Characterization and Reader Empathy

[valis2]

Readers want to empathize with the protagonist of a story.

It's a natural impulse. Throughout the movements of hero, anti-hero, and heroic anti-hero, we want to be engaged with the protagonist. Usually we see something in him or her that is familiar to us, that makes us think we know this character and can understand them. It is that feeling of identifying with them that usually propells us through the story.

When I first read through the HP books, I was reading very much for entertainment. I thought they were enjoyable and interesting, and didn't think much more than that until I started reading fanfiction. I decided to read them again, in preparation for a story I wanted to write, and that's when I started to wonder. Instead of reading for entertainment, I was reading as resource, and I was studying the characters more thoroughly than I had before. I came to the conclusion that Hermione was actually quite different than I had pictured her in my original reading. She is good-hearted, of course, and this is not meant to be seen as Hermione-bashing, but I thought very strongly that she was a character for whom the ends justified the means. The more I read, the more convinced of this I was.

So when I began to write the story, the Hermione character behaved in much the same way. She distrusts a new character (the OFC), engages in blackmail in order to attempt to get something she wants, steals something from a teacher, and, in general, is nosy and protective of Harry. She also turns on a dime at one point in the story, putting her distrust behind her because she's heard someone say something that makes her trust the OFC, and then she approaches said OFC in order to get something she desperately wants because she thinks it will help Harry.

I was surprised to receive reviews that said she was OOC. In fact, I'm certain I've lost readers because of it. Obviously there is more to it than what I can provide here; I must not be showing enough of Hermione's positive traits, or I've missed something in her dialogue. But to reject her characterization based on any of the actions above is kind of strange to me, because if we look at canon we see many of the same kind of actions (which is precisely why I included them).

• She sets a teacher's robes on fire because she thinks that he is trying to jinx Harry's broom. (PS/SS)


• Comes up with the entire subplot of: brewing an illegal potion (Polyjuice), stealing the ingredients for said potion from a teacher's storeroom, feeding Sleeping Potion-filled cupcakes to Crabbe & Goyle, and impersonating them in order to infiltrate the Slytherin common room. (CoS)


• Uses a Timeturner to take all of the classes that she wants to take (PoA)


• Talks back to a teacher (Trelawney) and storms out of class. (PoA)


• "Helps" other students with their lessons, sometimes even doing it for them. (PoA)


• Leaves articles of clothing around Gryffindor Tower so that the house-elves can be "freed" unwittingly, despite the house-elves' desire not to be freed. (GoF)


• Traps an transformed animagus in a glass jar, and only releases her because the animagus agrees to be blackmailed into publicly writing about Harry and the most dangerous wizard in existence (Voldemort). (OotP)


• Gives Harry the original idea to create a secret society (the DA), and urges him into it, because she doesn't want to fail her Defense O.W.L. (OotP)


• Has the members of the secret society unwittingly sign a magical contract (that she herself does not sign!) that will disfigure them facially should they break it. (OotP)


• Bases the enchanted coins on the Dark Marks of Voldemort's loyal followers. (OotP)


• Leads a teacher into the Forbidden Forest purposely to cause her harm (Umbridge and the Centaurs). (OotP)


• Casts a Confundus Charm on a rival so that Ron can stay on the Quidditch team. (HBP)

Certainly she had valid reasons behind many of them. That's the entire point; the ends justify the means. With valid enough reason, I think she would do quite a lot. If Harry's life, or Ron's life, were in danger, I wonder what her limits would be. Obviously the stories are grooming us for Harry to kill Voldemort (well, they seem like it, at least). Harry has even tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on an enemy, despite knowing that its use all but demands a stint in Azkaban. But what about Hermione? I think she could be just as dangerous, with the proper motivation.

It interests me that we tend to give the characters we are interested in the benefit of the doubt. After all, we have information and insight into their personalities, and we understand them and empathize with them, so when they do something that isn't quite the best action ethically/morally, we tend to understand that they have the right reasons, and we let it go. In the case of the long fic I wrote, it's easy to see that because what Hermione is doing is not seen entirely through the lens of Harry's POV, it's more difficult to reconcile with the image some readers have created of her. Even more interesting is that the OFC is actually a rather unsympathetic character at many points, with plenty of missteps in the past, and yet people still identify with her and hope for the best for her. In fact, some readers lambast Hermione in the reviews, pointing out her character flaws, yet still empathizing with the OFC, who is hardly a nice person, especially compared to Hermione.

What does the character have to do to break with the reader's empathy? Obviously, each reader has her own personal limit, a point past which she stops relating to the character and becomes repulsed instead. But sometimes we are so psychologically invested in the characters that we are carried past our usual limit, the limit that we would tolerate in everyday life, because we "understand" and see where the action came from. I find it fascinating that Hermione does so many things that go against most normal ethical/moral behavior and yet most in the audience find her a likeable, "good" character, and could not imagine her in any other way.

Thanks to gillieweed for help in this.

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Actually, in general, I have a much easier time identifying and empathizing with obviously flawed characters than ones who can do no wrong

That's very true, too. A completely perfect *cough*marysue*cough* character turns off most readers as well. I think it's great to spend time with a flawed character. In fact, it's unrealistic to have a perfect character...as you say, it's uninteresting.

When I started writing I thought it would be completely realistic for Hermione to be suspicious of a new character and to react in similar ways that she has before...I still need to really take a good look at the story again, but I was very surprised by a few reactions.