Hermione in harry potter and the goblet of fire by j k rowling (a case study of radical feminism)

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine how Harry Potter series, written by the English author J.K.Rowling, breaks gender norms constructed by the male-dominant society.. To ful

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

HERMIONE IN HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE BY J K ROWLING

A CASE STUDY OF RADICAL FEMINISM

An annual paper submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature

in fulfillment of the requirement for Students’ Research Week

By TRAN THI QUE THANH

Supervised by

VU NGUYEN MINH PHUONG, M.A

HO CHI MINH CITY, May 5th, 2014

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Harry Potter series, written by the English author J.K.Rowling, breaks gender norms constructed by the male-dominant society

To fulfill this first and foremost ambition, the writer analyzes the female character Hermione

in book 4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from Radical feminist perspective to delineate

how this female figure opposes gender stereotypes to gain herself independence and high development of morality The theoretical framework of Radical feminism is adopted from

Feminist thought: A more comprehensive introduction by Rosemarie Tong (2003) and textual

analysis is employed as an analytical tool

From the analysis of Hermione under the perspective of Radical feminism the writer concludes that J K Rowling has broken some gender archetypal ideologies to unintentionally create a masculine-and-feminine-fused female character which is termed androgyny To that end, Rowling has fostered audiences’ autonomy, especially children and young adults, in their exploration and interpretation of a new constructed gender role This perfectly fits into the category of androgyny - the fundamental idea of Radical-libertarian feminism which is people have rights to discover and own both masculinity and femininity

The writer argues that Hermione is an androgynous character, reflected through two identities First, Hermione uses rationality instead of violence to defend herself, which shows the audiences her independence and gentleness when being insulted Second, Hermione develops high morality when fighting for the rights of house-elves, which at the same time portrays her sympathy for the weak in society These two components can hardly be found in most female figures in children’s literature

Offering an insight into gender norms and children literature, the paper serves (a) female readers who possess little knowledge of Radical feminism in general and androgyny and presents androgyny as a potential cure for deep-rooted gender stereotypes to help women find their voices in male-dominant society, (b) those who advocate women liberation, especially in Vietnamese context where women are bound by Confucian ideologies with reasoning and a model to stand up and speak for their own benefits and reject gender constrains male-dominant society has imposed on wome, (c) those who support Harry Potter

to be categorized as a children’s classic, and (d) those who are interested in gender roles, feminism and literature in general

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Diversity of feminist thoughts 5

1.2 Radical Feminism 6

CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS 9

2.1 Hermione’s independence 9

2.2 Hermione’s development of morality 12

CONCLUSION 16

REFERENCES 18

APPENDIX A 20

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INTRODUCTION

“Everything we read constructs us, makes us who we are, by presenting our image of

ourselves as girls and women, as boys and men”

(Mem Fox,1993)

The manners in which gender roles are presented in children’s literature have determined children’s attitudes and perceptions of appropriate gender-related behaviors in our society At their very young age, children learn to construct their gender roles by observing the society’s gender schema to find out which gender attributes are destined to their sex, as well as themselves (Bem, 1981; Treepanier-Street & Romatowski, 1999) In consequence, stereotypes of gender roles which the male-dominant society has so far constructed and imposed on children restrict them from discovering different dimensions of gender Many children’s literary works have depicted girls as beautiful (outer beauty), dependent, vulnerable and intuitive while boys are described as strong (inner strength), independent, protective and rational (Ernst, 1995; Jett-Simpson & Masland, 1993; Stephens, 1997) As discussed in the

essay Gender, genre and children’s literature of John Stephens (1997), those are called

―socially desirable masculine and feminine traits‖ which means if boys are grown up without that masculinity and girls are grown up without that femininity, they will be considered ―not desirable‖ Therefore, the more popular a literary work is, the more children get familiarized and obsessed with gender stereotypes (if any) embedded in that work

Though gender stereotypes exist in children’s literature for a very long time from the period of the very first fairy tales to contemporary literary works nowadays, readers, both children and their parents, are not fully aware embedded gender norms1 Harry Potter is one of the cases

The Harry Potter series since its very first publication in 1997 has become a

worldwide phenomenon Children and their parents used to queue for days in front of bookstores to get first copies when they were released In addition, the Potter-fever seems not

to lose its temperature after the last book of the series was published 7 years ago2 As people

can see, Harry Potter has continuously left its impact on lots of children and their attitudes

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and characters as well3 Hence, in what ways those impacts affect our children should be carefully analyzed, especially about gender stereotypic roles

The paper examines whether Harry Potter series breaks gender norms constructed by

male-dominant society To fulfill this first and foremost ambition, the writer analyzes Hermione from Radical feminist perspective to observe how a female figure oppose gender stereotypes to gain herself independence and high development of morality

The writer argues that from Radical feminist viewpoints J K Rowling the author has broken some gender archetypal ideologies to unintentionally create a masculine-and-feminine-fused female character which is termed androgyny The writer believes Rowling has fostered audiences’ autonomy, in this case are children and young adults, to explore a new way of constructing gender roles That way perfectly fits into the category of androgyny - the fundamental idea of Radical-libertarian feminism which is people have rights to discover and own both masculinity and femininity

Hermione in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter by J K Rowling is a series of children fantasy genre It has 7 volumes

which tell the adventurous story of a young wizard named Harry Potter Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, endure lots of difficulties to fight against evil wizards led by Lord Voldermort The context of the first six books takes place inside Hogwarts, an institution for young wizard and witch trainings while the last book is a special adventure in the outside world All of the series are filmed and its trademark belongs to Warner Bros Studio

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is significant because it not only announces the

return of the Dark Lord but also because it is the turning point for all three main characters at their age of adolescence: Harry’s first crush on Cho Chang, Ron’s jealousy with his best friend Harry and Hermione’s exploration of her androgynous roles

The fourth book of Harry Potter series is mainly about the Triwizard Tournament It is

a contest hosted by Hogwarts and there are two more magic schools which are Dumstrang and Beauxbatons taking part in it Each school has its own champion chosen by the Goblet of Fire Mysteriously, Harry Potter is chosen as the fourth champion representing Hogwart to join the

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Dammann, Guy "Harry Potter Breaks 400m in Sales." The Guardian Guardian News and Media Limited, June

18th , 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/18/harrypotter.news

like to introduce in this paper concerning Radical feminism

As a result, only book 4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is selected for analysis

Moreover, taking in-depth consideration into feminine traits of Hermione to dignify her femininity will not be the writer’s attention Instead, since the writer is more concerned about how J K Rowling, a female writer, constructs masculinity and grants it to a female character

to create the concept of androgyny, she intentionally puts more emphasis on masculine identities and their mixture with feminine identities

This circumstance creates many chances for others to do further research on

Hermione’s femininity as well as her androgynous identities in the remains of Harry Potter

series

Significance

Harold Bloom (2000), a prominent critic of children’s literature, hardly accepted

Harry Potter as a classic because they insisted that the books were not ―well written‖ and had

―the aesthetic weaknesses‖ with ―her prose style, heavy on cliché, [which] makes no demands

upon her readers‖ (2) As for Harold Bloom, Harry Potter of J K Rowling possesses literary

values no more In an attempt to provide an opposing view towards Bloom’s ideas, the writer would like to suggest the paper as an insightful work of scholarship to the following types of readers:

1 To female readers who possess little to no knowledge of Radical feminism in general and androgyny in particular The paper presents androgyny as a potential cure for deep-rooted gender stereotypes to help women find their voices in male-dominant society

2 To advocacy groups for women’s rights, especially in Vietnamese context where women are bound by Confucian ideologies The paper provides them with reasoning and a model to stand up and speak for their own benefits and reject gender constrains male-dominant society has imposed on women

3 To educators and parents in guiding and teaching children and your adults foreign fiction/literature

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4 To those who support Harry Potter to be categorized as a children’s classic They will

find in the paper academic grounds to reinforce the literacy of Harry Potter

5 To readers who are interested in gender roles, feminism and literature in general

Structure of the paper

The paper is comprised of 4 chapters The introduction starts with background to

study, research problems, an overview of Hermione’s role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and significance of the paper while chapter 2 – Literature Review – introduces the

theoretical framework based on which the analysis is conducted The next chapter discusses two masculine traits of Hermione which are independence and moral development The paper ends with a conclusion part and some implications

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CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

The theoretical foundation of this paper is adopted from the book Feminist thought: A more comprehensive introduction by Rosemarie Tong (2003) The writer observes that Tong

offers a more general view on the diversity of feminist schools of thought in a more accessible language, especially for Vietnamese readers whose English is not their first language In addition, Tong’s analysis was rooted in such prominent feminist critics of each feminist ideology as Kate Millett, Shulamith Firestone, Mary Daly, or Sigmund Freud; as a result, this reinforces the validity of her notions

1.1 Diversity of feminist thoughts

As feminists try to signal the public that feminism is not one united scholarship and not all feminists think the same, the need of informing readers about diversity of feminist thinking is fundamental and compelling Much as feminist schools of thought are interdisciplinary, intersectional, and interlocking, scholars still can categorize them into some particular labels which are: liberal, radical, Marxist or socialist, psychoanalytic, care-focused, multicultural or global or colonial, ecofeminist, and postmodern or third wave

―The labels also help mark the range of different approaches, perspectives, and frameworks a variety of feminists have used to shape both their explanations for women’s oppression and their proposed solutions for its elimination‖ (Tong, 2003: 1) Liberal Feminism fought for women’s equal public realm as men whereas Radical Feminism blamed the oppression of women for the patriarchal society Disagreeing with these two ways of thinking, Marxist Feminism claimed that women’s submission was rooted in class-based society where the wealthy minority controlled the power over others Combining Radical and Marxist Feminist ideologies, Socialist Feminism insisted on patriarchal capitalism (or else capitalist patriarchy) as the source of male-dominance Another feminist thinking called psychoanalytic feminism was inspired by Sigmund Freud’s work, stating the roots of women’s oppression were ―embedded deep in the female psyche‖ (Tong, 2003: 5) There are still more different feminist schools of thought which, because of the limitation of this paper, the writer cannot list all However, with preceding discussion about some oldest feminist scholarships, the writer would like to put an emphasis on the diversity of feminist thinking which time and again is ignored or is not fully acknowledged by some critics and analysts In addition, choosing a particular feminist ideology to follow when analyzing a literary work, from the writer’s perception, is considered a must

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Radical feminism is hence of particular interest to the writer Among feminist theories which are mostly attempting to gain the equal prominence and representation through negotiating and compromising with the male-dominant society, especially Liberal Feminism with its campaigns to achieve equality in politics and labor market, Radical feminism stands out as the most progressive theory of all Its significance is thanks to the way it views and determines the root of women’s oppression in the society With their insistence on the patriarchy as the foremost cause of women oppression, Radical feminists show the public that they are resolving on changing human consciousness

An epitome to prove this rejection is Shulamith Firestone’s foundation of Redstocking

in the late 1960s Firestone, together with many feminists on her side, accused the other feminist groups of participating in so many activities of and remaining part of the patriarchal society What Firestone meant is other feminist groups were so involved in a society which oppressed women by working for it As long as people are still unable to confront the issue of male supremacy, the patriarchy - the deepest root of women oppression in this case, and continue compromising with it, they cannot completely eliminate it Those disparate ideas split the New York Radical Women, founded in 1967, into many directions

Under the writer’s perspective, Shulamith Firestone went for the right and wise choice Though Radical feminist theory sounds very utopian and unrealistic in the beginning,

it truly can bring a phenomenal change Similar to fighting against a nine-headed dragon by cutting off every single head, fighting for women’s liberation in each field does not really work because different problems in other spectra arise when one problem has just been solved The heart of the issue at hand is male superiority over women which is socially and culturally accepted for a very long time to date By rejecting that ideology, or in other words changing human mind-set about gender equality, Radical feminism is making progress in eliminating women’s oppression

Those significant reasons above explain why the writer would rather choose Radical Feminist theory than others to formerly ground her arguments and latterly advocate women’s rights

1.2 Radical Feminism

Contrary to reformist Liberal feminists, the paramount interest of Radical feminists is

to revolutionize the patriarchal system They claimed that ―men’s control of both women’s sexual and reproductive lives and women’s self-identity, self-respect, and self-esteem is the

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most fundamental of all the oppressions human beings visit on each other‖ (Tong, 2003: 49)

Therefore, the root of women oppression lies in the patriarchy and to win freedom, women have to reject all patriarchal ideologies were imposed upon them Despite their profound belief in sexism as ―the first, most widespread, or deepest form of human oppression‖ (Tong, 2003: 49), there exist some disagreements among the ways radical feminists fight against sexism, which splits them into two basic camps: radical-libertarian feminists and radical-cultural feminists Gender, sex and reproduction are perceived as the locus for radical feminist thoughts and criticisms Owing to the limitation of this paper, the writer focuses only on gender as the base for her further discussion In order to thoroughly understand radical feminist viewpoints on gender, one needs to clarify the concept of androgyny

Adopted the Greek word androgyne which ―describes a human who possesses the

characteristics of both sexes‖ (Bromberg, 2009: 21), the concept of androgyny was first

introduced into feminist literary theory through A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf in

1929 Woolf, a pioneer who brought an androgynous character into literary forum, believed that human beings could possess both masculine and feminine mind even though they were born with two distinct physical constructions and agreed with Samuel Taylor Coleridge that

―a great mind is androgynous, explaining that the two sexes within each mind must fuse and cooperate to foster wholeness and creativity‖ (Bromberg, 2009: 21)

As for radical-libertarian feminists, they see androgyny as a cure for the oppression of women They insist that it is the patriarchal system that requires women to exhibit only feminine identities and permits men to possess masculine traits only, which ―is likely to limit women’s development as full human persons‖ (Tong, 2003: 50) According to Gayle Rubin, the sex/ gender system is ―a set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activities‖ (Tong, 2003: 51) It means that the patriarchal society uses some unquestionable assumptions about human biology to persuade itself of the

―natural‖ construction of gender identities: men are destined for masculine ones and women are destined for feminine ones This keeps women forever passive as well as dependent and men obviously active They have confidence in the idea that regardless of biological sexes, human beings own rights to explore both masculine and feminine dimensions

Disagreeing with radical-libertarian views on the need of women’s being androgynous

to set themselves free from oppression, radical-cultural feminists seem to reject the concept of

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androgyny They argue that women are in no need of embracing masculine identities Instead, men/women must strictly keep their masculine/feminine roles The problem here is not which gender identities are destined to whom but the fact that the patriarchal ideologies value masculine traits more than feminine ones; as a result, to resist oppression, women must ―reject femininity as it has been constructed for them and give it an entirely new meaning‖ (Tong, 2003: 3) Androgyny, stated Daly, is deficient because it did not ask whether old masculine and feminine traits are worth preserving Most radical-cultural feminists agree that concepts

of masculinity and femininity should be reinterpreted Then, when people know how to value masculinity the same as femininity, women will no longer stay inside the constraints of oppression

To maintain the consistency of the paper and owing to the limitation of time and labor, the writer has intent to go into the concept of androgyny embedded in the character Hermione only from Radical-libertarian Feminist Theory

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CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS

2.1 Hermione’s independence

―Each sex is latent in the other, and each, as it contains the characters of both sexes (and can

transmit those of recessive sex), is latently hermaphrodite.‖

Havelocks Elllis (1915) - Studies in the Psychology of Sex

Androgyny – a topic related to radical feminism – has received lots of attention from the public sphere (Carlson, 1995) As a follower of radical-libertarian feminist theory, the writer definitely means to support androgyny The concept of androgyny formerly founded by

Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own and latterly put forward by such individuals as Kate

Millett, Shulamith Firestone, Havelock Ellis, or Sigmund Freud is described as a combination

of both masculine and feminine traits of human beings Because radical-libertarian feminists believe that there is no correlation between biological sexes and gender roles, no definite masculine identities are tied to men and similarly women are no longer necessary to display only feminine ones (Tong, 2003) Androgyny, from radical-libertarian viewpoint, serves as the key to succeed in eliminating women’s oppression and gaining gender equality

Fortunately, Hermione is the best epitome of androgynous ideology Whilst her feminine attributes are not explicitly presented in the series, except for her concern about the beauty and body image, Hermione possesses quite many good masculine traits, one of which

is independence

Not until the fourth book do readers acknowledge Hermione’s strength and independence It once was proved when children were asked who could die between book 3 and 4 They thought of Ron without delay instead of Hermione because they supposed that she was able to handle herself She is not a vulnerable female character4 And this invulnerability continues being promoted in book 4

Throughout the series, Hermione is usually insulted by Malfoy because of the fact that she is a Muggle-born witch and is called Mudblood5 with offensive remark While, in book 2

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret, when first called so, what Hermione could do is

only staying in silence; it is Ron and other boys who fought against Malfoy to back Hermione

up

4 J K Rowling, ―A Good Scare‖ Time Magazine Monday, October 30th, 2000

5 ―It’s about the most insulting thing […] Mudblood’s a really foul name for someonewho is Muggle-born — you know, non-magic parents […] It’s a disgusting thing to call someone.‖ – J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret, p 115 & 116