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

[sienna291973]

No: HPFGUIDX 99146

Erika:
> 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. 

Now me:
Thanks Erika!  Your input was extremely thought provoking and very thorough.  
I thought I would respond to a couple of your points here, because I found them 
extremely interesting.

 
Erika:
>  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.

Me:
I think this is an extremely important observation because Ginny, at least in this 
CoS scene, certainly does represent the archetypal young feminine.  My feeling 
here is that this imagery is linked to Hogwarts, not Harry (which is why I make 
the argument for Hermione as Harry's anima).  Hogwarts is in danger and 
Ginny, as the archetypal young feminine/ maiden is pulled down into the 
underworld.  (I like the Persephone link here... well spotted).  Harry must save 
Hogwarts and this is represented thematically by saving Ginny.  I believe in this 
context Ginny and Hogwarts are linked.  The damsel in distress is, if you like, 
actually Hogwarts... ;)


Erika:
> 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.

Me:
I think in the early books the role of anima is more scattered.  For example, 
McGonnagal could be said to fulfill this role early in PS when she leads Harry 
to the position of seeker of the Gryffindor quidditch team.  Only later does it 
become more focused in Hermione.


Erika:
> 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.

> 
> Here's another bit which I found amusing, though I'm likely taking it out of 
context:
> 
> "Whenever she [the anima] emerges with some degree of clarity, she always 
has a peculiar relationship to time: as a rule she is more or less immortal, 
because outside of time. [...] In all these accounts, the anima is outside of time 
as we know it and consequently immensely old or a being who belongs to a 
different order of things." (_Archetypes _ para 356)
> 
> While I realize that Hermione doesn't really correspond with the types of 
female figures described above, ones who exist outside of time (would Dante's 
Beatrice qualify as such a figure perhaps?), I still found it amusing as we do 
see Hermione having "a peculiar relationship to time" in PoA thanks to her use 
of the time turner. Maybe not the most useful observation, but I got a kick out 
so it so I thought I'd throw it in.

Me:
These are excellent observations Erika and ones I had not thought of.  :)

 
Erika:
> I have to say that it is a bit tricky trying to make actual predictions based on a 
psychoanalytical approach to the text. If nothing else, Jungian interpretation is 
really meant to analyse dreams as well as myths and fairy tales, all of which 
are far more connected to the collective unconscious. Though unconscious 
elements work their way into the novels, it remains that they are a conscious 
creation and thus are subject to conscious intent far more than dreams. Then 
there's the further complication of the fact that, though we're dealing with a 
male protagonist, he is the creation of a female writer. This has interesting 
implications in terms of how we perceive Harry as a male ego figure. Actually, 
there's an article by Ximena Gallardo-C and C. Jason Smith which makes 
some interesting observation regarding gendering in the HP novels 
("Cindefella: J.K. Rowling's Wily Web of Gender" from _Reading Harry Potter: 
Critical Essays_ ed Giselle Liza Anatol)
> 
> 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.
> 

Me:
It was very useful, thanks!  I agree that predictions made via analytical means 
like this need to be taken with a pinch of salt.  I make my prediction of the 
implications this has for Harry and Hermione's relationship within that context.  
If we view the series seperately from it's potential to be analysed as JKR's 
internal mythology (which is an entirely different matter and one that would be 
fascinating to explore), then the development of the archetypal images within 
the myth can provide us with clues in my opinion.  Within the hero's journey or 
the journey towards internal self-realisation, the integration of feminine and 
masculine to form a whole is an important and common step.  It is within this 
context that I hypothesise that Hermione (as Harry's anima) will be important.  
A kind of symbolic yin and yang.

However, I would be interested in reading the essay you refer to.  Does it 
perhaps touch upon Harry as being potentially a representation of  JKR's 
animus?  I would also have to say here that while the HP series is a conscious 
creation, so too was the ancient mythology of the world.  It's connection to the 
collective unconscious is something that was identified after the fact almost (if 
that makes any sense at all).  In fact, at the time that the myths and legends of 
the ancient world were being consciously developed as a way of understanding 
and telling stories about the world around them, the ancients weren't even awar 
that there was such a thing.  :)

Thanks so much Erika for taking the time to respond in such a well-researched 
and thoughtful manner.  I very much appreciate it.

Sienna