a silencing spell on Dolohov, he cannot enunciate his spell and it has less of an effect on her than it might otherwise have had.  As a result, depending on what the full force of the spell would have accomplished, Hermione essentially saves herself.  Nevertheless, the books crashing down coincides with the end of her participation in the battle.  Hermione's talents helped get Harry this far, but she can't see him through to the end.

David again:

I'm interested in Debbie's statement "where everything seems to be a 
metaphor" above: certainly in the Chamber and the Shrieking Shack 
there seems to be plenty of symbolism going on.

Debbie responds:

Absolutely.  The Chamber may be symbolic on several levels.  I once posted on its death-and-resurrection symbolism (#38624), and at Nimbus one of the presenters suggested that it was a metaphor for puberty, which I could not begin to explain.  Undoubtedly there's more to be found there.

I have started to scour the DoM episode more closely for its symbolism and metaphor.  The only character I've gotten through to date is Ron, but I think his entire experience, from the moment the plan is put in motion to get Harry to Umbridge's fireplace - can be viewed as a metaphor for what has happened to him throughout the series.  

At first, nothing surprising happens to Ron at the Department of Mysteries - he's right there with Harry - until they leave the prophecy room and Ron makes a wrong turn, along with Ginny and Luna. Ron can also be said to have taken a wrong turn in CoS, starting when he convinced Harry that they should fly the Anglia to Hogwarts. He tried to emulate the Twins - who had succeeded in a similar endeavor - and failed. His wand snapped and he became lost in a cycle of self-doubt and inertia from which he's only beginning to emerge.

Compare what happened to Ron in CoS to PS/SS, where Ron didn't seem nearly as unsure of himself. The hints of his crisis of confidence there are far overshadowed by his other actions, especially his skilled and confident chess sacrifice. 

Likewise, he doesn't start out badly on the way to the DoM. His attempt to head Umbridge off doesn't work, but he doesn't know that Umbridge has just seen Peeves. Though it happens off-page and Ron didn't reveal his own part in it, he, Ginny, Luna and Neville use a variety of hexes to escape from their guards and meet Harry and Hermione in the forest. 

At the Department of Mysteries, after Ron makes the wrong turn he is hit by an unseen spell that has several effects. It causes him to giggle uncontrollably and make embarrassing jokes. And the spell, whatever it was, also caused internal damage. "Ron's face was very white and something dark was trickling from the corner of his mouth. Next moment his knees had given way . . . ." Sounds a lot like the surface Ron we saw in GoF - making silly jokes (like the Uranus joke JKR has him repeat to make sure we make the connection), suffering from unseen internal woes, allowing himself to be used for spell practice, and needing support from others. 

It's at this point that Ron is literally attacked by a metaphor. Ron summons, and then grabs a brain, only to be attacked by it, or more accurately, by the "tentacles of thought" which "began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes." The image of all those tentacles of thought floating toward Ron, wrapping themselves around and trying to suffocate him paints a pretty accurate picture of what's been going on in his head over the past 2-3 books and particularly OOP where his lack of faith in himself nearly loses Gryffindor a Quidditch cup that was within its grasp. 

However, the brain does *not* suffocate Ron as Ginny suggests it will.  Instead, Ron himself finally realizes he's gone astray ("No - no - I don't like it - no, stop - stop -.") by inviting the thoughts to torment him. And he responds by fighting against it. ("Ron fell over, thrashing against his bonds.")

Significantly, Harry's attempt to release the tentacles fails, and Ron is left to fight the brain alone since Harry and Neville leave him to continue the fight with the DEs.; the others who stay behind are unconscious. 

Thus, we don't actually see Ron fight off the brain (we know he did, through Neville's report), just as (like Hermione and Harry) we don't see him overcome his fears at Quidditch. Which is metaphorically exactly right, because Ron's struggle is internal and he must resolve it himself.  Harry can't stop the thoughts from attacking Ron any more than he can turn Ron into a good Keeper by catching the snitch.  What finally happened at the Quidditch final was that, when left to his own devices, Ron finally trusted his instincts ("I wasn't feeling all that confident, but . . . I thought - you can do this! And . . . I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, and so I took the chance and flew left"). I'd like to think that's why he didn't suffocate in the brain room in the end, either.

Finally, we get to the hospital room, where Ron is recovering from his metaphorical injuries with the aid of another metaphor, Dr Ubbly's Oblivious Unction. Paralyzing thoughts can be fought off, but no one can do it for you and even if you do manage to fight them off, there will be deep scars, as Madam Pomfrey says, representing the lingering memories of the thoughts. Like memories, scars fade over time, but never quite disappear. Dr Ubbly's salve only "seemed" to result in an improvement, though, because the real injury is internal. As a result, we won't know how well Ron has recovered until Book Six.

The scar metaphor seems directly applicable to another character who doesn't appear in the DoM scene: Severus Snape. Look at what Dumbledore says of Snape (ch 37 OOP): "'I trust Severus Snape,' said Dumbledore simply. 'But I forgot -- another old man's mistake - that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father - I was wrong.' Whether or not it's really his worst memory, Snape is caught up in the thoughts of those events, just as the brain's tentacles cling to Ron as if to suffocate him. And he hasn't been to see Madam Pomfrey lately, because the scars left by Snape's memories of James are still controlling him.


Debbie


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