Feminist Reading of female characters in Harry Potter


            Hermione is major character in the Harry Potter series. But how we will look at the portrayal of female characters if we do feminist reading of Harry Potter series. Many critics and people thinks that Rowling has not left any place to criticise her work from feminist point of view. We can not agree with 100%. As we can say that there are 50 – 50 of appreciation and criticism both. We can appreciate these novel by looking at the female characters as strong and knowledgeable. At Hogwarts Umbridge is the one who is slowly taking over the power from Dumbledore. The other point to ponder is here mother has given more importance then father. Harry’s mother Lily is shown more effective and presentable then in comparison to Harry’s father James. Mother of Ginny, Ron, Fred and George is Molly. She is house wife but when it comes to her daughter she can fight with Bellatrix and can defeat her also. So this way we can appreciate Harry Potter series from feminist perspective.

             Still there are some points, from which we can criticise the Harry Potter series. We can see that there are female characters presented as very strong but then they all are under the power of men. The head of Hogwarts Dumbledore is man, Harry is man, Fudge, the minister of ministry of magic is man, and if we look on the other hand Voldemort is also a man. So all main power positions are in control of men, women are working under the power of male. Hermione in part two “Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets” she was patronised and Ron and Harry was there to complete the task. The task was also typical which askes to save princess from the villain. Then we can see Hermione crying and can not control her emotions but in same situation Harry has presented as strong who can control his emotions. Then Hermione was more considered about her looks, while we don’t see any male or boy pondering on looks. We can see in, “Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban” Hermione is talking about her hair. In last part when she turned in to Bellatrix she asks how she looks, so still here we can see that Rowling has presented the stereotype which says woman are more concern about their looks. Apart from this the name Moaning Myrtle is also showing the stereotype of woman only crying all the time. So these are the points from which we can criticise Harry Potter series from feminist perspective.

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