Ginny Weasley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
 Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
|
| Ginevra Molly Weasley | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair colour | Red |
| Eye colour | Brown |
| House | Gryffindor |
| Parentage | Pure-blood |
| Allegiance | Dumbledore's Army, Order of the Phoenix |
| Actor | Bonnie Wright |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley (born 11 August 1981) [1] is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling.
She is the youngest of Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley's seven children, as well as being their only daughter; in fact, Ginny is the first girl to be born into the Weasley family for "several generations". She is described as being small, with long red hair and bright brown eyes. As her character emerges, we learn that she is warmhearted, loyal and brave and has a fierce temper when riled. She can be unkind when angered, but comforting when sympathetic.
JK Rowling describes Ginny as "tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she's gutsy." That "she's funny" "and very warm and compassionate." Rowling adds, "These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman...And I feel that Ginny and Harry, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They've both gone through a big emotional journey and they've really got over a lot of delusions together."[2]
Ginny is a member of the Weasley family, a financially struggling pure-blood wizarding family, and is also a descendant of the Prewett and Black lines through marriage (her mother was a Prewett before marriage). She is sister to Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, and Ron.
Ginny is perhaps best known for the traumatic events she endured during her first year at school and as being the love interest of the title character, Harry Potter. Her long standing crush on him is established as early on in the series as Chamber of Secrets, where it mainly serves as comic relief, and is foreshadowed to a degree in Philosopher's Stone on Platform 9 3/4. Though Harry does not share her feelings initially, he does not belittle or scorn her. They grow closer together gradually throughout Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, and Harry finally reciprocates her feelings in Half-Blood Prince.
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[edit] Behind the name
Ginevra is the Italian form of the name Guinevere, which comes from the even older Welsh name Gwenhwyfar. Gwen meaning fair or white and hwyfar meaning smooth. Guinevere was also the queen consort of the legendary King Arthur who abandoned Arthur for Lancelot. There seems to be something of a running theme of Arthurian legend regarding the Weasley family's names.
[edit] Role in the series
[edit] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Ginny is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She is the first girl of about Harry's age seen in the series. She makes only two appearances in Philosopher's Stone, both at King's Cross Station. The first is a scene where Harry and her brothers are leaving for Hogwarts; Harry sees her interacting with her family and then watches her chasing the train, laughing and crying, as it leaves the station. In this first scene, her connection to Harry is established with Harry overhearing a scene in which Ginny begs her mother to be able to go on the train and see the famous Harry Potter. Ginny's mother does not permit her to do so, stating that Harry is not a zoo animal at which to gawk. The second is a brief appearance at the end of the book where she is excited to catch a glimpse of Harry when he returns from Hogwarts.
[edit] Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Ginny becomes more involved in the story line when she starts attending Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a year after Harry and her brother Ron. While she appears to play a mostly behind-the-scenes role in the book — looking mysteriously ill and providing light humour with her obvious crush on Harry — Ginny turns out to be behind the year's biggest mystery, a series of unexplained attacks that leave several Muggle-born students petrified. Harry eventually discovers that a magical school diary made by Tom Riddle (the young Lord Voldemort) had been possessing her in order to access the Chamber of Secrets and unleash a Basilisk on the school.
It emerges that Lucius Malfoy was responsible for making sure that Ginny got the diary; he hoped to use her actions to discredit her father, who had proposed a Muggle Protection Act that he opposed, and to have Dumbledore thrown out of Hogwarts (and to personally devastate Mr. Weasley). After Ginny naively tells "Tom" about Harry's survival and the destruction of Voldemort, Riddle changes his plan. Instead of using Ginny to attack Muggle-borns, he decides to bring her down to the Chamber to restore himself to full life by killing her and absorbing her life. More importantly, he, already understanding Harry's hero complex from the information with which Ginny has unwittingly provided him, knows that her abduction will lure Harry into the Chamber as well. Riddle is very curious about how Harry "defeated" him, and wishes to kill him. Harry does in fact enter the Chamber, but with help from Fawkes and the Sorting Hat manages to destroy both Riddle and the Basilisk, and thus saves Ginny's life. Following this, he expressed a strong concern over Ginny's not being expelled, as did Ginny. But his anxiety proves to be unfounded as Dumbledore places complete responsibility on Voldemort, clearing Ginny of any wrongdoing. Harry notes at the end of this that Ginny seems 'perfectly happy again.' As a reader, it seems that this plot line has been resolved, though Ginny still remembers her experience and seems to have learned a great deal from it.
[edit] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Ginny is not involved in the story lines of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and she only directly interacts with Harry three times. In book three, she catches Harry's eye and laughs over Percy's efforts to impress his girlfriend. In book four Ginny grins at him and they speak freely in each others' presence, though not to each other. A few months later, she honours a promise to attend the Yule Ball with Neville Longbottom despite Ron telling her to attend with Harry - whom she still has a crush on. She appears in the background in these two books, however, minimally interacting with other characters or just being mentioned in passing. She is badly affected by the Dementors on the train in Prisoner of Azkaban (most likely remembering her experiences of being possessed by Riddle the previous year), and on another occasion she stands up for Neville, demanding that Ron and Harry stop laughing at him.
Her background appearances, however, give the reader glimpses of her personality when she isn't hamstrung by her crush on Harry. In book two, Ron remarks to Harry that, "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy, she never shuts up normally." It is made clear that around her family and those she is comfortable with, she is talkative and shown to enjoy laughter. She is known to stand up for herself and others which has resulted at times in her lashing out at those who provoke her anger - having a temper seems to be a shared Weasley (or rather, Prewett) trait.
Ginny met Michael Corner at the Yule Ball and they began dating at the end of the school year.
[edit] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix finally begins to show Ginny's true character in ways hinted at previously. No longer letting a crush affect her behaviour around Harry, she starts to emerge as a forceful personality with a sense of humour and playfulness. She also displays a talent for Quidditch which had not been formerly known to the reader, or to the Weasley family. According to Hermione Granger, since her brothers wouldn't let her play Quidditch with them, Ginny had practiced flying secretly with their brooms since the age of six.
Ginny is one of the few characters who can address Harry calmly during his worst moods. While others, such as Hermione and Ron, address him as well and sometimes achieve results, they can be left teary-eyed or flustered. In one scene, Harry wallows in miserable thoughts of himself being a weapon Voldemort might use to attack people, feeling "contaminated" and unworthy of the company of his friends. Ginny, with the help of Ron and Hermione, manages to convince Harry that he has not been possessed. This stirs quite a reaction out of Harry when she reminds him that she had been possessed, and as such, would be a good source to refer to - however, despite direct involvement in Ginny's possession, Harry had forgotten, and sincerely apologises to her. Ginny is also involved in another notable scene in which Harry confides to her about his desire to see Sirius, after hiding it from everyone else - Ginny responds in a way which makes Harry feel hopeful (Harry is indeed somewhat confused about the source of this sudden comfort, as well as a mysterious lump in his throat - perhaps the first unconscious sign of his eventual romantic feelings for Ginny).
In Order of the Phoenix Ginny stands up for Neville, telling him not to call himself a "nobody". She also develops a friendship with Luna Lovegood, a fourth year Ravenclaw whose bizarre views relating to almost everything make her a loner at school.
When Dolores Umbridge gives Harry a "lifetime" ban from playing Quidditch, Ginny replaces him as Gryffindor's Seeker. Though everyone agrees that she is not as talented a Seeker as Harry, she proves a good replacement as she catches the Snitch in both games. She also joins (and suggests the name for) Dumbledore's Army, a group started by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, to provide students with practical instruction in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Both these events are examples of Rowling's subtle parallel contrasting Ginny with Cho throughout book five (as displayed on her chapter-plan for the book on her website), in order to establish which girl is a better match for Harry - not only did Ginny beat Cho to the Snitch, she also came up with a more imaginative name for the Dark Arts group. Ginny is one of the five DA members who join Harry's attempt to rescue Sirius Black from the Department of Mysteries. During the fight a Death Eater breaks her ankle but it is mended by Madam Pomfrey, back at Hogwarts.
Ginny breaks up with Michael when she finds him to be "sulky" and a "bad loser" over his house's Quidditch team suffering a loss to her house's team. He goes on to date Cho Chang, Harry's recent ex-girlfriend and the Seeker for Ravenclaw. At the end of the school year during the journey home, Ron tells Ginny to choose a better boyfriend next time. She responds that she's already "chosen" Dean Thomas.
[edit] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ginny is primarily involved in the Quidditch and romance subplots, as well as being one of those requested by Harry to help try to stop Draco Malfoy's plan from coming to fruition by protecting the school during Harry and Dumbledore's absence.
Early on in Half-Blood Prince we learn that Ginny has indeed started going out with Dean Thomas. It is also revealed that by this time she has become popular at Hogwarts and is considered to be attractive - "He [Harry] and Ron were at least agreed on the fact that she was too popular for her own good". She does not become a prefect (the only other Weasley child besides the twins not named one), but the new Potions professor Horace Slughorn respects her magical abilities enough (after seeing her ill-tempered Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith) to invite her to join his "Slug Club", an exclusive group of students hand-picked by Professor Slughorn as promising young achievers or students from influential families. She also becomes a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, alongside Katie Bell and Demelza Robins, but returns to playing Seeker for the last match of the year when Harry is stuck in detention with Snape.
As said, she is initially in a relationship with Dean, and apparently no longer interested in Harry - this becomes ironic as she becomes the subject of Harry's own one-sided crush. Ron displays an overbearing attitude towards her relationship with Dean and tries to interfere despite her request he not. This leads to an argument between the siblings followed by a mutual silence between the two. After Ron is poisoned however, they seem to have forgiven and forgotten about the fight.
Ginny and Dean's relationship turns sour after Christmas, and they finally break up in April (with a helpful "nudge" from Harry under the effects of Felix Felicis, a lucky potion). Though worried about Ron's reaction, Harry takes advantage of any chance to spend more time with her. After Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup, Harry spontaneously kisses her during the euphoric post-match party, to almost everyone's surprise. This marks the beginning of their relationship, to which Ron gives his reluctant blessing and to which Hermione gives her enthusiastic approval.
Ginny, along with the other four members of the DA that went to the Ministry with Harry the preceding year, tries to protect the school when Harry and Dumbledore are away (Harry having given what is left of his Felix Felicis potion to her, Ron and Hermione). They, along with several members of the Order of the Phoenix end up fighting the Death Eaters that have entered the school aided by Draco Malfoy. She escapes without injury, telling Harry that "if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us -"
After the death of Hogwarts' Headmaster and Harry's mentor, Albus Dumbledore, Harry decides to break off their relationship as he fears Lord Voldemort would use their relationship against him with dangerous results for them both. Ginny accepts his decision, noting that given Harry's priorities she expected something like that to happen. She states that his noble streak is perhaps the feature which she finds most compelling about him. She also confides that she never gave up on him noticing her, and that Hermione advised her that if she started to relax around Harry, he might take more notice of her.
Though their time together was brief, Harry felt that being with Ginny made him "happier than he had been for a very long time", and considered it as being like "something out of someone else's life", no doubt a reference to the respite his relationship with her gave him from his duties as 'the Chosen One'. Ginny is also referred to as Harry's "best source of comfort". Despite this, Harry does not discuss his role in the war with her; Ginny is not told of the prophecy that indicates Harry's role as Voldemort's one true opponent nor of the information Dumbledore told him regarding Voldemort's past, which Dumbledore had instructed Harry only to reveal to Ron and Hermione.
[edit] Harry Potter: Year Seven
Rowling has promised fans that they'll, "See impressive [stuff] again" from Ginny in book seven, implying that at some point, whether Harry likes it or not, she will become involved in the fight against Voldemort. [3]
[edit] Role in the films
Ginny is played by Bonnie Wright in the film adaptations. She makes only a brief appearance in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at the beginning of the film when Harry wants to know how to get onto platform 9 ¾ - after her mother tells Harry what to do, Ginny wishes him good luck.
Ginny's role in the second film is considerably larger, although many elements found in the book, such as her crush on Harry and most of the hints about her involvement with the Chamber are given considerably less attention in the film version. Since Ginny doesn't play a major role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she only appears in the third film as an extra, though she has one line.
After those sporadic appearances in the first three films, Ginny becomes much more visible in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She still only has a handful of lines, but she is a frequent presence in the background (and sometimes the foreground) through most of the movie. While she seldom deals directly with Harry, she spends quite a bit of time in the company of Hermione, Ron, Fred and George, and Neville Longbottom (her date to the Yule Ball), and both her friendship with Hermione from the books and her relationship with her brothers are clearly shown for the first time in the films. Subtly, she also displays some of the qualities that Ginny shows in the fifth and sixth books, and it has been suggested that Steve Kloves was steadily building up both Ginny and Neville for their larger roles in the fifth film.
[edit] External links
- Ginny's entry at the Harry Potter Lexicon
- Virtual band that writes and records songs based on Ginny and the Weasleys.
[edit] References
- [HP1] Rowling, J.K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. UK ISBN 0747532699/US ISBN 0590353403.
- [HP2] Rowling, J.K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. UK ISBN 0747538492/US ISBN 0439064864.
- [HP3] Rowling, J.K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. UK ISBN 0747542155/US ISBN 0439136350.
- [HP4] Rowling, J.K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. UK ISBN 074754624X/US ISBN 0439139597.
- [HP5] Rowling, J.K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. UK ISBN 0747551006/US ISBN 043935806X.
- [HP6] Rowling, J.K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. UK ISBN 0747581088/US ISBN 0439784549.
