Molly, Motherhood, and Myopia

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 125232


There has been a lot of discussion on the list about Molly and her
pureblood bigotry or lack thereof.  People have brought up her
relations  with her children, with Snape, with Sirius, with
werewolves, with Arthur, with Harry, and with Hermione to argue one
side or another.  Let me offer a solution that many may find
simplistic, but that I think is what JKR is getting at with Molly's
characterization.

JKR, as we have discussed at length, tends to mix strong elements of
the symbolic with the realistic in her characters.  Whether that works
well or poorly, is a good idea of a bad idea, is a matter of debate. 
Nevertheless, I think it's clear that she does this.

I think that Molly is meant to be, largely, a symbol of motherhood. 
In that she is, she bears certain stereotypical traits of the mother
out of Anglo-American popular culture.  She is deeply concerned with
family almost to the exclusion of all else.  She is fiercely
protective.  She worries about her children and her husband.  She is a
bit of a nag, but a perfectly well-meaning one.  Her children and
husband love her, even if they get a bit exasperated from time to
time.  She has an abundance of love that she is willing to share with
a lonely, abused child.  All of these traits are associated strongly
with the Mother.  In a sense, Molly is a walking incarnation of the
Empress (well-favored, i.e. in its positive implications) from a Tarot
Deck.

But why, people ask, does she favor Percy or turn on Hermione or snark
at Sirius or bully Arthur ....?

Well, there is another aspect of Motherhood, it is dreadfully
near-sighted.  Mothers are concerned first and foremost with the
nurturance and protection of the INDIVIDUALS under their care.  They
don't see "children."  They see Ron and Ginny and Harry and so forth.
They don't see "great social forces."  They see the problems Arthur
has at work and the pain Harry is in because someone may have broken
his heart.

I think that to attribute bigotry to Molly is to miss the point. 
Molly, I suspect, doesn't worry too much about great social issues. 
Now, I'm not saying she doesn't understand them or have views about
them.  I'm sure she does.  But I just don't believe she thinks in
those terms most of the time.  Certainly she doesn't think in those
terms during her interactions with other people, including Arthur,
Hermione, Harry, Sirius, and her children.

Molly worries about Arthur, about the fact that he can't get the
proper credit at work.  I don't suspect she routinely thinks of that
as an interplay of politics and social factors, but rather as a
specific situation faced by a specific man whom she loves.  When Molly
becomes angry at Hermione she isn't thinking of muggleborns as
anything, or even the fact that Hermione is muggleborn.  She's
thinking that she loves Harry like a son and this particular
individual is said to have hurt him.  Now, you might say her leap of
judgment in unfair, but it's stereotypical maternal behavior.  Mothers
don't, stereotypically, pause to reflect or evaluate situations
objectively.  They rush to protect their children against all comers.
 She may have liked Hermione, but it's clear she did not feel for her
as she felt for Harry.  Harry was one of her children, or as good as.
 Hermione was not.  For a mother with her radically focused vision,
that's all that's necessary.  Exactly the same situation arises with
Sirius.  In THIS specific situation THIS specific individual proposed
a course of action that was dangerous to one of her children.

Now, the stereotypical mother is not perfect.  Indeed, the symbol is
fraught with tensions - tensions out of which Freud (the Viennese
physician, not the group member), Jung, and others built entire
careers.  But overall it is a strongly positive archetype, and I think
JKR sees Molly as a strongly positive figure.

So, in sum, to ascribe much angst to Molly over her status in general
with the purebloods, or to think she sees muggleborns as untrustworthy
, etc., is, I think, to badly misunderstand her character.  She is a
radically non-ideological figure.  I just don't think her mind works
that way.  Molly is concerned with individual people in individual
situations.  Her hopes, dreams, and fears are very concrete because
the people they concern are real people, not abstractions like
"pureblood," "muggleborn," or "society," or "the Wizarding World."  If
she feels left out of Wizarding Society I suspect she ascribes it to
certain "snobbish" individuals like Narcissa Malfoy, not to the
beliefs of an abstract set like "the purebloods."  In fact I doubt she
thinks in terms of "society" but rather in terms of which individuals
will associate with which other individuals.  When she says the
station is "packed with Muggles" she means just that.  This PARTICULAR
station is packed with these PARTICULAR people who are, after all,
Muggles.  I doubt she even routinely thinks of "the Ministry" but
rather of those "unfair people who won't promote Arthur" or those
"awful people who put Harry on trial."  I'm not saying she's stupid. 
Of course she understands the concept and reality of "the Ministry" or
any other abstraction.  But I don't think that's the rubric she uses
on a day-to-day basis to organize the world, even rather deep down in
her automatic thoughts.


Lupinlore