Hermione as Harry's Anima (Was: Clues for SHIPS)

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 99035

> Sienna wrote:
> 
> >What follows is not a discussion on the totality of the 
> >archetypal imagery within Harry Potter (of which there >is a lot). This essay focuses 
solely on the archetypal >imagery surrounding Hermione and her place within >the Harry 
Potter universe.
> <snip very interesting essay>
> 
> Before beginning I thought I'd mention, for anyone interested, that this summer there's 
going to be a Harry Potter convention in Ottawa (www.conventionalley.org) and one of our 
presenters will be discussing Jungian archetypes in HP.
> 
> First I'd like to say congratulations on managing such a concise and accessible summary 
of archetypes and the anima and offering some really intriguing analysis of the text. Like 
you, though, I'd like to add a major disclaimer here and say that my knowledge of Jung is 
largely second hand. I have a general familiarity with the concepts due to having a mother 
who's a Jungian, and I've read bits and pieces. I'm not sure that I can really engage with 
you on the same level even, but I did a little reading in the last couple of days and thought 
I'd toss in a few random observations on the subject. I hope you'll forgive me, though, if I 
just end up looking like Luna reading the Quibbler upside down- or worse, sounding like 
Professor Binns ;)
> 
> There are a few issues I wanted to bring up related to the anima in HP. First is the fact 
that I think one could argue that the anima is represented by different characters at 
various point in the story, though I tend to agree that Hermione increasingly takes on this 
role. I was reading an argument recently which, while focussing on Hermione as anima, 
also pointed to other characters who take on the role of "maiden" (also called "Kore" in 
Jung). Again, I should stress my limited knowledge here as I'm basing most of my 
understanding on Jung's "The Psychological Aspects of the Kore." from _The Archetypes 
and the Collective Unconscious_ . Ginny in CoS certainly is cast in the role of maiden (think 
damsel in distress). "The maiden's helplessness exposes her to all sorts of dangers, for 
instance of being devoured by reptiles or ritually slaughtered like a beast of sacrifice. 
Often there are bloody, cruel, and even obscene orgies to which the innocent child falls 
victim." (_The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious_ para 311) Sound familiar at all? 
Ginny's innocence makes her vulnerable to diary!Tom, which eventually leads to her being 
taken down into the Chamber, guarded of course by the Basilisk, where she becomes a 
quasi-sacrifice to diary!Tom. This process, I would argue, does represent a sort of loss of 
innocence for Ginny; she is more-or-less seduced by diary!Tom and the result is a gross 
mental/emotional violation. There's a certain parallel to Persephone who is raped by Hades 
and taken to the underworld to be his bride.
> 
> On the other hand, though Ginny takes clearly takes on the role of maiden in CoS, 
particularly of the damsel in distress variety, Hermione has as well. After all, Harry first 
becomes friends with Hermione thanks to the incident with the troll in which, for a brief 
time, she too becomes a damsel in distress.
> 
> >As a character, Hermione has come to increasingly >embody Harry's anima. In her 
essay, The Secrets of >Harry Potter 
> >(http://www.cgjungpage.org/content/view/145/28/), >Jungian analyst Gail Grynbaum 
refers to Hermione as >a soror mystica:
> 
> >'At school, Harry goes through his Training with two >new friends, Hermione Granger, 
a soror mystica who >is also a lively, challenging presence, and Ron >Weasley, a good 
brother figure.'
> 
> >The term soror mystica literally means `mystical >sister' -- the female half of the 
male-female >partnership. In alchemical literature, these two >together seek the 
philosopher's stone. 
> >Hermione's and Harry's shared muggle experience is >an important foundation for 
this mirroring. They both >enter as outsiders into the magical world.
> 
> I found the argument to be very interesting. I wanted to add a couple of ideas that I 
found while reading.
> 
> "In the products of unconscious activity, the anima appears equally ad maiden and 
mother"
> 
> "the anima is bipolar and can therefore appear positive one moment and negative the 
next; now young, now old, now mother, now maiden; now a good fairy, now a witch; now a 
saint, now a whore."
> 
> (_Archetypes _ para 356)
> 
> I thought this suggestion of the dual aspect of the anima was quite interesting in 
relation to Hermione as it oftentimes seems to me that she does have a very dualistic role 
in Harry's life. As I suggested earlier, she does take on the role of maiden, but is also at 
times the mother-hen. She can be regarded at one moment as a faithful helper to Harry 
and at the next, as an overprotective or nagging nuisance. Even the saint/whore 
dichotomy appears in GoF thanks to Rita Skeeter's articles where Hermione is portrayed 
first as Harry's loving girlfriend, and later as the treacherous scarlet woman.
> 
<snip>
> 
> All this to say that think I'll forego drawing specific conclusions from the varied 
observations I've made. Hope some bit of that was useful.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Erika (Wolfraven)
> 
> 

Thank you, Erika and Sienna, for the well-informed, well-thought-out exploration of 
Hermione's role as Harry's anima...

Your points are extremely compelling.

It will be interesting to see if Harry tries to marry his anima or to integrate it in another 
way.... ;-)