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Victoria League

Tison Pugh

LIT3482

19 February 2015

Feminist View of Ginny Weasley

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,

J. K. Rowling constructs Ginny Weasley as a feminine character displaying “typical” girlish

behavior, placing her firmly in the gender role of “female.” Her characterWith no has no

developed personality, Ginny existsing only as a love interest for Harry, and her importance in

the second novel builds her as a weakling and a damsel in distress to further . This serves to

enforce her gender and her romantic relation to Harry instead of furthering her character

development.. From a feminist viewpoint, this character construction enforces societally

acceptable gender roles and does not allow Ginny surpass the expectations of her gender or grow

into a well-developed character.

Ginny Weasley is extremely feminine in the Harry Potter novels, which Rreaders most

strongly see Ginny Weasley’s extreme femininity in the Harry Potter novels most strongly

inthrough her Ginny’s persistent crying. In the reader’s first encounter with Ginny, she starts to

cry as the train leaves with her older brothers (The Sorcerer’s Stone 97), already starting her

characterization as a girlish child. People Crying is typically associateed crying with females,

which makes her femininity much stronger because tears appear init is one of her first actions in

the series. Ginny continues to cry throughout the second book; Percy, one of her brothers, tells

sibling Ron that Ginny has been “crying her eyes out” and that he has “never seen her so upset”

(The Chamber of Secrets 157). Tom Riddle, the novel’s villain, tells Harry that Ginny, upon

entering the Chamber of Secrets, “struggled and cried and became very boring” (The Chamber of

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Secrets 313). When Harry wakes her from a magic-induced slumber, she “[draws] a great,

shuddering gasp and tears [begin] to pour down her face” (The Chamber of Secrets 322).

Rowling goes on to mention multiple times in the next ten pages that Ginny is continues tostill

crying: “tears were still flooding silently down Ginny’s face” (326); “tears were still coursing

silently down her cheeks” (328). Such persistent characterization of Ginny as a crying girl

feminizes her and indicates that such feminine behavior defines her.this is an important action or

trait of hers.

Elizabeth E. Heilman describes Ginny as “the archetypal girl” who is “deeply passive,

weak, and receptive” (230), embodying the essence of “female” quite strongly. Ginny displays

other feminine behavior aside from crying that enforces this archetypal conception. In The

Chamber of Secrets, Ginny “shriek[s] that she’d left her diary” in the house as her family tries to

leave for the Hogwarts train (66), an action that readers would expect from a girl because of both

the shriek and the diary. Later Rowling she is describes herd as “wailing” (The Chamber of

Secrets 210), a verb not often used to describe boys. When a cat becomes the victim of the

monster in the Chamber of Secrets, Ron Weasley tells Harry that Ginny is “a great cat lover”

(146). Cats tend to be linked with women, and Heilman notes that “doting” on cats is

“effeminate” (232); this association further feminizes Ginny. After an attack on a classmate is

attacked, Ginny acts “distraught” and one of her brothers says that she has been “having

nightmares” (The Chamber of Secrets 185). The diary returns near the end of the novel; the

reader learns she has been writingwrote in Tom Riddle’s diary all year. Riddle says that she

“opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger,” writing about “all her

pitiful worries and woes” (The Chamber of Secrets 309). These are actions that readers would

expect from a girl, but not from a boy, further placing Ginny in the limiting box of “female.”

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Riddle, although bored with Ginny’s writings, kindly writes back, leading Ginny to tell him that

she is’s “so glad I’ve got this diary to confide in” (The Chamber of Secrets 309), a girlish

statement.

As a typical female, Ginny must concern herself with romance as a crucial part of her

character an important part of Ginny’s character is romance. . Rowling introduces and thereafter

always notes Ginny based on her interest in Harry, immediately defining her based on a male.

When readers first see her in The Sorcerer’s Stone, she begs to see Harry for herself: “Oh, Mom,

can I go on the train and see him, Mom, oh please….” (97). Still too young to be thinking

romantically about Harry, her interest stems from his fame and reputation. This develops into a

romantic attraction by The Chamber of Secrets. Upon seeing Harry in her home, Ginny runs out

of the room, presumably from shyness. Ron says to Harry that Ginny has “been talking about

you all summer,” and Fred Weasley adds, “she’ll be wanting your autograph, Harry” (The

Chamber of Secrets 35). Already Rowling has built Ginny’s attraction to Harry and set the stage

for their future romance. As Harry’s stay in Ginny’s home continues, he notes that Ginny seems

“very prone to knocking things over” and continually blushes around him (The Chamber of

Secrets 43). All of her appearances culminate in a girly reaction to Harry that indicates her

romantic attraction and nothing else about her personality.

At Hogwarts, readers hardly see Ginny and when they do, she acts shy and nervous

around Harry, continually doing things like “carefully not look[ing] at Harry” while in his

presence (The Chamber of Secrets 286). When Harry receives her valentine “in front of a line of

first years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley,” antagonist Draco Malfoy accuses Ginny

of sending it by saying, “I don’t think Potter liked your valentine much!” (The Chamber of

Secrets 237-9). Ginny runs away, embarrassed, leading the reader to believe that Ginny did

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indeed send the valentine. Readers do not doubt Draco’s accusation because Rowling has

constructed Ginny entirely on her girly attraction to Harry and this is certainly within the scope

of her interest for him. . Draco is not the only one toTeasing about tease Ginny’s about her

obvious intentions comes from others, too; Ron proclaims, “You’ve got competition, Ginny!”

when another girl shows interest in Harry (The Chamber of Secrets 326). Ron’s comment, said in

front of both Ginny and Harry, enforces the reader’s conception of Ginny as a lovesick young

girl and nothing morewho mainly concerns herself with wooing Harry.

The first time we readers hear Ginny speak while near Harry is around, she is defendsing

him from one of Draco’s insults while glaring at Draco: “Leave him alone, he didn’t want all

that!” (The Chamber of Secrets 61). Draco takes this chance to taunt Harry further, saying,

“Potter, you’ve got yourself a girlfriend!” and Ginny turns “scarlet” (The Chamber of Secrets

61). The reader finally sees an indication that This is the first indication of Ginny’s personality

further thanencompasses more than simply shyness and blushing, but her bravery only appears

when defending Harry. This characterization plays off her attraction and interest in Harry instead

of developing her personality. When Tom Riddle rattles off a paragraph about the boring things

Ginny wrote in his diary, he emphasizes that Ginny did not think the “famous, good, great Harry

Potter would ever like her….” (The Chamber of Secrets 309). Her other concerns hold noare

unimportantance; as even Riddle could deduce, her crush on Harry defines her. Otherwise

indistinguishable from any other girl of her age, save for her near-obsession with Harry, Ginny

does not have a personality of her own.

One could argue that Ginny’s flat character construction results logically from her status

as a minor character; Hermione, a character readers see very often in the novels, would of course

possess a stronger, rounded personality. However, the fact that Ginny’s character creation

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completely revolves around Harry, and the fact that all notable personality traits relate to her

feelings for him, indicate that Rowling had no other purpose for Ginny’ s sole purpose asaside

from a romantic optionce for Harry. Elizabeth Heilman explains that Ginny’s attraction to Harry

“disables her” instead of allowing her character to grow (230). While it is true that Ginny

doeshas have a central role in the second novel, her importance actually enforces Heilman’s idea

of a character disabled by attraction because she becomes a damsel in distress, a young girl

easily tricked by dark magic, and needs a hero to rescue her. This familiar trope gives her a

stronger romantic tie to Harry instead of increasing her importance as a character of her own

right, and causes is problems in feminist discoursematic because women should not be defined

by, or created for, men.

Ginny's damsel in distress trope begins when Tom Riddle explains to Harry that Ginny

was the culprit ofperformed the schoolwide attacks the allentire year. Riddle had been able to

controlled her from the diary, giving the impressiondepicting that Ginny is as gullible,

immature, and needy for pouring her soul into an unknown diary (The Chamber of Secrets 310).

Heilman agrees, saying that Ginny “is weak enough to be fully possessed and used” (230).

Riddle forces Ginny to “write her own farewell on the wall and come down [to the Chamber of

Secrets] to wait” for Harry Potter to come and save her (The Chamber of Secrets 313). This

firmly places Ginny in her position as damsel in distress as she, waitsing for a hero and does not,

or cannot, takeing her safety into her own hands. Agency belongs to the hero, not the woman,

and her inability to take responsibility for herself under this trope This further diminishes her and

flattens her character into quintessentially “female.” The relationship between hero and damsel

often leads to romance, which reemphasizes Ginny’s attraction to Harry and foreshadows a

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future relationship between them. Upon her rescue, Ginny cannot stop crying out of guilt, and

this typical female response reminds the reader of her overpowering femininity.

As a final insult, Ginny’s own father blames her for her actions even though she is the

victim of a trick by the most powerful dark wizard in history. She sobs to him, explaining with

fear, “I’ve b-been writing in [his diary], and he’s been w-writing back all year–” and her father’s

responds withnse is, “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust

anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain? Why didn’t you show

the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark

Magic–” (The Chamber of Secrets 329). Rowling’s italics and Mr. Weasley’s attitude indicate

that hhe is deeply angerry at Ginny for allowing Riddle to trick and control herherself to be

tricked by Riddle, when in reality Riddle forced her into her actions she is the victim. Some

readers will recognize this as a form of victim blaming, a phenomenon rampant in our society,

especially in situations where perpetrators sexually assault women are attacked and others blame

the women for bringing on the attack. For Ginny’s own father to blame her as a victim to be

blamed as a victim by her own father is a indicates troubling cultural and gender

standards,deeply troubling act, yet this further solidifies Ginny as a weak little girl who

wouldwho would be dumb enough to write in an unknown diary and fall under its control..

Rowling clearly writes Ginny Weasley is certainlyas an extremely feminized character

whose only character traits revolve around her romantic interest in Harry Potter. From a feminist

viewpoint, her potential as a well-rounded character occupying a worthwhile role in the story

contrasts disappointingly with the reality of her construction.this is a disappointing construction

of a female character that could have been well rounded and have occupied a worthwhile role in

the story. However, readers must ask themselves: whyy is it bad that Ginny is so very girlish?

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Should stories have archetypal characters that conform to stereotypes and do not demonstrate the

“ideal”? Perhaps writers should not banish these archetypal characters, should not be banished

because they might serve a purpose; if all the characters in a novel embodied idealized versions

of were people what readers wanted them to be, there would be no variety (Pugh). AnoOthers

may arguement could be that this story belongs to is Harry Potter,’s story, not Ginny Weasley’s

story. Just as “Hermione and her intelligence are simply part of Harry’s entourage,” readers

could see Ginny as merely a part of Harry’s development and life (Nikolajeva 131). Can

Rowling throw her to the side because this story belongs to is Harry’s story, or does she deserve

to have her own, fully developed character? Feminist criticism would ask readers to consider the

implications of a character that fulfills so many degrading female stereotypes, and the story’s

shortcomings caused by omitting her growth. Ginny’s strong femininity and lack of anything else

represents females poorly and shows the need for well-rounded female characters embodying the

wide range of personalities that girls possess.

Works Cited

Heilman, Elizabeth E. “Blue Wizards and Pink Witches: Representations of Gender Identity and

Power.” Harry Potter's World. N.p., n.d. 221-239. Print.

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Nikolajeva, Maria. “Harry Potter – A Return to the Romantic Hero.” Harry Potter's World. N.p.,

n.d. 125-140. Print.

Pugh, Tison. “Harry Potter Class Lecture.” University of Central Florida. Health and Public

Affairs Building, Orlando, FL. 10 February 2015. Class Lecture.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1997. Print.

---. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1999. Print.