Hermione Granger: Character Analysis

[sweets7]

Originally Posted by MagicPineapple

From what I remember of Sorcerer's Stone/Philoshopher's Stone, during the end, when they had to go through all of those mazes and traps, she kept a very cool head through it all, relying more upon her brains than emotion. On another contradictory note, she practically had a heart attack and flipped out when the troll came and tried to kill her.

She did not really: she lost her cool over how to defeat devils snare. In OOTP she was practically shaking when Harry told them the result of his trial; her encounter with the Centaurs in the same book; her reactions in the hospital scene in HBP. There are plenty more, she can let her emotions get the better of her on occasion.

Then again she is not like: Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks (three people who do seem calm in these situations). She has no training or experience in these areas. With Luna it is just her personality. You could sit there all day trying to rattle and shock her and it would not work. Hermione is too nervy.

[anabel]

Originally Posted by MagicPineapple

From what I remember of Sorcerer's Stone/Philoshopher's Stone, during the end, when they had to go through all of those mazes and traps, she kept a very cool head through it all, relying more upon her brains than emotion. On another contradictory note, she practically had a heart attack and flipped out when the troll came and tried to kill her.

I believe that Hermione is just like any other human being -- Sometimes she's perfectly cool and logical, other times she has her mood swings. I think that J.K. Rowling did ALOT better in the later books, defining her character and letting her emotions shine through.

Well, Hermione did a bit of growing up in the meantime too. She was only just 12 in PS.

[Yoana]

Loony_Tinne, a fantastic post!!! I agree with everything you said there. I feel readers tend to see Hermione in one dimension only, just because her logical/studious side is emphasised more than the others. But Hermione is so complex. I think you can see that the author truly loves her.

Yes, Hermione is logical and informed and works hard and loves to demostrate her knowledge, but she is also very humane, very sympathetic and compassionate. She is always so concerned with Ron and Harry, all those little sqeaking noises she makes when she's scared for them, and even when they don't speak to her because of a freaking broom (! this just gets me so annoyed at the two dunderheads), and has all this homework to do, and reasearch for Buckbeak to go through, she still cares about them and is so scared for Harry and Ron because of Sirius Black. This just shows her true colours, in my opinion, and makes a rather unflattering (to the boys) contrast between her and them.

[sweets7]

Yeah she is completely loyal to the boys; breaks your heart really.

[troryfan]

She is really Loyal, and that is both good and bad, as it makes her more vulnerable. She is clever, but more dangerous spells don't come naturally to her, and that could mean that she is much easily hurt.#

Jo

[arithmancer]

Originally Posted by Loony_Tinne

I am confused as to why just because Hermione is logical, lineal and rational that she therefore has no "effective emotional understanding of others." I don't think these traits are mutually exclusive.

I agree! It is a matter of personality, individual style, what have you. There are plenty of normally functioning adults who understand the feelings of people around them through logic and observation. Hermione, in my opinion, is one of them. I don't think this is an area in which she needs to grow.

I think it is a mistake for Americans (and I am one) to confuse British reserve for coldness/lack of emotion. Just because Hermione isn't a drama queen doesn't mean she's emotionally retarded.

I don't think this is a cultural thing. After all, the vast majority of HP characters are British, but this is something readers only see in a few of the characters.

We know Hermione talks to Ginny all the time because she always has the scoop on Ginny's love life. I don't think her advice to Ginny about Harry was accidentally right or necessarily logical. I think what really got Harry thinking about Ginny was Hermione saying "She used to fancy Harry but she gave up on him months ago." Because the logical advice at least to teenage girls would have been "Just keep after him and he'll come around eventually." Also she feeds Harry thoughts of Ginny being girlfriend material, so he starts to see her as such and not just Ron's little sister.

"Keep after him" is the advice many teenaged girls might consider logical, but I would argue that it is not, and Hermione's advice is. You can't make another person love you. He either will, or not. Attempting to 'make' someone love you by changing how you act is destructive to both parties, the person who hides their true self, and the other, if he is fooled. And if the person does not love you, waiting forever is a one way ticket to a life less full than it otherwise might have been.

So I would say Hermione did apply logic to Ginny's problem, and, furthermore, gave her the best advice possible. And the campaign to show Ginny as 'girlfriend material' is again the product of a logical mind. Luckily for Ginny, Harry actually does find her attractive and lovable, and it all works out. If Harry had not, it would still have been the best course of action - Ginny was pursuing other potential relationships, and eventually (I presume) she would have run into her Mr. Right.

Where I see this showing anything about Hermione emotionally is that she bothers. She cares enough about Ginny's happiness to think through her problem and find a sound course of action, and also makes the effort to bring her to Harry's attention. Another instance of her being a good friend.

Where I see Hermione needing to grow emotionally is not in her understanding of others, but in dealing with her own emotions. In my opinion, the girl who gave Ginny the above advice should not have had difficulty figuring out why Ron took up with LavLav after the big blowup with Ginny over Dean. But she was too hurt to do so, and instead selected (on emotional, not logical grounds) a course of action that hurt Ron back as she had been hurt.

She does things she knows are wrong to get what she wants which is a Slytherin thing i.e. she tries to force the house elves into freeing themselves, she puts Umbridge into danger to save Harry from the Cruciatius Curse, she goes to the party with McClaggen, she Confundus' McClaggen so Ron will be made keeper.

I would argue that her endangering of Umbridge was eminently justified under the circumstances. Her blackmail of Rita Skeeter is another instance of Hermione's Slytherin cunning, and when she uses it to get Harry's message out to the wider wizarding world in OotP, I also approve.

The McLaggen business, on the other hand, was selfish, yes.