[HPforGrownups] Re: ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[Jeremiah LaFleur]

No: HPFGUIDX 164652

Julie

I guess my real disappointment with Canon!McGonagall then is that she
is such a one note character, which seems to be par for the course
with the adult female characters. It's the male characters who are
complex and multilayered, shaped by their often painful pasts, given
to questionable and conflicting decisions and actions. Snape, Lupin,
Sirius, Dumbledore, even Pettigrew and Voldemort have complicated and
sometimes mysterious motivations. Meanwhile McGonagall, Molly,
Bellatrix and Umbridge are each exactly what they appear to be, stock
characters with virtually no gray areas to them. (Yes, *some* of the
adult male characters are stock characters too, Hagrid, Arthur,
Greyback, but some aren't.) Even Tonks lost most of her potential
complexity by HBP.
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Jeremiah:



I'm not going to do the "boys vs. girls" thing, but I want to talk a bit
about the ladies you'd mentioned as being one-dimensional,



I don't see Molly Weasley as one-dimensional. Not at all. I see her as
extremely complex as a mother-figure. The way she handles a house full of
young (and old) boys, her terrific fear of losing those close to her, her
willingness to join the Order and facilitate is in what she knows best (and
I really hate the notion that keeping house is a negative skill. God knows I
could use a bit more of it myself and would have the greatest adoration for
Molly if she'd come over and clean mine 'casue I stink at it). She hold a
family together even though she is distraught at the notion of losing them
forever. She brings love and compassion to nearly every situation she's in
even if it is in conflict with the other characters. She has a strong
resolve and fearlessly voices her opinion.



Bellatrix. What would cause someone to go and be a DE? As a woman, what
would it take? We can see how LV chooses men as his inner circle, so if you
are a woman then what would you need to do to allow yourself to become a
participant in LV's army? That's a complex question that she carries with
her. Also, there is a difference between the way women kill and men kill.
Bellatrix goes for the balls in her fights. That's a complicated issue and
maybe there isn't enough room in the stories to have that explained.



And Umbridge... She is career-motivated. She has a very dark and sinister
side to her. McGonagall would give lines or have you polish trophies.
Umbridge, however will have the back of you hand sliced open to permanently
scar you... She has aspirations in the MoM. She has skills for fighting as
well as persuading people to do her bidding. On the surface she is the
cardigan-wearing, fuzzy-kitty-on-a-plate loving "girlish" professor
Umbridge. However, have you ever wondered how those playful kittens go on
those plates? I think she put a spell on them and trapped them in a plate
forever...



Hermione is extremely complex. Ginny is very complicated. Professor Sprout
is a bit one-dimensional as well as Madame Hooch.



I think there are lots of multi-layered female characters and if we sit back
and think about them. I actually think there is more going on with the women
than the men. I think the men are very "on the surface" when it comes to
plot. DD good, LV bad. Harry Good, Draco bad. That kind of stuff. Umbridge
is a disagreeable lady who is not evil… just messed-up! LOL



IMO the theory doesn't hold water. And we all will remember, if it weren't
for Hermione LV would have found a way to get the Stone in the first book
,he'd be back and the story would have unfolded differently. If Hermione
didn't' figure out tit was a Baslisk in the second book we'd have totally
different stories. If Hermione didn't figure out about Lupin and … well I
think it's clear that even if we only had one female character with complex
layers the Hermione brings it all in and outshines every other character:
male of female.


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