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

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 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 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Diversity of feminist thoughts 1.2 Radical Feminism CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS 2.1 Hermione’s independence .9 2.2 Hermione’s development of morality 12 CONCLUSION 16 REFERENCES .18 APPENDIX A 20 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 years ago As people can see, Harry Potter has continuously left its impact on lots of children and their attitudes See Feminism and Fairy Tales Diorama Design Copyright Broadview Press 2002 http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/exper/stahl/3524/FeminismandFairyTales.htm See Fantasy Novels dominate children’s reading in 2013, written by Alison Flood on Thursday, Jan 16 th, 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/16/fantasy-novels-dominate-children-reading 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-andfeminine-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 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 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 Tournament besides Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour They have to compete with each other in rounds to win the Triwizard Cup Though Hermione’s role in this book is not prominent since she plays a rather supporting part to give advice to Harry when it comes to the contest, she presents some significant Radical feminist ideologies which can illustrate quite well what the writer would like to introduce in this paper concerning Radical feminism As a result, only book 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 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: 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 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 maledominant society has imposed on women To educators and parents in guiding and teaching children and your adults foreign fiction/literature 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 To readers who are interested in gender roles, feminism and literature in general Structure of the paper The paper is comprised of 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 – 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 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 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 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 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 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 readers acknowledge Hermione’s strength and independence It once was proved when children were asked who could die between book and 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 character And this invulnerability continues being promoted in book 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 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret, when first called so, what Hermione could is only staying in silence; it is Ron and other boys who fought against Malfoy to back Hermione up J K Rowling, ―A Good Scare‖ Time Magazine Monday, October 30 th, 2000 ―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 Harry knew at once that Malfoy had said something really bad because there was an instant uproar at his words Flint had to dive in front of Malfoy to stop Fred and George jumping on him, Alicia shrieked, “How dare you!”, and Ron plunged his hand into his robes, pulled out his wand, yelling, “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy!” and pointed it furiously under Flint’s arm at Malfoy’s face (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret, p 112) Some feminists such as Colette Dowling have worried that ―the deep wish to be taken care of by others is the chief force holding women down today‖ (1981: 21) Because women are assumed to be passive and vulnerable, it is desirable to be protected by someone else Luckily, such an archetypal thought does not apply to Hermione As known by ones who have accompanied Harry Potter from the very first beginning, book was not the first time Hermione stood up to defend herself In book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she took a quite sweet revenge on Malfoy when he said disrespecting things about Hagrid ―Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy "And he’s supposed to be our teacher!" Harry and Ron both made furious moves toward Malfoy, but Hermione got there first - SMACK! She had slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength she could muster Malfoy staggered Harry, Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle stood flabbergasted as Hermione raised her hand again "Don’t you dare call Hagrid pathetic you foul—you evil—" "Hermione!" said Ron weakly and he tried to grab her hand as she swung it back "Get off Ron!" Hermione pulled out her wand.” (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, p 188) At this stage, Hermione’s reaction visually presents one of the most easily-recognized masculine traits: aggressiveness She got angry with Malfoy’s sayings and slapped his face to teach him a lesson Her action was instant and decisive She mustered all her strength in order to make Malfoy pay for what he had said Aggressive is always the manner in which men conduct themselves Men as usual make use of their physical strength to solve any problems and consider violence as the best and shortest way to end a trouble Therefore, aggressiveness 10 is usually depicted as the masculinity of men/boys in children’s literature according to Stephens’ schema (1997) For the time being, that reaction of Hermione could be perceived as her first selfdefense and a proof of her independence from her male friends This is the turning point that reflects the formation of androgyny inside Hermione As Audre Lorde (1978) once suggested, women should feel the need of ―the transformation of silence into language and action‖, for silence cannot protect anyone from being hurt Here readers can see Hermione’s transformation from a docile girl into an independent girl who can protect herself Moreover, this transformation could also become the foundation of her later masculine-and-femininefused self-defense in book on which the writer would like to put a considerable emphasis to prove Hermione’s androgynous character It is because the situation did change dramatically in book Once again, Hermione was insulted with such a name-calling, and she took revenge before anyone did it for her "You're joking, Weasley!" said Malfoy, behind them "You're not telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"; Harry and Ron both whipped around, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy’s shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!" Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew "Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly, and she, Harry, and Ron went up the marble staircase laughing heartily (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, p 262 & 263) Not long before that scene, Malfoy was turned into a ferret in the schoolyard by Professor Moody as a punishment for his bullying others Hermione, of course, saw Malfoy’s embarrassing situation and drew a conclusion that it was Professor Moody who could threaten Malfoy if he was about to something bad She used her rational analysis as a shield to protect herself from being insulted by Malfoy and then took revenge by scaring the life out of him This reaction was undoubtedly a combination of masculinity and femininity As for masculinity, Hermione continuously demonstrated her independence through her self-defense so many times She was no longer in need of a male figure to take care of her and protect her However, Hermione not only defended herself but she did it in a very 11 different way While examining gender roles in book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Heather Sammons once stated that ―female characters often use their wit and logic to get out of dangerous situations‖ (12) She no longer employed violence to approach the problems but use language and reasoning instead This again reinforces Lorde’s belief that women need ―the transformation of silence into language and action‖ and Hermione shows us both Furthermore, the act of using a non-violence means proves that Hermione defends herself in a much gentler manner than male characters did in the same situations As presented in Laura Bem’s table of the BSRI (Bem Sex Role Inventory)6, gentle is one of prescriptive feminine ideologies In consequence, a gentle defense is a mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics It is until book that readers were able to find out such fusion of masculinity and femininity which the writer happily to declare as an epitome of androgyny 2.2 Hermione’s development of morality Besides, Hermione not only defends herself but also stands up for other creatures’ rights Hermione shows her ―androgynous model of moral and ethical development‖ as a masculine identity (Dreasang, 2003: 232) when she expresses her own thoughts on the plight of house-elves Before one wants to know the reason why Hermione can perform that masculinity, he/she should take a brief look at Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (1971) The theory in fact appears as a stage model It consists of sequential stages which are grouped into levels: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional7 According to Carol Tarvis, girls/women are assumed to get stuck at 'stage three’8 where they focus mainly on living up to social expectations and fulfilling their responsibilities to get approval of others It is not likely for women to achieve the highest level of moral development which is seemingly determined for only men At the sixth stage, people are said to possess the ability of seeing things through one another’s eyes based on abstract reasoning instead of concrete moral conventions They can develop their own principled conscience and willingly adhere to universal ethical principles no matter whether those principles violate or obey the official laws Appendix A Appendix B Women, Men and Morality Carol Tarvis Published on May 2nd, 1982 Psychological Theory and Women's Development By Carol Gilligan 184 pp Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 12 In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling one more time has challenged that norm of our society by constructing Hermione’s sense of morality and ethics at the highest stage of Kolhberg’s chart It is when Hermione reacts angrily to wizards’ mistreatment of house-elves and builds the foundation of the Society of the Promotion for Elfish Welfare (aka S.P.E.W) House-elves are firstly non-human creatures therefore not allowed to own wands9 They lead a life of permanent servitude at ancient and prominent families in wizarding world Their place is only in the kitchen to housework They are also not permitted to wear clothes like human beings so as to signify their slavery, which in turn makes an act of giving any garments become an act of setting house-elves to freedom Nonetheless, house-elves will regard it as an offensive remark They identify themselves with their masters and masters’ reputation and are willingly obey all of masters’ requirements They see fulfilling their masters’ wills not only as their duties but their missions All wizards and witches acknowledge those norms, or even prejudices, if it can be called so Muggle-born wizards more or less not fully understand and accept those ones Neither does Hermione The first encounter between Hermione and Winky, the Crouches’ female house-elf, was at the finale of Quidditch World Cup10 Hermione found out that Winky was forced to climb up to the highest floor to keep seats for her master despite the fear of height Not long later, Hermione saw Winky struggling to escape from the crowd which was becoming more and more terrified because of terrorists At this time, Hermione witnessed the incident that Mr Crouch gave Winky clothes for her connection to conjuring the Dark Mark11 She was extremely shocked by the manners in which adult male wizards treated Winky "The way they were treating her!" said Hermione furiously "Mr Diggory, calling her 'elf' all the time and Mr Crouch! He knows she didn't it and he's still going to sack her! He didn't care how frightened she'd been, or how upset she was - it was like she wasn't even human!" "Well, she's not," said Ron Hermione rounded on him "That doesn't mean she hasn't got feelings, Ron It's disgusting the way -" ―No non-human creatures are permitted to carry or use a wand‖ J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, p.86 10 Quidditch is a very popular sport in wizarding world, much similar to American football People play Quidditch while flying on their broomsticks, passing Quaffle to earn scores A match ends when the Seeker catches the golden Snitch 11 The Dark Mark, which is an image of snake going out of a skull’s jaws, is the signal of Lord Voldermort and his disciples, Death Eaters 13 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, p 90) The density of exclamation mark shows readers Hermione’s accumulation of questioning the validity of what most wizards and witches suppose to be norms It may be because she finds a contradiction between the normal moral rules of the wizarding world and her own internalized ethic principles In the wizarding world, people are allowed to treat house-elves as their slaves and house-elves are also happy to be enslaved On the contrary, Hermione perceives house-elves slavery and wizards’ mistreatment towards house-elves as a burning sense of injustice which, from her viewpoints, is the violation of ethics In this context, readers can easily recognize her moral development which is somewhat at the fifth stage of Kolhberg’s scale Hermione realizes there are other sentiments on what is right and what is wrong in accord with the conventional expectations of the society and the fact that many laws supported by the majority not seem always right She argues for a change in the way people think when pointing out what could be wrong and expressing her opposing idea that everyone should be treated equally and kindly regardless of humane or non-humane When Hermione returned for her fourth year at Hogwarts, in the welcoming first years’ ceremony, thanks to her conversation with Nick-nearly-headless – the ghost of Griffindor House, Hermione’s sense of morality was once again challenged When she heard that there were lots of house-elves working inside Hogwarts, she almost did not believe in what she was told about It is definite that from Hermione’s perspective Hogwarts, a prominent institution run by Professor Dumbledore a knowledgeable wizard, could not make use of house-elves in whatever ways This time she not only raised her voice about the problem but took immediate action Hermione refused to have meals because they were made by house-elves for days before she realized it was not a good way to fight for the freedom house-elves deserve to possess As a result, her next action carried out to gain public awareness of the plight of house-elves was to advocate the Society of the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W) The Society worked for house-elves’ equality in wizarding world; however, it did not work efficiently as it was hoped Some people even talked about it with a slight sarcastic remark according to what its acronym caused them to think of Despite Ron’s disrespecting attitude when calling it ―spew‖ and other people’s reluctance to join the Society, Hermione managed to operate it for the last two years at Hogwarts before putting it aside to assist Harry Potter in his mission of eliminating the Dark Lord in book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Her somewhat stubborn but consistent performance serves as a helpful example to illustrate 14 the sixth stage of Kolhberg’s moral development scale She follows her internalized principles of justice and defends her own beliefs no matter what opposition she may endure On the other hand, from Hofstede’s perspective, all Hermione’s statements and actions serve exactly as an epitome of characteristics of feminine society Femininity, as described in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, ―stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life‖ Showing her sympathy for the plight of house-elves, Hermione gives a sign of ―caring for the weak‖ As a result, with only one reaction, Rowling depicts vividly the androgynous identity On the whole, Rowling characterizes Hermione with the most developed sense of morality which is often thought only men can achieve Given this masculine trait, Hermione proves radical-libertarian feminist idea that women also have right to explore their masculine identities to develop a complete model of androgyny 15 CONCLUSION Examining Harry Potter grounded on academic framework and proving the feasibility of androgyny through the analysis of Hermione have made an important part of this paper Based on the paper, readers can find useful arguments which foster androgyny as the way for women to gain themselves freedom from gender constrains imposed by male-dominant society In this paper the writer analyzes the character Hermione in Harry Potter series from radical-libertarian feminist viewpoints to serve as an epitome of androgyny Due to the limitation of time and labor, the writer’s attention only focuses on two masculine traits which are independence and the development of morality and she examines how Rowling breaks gender norms in order to depict Hermione with those masculine identities In the fourth book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione has no longer stayed in silence when insulted by someone else She has learned how to fight back and protect herself She has made ―the transformation of silence into language and action‖ (Lorde, 1978) Moreover, the act of using language and rationality as a shield illustrates a gentle manner which belongs to feminine identities according to the Bem Sex Role Inventory As a whole, Hermione’s kind of self-protection serves as the fusion of masculinity and femininity In addition, Hermione is in sympathy with the freedom of house-elves through building the foundation of the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare to show her awareness of equality and justice She has developed her own principles of justice and adhered to them regardless of its opposition towards social norms in wizarding world, which proves she has achieved the highest stage of moral development at her very young age of 14 This in turn advocates one radical ideology that women should feel free to explore their masculine identities Moreover, as introduced in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, that Hermione stands up for house-elves’ rights also indicates her femininity shown through her sympathy for the weak in society, which once again demonstrates her androgynous identities Thanks to the combination of these two ideas, readers may agree with the writer that Rowling has brought into children’s literary world a new kind of female character who has broken many conventional notions tied to women for a long time and has unintentionally introduced the concept of androgyny from a radical feminist perspective Androgyny, in a word, is not a utopian ideal Neither is Radical feminism Since Havelocks Ellis (1995) once said ―each […] is latently hermaphrodite‖, it is necessary to help 16 everyone acknowledge his or her androgynous identities It will be better if authors, especially those of children’s literature, introduce many ways of characterization so that children can have chances to explore different gender dimensions and then follow the construction which best suits them 17 REFERENCES Bem, S L (1981) Gender Schema Theory: A Cognitive Account of Sex Typing Psychological Review 88(4) 354 – 364 Bem, S L (1974) The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42(2) 155-162 Bloom, H (2000) Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes Wall Street Journal Article Published on July 11th, 2000 Bromberg, P S (2009) Androgyny Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory Wallace, E K (Ed) Taylor & Francis e-Library 21 – 22 Carlson, A C (1995) The Androgyny Hoax PRI Review (3) http://www.pop.org/taxonomy/term/105 Dowling, C (1981) The Cinderella’s Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence New York: Summit Books ISBN-10: 0671733346 Dreasang, E T (2002) Hermione Granger and the Heritage of Gender The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon Whited, L A (Ed) University of Missouri Press Chapter 5, p 209 – 242 Ernst, S B (1995) Gender issues in books for children and young adults Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann (pp 66-78) Heilman, E E & Donaldson, T (2009) From Sexist to (sort-of) Feminist: Representations of Gender in the Harry Potter series Critical Perspective on Harry Potter 2nd Ed Heilman, E E (Ed) Routledge, 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Chapter 8, 139 – 161 Hofstede, G Dimensions of national culture Website Link: geert-hofstede.com Jett-Simpson, M & Masland, S (1993) Girls are dodo birds! Exploring gender equity issues in the language arts classrooms Language Arts 70 (2), 104-108 Kohlberg, L (1971) From Is to Ought: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral Development New York: Academic Press Lorde, A (1978) The transformation of silence into language and action Sinister Wisdom Rowling, J K (1998) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret London: Bloomsbury Rowling, J K (1999) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Akzaban London: Bloomsburry 18 Rowling, J K (2000) Harry Potter and the goblet of fire London: Bloomsbury Rudman, M (1995) Children’s literature: An issues approach 3rd Ed White Plains, NY: Longman Stephens, J (1997) Gender, genre and children’s literature Signal 79(4) 17-38 Print Tong, R P (2009) Feminist thought: A more comprehensive introduction 3rd Ed Westview Press ISBN: 978-0-8133-4375-4 Trepanier-Street, M L & Romatowski, J A (1999) The Influence of Children's Literature on Gender Role Perceptions: A Reexamination Early Childhood Education Journal 26(3) 155 – 159 19 APPENDIX A ITEMS ON THE MASCULINITY, FEMININITY, AND SOCIAL DESIRABILITY SCALES OF THE BSRI Masculine items Feminine items Neutral items 49 Acts as a leader 11 Affectionate 51 Adaptable 46 Aggressive Cheerful 36 Conceited 58 Ambitious 50 Childlike Conscientious 22 Analytical 32 Compassionate 60 Conventional 13 Assertive 53 Does not use harsh language 45 Friendly 35 Eager to soothe hurt feelings Helpful 10 Athletic 55 Competitive Defends own beliefs 37 Dominant 19 Forceful 25 Has leadership abilities Independent 52 Individualistic 31 Makes decisions easily 20 Feminine 14 Flatterable 15 Happy 48 Inefficient 24 Jealous 39 Likable 59 Gentle Moody 47 Gullible 56 Loves children 21 Reliable 30 Secretive 17 Loyal 33 Sincere 40 Masculine 26 Sensitive to the needs of others Self-reliant Shy 57 Tactful 34 Self-sufficient 38 Soft spoken 12 Theatrical 16 Strong personality 23 Sympathetic 27 Truthful 43 Willing to take a stand 44 Tender 18 Unpredictable 28 Willing to take risks 29 Understanding 54 Unsystematic 41 Warm Yielding 20 42 Solemn APPENDIX B 21 ... 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 volumes which tell the adventurous story of a... 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,... Snitch 11 The Dark Mark, which is an image of snake going out of a skull’s jaws, is the signal of Lord Voldermort and his disciples, Death Eaters 13 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, p 90) The