Reintroducing myself and a question (second impressions of OoP)

sophierom sophierom at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 3 12:48:25 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 91956

<ms_melanie1999 at y...> wrote:
  
"I just finished my second reading of the [OotP], and I must say 
that my thoughts did not really change a great deal in between these 
readings.  However, one thing that did change a  bit upon second 
reading was my thoughts on Hermione.  I adore the girl a great deal, 
but she is quite self-centered and I am becoming more aware of that 
by the day.  She is very concerned with her own agenda and what is 
important to her.  And she is not afraid to get what she wants at 
the expense of other things, I mean she DOES break rules.  Lots of 
them in fact and she consistently does somewhat dangerous things.  I 
realize that she does  these things with good reason.  And for the 
most part I do not have a problem with her actions.  However, 
something I do find myself wondering if there isn't a bit of 
Slytherin in her."

Pippin responded:

"I agree with you that Hermione is in some moral peril, but I don't
relate that to Slytherin potential. The Slytherin creed "any means
to achieve their ends" is a de facto recognition that some means
*are* more ethical than others. They recognize that ethical
standards are external to themselves."

Sophierom:

I actually thought Hermione was in less "moral peril" in OotP than 
in any of the other books.  In the other books, she was more like 
Percy; she tended to believe in the rules for the rules' sake.  That 
can be just as morally dangerous as disregarding the rules 
altogether.  

I actually thought it was Ron who was in trouble morally.  He 
doesn't take much of a stand on anything throughout the book.  For 
all the problems in Hermione's S.P.E.W. campaign, at least she 
believes in something and is acting on it.  For all of Harry's 
teenage angst and self-centered behavior (btw, I thought he was much 
more self centered than Hermione throughout this book!), he also 
acts on his beliefs.  Don't get me wrong; this can be problematic, 
to say the least.  I guess some of the DEs are also acting on their 
beliefs, and they're plain evil.  But I do think Harry and Hermione 
are discovering their moral compasses (which I imagine are wildly 
fluctating along with the teenage hormones!).  

But Ron? He doesn't really stand for anything, particularly as a 
prefect.  He's always playing the pure sidekick to Harry. Of course, 
this is part of his function as a character, I guess.  And, he has 
the problem of the twins.  Don't get me wrong, I like Ron a lot, but 
I think he's by far the weakest of the trio.  If we could condense 
MWPP into 3, Harry would represent a bit of his father and 
godfather, Hermione acts most like Lupin, and Ron is Peter 
Pettigrew.   

Best,
Sophierom





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