Hermione's Intelligence

[owl]

I thought I would comment briefly on the 'How clever is Hermione, really?' debate currently going on at hp_essays.

My opinion: Hermione is a highly intelligent, insecure overachiever. I wouldn't say she's a 'genius' in the commonly used sense of the word, like Einstein or Mozart. She may fulfil the technical definition of 'genius', ie have an IQ of over 145. As I think it's unlikely we'll see IQ tests at Hogwarts, we shall never know.
She isn't well-educated in any classical sense of the word, as her education since the age of eleven has focused only on her magic, and her outside reading seems to be more of the same, although it's hard to say as she could be reading the Kama Sutra in the middle of the Gryffindor common room and Harry wouldn't notice. Ron might, though :-P

Just because she like to hang out in the library doesn't mean she's not intelligent. She can't be expected to remember everything (I don't think she has a genuine eidetic memory, just a very good retention of facts and text), considering the state of the libray, any research is bound to take a longer time than, say, in a modern university library.

A lot of people commenting seemed to be bright slackers, the sort who score top marks on night-before revision. I'm one of them, but I'm that most miserable of creatures, a perfectionist who won't work. Anything that requires major effort (for me) to do well in, I ditched at fifteen. I coasted through fifteen of my seventeen years of full-time eduction. On the other hand, my sister is very like Hermione in a lot of ways. She has to get top scores in everything, including the subjects she hates. She also has a full social life and a range of extra-curricular activities, while I curl up somewhere with a book and successfully avoid being organised.

Back to Hermione; while my sister the Hermone-type has a higher consistent mark than I do, I have a wider general knowledge base and possibly a higher IQ (she's never had hers tested). So because Hermione gets the highest mark in her year doesn't mean she's the most intelligent. I think, otoh, she would also be suited to Ravenclaw. She seems to genuinely enjoy learning (taking Muggles Studies in PoA, for example). But she's not going to produce the great magical breakthroughs of the post-Voldemort era. She doesn't have the careless brilliance that most people think of as genius. She'd make a good, diligent middle-rank scientist, but I don't think the life of the intellect would wholly satisfy her. She's not in Gryffindor because of a lack of intelligence, but because of her courage and forthright moral quality.

Comments

[wahlee-98.livejournal.com]

I think Hermione's obsessiveness with school is the main reason I don't identify with her, despite the fact that I'm pretty brainy. Hermione is very smart, one of the cleverest witches of her age and all that. It's obvious to everyone but Hermione that her hours of obsessive study and revising are completely unneccessary-- she's smart enough that she can do without it, I'm sure. I mean, 320% on a final exam? That's ridiculous!

To me, her penchant of spending hours in the library, her obsession with her marks, and-- probably most important-- her boggart turning into McGonagall show not her intelligence but her insecurity. Although in some ways she's overcoming that, too-- her absolute certainty of being right in the face of evidence to the contrary shows that she thinks pretty highly of her common sense and reason, even if she doesn't trust herself to get good marks in school.

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Heh. Actually, 320% on a final exam suggests to me that the Muggle Studies professor wanted to ask a heck of a lot more than he or she (mystery professor!) actually expected any of the students to get right. Now, either there was a lot more on the exam than was covered in the course, or the course covered a lot more than the professor expected anybody to be able to remember, which rather suggests to me that either the professor is trying to do too much or nobody is actually learning much of anything.

Or perhaps it's some sort of rapid-fire overview with the hope that something sticks but at least they'll have heard of it. I confess there are topics I'd only take a course in if that were how it was to be dealt with.

[angua9.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of bemused at the controversy. I'll have to come down squarely in the middle. Hermione is very bright -- she has curiosity, a good memory, good synthesis skills, rapid comprehension, a solid grasp of logic, occasional flashes of insight, good observational skills, and a genuine thirst for knowledge. The fact that she's an obsessive studier doesn't make her any less bright -- it just means that she's a swotty bright one instead of a lazy bright one like Sirius apparently was.

On the other hand, she's not some kind of Einstein- or Hawking-type genius, or even a Marilyn vos Savant. I think we've all known (or been) people as bright as Hermione.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your description of her. In my opinion, Hermione is certainly above average in intelligence, but she is *not* so bright that she can float through school without working hard and still get excellent grades.

I see no evidence that she's "brilliant" or a "genius." But very bright nonetheless.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

To me, her penchant of spending hours in the library, her obsession with her marks, and-- probably most important-- her boggart turning into McGonagall show not her intelligence but her insecurity.

Hermione is very bright -- she has curiosity, a good memory, good synthesis skills, rapid comprehension, a solid grasp of logic, occasional flashes of insight, good observational skills, and a genuine thirst for knowledge. The fact that she's an obsessive studier doesn't make her any less bright -- it just means that she's a swotty bright one instead of a lazy bright one like Sirius apparently was.

*agrees with those statements* Yeah, she may not be a Stephen Hawking, but she's one smart cookie.

And her obsessive studying probably does have to do with insecurity issues. Bear in mind that Hermione doesn't seem to have friends except Harry and Ron (and maybe Ginny). She's not the "popular girl" type like (pre-OOTP) Cho or Pansy, who are always surrounded by a bevy of girlfriends; Hermione does seem to be closer to the "socially inept nerd" stereotype.

(To go on a tangent, Pansy pretty much comes across like the stereotypical "popular bitch queen" whom one would expect to pick on the unpopular nerd girls. Hermione and Pansy are almost like the female counterpart to Harry and Draco in that regard - the symbolic embodiment of the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry.

To go on another tangent; if the abovementioned rivalry was really "stuck up rich kids vs. unpopular nerds", one would expect the Slyths to pick on the Ravenclaws (you know, the real nerds), not the Gryffs, though. I think JKR's idea was more like "stuck up rich/pureblooded kids vs. poor (or not) kids who know the value of friendship". It's a class conflict she's interested in, not a "jocks vs. nerds" one (heck, James Potter pretty much was a stuck-up jock!).)

I always wondered whether Hermione was socially inept/less than happy in her Muggle life (before she came to Hogwarts); and basically puts so much effort in her studies because she sees the magical world as her chance, her "escape" from that. Like, she wasn't happy with who she was in the Muggle world, so now she at least wants to be good at being a witch. Like, "I'm not good for anything else, so I gotta be good at magic."

But then, OTOH, I doubt that Hermione's self-esteem issues are very severe to the point of "I'm not good for anything (else)". After all, she's an outspoken girl who stands up for what she feels is right (Gryffindor qualities right there!) - people who have no self-esteem tend to not dare to do that. Whatever insecurity about her looks she may have (cf. her crying when Draco's hex made her teeth grow, and Snape said, "I see no difference") doesn't seem to be strong, either - as we know from GoF, she can straighten her hair and pretty herself up, but she chooses to not go through the effort except for special occasions.

There's also a factor of Hermione just genuinely enjoying to study - she definitely has Ravenclaw qualities, it's just that her Gryffindor qualities are even stronger.