Character Analysis
Something's Fishy
Hermine is a really weird chick. She almost seems like she's a figment of Harry's imagination, because her identity is kind of formed by him. For example, she won't tell him what her name is, and makes him guess it. Check out how it goes down:
"But now I really must know your name."
She looked at me for a moment without speaking.
"Perhaps you can guess it. I should be so glad if you did. Pull yourself together and take a good look at me. Hasn't it ever occurred to you that sometimes my face is just like a boy's? Now, for example." (228-230)
Okay, so that's kind of a weird way to introduce yourself. But it turns out that Hermine has some sort of weird telepathic or hypnotic powers over Harry, because he can guess her name:
Yes, now that I looked at her face carefully, I had to admit she was right. It was a boy's face. And after a moment I saw something in her face that reminded me of my own boyhood and of my friend of those days. His name was Herman. For a moment it seemed that she had turned into this Herman. (231)
Not only does she play mind games, but she's also a shape-shifter! This is important because it's one of the first moments in the novel where things start getting a little bit crazy, and give us a taste of the sheer nuttiness that's about to come. It also links back to the mysterious door to the Magic Theater and the treatise on the Steppenwolf. All of these strange moments are connected. Harry guesses that her name must be Hermine, since she's a boy who looks like Herman, and she just nods. Are you convinced that Harry really guessed her name, or did she just let him name her?
Another weird thing that Hermine does with Harry, or he does with her (it's hard to tell), is tell him that he must fulfill her last command after he falls in love with her. Harry can guess what that is, and she finally confirms that he's right:
"You won't find it easy, but you will do it. You will carry out my command and—kill me. There—ask no more." (250)
This, ahem, unusual request is a perfect example of the creepy, extreme, way that Hermine acts half of the time with Harry. It reveals her to be a dangerous presence in the novel because she's asking Harry to do something really out of the ordinary and violent. However, she's also got a light side.
Loves Music, Loves to Dance
Hermine is quite the dancer, and can't believe that Harry doesn't know how to boogie with all of his studies and smarts. So she takes it upon herself to get the old boy moving. She teaches him all the latest steps, like the fox trot and the Boston, and invites him to the ball where he will both love her and kill her—in his mind, at least.
At the ball Hermine reveals all of her funky identity shifts. She dresses up as a boy and Harry is sure that she's his old pal Herman:
It was Hermine, barely disguised by the make-up of her hair and a little paint. The stylish collar gave an unfamiliar look to the pallor of her intelligent face, and the wide black sleeves of her dress coat and the white cuffs made her hands look curiously small, and the long black trousers gave a curious elegance to her feet in their black and white silk socks. (467)
Hermine, as a boy, goes off and gets in on with a girl, and then comes back dressed as a sad clown. This kind of action is important for us to understand Hermine as a figure that is almost the exact opposite of Harry: she's open to many experiences and is willing to try out different identities.
Hermine is showing Harry that there are millions and billions of options for himself—if he weren't so stuck in his own personality. The fact that she can be a boy or a girl, act old or young, and is unabashedly bisexual, means that she has embraced all of the opportunities life has to offer.
She's also, not gonna lie, a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She takes sad-sack Harry and shows him how to life! love! dance! embrace his (many) essence(s)!... without actually being much of a character. Her quirky charms just help Harry out.
But hey, she's possibly a figment of Harry's fevered imagination… and to be fair, Harry isn't big on giving any of his (maybe) imaginary friends much of a personality.