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Essays
The Girl In the Mirror
By Celestine De Karamel
One of the reasons why the Harry Potter series are so successful is that the reader can easily relate to JK Rowling’s characters, all of whom, or at least most of whom, are very close to the people we encounter in real life: the sadistic teacher, the wise grand-father type mentor, the detestable cousin, the friends that have their qualities and flaws. They’re plausible and consistent even though they live in a world that’s our own world’s magical reflection. The teenage characters, in this perspective, are remarkably realistic in their attitudes and thoughts. The ambiguous attraction between Ron and Hermione, for one, is the typical thing that everyone expects to happen between two good friends that deny having anything to do with one another. Ginny Weasley, though her character isn’t very present in the first four books, is another good example of that realism. She’s somebody everyone can relate to: shy and ill at ease around the boy she likes, clumsy with expressing her feelings, obviously fearing rejection yet unable to bring herself to get over her crush. Who can pretend not having, like she has, to face the qualms of one-way affection? Ginny Weasley is the girl we see in the mirror when we find ourselves unworthy of the person we treasure, inapt to handle a problem, or cast in the shadow of “better” people. In the series, she is, next to Harry, the person who most obviously has an insecurity problem, thus her misadventures with Tom Riddle. In many ways, Harry and Ginny are in fact very alike. Discreet and timid, they don’t always know how to make themselves stand out in the right way, nor are they very comfortable with the opposite sex. They’re vulnerable and both have lived through terrible experiences, which is why they are, for example, the easiest preys for the Dementors in Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry faints, but Ginny is also greatly distressed, and crying; one can only imagine the things Tom Riddle put her through. Harry and Ginny are also, in return, complementary characters. He’s always in the spotlight against his will, whereas she struggles to find her place, confronted with the presence of her brothers and Hermione, the older, smarter girl, seemingly aloof and blessed with Harry’s attention. He lacks affection, while being the only girl in her family, the reader can guess Ginny has more than her share, and much to give to the boy she deems deserving. To put it briefly, they both have the capacity to provide to the other what he or she needs. Harry doesn’t seem to notice this resemblance nor this intricate fit, probably because he is yet too young to look any other way than towards the blatant beauty and charm of his distant crush, Cho Chang. Cho is the opposite of the girl in the mirror portrayed by Ginny. She is the one we’ve always been jealous of at what point or the other: pretty, athletic, smart, nice, popular amongst her peers, and basically flawless. Cho Chang is who we’d wish to see in the mirror but never do, and it makes us suffer greatly, just like Ginny who has to deal with Harry fawning over the beautiful sixth-year without giving her a second look. Here we notice it is her helplessness and humility that makes Ginny such a moving character; she is unable to hide her feelings, but their persistency, unwanted maybe, makes us suppose she still hopes deep inside Harry will come around. Rowling, Hermione put asides, must clearly identify herself to Ginny more than to Cho through her writing, and by giving Ron a little sister who happens to like Harry, she’s cleverly creating a character whom: 1) the girl reader, always more or less consciously in love with Harry herself, can imagine being 2) has her persona and physique yet to be developed and improved 3) can be worked in the plotline as Harry’s love interest later on without it looking artificial, like an outer character becoming the hero’s girlfriend would. Thus, the most plausible outcome of the series, relationship-wise, is that Hermione and Ron will first of all become a couple, and that Ginny will be accepted in the trio and eventually catch Harry’s eye. She is already friends with Hermione, and her confident, which proves that she is more than what she seems. Furthermore, the very fact that Rowling’s been keeping Ginny’s crush strong over the books is another proof of the likeliness of a Harry/Ginny pairing: what would Ginny’s role in the books be if Harry doesn’t end up liking her as well? Why would the author create such a character if Harry should fall for someone else in the long run? Who else could win Harry’s affection? Hermione is surely not a reasonable bet; what would Ron have left if, on top of being the main character, Harry associates with another great figure of the series ? Parvati Patil, the Yule Ball date, is too superficial for our tortured hero, and wonder-girl Cho Chang will forever be associated with her boyfriend Cedric Diggory, whose death Harry feels guilty for. I will conclude by saying it would be odd and unbalanced if the relationship between Harry and Ginny didn’t evolve at all in future books. The girl we see in the mirror, though we may not always notice it, doesn’t stay the same, and while there is still margin for speculating on who she truly is, Ginny Weasley , at any rate, is on the verge of blooming into a important character for the series. As I see it, the only reason why Rowling didn’t make Harry notice Ginny yet is because finding one’s soulmate right away makes matters much less interesting. Let us not forget that Harry Potter is above all an apprenticeship novel: he is young, and, like us, must make mistakes before learning from them. |
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