League 1

Victoria League
Tison Pugh
LIT3482
19 February 2015
Feminist CritiqueView of Ginny Weasley etc etc
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
J. K. Rowling constructs Ginny Weasleys as a feminine character displaying typical female
behavior, placing her firmly in the gender role of female. Her character has no developed
personality, existing only as a love interest for Harry, and . J. K. Rowling, the author, constructs
her her as a very feminine character displaying typical female behavior, placing her firmly in
the gender role of female.. Ginnys importance in the second novel builds her as a betrayer, a
weakling, and a damsel in distress, which serves to enforce her gender and her romantic relation
to Harry, instead of furthering her character development.
Ginny Weasley is extremely feminine in the Harry Potter novels. Elizabeth E. Heilman

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describes Ginny as the archetypal girl who is deeply passive, weak, and receptive (230). In
the readers first encounter with Ginny, she starts to cry as the train leaves with her older
brothers (The Sorcerers Stone 97), already starting her characterization as a girlish child. Crying
is typically associated with females, which makes her femininity much stronger because it is one
of her first actions in the series. Ginny continues to cry throughout the second book; Percy tells
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 tells Harry that Ginny, upon entering the Chamber of
Secrets, struggled and cried and became very boring (The Chamber of Secrets 313). When
Harry wakes her, she [draws] a great, shuddering gasp and tears [begin] to pour down her face
(The Chamber of Secrets 322), and Rowling goes on to mention multiple times in the next ten

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pages that Ginny is still crying: tears were still flooding silently down Ginnys face (326);
tears were still coursing silently down her cheeks (328). Such persistent characterization of
Ginny as a crying girl indicates that this is an important action or trait of hers.
In The Chamber of Secrets, Ginny shriek[s] that shed 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 she is described as wailing (The Chamber of
Secrets 210), a verb that is not often used to describe boys. When a cat becomes the victim of the
monster in the Chamber of Secrets, Ron 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 is a way to further feminize Ginny. Once her 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
writing in Tom Riddles diary all year. Tom 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. Riddle, although bored with Ginnys
writings, is kind to her and writes back, leading Ginny to tell him that shes so glad Ive got this
diary to confide in (The Chamber of Secrets 309), a statement typical of a girl.
If Ginny is a typical female, then an important part of her character will logically be
romance. Rowling introduces and Ginny is introduced, and tthereafter always noted,s Ginny
based on her interest in Harry, immediately defining her based on a male. When we readers first
see her in The Sorcerers Stone, she is beggingbegs 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

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about Harry, shesher curiosity stems from interested in him because of his fame and reputation.
This interest develops into a romantic attraction by The Chamber of Secrets, where her siblings
rescue Harry from his family and bring him into their home. Upon seeing Harry, Ginny runs out
of the room, presumably from shyness. Ron Weasley says to Harry that Ginny has been talking
about you all summer, and Fred adds, shell be wanting your autograph, Harry (The Chamber
of Secrets 35). Already Rowling is building Ginnys attraction to Harry and setting the stage for
their future romance. As Harrys stay in Ginnys home continues, he notes that Ginny is, Ginny
seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room and continually
blushes around him and she continually blushes in his presence (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 continues to act 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, Draco Malfoy accuses Ginny of
sending it by saying, I dont think Potter liked your valentine much! (The Chamber of Secrets
237-9). Ginny runs away, embarrassed, leading the reader to believe that Ginny did indeed send
the valentine. Readers do not doubt Dracos 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 to tease Ginny about her obvious intentions; Ron, her own
brother, proclaims, Youve got competition, Ginny! when another girl shows interest in Harry
(The Chamber of Secrets 326). Rons comment, said in front of both Ginny and Harry, enforces
the readers conception of Ginny as a lovesick young girl and nothing more.

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The first time we hear Ginny speak while Harry is around, she is defending him from
Dracos insults while glaring at Draco: Leave him alone, he didnt want all that! (The Chamber
of Secrets 61). Draco takes this chance to taunt Harry further, saying, Potter, youve got
yourself a girlfriend! and Ginny turns scarlet (The Chamber of Secrets 61). This is the first
indication of Ginnys personality further than simply shy 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 are what the reader would expect an eleven-year-old girl to write,unimportant; but 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 haveRowling does
not give Ginny a a personality of her own.
One could argue that Ginnys flat character construction is a logical result of her status as
a minor character; Hermione, a character readers see very often in the novels, would of course
possess a stronger, rounded personality of her own. However, the fact that Ginnys character
creation completely revolves around Harry, and the fact that all notable personality traits relate to
her feelings for him, indicates that Rowling had no other purpose for Ginny besides acting as
Harrys future love interest. Heilman explains that Ginnys attraction to Harry disables her
instead of allowing her character to grow (230). Her importance in The Chamber of Secrets
actually actually enforces this, because she is a damsel in distress, a young girl easily tricked by
dark magic and in need of a hero to rescue her. This familiar trope gives her a stronger romantic

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tie to Harry instead of increasing her importance as a character of her own right, and is
problematic because women should not be defined by, or created for, men.
Ginny Weasley is more feminized than other important female characters, like Hermione. She

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displays more typical female behavior. In the readers first encounter with Ginny, she starts to
cry as the train leaves with her older brothers (The Sorcerers Stone 97), already starting her
characterization as a girlish child. [QUOTE FROM ARTICLE ABOUT GINNY BEING
QUINTISSENTIALLY FEMALE] Crying is typically associated with females, which makes her
female-ness much stronger because its one of the first actions she does in the books. Ginny

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continues to cry throughout the second book; Percy tells Ron that Ginny has been crying her
eyes out and that hes never seen her so upset (The Chamber of Secrets 157). Tom Riddle
tells Harry that Ginny, upon entering the Chamber of Secrets, struggled and cried and became
very boring (The Chamber of Secrets 313). When Harry wakes her, she [draws] a great,
shuddering gasp and tears [begin] to pour down her face (The Chamber of Secrets 322), and
Rowling goes on to mention multiple times in the next ten pages that Ginny is still crying: tears
were still flooding silently down Ginnys face (326); tears were still coursing silently down her
cheeks (328). Such persistent characterization of Ginny as a crying girl indicates that this is an
important action or trait of hers.
In The Chamber of Secrets, Ginny shriek[s] that shed 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 little girl
because of both the shriek and the diary. Later she is described as wailing (The Chamber of
Secrets 210), a verb that is not often used to describe boys. When a cat becomes the victim of the
monster in the Chamber of Secrets, Ron tells Harry that Ginny is a great cat lover (146), and
cats tend to be associated with women.[MAYBE FILCH IN HERE? FAILED MASCULINITY?]

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Once her classmate is attacked, Ginny is distraught and one of her brothers says that shes
been having nightmares since the attacks started (The Chamber of Secrets 185). The diary
comes back near the end of the novel; the reader learns shes been writing in Tom Riddles diary
all year. Tom 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. Riddle, although bored with Ginnys writings, is kind to her and writes
back, leading Ginny to tell him that shes so glad Ive got this diary to confide in (The
Chamber of Secrets 309), a statement typical of a girl.
Rowling and the other characters consistently treat Ginny as a little girl, even

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though she is only a year younger than Harry, Hermione, and Ron. She is continually
characterized as a child throughout the first two novels. When Ginny notices Harry Potter and
squeals his name, Mrs. Weasley interrupts her and scolds her by saying, Be quiet, Ginny, and
its rude to point (The Sorcerers Stone 308). This diminishes Ginny because she is treated as
though she hasnt been fully raised yet; such a basic correction is rarely given to anyone other
than a child. In The Chamber of Secrets, Ginny is a year older but still Rowling describes her as
a small, red-headed figure in a long nightdress (35), or a small, black-robed figure (307),
enforcing the readers view that she is a small child. When the Weasleys enter Diagon Alley to
shop for school supplies, Harry notices that Ginny is just clinging onto Mrs. Weasleys hand
(The Chamber of Secrets 56), and later sees Mrs. Weasley take her hand again before leaving a
shop (67). None of the other characters are holding their mothers hand, a behavior typical of
little children, so readers can see quite easily that Ginny is a little girl. Granted, she is the
youngest character readers see in this section, but in the previous book when other characters had

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been her age, none of them were holding Mrs. Weasleys hand. Tom Riddle even characterizes
Ginny the same way, calling her stupid little Ginny (The Chamber of Secrets 311). This
consistent characterization as a little girl lessens Ginnys intelligence, maturity, and growth. She
is unable to display traits and actions that would round out her personality because shes just a
little girl, regardless of the fact that shes only a year younger than Harry, Ron, and Hermione,
all of whom were quite capable and well-rounded at her age.
While itsit is true that Ginny has a central role of importance in the second novel, her
importance is only as a weakling tricked by Tom Riddle and a damsel in distress. Riddle explains
to Harry that Ginny was the culprit the entire year because hedhe had been able to control her
from the diary, opening the possibility that Ginny is easily tricked, immature, and needy for
pouring her soul into an unknown diary enough to be controlled by it (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
places Ginny in the position of damsel in distress, waiting for a hero and not taking her safety
into her own hands. This further diminishes her and flattens her character into quintessentially
female. After Harry finds Ginny and brings her back to safety, fulfilling his role as the hero, Mrs.
Weasley exclaims, You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it? (The Chamber of
Secrets 327). All of the success is due to Harry as the savior, while Ginny is merely an object to
be saved. The relationship between hero and damsel in distress often leads to romance, which
reemphasizes Ginnys attraction to Harry and foreshadows a future relationship between them.
Upon her rescue, Ginny cantcannot stop crying out of guilt, and this typical female response
reminds the reader thatreader that she is a girl and a child.

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As a final insult, Ginnys own father blames her for her actions even though she is the
victim of a trick by the most powerful dark magician wizard in history. She sobs to him,
explaining with fear, Ive b-been writing in [his diary], and hes been w-writing back all year
and her fathers response is,: Havent I taught you anything? What have I always told you?
Never trust anything that can think for itself if you cant see where it keeps its brain? Why didnt
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). Rowlings italics and Mr. Weasleys attitude
indicate that he is deeply angry withat Ginny for allowing herself to be tricked by Riddle, when
in reality she is the victim. Some readers will recognize this as a form of victim-blamingvictim
blaming, a phenomenon rampant in our society, especially in situations where women are
attacked and others blame the women for bringing on the attack. For Ginny to be blamed as a
victim by her own father is a deeply troubling act, yet this further solidifies Ginny as a little girl
who would be dumb enough to write in an unknown diary.
Ginny Weasley is certainly an extremely feminized character whose only character traits
revolve around her romantic interest in Harry Potter. From a feminist viewpoint, this is a
disappointing construction of a female character that could have been well rounded and
worthwhile for more than just a man. However, readers must ask themselves: is it such a bad
thing that Ginny is so very girlish? Is it bad to have archetypal characters that conform to
stereotypes and do not demonstrate the ideal? Perhaps these archetypal characters should not
be banished because they might serve an important purpose; if all the characters in a novel were
what readers wanted them to be, there would be no variety (Pugh). Another argument could be
that this is Harry Potters story, not Ginny Weasleys story. Just as Hermione and her
intelligence are simply part of Harrys entourage, can readers see Ginny as merely a part of

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Harrys development and life? (Nikolajeva 131). Can Rowling throw her to the side because this
is Harrys story, or does she deserve to have her own, fully developed character? There is no
right answer, but readers would do well to consider the implications of a character that fulfills so
many degrading female stereotypes and what the story loses by omitting her growth.

Works CitedCONCLUSION:

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is it such a bad thing that she is so entirely GIRL? what can be gained from such a
characterization? what do we lose?
Heilman, Elizabeth E. Blue Wizards and Pink Witches: Representations of Gender Identity and
Power. Harry Potter's World. N.p., n.d. 221-239.
Nikolajeva, Maria. Harry Potter A Return to the Romantic Hero. Harry Potter's World. N.p.,

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n.d. 125-140.
Pugh, Tison. Harry Potter Class Lecture. 10 February 2015.

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Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Scholastic Inc., New York: 1997. Print.
-- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic Inc., New York: 1999. Print.

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