Allegory of Harry Potter: . . .

Copyright 2009
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Allegory of Harry Potter: The Authors Intention of Proper Names

With Metaphor, Metonymy and Frames

In her sourcebook Exploring Harry Potter, Elizabeth D. Schafer dedicates two pages to
the importance of names; she argues that the most effective stylistic device is the use
of names (Schafer, 217) as names identify a person and can reveal the many facets of
a character on the surface; however, a name can have veiled meanings and
associations that could affect, influence, and shape a character. J.K. Rowling
incorporates a matrix of names, some complex, familiar, as well as alien, to invoke
magic into the readers Muggle (non magical people) understanding of the unfamiliar
world and foreign world she throws Harry Potter into.
The point that I want to make is: Rowlings framework of allegory through the use of
Metaphor and Metonymy in the names she has chosen in her Harry Potter series are
meant to help the reader familiar with the British culture and language, understand her
characters movements and choices; as a result, those not familiar or who have read
poor translations will have trouble recognizing the metaphor and metonymy Rowling has
set in the frame of the story. This is important because only through the knowledge of
the original names Rowling assigns these characters can someone from another culture
or someone with little to no knowledge of British culture and language, understand the
context clues in the frame.
Translators, unaware of the elusive and allusive connotative nuances behind some of
the names, have used liberties or have translated the names literally, instead of

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figuratively giving the reader the wrong information about that character. Even though it
is still a fascinating and thrilling tale, the meaning the author intended would still get lost
in translation. To understand the metaphor and metonymy within Rowlings frame of the
series, we must have an understanding of the authors intent, history, and societal
implications; three examples to investigate would include Harry Potter, Professor
Dumbledore, and Tom Riddle.
Harry Potter: His name meaning is the point in this paragraph
The protagonist and typical archetypal child hero, Harry James Potter believes he is just
a normal boy before the reveal of Hagrid on Harrys 11th birthday. Even though his
name remains the same through the majority of translations, some readers do not, or
cannot, understand the implications behind this characters name. To understand Harry
is to understand his mission and story. His first name, Harry, is reminiscent of an
everyday name; in fact, his Aunt Petunia even briefly discusses this with her husband
when she responds to his query about her nephews name in the first chapter of
Sorcerers Stone Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me (HPSS). Websters
Online Dictionary states that the phrase Tom, Dick, and Harry is suggestive of
everyone or anyone; people taken at random: usually preceded by [the word] every
and used disparagingly (Your Dictionary). I cannot ignore the Tom in this phrase as
Tom is Lord Voldemorts birth name; therefore, Harry is used metonymically for every
child and Voldemort is the every situation a child may face.
Harry means Army ruler or Ruler of the Home in Old English, and this is exactly how
Rowling frames his story in the series; he sees Hogwarts as his home even though he is

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just as much an outcast there as with the Dursleys and will protect his home against the
evil Lord Voldemort. In Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he
assembles a group of students and leads them by teaching spells and jinxes so they
can be ready to fight and defend against Voldemort he is the leader, or ruler, of this
new army.
James, his fathers name, means representative which is quite appropriate as Harry is
the representative for the quintessential hero of the books. Harry is also the
representative figure of his father for other characters in the novels; for Sirius Black,
Harry represents his best friend James Potter. Harry is the agent through which Sirius
can relive his life before Azkaban; in addition, Lupin, Pettigrew, and others comment on
how much he looks like James. For Severus Snape, Harry is the symbolic
representative for the person he despises for many different reasons. Even though he
loathed James, and takes it out on Harry, he still loved Lily and believes he owes her;
thus, helps protect her son who has her eyes and reminds Snape everyday of his one
mistake. Harrys patronus is also a representative of his father in that it comes in the
form of a stag and James animagus form was a stag. Of course this was preconceived
in the frame by Rowling intentionally; however, through close observation we can see
that Harry must go to the end alone. Visually a stag is a male deer; however, it also
represents a person going to an event alone or going stag; in the end, Harry is
metaphorically alone and must challenge Lord Voldemort alone.
Even though Rowling has said that she took the last name Potter from friends of hers as
she was growing up, there are still other references that fit within Harrys frame of the

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story. A potter is someone who takes clay and molds it into something useful, just as
Harry is molding himself (and being molded) he shapes himself metaphorically from a
lump of clay into a recognizable and serviceable vessel (Schafer, 43) into what he
wants to become. Harry is the fulcrum for all of the other characters in the novels in
which he molds the story. His last name fits the classic metonymic x to stand for y
stand in: Potter is a potter. Potters make pots and vessels, but Harry IS the vessel in
which his parents made and poured their love into which incapacitated Voldemort;
however, Voldemort accidentally transferred some of his power into Harry also to be
stored and used at a later date. Other references that relate to Harry as a metonymic
and metaphoric symbol are: Potters field (buriel place of the poor, orphaned and
outsider); potter about (move unhurriedly, waste time); to potter (meddle with, interfere),
and pottering (to work something out). All of these allusions are valid because they
describe Harry and his actions. Harry is the outsider, both in the Muggle world and in
the wizarding world. Even though he is magical, his family the Dursleys ignore,
poke fun at, and are coldhearted in their treatment of Harry. Harry is an outsider to the
wizarding world also even though they all know his name as the one who brought about
Voldemorts end. Harry potters about in the series while working clues out and wastes
time in detention when he could be doing his homework. While at the Dursleys, he
tends to waste time by thinking about his friends at school as well as dawdling when
Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia make demands of him. He also tends to meddle in
school affairs that get him into his heroic situations with the assistance of his friends, his
invisability cloak, and luck; taking time to work out the clues, by pottering about, and
reflecting on suspicions and signs, he is successful in saving himself and the wizarding

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world. If Harry is the potter and the reader is the clay then the story is metaphorically
our own, but if he is both the potter and the clay then Harry is the archetypal hero. HE,
not the reader, must go through the situations that an archetypal hero must endure
while Harrys story speaks to the reader metaphorically by providing the reader with life
experience and, in this case, how to progress through adolescence and survive. For
the reader to understand Harry, they have to recognize him as the metaphor within the
frame of the story: he is ordinary, yet does extraordinary things with the help of his
friends and Professor Dumbledore.
Albus Dumbledore: His name meaning is the point in this paragraph
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts and Harry is
most loyal to him; to Harry he is a father figure. His long name is reminiscent of the
past and present royalty of England, an idea the reader should easily associate. Albus
means white or purity, so Dumbledore symbolized, through metaphor, that he is a
pure character. Through the application of metonymy we can assume he is going to be
on the side of good; he IS the pure character. However, white does not symbolize the
same idea in every culture, In the East, it's the color for mourning and funerals (Bear).
This might support what happens to Dumbledore at the end of book 6; however, if one
does not know this they would not expect Dumbledore to die or to even have had
significant times of mourning and funerals in his past. Percival, meaning pierces the
veil or pierces the valley can also be translated as bringer of peace (Name Origins;
Mugglenet.com).

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Percival, from the Arthurian legend, is possibly from noble birth, hence the allusion to
the many names given to Dumbledore. Percival is one of Arthurs knights who
accompanied Galahad on his search for the Holy Grail which was thought to be a
chalice. Harry accompanies Dumbledore on a search to find one of Voldemorts alleged
horcruxes. Dumbledore is seen with Harry, in book six, drinking from a chalice to get
the locket which is supposedly a horcrux; this horcrux is metaphorical for the Holy Grail.
Wulfric is an uncommon name but can be found in the pages of history. St. Wulfric was
a solitary person living in a cell away from everyone and had the gift of prophesy and
second sight (Parish Church of St.Michael and All Angels); Dumbledore is characterized
as a loner in the series and has the ability to use occlumency on people, which is the
ability to read peoples minds, and at times seems to have second sight or an attuned
psychic ability. Dumbledore also defeated Gellert Grindelwald in 1945, an event in his
life that is evocative of the epic poem Beowulf in which Grendel is the antagonist, pitting
pure evil, Gellert Grindelwald representing Grendel, against good. The name Beowulf
means bee-hunter (Oxford University Press) referring to Rowlings description of
Dumbledore as humming and the literal meaning of his last name. Wulfric could also be
an allusion to Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1170 c. 1220) who was a medieval
German knight and poet and regarded as one the greatest epic poets of his time. He is
the author of Parzival, relating back to the Arthurian/Holy Grail connection; thereby
completing a link within two of Dumbledores names. The last part of Wulfric, ric, is a
variant of Richard, which means strong ruler, which Dumbledore proves over and over
to be.

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Brian is the last of Dumbledores middle names. One source, the Harry Potter Lexicon,
suggests that this name is used for no other reason than for comic relief (Bunker);
however, I disagree. In the frame of the story, Brian would be considered a Muggle
name, not a name normally given to pure-blood wizards. As we have seen Muggles
and Muggle born wizards and witches are given traditional English names and witches
and wizards of pure-blood heritage are given names from myth, history and professions.
We now know that Kendra, Dumbledores mother, was Muggle-born; thus giving
Dumbledore a connection with her own heritage along with the magical, mythical,
historical and professional; thus, her action ties him to both worlds. Brian is traditionally
from Irish heritage and related to bre meaning hill or derived from the Irish brgh
meaning high, noble, elixir and essence. Another likely association is Brian Bruma (c
941 1014), the high king of Ireland and nicknamed the Lion of Ireland, who was killed
during war, was so much loved and respected that his wake lasted twelve nights and he
was buried in a new tomb (Duffy). Just like Brian Bruma, Dumbledore was loved by
his supporters, killed during a battle with the Death Eaters, and so respected that every
character, except Voldemort and his fellow Death Eaters, still alive in the series came to
the funeral including the few who disapproved of him.
The implications of mistranslating, whether through their own prerogative or literal,
translators miss important underlying implications Rowling has meant through her frame
of her characters name giving them specific metaphorical and metonymical meaning.
Case in point is Dumbledores last name. Rowlings intent was to show Professor
Dumbledore within the frame of her story as someone who hums as he works and is
always busy; noting that dumbledore is the Old English word for bumblebee. The

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Italian translator for the first two books in the Harry Potter series, chose to change his
last name to Silente, which according to Rowling in an interview with Lindsey Fraser in
her book Conversations with J.K. Rowling states that for me the name Silence is a total
contradiction(Fraser). With the change in name comes the change in meaning
metaphorically and metonymically this active, humming, intelligent, all-knowing
character now becomes quiet and dumb within the frame of the story. The German
translator decided to make a comparative translation of his last name; changing it to
Humlesnurr, in which hummel in German means bumblebee. The Dutch translator
changed his last name to Perkamentus which is the Dutch word for parchment. Like the
Italian translation, this translation changes the metaphorical and metonymical meaning
within the original intended story frame of Dumbledore; he now is muted, fragile and
delicate like parchment and not formidable, quick and powerful. The reader may not
visualize Professor Perkamentus as a threat against the powerful Lord Voldemort.
Lord Voldemort: His name meaning and how he relates back to Dumbledore &
Harry is the point in this paragraph
The power of naming has never been so clear as when we look at Tom Marvolo Riddle
who has utilized his power of naming to rename himself. With the series being
translated into 67 languages; most have tried to keep the anagram meaning I am Lord
Voldemort even if it means changing his birth name.

According to the OED a riddle is

a question or statement intentionally worded in a dark or puzzling manner . . . an

enigma; a dark saying (Oxford University Press); as a puzzle for Harry to solve,
Rowling uses riddle as the last name for the future Lord Voldemort. By changing his

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given last name, Riddle, some translators change his original intended story frame; in
the second book metaphorically Tom is a riddle that needs to be solved. Metonymically,
Riddle is a dark enigma that is concealed as a memory in a mysterious diary and Harry
must solve Riddles puzzle before someone dies. Just as Riddle is a mystery to Harry,
he is a mystery to the reader; throughout the frame the mystery slowly begins to reveal
itself just as Tom reveals himself in the chamber as Harrys nemesis. Translators had a
difficult job with this double character; should they retain the meaning of the English
word riddle or should they keep the fearsome quality of the name Voldemort (flight of
death) and be able to utilize the reflexive anagram I am Lord Voldemort when his true
identity is revealed. Most chose to change his given name; however, with translation
comes sacrifice but the compensation is still there kids and adults still enjoy the
books.
The point I want to make in this conclusion paragraph is: To understand the
metonymy and metaphorical significance within the frame of Rowlings characters
names and actions, one needs to recognize the connections In the first place; as a
result, the reader can only reference names they are familiar with yet when names are
changed in the translation the meaning is lost. English speakers and readers have a
different frame of reference from those English as a second or third language speaker
or those who have the translated version. Their frame of reference is known by only
certain groups and not by others; if we do not have reference for a concept we will miss
out on both the superficially intended and the underlying meaning. Rowlings intended
wordplay, metaphor and metonymy cannot be sustained through all of the languages
they have been translated into because there is no equal or similar comparison.

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Rowling useds allegory, metaphor and metonymy artfully even though translators
sometimes are not aware of nuances of meaning, the Harry Potter series is still an
entertaining read for all. Children are excited to read it, as well as many adults. Finding
the elusive and allusive meanings, which Rowling has crafted so effectively, can
enhance the amusement and interest elicited by the story itself. The most important
aspect of the Harry Potter series is that you enjoy it; knowing about all of the
storys undercurrents, however, will help readers enjoy it to the fullest.

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Works Cited
Bear, Jacci Howard. White; About.Com. 1997. 28 May 2009
<http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/white.htm>.
Bunker, Lisa Waite. The Harry Potter Lexicon. 6 October 2007. 23 May 2009
<http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/dumbledore.html#Name>.
Duffy, Sean. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online. 2004. 21 May 2009
<https://connect2.uncc.edu/view/article/,DanaInfo=www.oxforddnb.com+3377>.
Fraser, Lindsey. Conversations with J.K. Rowling. New York: Scholastic, 2001.
Name Origins; Mugglenet.com. 1999 - 2009. 25 March 2007
<http://www.mugglenet.com/books/name_origins_characters.shtml>.
Oxford University Press. The Oxford English Dictionary Online, second edition. 2007. 27
May 2009 <http://dictionary.oed.com>.
Parish Church of St.Michael and All Angels. Wulfric at St. Michael's, 1125-1154 . 7 May
2009. 28 May 2009 <http://haselburystm.org/wulfric.htm>.
Schafer, Elizabeth D. Exploring Harry Potter. Osprey, FL: Beacham, 2000.
"Tom, Dick, and Harry." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009
Your Dictionary. 2 June 2009 <www.yourdictionary.com/tom-dick-and-harry>