Essay (Harry Potter): Marietta
Aug. 19th, 2004 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotessex-posted to HP Essays
I feel that the fandom and, indeed, JK, are far too hard on Marietta Edgecomb. The problem as I see it is that it's not taken into account that she stands outside the main narrative.
Readers have a privileged viewpoint in HP, as do the Trio, the members of the Order, the Weasleys, and most of the characters we meet. But not every student in Hogwarts shares that privilege. While we, like the main characters, are quite aware of the war being waged, there are hundreds of students just going about their lives who are very scantily informed. Marietta is one of these.
Let's look at what she would know about the plots of the first books.
In PS/SS, she would only have Dumbledore's end-of-year speech and the awarding of points to the trio. “The whole school” is apparently talking about what happened between Harry and Quirrel but that's just rumor, and any intelligent girl knows to take it with a grain of salt. Dumbledore never once mentions Quirrelmort or the Stone, and thus the rumors remain just that. Of the students, only Ron and Hermione are given the whole story. It would be obvious that something happened, but the vast majority of the students would have no idea as to what.
In CoS, she would have been eminently aware of the danger of the Chamber and the Heir, especially after Penelope was petrified. But we don't know what the school was told, either about the removal of Hagrid and Dumbledore, or as to why Harry and Ron were awarded two hundred points apiece. There is, however, no reason to believe that the identity of the Heir as Tom as ever revealed. It doesn't seem to ever have become common knowledge, but to have been treated as an isolated incident.
PoA has nothing to do with Voldemort, and the threat that Sirius Black posed to the school was never directly connected to Harry. The students are never told the full story of the Shrieking Shack incident, although we are again told that it became the subject of rumor.
And then in GoF, after the papers have been discrediting Harry all year long, Dumbledore suddenly stands up and announces that Voldie is back just because Harry said so. And her best friend's boyfriend is dead.
Dumbledore's Army was originally introduced as an extra class, a way to learn what Umbridge was keeping from them. This could be useful in a variety of ways, not merely against Voldemort. Perhaps Marietta wanted to get her Defense OWL. What's wrong with that? An educational club isn't usually assumed to be a testing ground as far as loyalty to the causes of Dark and Light go.
Marietta is one of the few examples we see of a normal girl, who worries more about getting in to trouble than in saving the world, not because she's a bitch, but because she's not really clear on the concept of the world needing to be saved. Yes, she heard Harry in the DA and in the Quibbler, but she also heard a lot to discredit him, and what he said was never actually confirmed by a source of power. She reacted to the DA as a schoolgirl, not as a soldier. And that isn't a crime. Her actions were potentially very dangerous, but she didn't know that. And certainly, Hermione's hex was inappropriately cruel, especially as it was made a secret.
I feel that the fandom and, indeed, JK, are far too hard on Marietta Edgecomb. The problem as I see it is that it's not taken into account that she stands outside the main narrative.
Readers have a privileged viewpoint in HP, as do the Trio, the members of the Order, the Weasleys, and most of the characters we meet. But not every student in Hogwarts shares that privilege. While we, like the main characters, are quite aware of the war being waged, there are hundreds of students just going about their lives who are very scantily informed. Marietta is one of these.
Let's look at what she would know about the plots of the first books.
In PS/SS, she would only have Dumbledore's end-of-year speech and the awarding of points to the trio. “The whole school” is apparently talking about what happened between Harry and Quirrel but that's just rumor, and any intelligent girl knows to take it with a grain of salt. Dumbledore never once mentions Quirrelmort or the Stone, and thus the rumors remain just that. Of the students, only Ron and Hermione are given the whole story. It would be obvious that something happened, but the vast majority of the students would have no idea as to what.
In CoS, she would have been eminently aware of the danger of the Chamber and the Heir, especially after Penelope was petrified. But we don't know what the school was told, either about the removal of Hagrid and Dumbledore, or as to why Harry and Ron were awarded two hundred points apiece. There is, however, no reason to believe that the identity of the Heir as Tom as ever revealed. It doesn't seem to ever have become common knowledge, but to have been treated as an isolated incident.
PoA has nothing to do with Voldemort, and the threat that Sirius Black posed to the school was never directly connected to Harry. The students are never told the full story of the Shrieking Shack incident, although we are again told that it became the subject of rumor.
And then in GoF, after the papers have been discrediting Harry all year long, Dumbledore suddenly stands up and announces that Voldie is back just because Harry said so. And her best friend's boyfriend is dead.
Dumbledore's Army was originally introduced as an extra class, a way to learn what Umbridge was keeping from them. This could be useful in a variety of ways, not merely against Voldemort. Perhaps Marietta wanted to get her Defense OWL. What's wrong with that? An educational club isn't usually assumed to be a testing ground as far as loyalty to the causes of Dark and Light go.
Marietta is one of the few examples we see of a normal girl, who worries more about getting in to trouble than in saving the world, not because she's a bitch, but because she's not really clear on the concept of the world needing to be saved. Yes, she heard Harry in the DA and in the Quibbler, but she also heard a lot to discredit him, and what he said was never actually confirmed by a source of power. She reacted to the DA as a schoolgirl, not as a soldier. And that isn't a crime. Her actions were potentially very dangerous, but she didn't know that. And certainly, Hermione's hex was inappropriately cruel, especially as it was made a secret.