some replies which are direct but off topic

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186209

Sartoris22 wrote:
> 
> I've read crticism about Rowling having a male protagonist and indulging in the whole English public school thing, but I've never considered the narrator's gender. Does the narrator have a female "voice" or personna? When I think of male writers, few, such as Henry James and perhaps a few others, create "realistic" or complex female character. Although the Potter books are fairly male- dominated, the female characters are sensitively and thoughtfully portrayed--and they are very different, very round. Moroever, and I'm not being sexist here, the narrator seems particuarly aware and understanding of people's feelings, their emotional motivations. The depth and importance of human relationship, not magic or even the struggle between good and evil, is, to me, the touchstone of the books. The narrator's sensitivity to and understanding of relationships conjure, in my mind, a woman's voice and sensibilities.
>
Carol responds:

I'm not so sure that the *narrator*, who sees from Harry's pov most of the time, is sensitive to anyone's feelings except Harry's. I'd say, though, that *Hermione,* on occasion (as when she's analyzing Cho's tearfulness) is, if not exactly sensitive, at least psychologically astute, especially in comparison with the boys.

As for the ability to create compelling characters, I'd credit JKR herself rather than the narrator, which (or who) is only the voice or persona that JKR uses to tell the story. The question is whether it's a male or a female voice. I'm not altogether sure, but I think that Magpie's point about male characters being described as handsome is a good one. How many male writers or male first-person narrators (in other words, voices that we know to be male) would be concerned with Cedric Diggory's looks? (I don't know the answer; it sounds like a rhetorical question, but I'm seriously looking for examples.)

Sometimes we can tell for certain that a third-person narrator is male or female simply because of the world they depict and a focus on characters of a particular sex. Austen's narrators are clearly female and the world she depicts is the narrow feminine world of the early nineteenth century. Tolkien's narrators have a broader scope (sometimes too broad, IIRC), focusing on war and adventure and mostly on male characters. There's nothing feminine about the books even when they deal with female characters.

Obviously, JKR's books depict a world without such differences in sex roles. Girls and boys go to school together; their classes are taught by both men and women. (Granted, JKR deliberately chose a boy as her protagonist, but Harry's world is a lot closer to Hermione's than Fitzwilliam Darcy's is to Elizabeth Bennett's or Aragorn's is to Arwen's.)

But take any passage from the books other than dialogue, preferably one that clearly shows Harry's point of view. Did she get it right? Did she see as a teenage boy would see? Maybe it would help to convert the passage to first-person.

Or take just the opening sentences of the first book, which don't deal with Harry at all. Does the narrator sound like a thirty-something British woman or one of the Frothers Grimm updated or the avuncular narrator of the hobbit (okay, yesterday I called him "grandfatherly," but I think "avuncular" is closer)?

Any clues that it's a female voice? Or maybe it isn't.

Carol, just interested in what others think