[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's Hypocrisy?(long)

[Mira]

No: HPFGUIDX 129110

To add my own few knuts to the debate, I think
Hermione is far from being unsympathetic. During the
last three books she is always the one who explains to
Ron and even to Harry the reason behind how others
react. She is able not only to put herself in Cho's
position, and realise that she would probably allow
Harry much more space and his own approach to a
relationship and also try to understand him more, but
she is also able to identify correctly the reasons why
Cho is behaving in a different manner, asking for
protection and romance (because her previous boyfriend
has died and so on). I think she is as sympathetic as
she is intelligent, and the only instances when she
doesn't behave in a sympathetic way are in book 3,
when she was overworked and stressed.

In Kreacher's case, with house elves in general, it is
true that we don't see Hermione giving much thought to
their culture, but perhaps she did consider this and
came to the conclusion that nobody should be allowed
to abuse himself, and that a person should be given
the chance to see all options before making an
informed choice. No matter how you look at it, you
cannot give much weight to arguments based on the
choice of persons who are deprived by definition of
free choice (whether they gave it up willingly or
not).

It is true that Ron's reaction is based on tradition,
but so is Kreacher's behavior; if the first is not
acceptable, why should we defend blindly the seconds?
Let's consider a similar situation, of a woman living
in a society where women were considered second-hand
creatures for centuries, and who only sees herself as
a good wife if she obeys her husband indiscriminately,
and considers naturally to be abused. Would we, given
the power, allow this situation to continue, or try to
change her mentality, even if in the beginnins she
herself would protest, afraid of being asked to think
for herself and fend for herself? Is the house-elves
situation different, and if yes, why?

Hermione doesn't ask the house-elves to stop serving
if this is what they want, only tries to eliminate the
legal possibility for abuse that bad masters are
enjoying at the moment. She doesn't try to change
elves, only protect them, and, if possible, make them
aware of themselves as beings that possess the right
to choose.

I find one coincidence interesting: Lily stood up for
Snape in front of James, but when Snape called her a
mudblood, she didn't care for him anymore. Hermione
takes abuse from Kreacher and still keeps defending
him. We could argue the Hermione does this because she
sees Kreacher as inferior to her, therefore doesn't
care for his insults; on the contrary, I think that
what Hermione is trying to do is to make Kreacher
equal to her, so that she could oppose him with a
clean conscience. She doesn't think of her hurt
feelings, but tries to understand why Kreacher is as
he is (if she didn't understand she would feel
offended and stop trying to help him). I think this
makes Hermione much more sympathetic than most people
see her. In fact, I think she, Dumbledore, and
possibly, in the future, Ginny are the most empathic
characters of the story.

Finally, I have to agree that giving Kreacher a
blanket when she was depriving him of his most
treasured possessions is not necessarily the best
approach to comfort him. However, we can read
Hermione's gesture as trying to show to Kreacher that
he can allow himself to be comfortable and to think of
himself more than of his masters. And then, if still
wanting it, to serve them.

Perhaps I am wrong, but this is my take on the matter.

ALuna


		
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