Molly and Arthur Was Re: Mother Molly /Nice people get a pass

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 125217


Betsy:
< SNIP of mutually agreeable part>

 
I really do have mixed feelings about Molly though.  I think her 
kids would say they love her and that she loves them, but she is 
such a shrew - quick to judge, quick to criticize, slow to praise, 
etc., etc.  The way she treats Arthur is atrocious, and as others 
have said, I think she's quite a bigot.  (Frankly, I think we have 
more canon on Molly's bigotry than Snape's.)
 

Alla:

I had been thinking about the way Molly treats Arthur. Sure, I 
immensely dislike Molly's attempts to "handle' Arthur or lecture 
him, BUT I think that Arthur really does not care and hides from 
Molly the stuff, which is not really important on the grand scheme 
of things (why make my wife angry, if we can escape her temper 
tantrums :))and when it comes to important stuff Arthur is very 
capable of standing his ground.

Remember Molly's and Arthur argument in PoA as to whether to tell 
Harry about Sirius or not.

"...makes no sense not to tell him," Mr. Weasley was saying 
heatedly. "Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Fudge, 
but he insists on treating Harry as a child. He's thirteen years old 
and -"
"Arthur, the truth would terrify him! said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "Do 
you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over 
him? For heaven's sake, he is happy not knowing!"

"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his 
guard!" retorted Mr. Weasley.

.....

"Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right" - PoA, p.65-66, 
paperback.

So, when it comes to what Arthur believes is needed to be done, he 
is pretty persuasive, even though they are having a heated argument.

And as we know Arthur does try to tell Harry.

I LOVED Arthur's attitude here. (When I reread this exchange today, 
I so wished for Dumbledore in OOP to adopt Arthur's attitude towards 
Harry).


Anyway, back to Molly and Arthur. It also seems to me that Molly did 
not really exclude Arthur from schooling their children.


"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you 
anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can 
think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain? Why 
didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object 
like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic-" - CoS, p.329, 
paperback.

Note, that Arthur does not say "your mother taught you", he says "I 
taught you" and he also says " to me or your mother".

It seems to me that in the important matters Molly and Arthur ARE 
equal partners, even though from the first sight it may seems that 
the exact opposite is true.

Let's also look at the scene at the end of OOP, when order finally 
threatens the Dursleys.

I find it interesting that even though both Arthur and Molly are 
here, Molly does not do any talking to Dursleys AT ALL. She only 
addresses Harry in the beginning of the scene and at the end. 
Everybody else talks to Dursleys, but Molly does not. Does she trust 
Arthur to handle it? Seems like it to me.

"Ah, Harry!" said Mr. Weasley, turning from Hermione's parents, whom 
he had been greeting enthusiastically, and who were taking it in 
turns to hug Hermione. "Well- shall we do it, then?"
"Yeah, I reckon so, Arthur," said Moody.

He and Mr. Weasley took the lead across the station toward the place 
where the Dursleys stood, apparently rooted to the floor. ...
"Good afternoon," said Mr. Weasley pleasantly to Uncle Vernon, 
coming to a halt right in front of him. "You might remember me, my 
name's Arthur Weasley" - OOP, p.868, paperback.

So, in short I do think that Molly respects Arthur, although we 
should look carefully to notice it. :o)



Betsy:
And yet, she's quite motherly to Harry, and there is an overlying 
warmth to several of the Burrow scenes.  Which makes me wonder - how 
does JKR see Molly?  Is JKR trying to write her as a good mother and 
some of us just have different interpretations of what that role 
should look like?  Or is JKR purposefully putting nails-on-the-
Chalkboard attributes onto her character?  And if the second, why?  
Will Molly turn out to be some big evil?  Or will there be a better, 
more rounded mother-figure in the last few books?  Or is there a 
feeling that Harry doesn't *need* a mother figure?


Alla:

Jane Austeen is one JKR's favourite writers, no? I think Molly's 
negative qualities to some extent are similar to bad qualities of 
mothers in Jane Austeen novelas.

Nevertheless, I think that in general JKR sees Molly as good mother 
(simply my view) if for no other reason than her children are so 
cool (to me at least). It can't be only Arthur's genes, right?

NO, I don't think Molly will turn out to be ESE. I do think that 
there is a good chance of her turning out dead.

Valky:

<SNIP>
So she forgets that Fred and George aren't prefects, because 
ultimately she *needs* to deny that they aren't or else her plan has 
failed and her cruel family's taunts are proved correct, the Blood 
Traitors are nothing. And so she rewards her children materially for 
having fostered an alliance with her creed of righteous indignation, 
she wants them to believe, like she wants to believe, that Weasleys 
are worthy, noble and exemplary purebloods. 
 
I think Molly is a lot more vulnerable and low in self esteem than 
is first noticable. All she wants is to be dignified again. 


Alla:

Valky, this was very very interesting assessment of Molly. I am not 
sure I agree yet, but it sounds plausible enough. 

I never thought of Molly as having regrets about her pureblood 
status and her family status as blood traitors, but maybe it is 
indeed because I looked at Arthur's quiet dignity and automatically 
assumed that Molly holds the same views.

I hope I did not misunderstand you. You definitely gave me food for 
thought.



Just my opinion of course,

Alla