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Prismatic Perspectives on Harry Potter, the

Global Icon- A Study of J.K.Rowling's Harry
Potter Series

Book · September 2021

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Nagamani Kandasamy
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First Published in February 2021

ISBN: 978-93-5427-030-7

Price: INR 429/-

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Life is the golden key given just once to
open the realms of happiness and love.
 Acknowledgement

Research is a relentless pursuit that is of course a dream

which comes true only for the chosen few; and working
towards it is a gargantuan challenge which not everyone
wins. I am happy and even proud to be the one. For many,
research is a destination; but for me research is a journey.
The years of my research study is indeed the most
rewarding and relinquishing period in my entire lifetime till
date. The study of the international icon Harry Potter gave
me a special identity, a joyful stigma that any researcher
would relish. With due gratitude, to the Almighty who has
been leading me through the maze of life, I dedicate this
book of mine to my beloved Professor & mentor Dr.
N.Velmani., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D, the evergreen source of
inspiration since my college days, the unbelievably
supportive guide, any researcher can ever dream of. I owe
my gratitude to the good hearts that stood by me, in my
ordeals, endeavours, my days of tears and cheer; the benign
souls who always wished my well-being, and all my
academic peers who gave me their unfailing support. My
gratitude is due unto my family members who were the only
reason for where I am now. I am thankful to my son the
real initiator of this task and the sole meaning of my
existence. The Harry Potter books weren’t an easy read at the
outset, but it invariably opened doors to enlightenment.
The novels, any HP reader would agree, are a rich treasure
trove of imagination rampant with allusions from world
myths and so was my research experience.
 Foreword

Writing a book is a great learning experience for any

enthusiastic author of genuine academic pursuits. By
sparing the valuable time and elite endeavours, the author
has written the book with a view to give an interesting
insight into the world created by Johanne Kathleen
Rowling. It is an universally acknowledged fact that the
success of the Harry Potter series – translated into over 64
languages, available in more than 200 countries- enamour,
enthrall and entice the audience by magical realism on the
screen, on the stage and in print. In Rowling’s world, the
interpretation and intermingling of the magical and the real
suggest the way in which we live a life of imagination and
reality and the book has successfully brought into focus,
with critical acumen, all its splendour and finesse.

Dr. N.Velmani., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D

Principal
Annai Fathima College of Arts and Science
Fathima Nagar, Thirumangalam
 Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................. 1

Magic: The Portkey to Realism in Rowling’s Series .......... 21

Mystery and Suspense: The Twin Wands of Fantasy ....... 62

Anthropomorphisms and Transmogrification

in the Series .......................................................................... 102

Harry Potter’s Bildungsreise ............................................... 146

Poetic Justice in Harry Potter– Achieved or Evaded ..... 187

Works Cited........................................................................... 225

Web Sources .......................................................................... 242

 Introduction

“Stories help anchor our children in their culture, its history and
traditions…moral anchors and mooring have never been more necessary”

(William J. Bennett n.pag).

Children live in a blessed stage in which they could see

beauty in ugliness and are hopeful when there is room for
despair; they retain positivity when adults usually delve into
despair. Ideally, stories provide the gift at least in our
imaginations, of walking in someone else’s life for a
moment, an imaginative experience that we cannot gain
otherwise from leading a solitary life of our own. Stories
have a perennial value for morality and life. Centuries might
have passed on like “winged chariot” (22) to make use of
Andrew Marvell’s coinage, but the fervour for fables have
ever remained undaunted and never subdued. It is rather
indefinable, where, when and how this rich pastime of
storytelling had its beginning, whether it is the story from
The Bible or that of the oriental Vedas that added spur to it.

From ages uncountable, years remote from memory, stories

have continued to be an essential part of human existence.
Whether it is western or oriental, children of all epochs, all
nationalities have grown up with the nourishment not just
of their organic food, but also with the stories of their rich
cultural heritage. The history of children’s literature reveals
the changing attitude of the society towards children and
changing cultural values. Throughout the Middle Ages and
far into the Renaissance the child remained as an

1
insignificant entity, as if in an incognito mode and an
incommunicado state.

Books are not mere engines that confine the child, but
rather wondrous vehicles that transport the child out of its
inner self. Books are embalmed voices and it is the reader’s
role to disinter them and to breathe life into them (Benton
17). Books exist to entertain as well as enrich us. They have
deeper symbolic levels that resonate with us in many ways.
Words on paper open us to bigger realities. Great books
don’t just pass the time; they bring a greater sense of
meaning to our lives.

Great writers transcend the horizons of their own time and

their messages and the beauty of their art remains relevant
beyond particular circumstances. Until recent years,
children’s literature comprised of morals that are too old as
civilization, themes that are hackneyed, dealing with the
conflict of good and evil, the powerful over the oppressed,
the myth of Gods and kings, warriors and saints. But the
modern era which is complicated in itself implies the need
for a more soothing, serene and responsible representation
of life. The postmodern society with all its frustrations,
depressions, sense of alienation, and loss of values, is
desperately in need of a literature that could offer
possibilities for rejuvenation. The recent phenomenon has
become a more realistic presentation of the issues that are
contemporaneous of modern and postmodern life. In that
way, children’s literature can be said to have come of age,
attaining its maturity, serenity and relevance.

Universally diffused among literate people, children’s

literature offers a rich array of genres and themes. Its style,
sensibility and vision range over a spectrum wide enough to
span down-to-earth realism and tenuous mysticism.

2
According to Grenby, in his preface to the book The
Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature,
Children’s literature as an identifiable entity has developed over
at least 300 years into an entirely parallel universe. It is now
almost a large and varied field not less than adult literature
encompassing prose, verse, drama and fiction.... It has its own
canon of classics, its own radical and controversial experiments
and genres for which there are no precise equivalents for adults.
(Preface xiii)

Folktales introduced some make-believe elements, like

talking animals, though the stories overall sound logical and
realistic explanation about life, nature and human
condition. Fairy-tales also called magic stories were filled
with dreamlike possibilities. Featuring enchanted forces and
narrating always a happily ever after ending, they employed
poetic justice with virtue rewarded and evil punished
without fail. Legends glorify the adventures of a person in
history with embellished exaggerations, making them
famous for their deeds, whereas myths attempt to explain
the natural phenomena, the beginning of the world, the
relationships between the gods and humans. Myths, legends
and folktales function as stories with tangible links to a
larger system or pattern of narrative.

Fantasy as a contemporary genre:

Fantasy genre is the most contemporary and nondescript; it
is harder to define by canon than by example. They are tales
that demands acceptance of elements that cannot be true
and so require willing suspension of disbelief. It is the most
acclaimed as well as criticized genre especially as far as
literature for children is concerned. Children generally are
more imaginative and therefore capable of getting
fascinated towards the marvellous. Being innately curious
and exploratory in nature, fantasy stories are alluring.

3
Childhood is the time to learn bridging the immense gap
between inner experiences and the real world. Bettelheim in
his The Uses of Enchantment emphasizes the vicarious
function of fantasy stories:
When the entire child’s wishful thinking gets embodied in a
good fairy; all his destructive wishes in an evil witch; all his fears
in a voracious wolf; all his jealous anger in some animal that
peeks out the eyes of hisarchrivals – then the child can finally
begin to sort out his contradictory tendencies. Once this starts
the child will be less and less engulfed by unmanageable chaos.
(13)

Fantasy literature can very well be identified as the

immediate successor of romanticism. Any new genre
cannot be the outcome of a single moment or day. It could
only be the product of many centuries of literary creativity;
it is a continuation of that creativity, utilitizing and renewing
traditional mythological and fairy-tale characters, themes
and plots and combining them with elements from history
and contemporary life. Fantasy as a literary genre though
being fairly recent, it is still one of the most ancient genres
that can be traced back to storytelling which is all fantastic
and also much older than even its literary history. The
earliest reference to the term ‘fantasy’ could be seen in the
epigraph of Dante to his La Divina Comedia, which is
perhaps the greatest poetic fantasy in European literature.
To Dante, it is divinely inspired, offering a dimension of
creativity going beyond man’s empirical experience (Ann
Swinfen 3). Good fantasy literature has a claim of utter
sincerity and tells coherent stories which take their
mythopoeic endeavours seriously. There is truth in fantasy,
but it lies within the stories.

Fantasy is the progeny of myth. Fantasy in its initial stage

abstained from playing with reality; instead it invented
whole different worlds of magic and weirdness which stated

4
unmistakably that they read beyond the borders of reality.
“As a perennial literary mode, fantasy can be traced back to
ancient myths, legends, folklore, carnival art” (“Fantasy in
Tolkien and J.K.Rowling” 31). Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
and its consequent popularity secured the future for the
genre. Typically, fantasy of the twentieth century is divided
into two phases: before and after Tolkien. In the late 1990,
fantasy reached its peak in popularity and claimed a
prominent place also in children’s literature thanks to J.K.
Rowling’s Harry Potter stories.

The turbulent years of the 20th century threw up a stream

of traumatized writers, some of whom turned to the fantasy
genre to find meaningful answers to the question of
existence (Shobha Ramaswamy 256). Fantasy stories can be
appropriated as a psychological strategy creating meaning in
the midst of violent conflict of the present times. Exposure
to a well-built fantasy world helps young people face reality,
however distasteful it may be. In a world where childhood
erodes at a pace fast enough to meet adulthood, fantasy
provides highly coping skills. It gives a new perspective, an
altered mirror that reveals our world of reality in a
metaphorical way. When genres fall out of favour in
mainstream fiction, they subtly metamorphose into suitable
modes in the realm of children’s literature.

The world as it is, has its own limitations and man possesses
certain primordial desires to go above these setbacks.
Fantasy draws its strength from these primordial desires for
the enrichment of life. The desire to escape from the
limitations of this real world, the desire to survey vast
depths of space and time, to behold and wander with
marvellous creatures, to speak with the animals-all account
for the fascination one has for the genre fantasy fiction. It

5
is the sensible tuning of all these cherished desires that goes
for the undaunted reception the fantasy stories enjoy.
If good novels are comments on life, good stories of this sort
…are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams,
sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of
the range of possible experience. (C. S. Lewis: A Map of His
Worlds 90)

Literature, and more particularly fantasy literature

experiences enable children to stretch their imagination. As
observed by Samuel Johnson, “Babies do not want to hear
about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and
of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little
minds” (qtd.in The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page
n.pag). Fantasy, thus has an evergreen and everlasting
appeal.

Oxford Concise Dictionary defines fantasy as “a genre of

imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure” (3).
This accounts for the success of many works of fantasy, a
secret that eludes critics who search for other parameters of
literary excellence. Fantasy’s lasting appeal lies in the fact
that the sub created world is so strong that the reader does
not lose his sense of wonder even after repetitive exposure.
According to Rosemary Jackson as quoted in
“Psychoanalysis”, fantasy is “a literature of desire, which
seeks that which is experienced as absence and loss”
(Andrew M. Butler 91).

Tolkien considered fantasy as the ‘sub-creative art’, the

natural outcome of man’s own creation in the divine image.
In his own words in Tree and Leaf as quoted by Ann Swinfen,
it is “the sub-creative art in itself and a quality of strangeness
and wonder in the expression….Fantasy is…not a lower

6
but a higher form of art, indeed the most neatly pure form,
and so (when achieved) the most potent” (5).

David Fickling, the editor of Philip Pullman’s The Dark

Fantasy, opines that the rise of fantasy in children’s fiction
is a return, not a new thing. Fantasy literature is the
outcome of many centuries of literary creativity- renewing
traditional mythological elements. The result is a series of
archetypes, confirming to the moral and aesthetic principles
of an imaginary universe and constitutes a continuously
developing literary mosaic. Ursula Le Guin calls it the
language of the inner self and reiterates the need for an
alternate literary mode in addition to realism which is
…perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or
portraying the incredible realities of our existence…. The
fantasist, whether he uses the ancient archetypes of myth and
legend or the younger ones of science and technology, may be
talking as seriously as any sociologist- and a good deal more
directly- about human life as it is lived, and as it may be lived,
and as it ought to be lived. (The Language of the Night 58)

A towering fantasy novel must have bedrock of the

believable aspect beneath it. Fantasy teaches the reader to
expect and relish the unlikely, to miss none of life’s
surprises. Fantasy opens the door to experience the magic
that is in the world around us and the magic in ourselves. It
can encompass a whirlwind of images and plot twists.
Fantasy writers use the creative licence to invent whole new
worlds but two things remain the same: the borrowing of
old histories and mythologies from numerous cultures; the
ancient struggle between good and evil. The resurgence of
the fantasy genre can be attributed to a literary group of
friends of which C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien were a part
of. Known as The Inklings, they regularly gathered to
discuss issues including imagination, religion, heroism and
good versus evil. These discussions and the masterpieces of

7
these writers provided the groundwork for what is now a
world-wide billion-dollar industry. As long as there remains
an urge to go beyond the reality, there will be fantasy ever
enchanting and interesting.

The fantastic mode allows children’s writer to deal with

important psychological, ethical and existential questions in
a slightly detached manner, which frequently proves more
effective with young readers than straightforward realism.
Sheila Egoff claims that it is the discovery of the real within
the unreal, the credible within the incredible, the believable
within the unbelievable. To Tolkien, Fantasy is a way of
getting closer to the important things of life than the
realistic novel ever could.

Stories are indispensable to human existence. Being the

only species to express in verbal language, stories are an
interwoven part of human civilization. There had been
infinite tales both fantastic and magical transmitted orally
by word of mouth, song or dance. These tales embedded in
secrecy, magic and grand adventures can no doubt be said
to be the forerunner of what we now consider as the genre
of fantasy.

J.R.R. Tolkien is rightly acclaimed to be the father of

fantasy. It should be admitted that Tolkien did not single-
handedly transform public taste and publishing practice;
but his work is so outstanding and his influence so
conspicuous that his name stands first; Tolkien and
twentieth-century fantasy as it is with the known correlation
of Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama. Tolkien being fed
up with the traumatic and bitter experience of war he fought
in, returned to his favourite subjects of myths and legends
as an attempt to place change and re-examine the questions
of morality in the light of lasting spiritual truths. Tolkien’s

8
writings are a rich treasure trove to dig in and he has the
single greatest impact on fantasy art. With the publication
of Tolkien’s,The Hobbit (1937), the genre had been reborn
into its modern era. The Lord of the Rings (1994-95) is an
epitome of fantasy literature.

Fantasy is “the making or glimpsing of other worlds”. In

his fantasy world, Tolkien intends to create a secondary
world by using human imagination, where the magic
language is appropriated and the inner consistency of reality
is achieved. According to Tolkien, this secondary world “is
not imaginary ... but to some extent, another reality
paralleled with the reality where people live” (“Essays on
Fairy Stories” 63).

Children’s literature in the present millenimum has become

as profitable and commercialised as any other cultural
commodity and owing to them, their makers have also
become the most celebrated and recognisable international
icons. The immediate and most contemporary example we
can definitely have is the only billionaire author
J.K.Rowling, a name unheard of before the evolution of
Harry Potter. Now Rowling’s name has become a global
phenomenon just like the endearing Potter wizard. It is to
this commercially successful author;we should offer
salutations for having made a revolutionary magic in the
reading habits of children in an era where there is so much
to be carried away blindly by the sweeping gadgets and
media mania.

Author Biography:
Johanne Rowling was born in 1965, in Yate, near Bristol;
her father Peter Rowling was an engineer for Rolls Royce
in Bristol and her mother was half-French and half-
Scottish. Rowling’s father and mother met on a train in

9
King’s Cross Station which was probably the inspiration for
creating one in the series. Rowling as a child moved with
her family to Winterbourne, where Rowling and her sister
Diana had been friends with their neighbourhood kids Ian
and Vikki Potter the name that allured her to create her
adolescent hero.

Rowling admits to have been a daydreamer in her childhood

years which instigated her to write stories even at the age of
six. “Yes, I know that I wanted to be a writer when I was
six because I wrote a book then. It was a work of towering
genius about a rabbit.... I gave it to my mother, and she said,
“That’s lovely”, as a mother would, “That’s very, very
good.” Rowling in her younger years had been a great lover
of books and she accepts she read absolutely everything. “I
love E.Nesbit –I think she is great, and I identify with the
way she writes. Her children are very real children, and she
was quite a groundbreaker in her day” (J.K.Rowling/
MuggleNetn.pag).

Growing up in a small town, she led a rather less noticed

life. Nothing extraordinary was recorded in the memory of
those who taught or learnt along with her at school.
Nothing eventful was registered in the history of her
childhood years. Graduated as a French and Classics major
from the University of Exeter, she joined a bilingual
secretarial course to cater to the urging demands of her
practical parents and started her career as a teacher rather
reluctantly. Rowling’s married life with the Portuguese
television journalist Jorge Arantes ended in failure and she
had to quit her marital life with her daughter Jessica.

Johanne Kathleen Rowling- a name that went unnoticed

and unremembered until her rather reluctant publication of
the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) by

10
Bloomsbury after having been rejected by several
publishers, took just in one sweep the whole world by its
immediate appeal. Five meticulous years of planning and
scripting enabled Rowling to come out with the seven-book
series. The novels got published simultaneously by
Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic in the
United States.

The first tome of the series Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone was published in the year 1997 in the United
Kingdom. Bloomsbury publishers insisted on a more
gender-neutral name by Rowling so as to make it appeal to
the targeted audience fearing that boys wouldn’t go in for
an adventurous book by a female author.

It was published in the US the next year with the title Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to suit to the American audience.
Rowling received an unprecented sum of 105,000 dollars
for the American Rights by any children’s author who is
then unknown and not popular. The second book Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out in the succeeding
year 1998. The third and the smallest of the seven books
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published ahead
of the scheduled period simultaneously in UK and the US
in 1999.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the fourth to be

published in the series in the year 2000 featuring Harry
facing the many dangerous ordeals involved in the
Triwizard Tournament. The longest of the seven books
Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix was published in 2003
with 766 pages in the UK edition and 870 pages in the US
version. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which sold 9
million copies in the first 24 hours of its release was
published in July 2005 whereas the last of the series Harry

11
Potter and the Deathly Hallows that sold out 11 million copies
in a single day was released in 2007.

Translated into over 64 languages, and available in more

than 200 countries, worldwide sales of the books crossed
million next only to The Bible. Misconceptions prevail that
the popularity of the books is due to the hype and media-
driven advertisement. But the reality is that the books
reached millions by word of mouth appraisal and
acclamation. Deborah Stevenson in her essay “Classics and
Canons” clearly asserts that texts can have

their status heightened or re-energises from external sources,

accelerants that fuel the fire of their popularity. Such accelerants
may be film versions, televisual incarnations, ... and the winning
of well-knownawards.Though such enchantments keep a text
alive, they aren’t likely to pull a book from comparative
obscurity into classic status.... Rowling’s series is the likeliest of
all contemporary texts to achieve classic status. (118)

The birth of the iconic story:

It is equally queer that Rowling conceived the plot for the
series when she was on a long wait for four hours for a train
in the year 1990. She records in her website:

I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but
I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat
and thought, for four(delayed train) hours, and all the details
bubbled up in my brain, and thisscrawny, black-haired,
bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became
more and more real to me. (J.K.Rowling / MuggleNet)

Rowling narrates how she conceived the plot in her long

waiting hours and how she was excited and enthusiastic
about the ideas filling her mind. She adds: “To my immense
frustration, I didn’t have a pen that worked, and I was too
shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one”
(www.harrypotterwikia.org).

12
It took six long years for Rowling to conceive the entire plot
before she set out to bring it in writing. The single mother
of her child, living on the dole in Edinburgh, Rowling kept
scripting the story in a local cafe run by her brother-in-law
while her daughter dozed in a stroller next to her. The
books chronicle the life of Harry Potter, a young wizard,
and his motley band of cohorts at the Hogwarts School of
witchcraft and wizardry. Hallows had a record first print run
of twelve million in America alone, and sold there at a rate
of five thousand copies a minute in the first few days of its
release.

In addition to the phenomenal series, she had been writing

few books to name some, Quidditch Through the Ages(2001)
under the pseudonym KennilworthyWhisp, Fantastic Beasts
and Where to find them (2001) in the name of Newt Scamander
and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2007), a book comprising of
five fairy tales. It is an interesting fact to know that even
Bloomsbury was hesitant to publish Harry Potter series under
her original name for fear of being left unresponded and
insisted on using just the initials J.K. so that the public
would consider it a book of fantasy by a male author not by
a female, which was quite unacceptable and even
unbelievably new.

The first book for adults The Casual Vacancy (2012) is a dark
comedy about a local election in the small town of Pagford.
The book follows the squabbling affairs, drug use and other
adult concerns of the inhabitants of the small English town.
A compulsive readable crime novel with twists at every
turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed
series featuring Cormoron Strike and his determined young
assistant. In 2013, Rowling stepped into a genre new to her-
crime fiction in Cuckoo’s Calling in her pen name Robert

13
Galbraith. The book’s sale skyrocketed when the author’s
identity got revealed. On this Rowling commented:
I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being
Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has
been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and
pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.
(www.biography.com)

Career of Evil is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series

written by Rowling, and published under the pseudonym
Robert Galbraith in 20 October 2015 in the US and 22
October in the UK. Recently Rowling has announced the
upcoming of a play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child based on
her own original new story, proposed to be directed by John
Tiffany. The play is planned to be premiered in London’s
West End at the Palace Theatre in the summer of 2016. The
plot is planned to follow the seventh book of Harry Potter
series- the first official story to be represented on stage. On
this, Rowling says,
The story only exists because the right group of people came
together with a brilliant idea about how to represent Harry
Potter on stage. I’mconfident that when audiences see Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child, they will understand why we
choose to tell this story in this way.(www.J.K.Rowling.com)

Rowling, the humanitarian:

The much-envied children’s author is no less a
humanitarian with a benevolent soul. Rowling has been
contributing immensely to various social organizations run
for the cause of humanity, combating poverty and social
inequality across the globe devoted to enforcing human
rights to children supporting treatment and research of
multiple sclerosis, cancer.

14
J.K.Rowling is deeply concerned with social justice. She
worked for Amnesty International before she found herself
living with a small child at the pointy end of inequality. Her
stigmatised status as a single parent made her channelize her
frustration positively by becoming a patron of the National
Council for One Parent Families now in vogue as
Gingerbread which works as a campaigning organisation
for single parents and children. Though Rowling married
again and lives a harmonious life with her partner Dr. Neil
Murray since their marriage in 2003, she continued to be
the President of Gingerbread. Rowling lives in Edinburgh
with her husband and three children. She established the
Children’s High-Level Group in 2005 moved by the
traumatizing treatment children received in Czech
Institutions.

The charity now working as ‘Lumos’ focuses on eradicating

child labour and envisions a world where children are
placed in safe and loving environments not in uncaring
institutions. Lumos helps the orphaned children all over
Europe. Rowling reveals how she came up with the charity’s
unusual name-the wand-lighting charm in Harry Potter.
Rowling’s charity has rescued hundreds of children from
filthy and inadequate care homes in some of Europe’s
economically backward countries (Chris Hastings
interview). “I am prouder of my years as a single mother
than of any other part of my life” (Gingerbread 2013).

Accolades for the author:

Rowling won several awards for the books. In 2000, she was
awarded an OBE for her service to children’s literature and
in 2008, she received British Book Awards’ Lifetime
Achievement Award. In 2009, she was inducted into
France’s prestigious Legion of Honour and given the

15
honorary title of ‘Knight’. She was honoured with Degrees
from Harvard University, Dartmouth College New
Hampshire, USA, University of Exeter, University of St.
Andrews, University of Edinburgh.

In the year 2011, the books were published in e-book

format through the official Pottermore Website launched in
the same year. The silver screen version took the books and
its acclaim to the next level of appreciation; the eight-part
film series by Warner Bros Pictures turned out to be the
highest grossing hit of all times. Now the Potter brand is
worth billions of dollars.

Critical Approaches to the series:

The series of seven voluminous books, the novels fall
within the genre of fantasy literature though it has elements
of many other genres like the Bildungsroman, boarding
school stories, and also elements of mystery, adventure and
romance. The novels won equal appreciation as well as
controversial criticism globally that is sure to arouse
curiosity for the new reader. It makes one wonder how the
children’s book about an ordinary boy could receive so
much of applause. Questions automatically pop up as to
what is so very special about the book that made its creator
a billionaire author in the present millennium. The novels
no doubt invited a honeycomb of critics worldwide both
stinging as well as applauding the content of the books.
Ever since its publication, criticisms flocked the websites
and publishing houses, even sometimes to the extreme limit
of banning the books altogether for propagating Satanism.

The books remain a publishing phenomenon and a

significant touchstone of contemporary children’s
literature. The Harry Potter books have fostered a renewed
interest in children’s literature and the author has become a

16
power too great to be ignored inviting scholarly attention in
all possible ways. Imbibing and subverting various
traditional elements, Rowling has brought forth a freshness
to story-telling. The books are upbeat, humorous and light-
hearted, making them different and turning non-readers
into book lovers. There is in everyone “a longing for a
magical world so deep, a hunger to be surprised so intense
and so great a gratitude for a well-told story that accounts
for the popularity of Harry Potter series” (Reading Harry Potter,
xiv).

The Potter books build on the tradition of fantasy tales of

alternative, magical worlds-especially those where children
control destiny and effect change before returning to the
real world (Reading Harry Potter xx).

Literature is a complete system of reference and the author

is a recycler who works with a pre-existing literary system
with conventions for things like plot, genre,
characterization, images and narrative voice. The popularity
of Rowling’s works testifies to the breath of culture from
which she has drawn many of her images, characters and
themes. She creates something entirely new with the bits of
materials yet she remains remarkably true to the essence of
each. Though the fictional world created by her is unique,
it grows from a deep foundation of myths and folklore that
have endured across distance and time (The Magical Worlds
of Harry Potter 16). Roland Barthes’s words in “The Death
of the Author”:
The text is a tissue of quotations, drawn from the
innumerable centers of culture… the writer can only imitate
a gesture that is always interior, never original. His only power
is to mix writings, to counter the ones with the others, in such
a way as never to rest on any one of them.

17
Though the books are ostensibly children’s fiction, the
books have transcended the barriers of age, appealing to
young children, teenagers, and adults. Salman Rushdie’s
words of acclamation for the author in his essay “Books vs
Goons” are worthy to be noted. “J.K.Rowling changed the
culture of childhood, making millions of boys and girls look
forward to eight-hundred – page novels” (Shobha
Ramasaamy 20). Her popularity has reached gargantuan
dimensions with the launch of each book being celebrated
as an international ceremonial event people making a
beeline at the book stores.

The appeal of the books was not confined to children and

adolescents and when they appeared with sophisticated
covers to cater to adult audience, it immediately careered to
the top of adult best seller lists. Thus, it can aptly be called
cross-over fiction, the go-between genre that appeals to
children and adults alike (“Beyond Harry Potter” 29). A
generation that has been marketed to its entire life birthed
its own buzz, took ownership of the Potter brand and
declared it genuine …Harry grew organically, and it is the
purity of these origins that created real equity for the brand
(Lynch Dick n.pag).

Rowling’s books can best be described as belonging to the

fantasy genre since her characters inhabit a world where
magic is real and the fantastic is an everyday occurrence. It
is a fantasy about real life, particularly about loss,
powerlessness and solitude. And right and wrong. Rebecca
quotes Lee Siegel’s article in the New Republic
The rapturous reception of the Harry Potter books is
heartening, because J.K.Rowling is a literary artist, and the
books possess more imaginative life than the majority of
novels that are published.… They are full of marvellous

18
 invention and humour and fun, but they have more than that.
(358)

The novels were adopted into the medium of silver screen

which caused a great revolutionary hit record and enormous
amount of critical studies have been applied to the film
version of the series to the level of satiation. Attempts have
been made worldwide at an analytical study of the books
especially in the European scenario. So far ever since the
publication of the books, studies on various topics have
been made. The Christian message conveyed by the author
portraying Harry as the Chosen One, to redeem humanity
as a Christ Figure had been exploited greatly. The racial
discourse in the books, the issue of gender politics has also
been analysed by various critics.

John Granger is a notable Rowling critic analysing

Rowling’s novel from almost all possible perspectives in his
reputed publications like Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys to
Understanding Harry Potter. Some works that deserve mention
for their analytical surveillance of the Harry Potter
Phenomenon are The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives
on a Literary Phenomenon (2003) edited by Lana A.Whited,
Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter edited by Elizabeth
E.Heilman.(2009) Giselle Liza Anatol has published a
compendium of analytical studies on the author from varied
perspectives under the title Reading Harry Potter: Critical
Essays (2003).

The books in print are left scarcely read and appreciated at

least in the Indian Scenario where the name Harry Potter
goes immediately with the films and the cast stars Daniel
Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, Alan
Rickman as Severus Snape not to mention the
unprecedented reception ever enjoyed by a children’s

19
author and her printed originals had from the European or
American audience.

20
 Magic: The Portkey to Realism in
Rowling’s Series

Magic as a ritual or technique to manipulate supernatural

forces goes back to the primitive man and is found in all the
records of the ancient civilization. It existed simultaneously
with the concepts of good and evil as ruling forces of
human living. Magic, also known historically as sorcery can
be defined as casting spells using a special formula of words
or actions to gain control or bend reality to one’s own will,
and also a technique to attain certain ends through contact
with spirits and psychic realms. White magic was believed
to be used for good ends; black magic for evil purposes.

Magic belongs to everyone as a birthright irrespective of

age, gender, class: it cuts across all boundaries and belongs
even to those who dismiss it. Sharon asserts that magic is a
part of everyone’s identity and especially children retain
their magical connection to the universe though the adults
by way of reasoning seem to ignore its significance.

Adults cannot or do not want to see magic in reality but

children have a very comfortable magical interpretation of
things (Sharon Sieber 170). Literature itself is another plane
or dimension which impinges on our own and changes both
our world and the universe of fiction. Magical realism is the
mode most young adult writers have used to narrate
coming-of-age-stories vastly different from linear
bildungsromans of growth and development.

21
Origin of magic realism as a genre:
The term “Magic realism” was originally applied to a new
art form of painting in the early twentieth century, especially
in Germany and Latin America. The term was first
introduced by Franz Roh, a German Art critic, who
considered it as an art category. Franz Roh used the term to
describe a new form of post-expressionist painting that
developed in the Weimar Republic. According to Roh, “the
mystery (of Magic Realism) does not descend to the
represented world, but rather hides and palpitates behind
it” (Zamora 26). Magic realist painters added dreamlike and
fantastic elements to their art, but their subject matter still
always remained within the realm of the possible. The
objective of the Magic Realist is to bring fresh presentation
of the everyday world. The artist may choose unusual points
of view, mysterious juxtapositions or common objects
presented in uncanny ways.

To Franz Roh, magic realism was a way of representing and

responding to reality and pictorially depicting the enigmas
of reality. Roh believed that “the autonomy of the objective
world around us was once more to be enjoyed; the wonder
of matter that could crystallize into objects was to be seen
anew” (Frank Janney 10). In Roh’s opinion, magic realism
juxtaposes the forms of spirit and the very solidity of
objects.

Magical realism evolved into a literary genre, only in the

later part of the twentieth century. It now represents much
more an attitude, the window through which to view the
world, a philosophy of life. Though the coinage of the term
was attributed to Franz Roh, it was Angel Flores who
popularized it in the name of ‘magical realism’. Flores
considers James Luis Borges as the first true magical realist
and a precursor to magical realism, and the father of

22
modern Latin American writing, whereas in painting,
Giorgio de Chirico is claimed to be influential to the magic
realist painters of Germany, with his cold and smooth style.
Borges was influenced by Roh and later by Franz Kafka,
and his writing emphasized the mystery of human living
amongst the reality of life. Borges’s most influential essay
‘Narrative Art and Magic’ (‘El arte narrative y la magia)
consists the gleaning influences of both European and
Latin American cultural movements, which have been a key
aspect of magic realist writing.

Sharon Sieber, in her essay entitled “Magic Realism” says,

“Widely recognised as a genre of the fantastic that combines
dream, magic and prosaic reality, magical realism has come
to be a part of the iconic representation of twentieth
century paradoxes that postmodernism embraces” (169).
The oxymoron that yokes together two antithetical realms-
that of the magical and the real-explores the liminal zone
between the two categories, a zone where boundaries are
blurred, where the two distinct currents mix and flow into
each other (Vandana Saxena 43). As it questions the tenets
of realism, magical realism emerges as a mode suited to
exploring- and transgressing boundaries, whether the
boundaries are ontological, political, geographical or
generic. Magic realism, often facilitates the fusion, or co-
existence, of possible worlds, spaces, systems that would be
irreconcilable in other modes of fiction” (Zamora and Faris
6).

In his essay “Magical Realism in Spanish American

Fiction”, Angel Flores states that realism is a photographic
captivation that offers a mere copy art and illustrations, and
does not include intellectualism and thought. But it can be
claimed that realism involves the imaginative process in
literature, as David Grant argues:

23
 realism is achieved not by imitation, but by creation; a creation
which working with the raw materials of life, absolves these by
the intercession of the imagination from mere factuality and
translates them to a higher order. (Bowers 21)

For the appreciation of magic realism, the understanding of

realism is most relevant, as magical realism relies upon the
presentation of the real, imagined or magical elements as if
they were real. Likewise, Luis Leal in his essay asserts that
magical realism does not distort reality or create merely
imagined worlds. According to him it is the discovery of the
mysterious relationship between man and his
circumstances. He views it more pragmatically: “In Magical
Realism, the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it,
to discover what is mysterious in things, in life, in human
acts” (121). It is “more …an attitude toward reality that can
be expressed in popular or cultural forms in elaborate or
rustic styles, in closed or open structures” (127).

Magic realism relies upon the presentation of real, imagined

or magical elements as if they were real. The key to
understanding how magical realism works is to understand
the way in which the narrative is constructed in order to
provide a realistic context for the magical events of the
novel. Both surrealism and magic realism are revolutionary
in the sense that they explore the non-pragmatic, non-realist
aspects of human existence. The foundation for Magic
realism is a paradox that is unified by the creation of a
narrative in which magic is incorporated seamlessly into
reality, coheres with Surrealism in its attempt to combine
the aspects of the real and the magical. According to
Bowers:
Surrealism is most distinct from magical realism since the
aspects it explores are associated not with material reality but
with the imagination and the mind, and in particular it attempts
to express the ‘inner life’ and psychology of humans through art.
(22)

24
Magical Realism as a narrative mode is inherently
transgressive and subversive in nature, which are hinted at
in the very term itself. The oxymoron magical realism
reveals that the categories of the magical and the real are
brought into question by their juxtaposition. Magic realism
is subversive because it alternates between the real and the
magical using the same narrative voice. In this sense, magic
remains identifiable as magic and real as real but unlike in a
realist narrative, they are given the same treatment. The
extent to which one should accept the real as the version of
events or the magical as the version of events is
continuously undermined by the existence of the other
version in the text. Naturally one can claim that magical
realism is transgressive since magical realism crosses the
borders between the magic and real to create a further
category- the magical real.

Bowers argues that there is much in children’s literature that

can be associated with magical realism. It provides a perfect
means for children to explore the world through their
imagination without losing a connection to what they
recognize as the real world. Magic realist children’s fiction
offers the opportunity to explore disruptions in their
ordinary world. Wendy Faris talks about Magic realism as a
contemporary phenomenon in the book Magical
Realism:Theory, History and Community
Magic realist fictions do seem more youthful and popular than
their modernist predecessors, in that they often cater with
unidirectional storylines to our basic desire to hear what
happens next. Thus, they may be more clearly designed for the
entertainment of readers. (163)

Magic realism uses contemporary subjects, often in cool

detachment and sometimes injecting an eerie atmosphere.
Juxtapositions of sharply rendered and detailed elements,

25
both in the foreground and background, are used to
develop an air of mystery or ambiguity.

Franz Roh who is attributed to have coined the term, sees

it in connection with Impressionism and Expressionism. In
his essay, he calls magic realism as Post expressionism,
surely attributing it to the aftermath of the Expressionist
movement in literature. According to him, magical realism
situates itself resolutely between the two extremes-
Impressionism (that simply offers a caricature of reality,
with the familiar) and Expressionism (that discarded the
mundane and presented an exaggerated preference for
fantastic, extraterrestrial, or remote objects). It centres
midway between the vague sensuality of the latter and the
highly structured schematics of the former. This gives the
genre, a quality of being hybrid in its nature, both thematic
and structural (The history, theory and evolution of magical
realism np).

Rowling’s series wonderfully adhere to, providing a perfect

fusion of the magical world of Hogwarts and contemporary
London society. Though the Harry Potter series cannot be
strictly labelled as magic realist texts, there are elements of
the genre strewn all over.

Features of Magic Realism:

Magical realism is characterised by five elements that form
its building blocks of magical realism. They are:

1. The irreducible element (unexplainable events)

2. Unsettling doubts
3. The phenomenal world
4. Merging realms
5. Distortion of time, space and identity

26
The phenomenal world is one in which the descriptions
detail a strong presence of the phenomenal world.
According to Faris, the phenomenal world generally refers
to ghosts, spirits, and otherworldly bodies. Authors of
magical realism sometimes create worlds that are
representative of this world but are not actually quite the
same as this world. They are not fantasy worlds but rather
fantastic worlds or magically real worlds.

The magical and the real in Harry Potter:

Rowling presents innumerable sources of the fantastic and
extraterrestrial in the series. Merging these two art forms,
that of the real and the magical, the magical realist text tends
to glorify the mundane and natural world with the
intellectual depth and thought. In Harry Potter’s case, his
introduction to special Hogwarts paraphernalia comes in
his foray into Diagon Alley where he picks up books, a
cauldron, an owl, and a wand that has to be keyed to its
individual user. Rowling puts Hogwarts, a huge and ancient
castle, somewhere unspecified in the north, surrounded by
forests and a lake. Hogwarts abounds in such creatures and
happenings that are extremely out of the ordinary and
familiar.

The phenomenal world:

The very setting of Hogwarts raises a sense of wonder and
awe, with its moving passages and photographs that hang
as live wallpapers with people in them moving and greeting,
screaming and frightening, welcoming and even
disappearing at times. The setting itself is magical and
Rowling makes it well furnished with rich descriptive details
which is a distinct feature of a magical realist text.

27
 Harry had never imagined such a strange and splendid place. It
was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were
floating in mid-air overfour long tables, Harry looked upwards
and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard
Hermione whisper, ‘It is bewitched to look like the sky outside,
I read about it in Hogwarts: A History’. (HPPS 87)

Whether literally or figuratively, these spaces are presented

as magical, where the buildings and rooms themselves show
the new students that they have entered into an exclusive,
exciting environment brimming with the potential both to
absorb them utterly and to help them come into their own.

Such descriptions abound, throughout the entire series, be

it the sport of Quidditch, Triwizard Tournament, the
Halloween or Yule Ball, the adventure into the forbidden
forest or the encounter with Voldemort, Hagrid’s flair for
dragon or Harry’s search for Aragog, the giant spider- all
these add to the richness of sensory details, beautiful and
even grotesque at times. Hogwarts is a Never-Never Land,
that is reachable by conventional means. Instead of falling
down a rabbit hole, stepping through a magic closet, or
being carted off by a tornado, Harry reaches Hogwarts by
train adding a wonderful element of determinism to the
magical situation. Despite the immensity of the place, while
he is at Hogwarts, he isn’t wandering aimlessly around in a
planet-sized fairy land. Rather he is at a school, with classes
to attend and sports to participate in.

The Hogwarts train that moves unnoticed in the midst of

the busy Kings’ Cross Station is an ultimate symbol of the
fantasy world. The train powered by a scarlet steam engine
serves as a transition from the crowds at King’s Cross to
the world of Hogwarts, where students write on rolls of
parchment with quills. Full-blooded wizards who are least
related to the non-magical Muggle world can hardly

28
understand telephones or other inventions of science. The
contrast between Harry and his Muggle relatives reinforces
the distance between their commercial, technological world
and his wizard world (338).

The novel skillfully combines reality with mythical concepts

like Quiddditch. Elements from myth and folklore are
abundantly used by the author. Harry happens to make
acquaintances with centaurs and fights with Dragons, saved
sometimes by a phoenix, haunted by spirits and ghosts. The
enormous usage of symbols and imagery from world
cultures makes the books really a treasure trove to hunt.
Rowling’s ability to provoke readers into suspension of
disbelief and becoming immersed in her fantastic world
serves as the basis for every other genre subset within her
series and functions to provide the broadest scope of appeal
among her readership.

Without acceptance of Harry’s world, it would be impossible to

trust in the thrills of Quidditch or the horror of dark wizards or
the fabledcreatures. The instant belief in a modern England
where wizards liveamong Muggles in secret seems to be due to
this placement of wizardry alongside the real world. (Emily
Keller n.pag)

Merging Realms:
Familiar locations, like train stations and middle-class
neighborhoods serve as settings for the beginnings of
Harry’s adventures, so that the readers are slowly
accustomed to layer upon layer of magical abnormality. The
train station reveals itself as the site of the Hogwarts train.
Uncle Vernon’s middle-class house provides the
introduction into the world of wizard mail in the form of
carrier owls. The novels are further steeped in reality with
such ordinary requirements as homework and classes that

29
drive the lives of students at Hogwarts as those of any real
school of the mundane world.

This inclusion of reality as a backdrop to fantasy is

supported by the detail through which Rowling fashions her
invented world. The contemporary London coexists
alongside the magical world of Hogwarts and the author
evinces with precision the details featuring both the worlds.
Wizards have their own separate financial, political,
transportation, and educational systems and even unique
brands of candy. Magic plays an integral role in the lives of
all wizards by assisting with chores and moving objects.
“When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the
remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them
sparkling clean as before” (HPPS 93). The Sorting Hat is
again an element of the supernatural with its speaking and
singing ability. “Everyone in the Hall was now staring at the
hat, he stared at it too. For a few seconds, there was
complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim
opened wide like a mouth-and the hat began to sing” (HPPS
88).

The magical elements:

Elements from fairy tales appear continuously in the form
of fabled creatures like unicorns and trolls. Appearances of
ghosts are frequent as in the very first book, the students
get introduced to Nearly Headless Nick “The ghost patted
his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he’d just
plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water” (HPPS 91). In
Rowling’s writings, magic serves as an instrument to
highlight the faceted condition of children and youth in
general. It is worth noticing that in fables mirrors constitute
a device that connects the Self with the Other, the
insideness with the outsideness, the world of reality and that

30
of fancy (“Harry Potter and the Magic of growing up
through fiction”102). Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-
Glass expresses the subverting effect of going beyond
borders: Alice reaches an alternative universe and her
experiences thematize the efforts of growing and shifting
from one psychological frame to another. But in Rowling’s
text mirror operates as a cathartic disburdening, a self-
confrontation to fortify one’s personality.

Besides using descriptive passages as a means of imbibing

the magical element, Rowling uses various objects that are
magical in themselves possessing unusual skills. Wands
come to mind when the very word magic is uttered. Wands
represent the key credential for being a witch or a wizard.
All fairy tales which were relished in childhood have a
picture of a witch with a wand performing some spell and
turning the lovable innocent protagonist into a bird or
stone. Evidences of the use of wands date back to the time
of ancient Egypt. According to David Colbert in his book
Magical Worlds of Harry Potter,
In Greek mythology, Hermes, messenger of the Greek gods
carried a special wand called a Caduceus. This is a rod with
wings, around which two serpents are twisted, meant to signify
wisdom and healing powers. Physicians adopted it as their
symbol hundreds of years ago and still use it today. (254)

Practitioners of dark magic often used wands made of

cypress wood symbolising death. Wands are like tools with
pointed ends on both the sides implying that the other end
is pointed always towards the user. It is indicative of danger
when used wrongly and is interrelated with the usage of a
charm or spell that is to say the use of a word, powerful
magical word of spell to perform the intended act. In
Rowling’s world, wands are made by combining parts of
magical creatures like unicorn hairs, phoenix feathers with

31
staffs of willow, mahogany, yew or maple. Wandlore is a
complex branch of magic in the series and the author uses
it technologically with tremendous implications of identity.

Wands are semi-autonomous instruments with the power

to select their master and bow to their new master, if they
are being confiscated by its conquerors. Wands have
memories, just like wizards and witches. It is obvious that
the wands that Rowling assorts to her characters are in
coordination with their personality, their mental attitude. It
is very strange to note that the wands of Harry, the chosen
one and Voldemort, the Dark Lord are products of same
combination. Voldemort’s wand is made of yew which in
Britain symbolizes death and rebirth. It denotes immortality
which Voldemort desperately longs to possess. Yew wood
again, denotes immense supernatural powers. Wands play a
major role in a wizard’s life be it for good or bad. Wands
focus magical strength. Though magic spells can be cast
without wands, by mere incantation of words, wands come
handy and are powerful and the best results come when the
affinity between the wizard and the wand is stronger. This
affinity is complex – initially an attraction and then a mutual
quest for experience. The experience is two-sided; the
wizard learns from the wizard and vice-versa (HPDH 493).
The loss of a wand to a wizard is really a matter of great
pain. Losing a wand represents a loss of status and ability.
The relationship between Harry and his wand could not be
replicated by another’s wand. That is the reason why Harry
feels helpless when he loses his powerful wand.
The holly and phoenix wand was nearly severed in two. One
fragile strand of phoenix feather kept both pieces hanging
together. Thewood hadsplintered apart completely. Harry took
it into his hands as though it was a living thing that had suffered
a terrible injury. He couldn’t think properly.Everything was a
blur of panic and fear. (HPDH 548)

32
Broomsticks are similar to the flying carpets in fairy tales
but it is distinct in the sense that one needs mastery and skill
to handle a broomstick whereas the flying carpet acts just
like a Portkey carrying the wizard to his destination. No
effort is needed on part of the witch or wizard to mount it
or fly over with it. Instead it takes immense effort and
practice for a wizard to master the ability of flying on a
broom which very few are capable of doing. Not all the
wizards in Hogwarts are shown flying on the broomstick
and it is indeed shameful for Draco Malfoy who boasts of
his royal pure blood lineage to be lacking in the flying skill.
On the other hand, Harry who has not even heard of magic
and levitation in his very first flying lesson displays an
amazingly inborn talent as a flyer and it gains him the pride
of being the first ever youngest Quidditch Seeker.

Fig. 1- Neville with the Remembrall

(http://blithesea.net/hp/bilderei/pics_dvdps/neville_remembra
ll4.jpg )

A Remembrall is a tennis ball-sized glass ball that contains

white smoke that turns red when its owner has forgotten
something. It turns clear once whatever was forgotten is
remembered. The name is a portmanteau of “remember

33
all”, and “ball”. It is a gift received by Neville Longbottom
from his grandmother.
“It’s a Remembrall!” he explained. “Gran knows I forget things-
this tells you if there’s something you’ve forgotten to do. Look,
you hold it tight like this and if it turns red- Oh…” His face fell,
because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet,
“…you’ve forgotten something…”. (HPPS 145)

Remembralls are ofcourse of great help but to Neville, it

turns out to be useless as he does not remember what he
had forgotten. Remembralls were banned as they can be
used as a means to cheat. In the series Neville’s Remembrall
plays a vital role as it brings out Harry’s prowess in flying
skill in the very first class on broomstick. The main purpose
of introducing the object according to the author is also to
show off Malfoy’s character, and to make it necessary for
Harry to fly to recover. Forcing Harry onto a broom, in a
situation where he can show off his natural talent unfettered
by organized lessons, is necessary to allow us to share
Harry’s joy at finding something he is good at in the
Wizarding World. After the byplay on the brooms, Neville’s
Remembrall plays no further significant part in the story,
and no others are mentioned.

34
 Fig. 2. Harry with the magical cloak inherited from his father
James(http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Cloak_of_Invisibility)

Invisibility Cloak is another magical device that helps the

bearer go invisible to others. In folklore, mythology and
fairy tales, the cloak of invisibility appears either as a magical
device used by a duplicitous character or a hero to fulfil a
quest. Harry inherits this as a gift from his parents. He gets
access to all the forbidden rooms of Hogwarts and all its
secrets. “The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this
cloak” (HPPS 151). The cloak comes handy to Harry on
many occasions helping him in his endeavour to untie the
mysterious knots of the happenings at Hogwarts. It is one
among the three Hallows people are after. It is not just an
inherited property from his father James. It enables a more
solid awareness in him. He enters a kind of awareness
beneath this cloak. He gets to know the otherwise
unknowable reality. With its assistance, “Others are real to
him; he isn’t real to most of them. He gains real, applicable
knowledge just as people’s experiences in awareness can
bear fruits in physical reality” (Geo Trevarthen 41).

A Portkey is an object enchanted to instantly bring anyone

touching it to a particular location. Usually portkey is an
everyday object. The etymology of the word is derived from
the French word ‘porter’ meaning ‘to carry’ and English
‘key’ in the sense of a secret of trick. The incantation for a
creating a portkey is Portus. Some portkeys are preset to
travel to their destinations at a specific time, some triggered
immediately by a person’s touch. For example, the
Triwizard Cup transports Harry and Cedric to Little
Hangleton, the moment they touch it. With touch-activated
portkeys, touching it again might transport the users back
to their original location. Time activated portkeys can be

35
handled before and after their assigned moment of use
without effect.

Margery Hourihan in his book Deconstructing the Hero: Literary

Theory and Children’s Literature argues that since the hero’s
story is told from his perspective, the readers perceive the
world from his point of view, and that they are manipulated
into sympathizing with the hero and his fate. The readers
are heavily connected to the hero that he becomes
something of a higher being.

Because the hero tales are narrated from the hero’s point of view
and because he occupies the foreground of the story, the reader
is invited to share his values and admire his actions, although
many heroes do things which most present-day readers would
find questionable, they were presented differently. (39)

The Knight Bus is a magical vehicle; a purple triple decker,

violently purple bus with gold lettering over the windscreen;
an alternate mode of transportation for the wizard other
than apparition or floo network. It is cozier for the stranded
wizard who is left helpless with no other safer means of
travel. It is usually beckoned by raising the wand arm; it is
fit inside with four-poster beds, curtained windows, candles
burning for the night ride. The knight bus kept mounting
the pavement, but it didn’t hit anything; lines of lamp posts,
letter-boxes and bins jumped out of its way as it approached
and back into position once it had passed (HPPA 32).

Apparition is a magical method of transportation by having

the user focus on a desired location in their mind, then
disappear from their current location. In short it is a form
of teleportation. It is the fastest way but is tricky to pull off
correctly and disastrous if botched up. Apparition feels like
being forced through a very tight rubber tube. According to
Wilkie Twycross, the Apparition Instructor, one has to

36
recall the Three Ds: Destination, Determination and
Deliberation. One must be completely determined to reach
one’s destination and move without haste, but with
deliberation. It needs extreme skill and focus to practise and
demonstrate this mode of transportation. Only skilled
wizards mature in years and experience attempt at it. Harry
has the experience of apparating, more than once with his
benign master Dumbledore. Apparition is prohibited for
the underage wizards as Ron points out, only experienced
wizards go for it.
They don’t need the car!” said Ron impatiently. “They know
how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home!
They only botherwith Floo powder and the car because we’re all
underage and we’re not allowed to Apparate yet…. (HPCS
69)

The Floo network is a mode of transportation in the

wizarding world in which a wizard goes from one place to
another using floo powder and a fireplace. One must use a
handful of floo powder into a fireplace, walk into the
heatless emerald green fire and declare the desired
destination.

Many fireplaces are connected in the Floo network and the

traveller needs only speak the destined place they wish to
arrive at very clearly as they stand in the emerald green
flames. It can be done without specialized magic and
preferable for too young wizards or those without
broomsticks provided they speak out the exact
pronunciation of their destination. When Harry uses this
method for the first time he fails miserably for lack of clear
pronunciation of the destination and so is taken somewhere
else. One may use this to speak to someone by merely
putting their head through the green fire as Sirius does to
Harry in the fourth and fifth years.

37
 “Er- Harry?” said Ron uncertainly, gazing into the flames.
“Because I’ve just seen Sirius’s head in the fire,” said Harry.
“Sirius’s head?” She gasped, gazing at the fire; and Ron dropped
his quill.There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius’s
head, long dark hairfalling around his grinning face. (HPOP
501)

Fig.3. Pensieve and Dumbledore storing

Memory(https://lylegates.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/memory-
is-a-strange-phenomenon-the-pensieve/)

The Pensieve is the most ingenious magical device in the

world of Harry Potter, which is a magical repository for
memories. It is a stone bowl with runes on it, filled with a
silvery white gaseous liquid or viscous gas. It serves the
purpose of extracting one’s memory for later perusal.
Dumbledore explains that it helps to keep the mind free
itself of crowded memories, “I simply have too many
thoughts and memories crammed into my mind” (HPOP
138). It lets the user see it from a third-person perspective
and also seem to give additional information the user could
not have known before. It makes the user relive the stored
moments as experience. For instance, one such plunge into
the pensieve reveals Harry the other side of James Potter

38
being a bully a shade of grey in his character which Harry
was blissfully ignorant of, before. Though it proves to be a
tough task, it is also possible to edit these extracted
memories, which makes it somewhat like a modern USB
storage medium. The memories from a pensieve are similar
to what can be obtained in some cases under hypnosis but
without the person related to the memory. Pensieve as the
word’s meaning suggests, contains the reflections mostly
sobre.

Time Turner is a device resembling an hour glass, capable

of travelling back in time. The number of times one turns
the hourglass corresponds to the number of hours one
travels back in time, the longest period being five hours.
Hermione kept the Time-Turner attached to her chain and
Harry saw a tiny, sparkling hour-glass hanging from it.
Hermione turned the hour-glass over three times. The dark
ward dissolved. Harry had the sensation that he was flying, very
fast, backwards. A blur of colours and shapes rushed past him;
his ears were pounding. He tried to yell but couldn’t hear his
own voice-. (HPPA 288)

Fig.4. Hermione’s Time-

Turner(https://www.pinterest.com/explore/time-turner/)

39
The wizard world exists only in relation to the real world,
echoing, mirroring its customs, and discourse and thus
reflects our muggle world. Wizard institutions are
transformed versions of our own world. Rowling’s wizard
world is a shadow world, an underground, almost a
conspiracy that exists in the gaps of the real. Below the
muggle world is the wizard world that exists largely in the
gaps of muggle perceptions. The wizards, witches and
magical creatures live very much all over London but they
are imperceptible. The magical sites Diagon Alley, Platform
9 ¾, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade do not appear on Muggle
radar. “The people hurrying by don’t glance at it. Their eyes
slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop
on the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at
all” (HPPS 67).

When Harry enquires for the platform 9 ¾ he is given a

strange scrutinizing look by the guard. When Harry
mentions the journey to Hogwarts by train, uncle Vernon
makes fun of the very idea of wizards travelling by train.
‘Funny way to get to a wizards’ school, the train. Magic carpets
all got punctured, have they?’
‘I just take the train from platform nine and three quarters at
eleven o’clock,’he read.
His aunt and uncle stared.
‘Platform what?’
‘Nine and three-quarters.’
‘Don’t talk rubbish,’ said Uncle Vernon, ‘there is no platform
nine and three-quarters’. (HPPS 68)
Other magical devices relate the idea of a journey, or
transformation or passage, to the experience of growing
and changing, physically and mentally. In other words, they
become rites of passage. The main entry point to Hogwarts
is platform nine and three quarters at King’s Cross Railway
Station through which the author tries to anchor the
narrative of wizards to the world of Muggles, a term the

40
author mints to indicate people with no magical powers. On
their way to the school of enchantments, the pupils need no
flying carpets or magical lamps: they simply board the
Hogwarts Express, a steam train of long-gone times.

The touch of Realism:

The ability to combine fantasy and reality is one of
Rowling’s greatest strengths and she makes it effortless for
readers to invoke their willing suspension of disbelief.
Hogwarts appears to exist in the England of today, but is
protected from the Muggle world by spells or
enchantments. It is reached from the most prosaic of
locations, King’s cross station but from the magical portal
of Platform 9 ¾ on the Hogwarts Express. In Magical
Realism, the fantastic element never quite manages to
dominate an undercurrent of realism. We are always in the
world despite the many supernatural happenings.

The series is steeped in reality in numerous ways. Students

attend classes, do homework and experience the same sorts
of rivalries and tensions of ordinary school going children.
As Pico Iyer says what makes Harry Potter books so appealing
is the way in which they stick to the normalty owing to the
“fidelity to the way things really are; wizards…are only
regular Muggles who’ve been to the right school” (“The
Playing Fields of Hogwarts” 39). In Hogwarts, magic
becomes a part of their everyday lives, it becomes the
curriculum, the focus of their studies. The classes
concentrate on the history of famous wizards, learning
some spells and skills, using wands and taking classes on
flying broomstick. The skills are employed to create light,
levitate objects, deflate frightening Boggarts, and fighting
against soul sucking Dementors and disarming the enemies
with a single curse. Magic in Rowling’s universe isn’t based

41
on conjuring spirits, good or bad, to do one’s bidding like a
genie. It’s based on using a natural force that can be turned
to positive or negative ends, much as Muggles use electricity
(Seeker’s Guide 28).

It is precisely Rowling’s lack of sentimentality, her

earthiness, her refusal to fall for the basic clichés of fantasy
that make her such a great fantasy writer. The genre tends
to be deeply conservative-politically, culturally and
psychologically. Rowling makes it contemporary –the
events take place in the 1990s - not in a never-never Narnia,
but in modern -day London, with its cars, telephones and
play-stations. Rowling adopts an inherently conservative
genre for her own progressive purposes. Her Hogwarts is
secular and multicultural and even a sort of multimedia with
all the talking ghosts. The books begin like invitations to an
escapist land but the problems posed are very much real-
embarrassment, depression, prejudice, anger and death.
Rowling explains plainly:
I was trying to subvert the Genre, Harry goes off into this
magical world, and is it any better than the world he’s left? Only
because, he meets nicer people. Magic does not make his world
better significantly. Therelationships make his world better.
Magic in many ways complicates his life. (Lev Grossman n.pag)

Harry Potter treats alternate realities in various ways. The

first is simply the classic fantasy genre approach of making
the alternate physically real. All the unicorns, giants and
acromantulas are physical creatures. There are however
alternates within this alternate reality. Harry often enters the
alternate reality of dreams. He dreams of Voldemort,
beginning with childhood dreams of flashes of green light
and flying motorcycles, moving to vague dreams involving
Quirrell’s turban, to the revelatory or disastrously deceptive

42
visions in the later books. He also sees visions of
Voldemort’s activities during waking hours.

The novels of Magic Realism seem to imply that all the

needs cannot be met magically. Food cannot be brought by
magic. Dumbledore uses magic only to fill the plates with
food prepared by the elves. As Hermione confesses:

“Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air,” said

Hermione.
“No one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions
to Gamp’sLaw of Elemental Transfigur__”
“It is impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can
Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you
can increase the quantity if you’ve already got some__”. (HPDH
292)

This brings an alluding significance to Akshaya Patra in

Hindu Mythology where a similar instance can be cited to
quote that food cannot be created out of nothing. In the
Mahabharata, ‘Akshaya Patra’ meaning inexhaustible vessel
is a wonderful vessel given to Yudhistira by the Lord Surya,
the Sun God, which held a never-failing supply of food to
the Pandavas everyday provided Draupadi had left at least
a grain of food to be multiplied by divine power rather than
cleaned the vessel completely.

Nowhere in Hogwarts there is a reference to minting

money by means of magic. It is obvious that one cannot
grow rich by magic. The Weasleys don’t just fill their bank
vault with galleons by performing any magic; and it is also
hinted that there is a need for a safe vault even to hide the
gold and the important possessions of the magical world.
All problems cannot be solved by magic, nor can the dead
be brought back to life. Even the damages caused in course
of learning skills need to be treated for a prolonged time
like that of Hermione’s case. It is true that trust and belief

43
help magic work. When Harry is desperately trying to
master a summoning charm, it is Hermione who tells him,
“just as long as you’re concentrating really, really, hard on
it, it’ll come” (HPGF 54). As Parcelsus said, “Magic has
power to experience and fathom things which are
inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great
wisdom…” (Geo Treverthen 191).

J.K.Rowling is right in depicting magic as potentially

dangerous. Magic can make a mess of life through simple
bad management and poor choices. The magic Rowling
depicts positively, is aligned with some kind of morality and
true will. Certainly, the human qualities of the magicians are
depicted as more important than the magic itself. In most
cases, it is not just magic alone that helps Harry in resolving
the mysteries but his intrinsic goodness to redeem mankind.
For example, as in the first book Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone, it is not the trick of magical spell that
helps Harry in getting the stone, but his internal state of
mind to prevent the stone from falling into evil hands, that
helps him get it.

As Rowling shared in an interview with Stephen Fry quoted

by Geo Athena Trevarthen, “In many ways the stories
would hold together even if there were no magic in them,
because what people really come away with seems to be the
relationships” (118). As the series progresses, magic
becomes less mechanical. Harry and his peers primarily
practice what is called natural magic, working with magic as
a natural force rather than interacting with spirits on
different levels of being. They don’t align with a higher
power of any kind, but they try to adhere to higher values
of love, loyalty and right action in their magical practice.
Magic in the case of Harry begins with thought, positive

44
thought. Harry himself, is an exemplification of a power
we all possess- the power of thought.

Thoughts and words shape reality. The magic of mental

attitude, of love and imagination are all pervasive. They are
true magic, for they change things internally and externally.
Katherine Grimes is of the opinion that the “true joy of the
Harry Potter series is that the books’ protagonist is both a
bigger-than-life hero and a true-to-life boy just as the books
are both magical and realistic (Ivory Tower 90).Magic realism
as the term suggests is a mode of writing that includes
opposing or contradictory points of view. Magic realism
constitutes the conjunction of two worlds - the magical and
the realist. Matthew Stretcher defines it as “…what happens
when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by
something too strange to believe” (265). This holds true of
the introductory episode of Harry Potter Book I, in which
the real setting of Privet Drive, the household of Uncle
Vernon is juxtaposed with the introduction of mysterious
and unusual happenings unexpectedly. To quote the words
of Cooper:

Magical realism attempts to capture reality by way of a depiction

of life’s many dimensions, seen and unseen, visible and invisible,
rational andmysterious. In the process, such writers walk a
political tightrope between capturing this reality and providing
precisely the exotic escape from reality…. (qtd.in Bowers122)

In magic realism, the word magic refers to the mystery of

life; whereas in magical realism, magic refers to any
extraordinary occurrence and particularly anything spiritual
or unaccountable by rational science (Bowers 19). Through
this disparity between the two terms as explained by
Bowers, it is clear that Rowling’s texts invariably come
under magical realism as magic in the books does not
include things as in a magic show but indicate many

45
inexplicable happenings. Conjuring magic in a magic show
is done by tricks to give an illusion that something
extraordinary has occurred, but in magical realism, it is
made clear that something extraordinary has really
happened. In Harry’s world, the appearance of thousands
of owls in his uncle’s house is not an illusionary trick but a
real occurrence. The attack of the Dementors, is all the
more real. When Harry goes along with Hagrid to buy
books for his first year, he is literally spell bound by the
magic of wizarding world. The entry to Diagon Alley is
peculiar in the same way as it is with the entry to platform
9 ¾ of King’s Cross station.
He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered- it wriggled- in the middle, a

smallhole appeared- it grew wider and wider- a second later they
were facing anarchway enough even fir Hagrid, an archway on
to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.

Welcome, said Hagrid, ‘to Diagon Alley.’

He grinned at Harry’s amazement. They stepped through the

archway quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink
instantly back intosolid wall. (HPPS 55)

The headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore might

seem to be such an authority figure, but he, unlike Aslam,
is far from omniscient. Dumbledore does not exercise total
control over events or people in the way Aslan does. He
certainly gives Harry guidance and works as a force for
good, but Harry makes his own choice and usually must
also suffer consequences from his mistakes without any
due's ex machine manipulating what happens (Reading Harry
Potter57). In Goblet of Fire, the limitations of Dumbledore’s
power are made especially clear. Even though Dumbledore
designed protection for Harry, after his parent’s death

46
invoking magic to shield Harry as long as he remains under
his uncle’s guidance, Voldemort is able to remove Harry
from the circle of the Dursley’s protection and that of
Hogwarts by turning the Triwizard Cup into a portkey that
transports Harry directly to Voldemort’s place as soon as
the young wizards touch it. Dumbledore is unaware of this
and he cannot rescue Harry or prevent Cedric’s death nor
does he know of Mad-Eye Moody’s imposture throughout.
These instances suggest that Dumbledore is no God like
Aslan in Cronicles of Narnia.

The parallel universe of the wizarding world is a sort of

Looking-Glass Land, similar, but not so similar, partner to
our electronically advanced society: it is a combination of
advancements worthy of the most far-reaching science
fiction and an everyday life as antiquated as to be almost
medieval. Wizards can become invisible, change into
animals, create light at their fingertips, and mend broken
and even removed bones within hours. However, they also
light torches, draw bed curtains to avoid chillness in the
ancient castle, and communicate largely by handwritten
letters in parchments with quills and ink and delivered by
trained owls. This juxtaposition of the two worlds is not
quite uncommon in literature, which had been preceded by
many authors including C.S.Lewis, who thought that the
parallel objects of magic and science were even
acknowledged by their practitioners. In the words of Alan
Jacobs: “both magic and experimental science are means of
controlling and directing our natural environment” (“Harry
Potter’s Magic 118).

Alberto Rios considers magic realism as a living, human,

unpredictable narrative structure, one with room and time
for everything. In magical realism, the transformation of the
common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal

47
takes place. It is predominantly an art of surprises. Once the
reader accepts the accomplished facts the rest follows
almost with logical precision. The magical realist does not
just try to copy the surrounding reality or to wound it, but
to seize the mystery that breathes behind things.

In most popular children’s fantasies, the magical world is

entirely separated from the mundane world. In C.S. Lewis’s
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, entry into the
supernatural takes place through a wardrobe at the back of
a strange house during the bombings of World War II and
represents the child-heroes’ escape into a reimagined and
revitalized Christian realm. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of
the Rings trilogy takes place entirely in a magical world and
represents a refuge, an alternative to the real world.

The world within a magical realist novel is as real as ours

and the magical things that happen within feel real as they
are just part of that world. Things that are otherwise weird
or jarring are normal within the pages of the story.
Unexpected always happens and Magic occurs casually and
naturally. When Harry is helpless being thrown out of uncle
Vernon’s house as Harry unintentionally blows up Aunt
Marge, owing to Dobby’s mischief, he stumbles upon the
Knight Bus which he eventually boards, “The Knight Bus
kept mounting the pavement, but it didn’t hit anything; lines
of lamp posts, letter-boxes and bins jumped out of its way
as it approached and back into position once it had passed”
(HPPA 32).

The world of magical realism is twofold- the supernatural

realm blends with the natural and familiar world. Rowling
splits the setting of her stories in two places, one being the
primary world, and the second a parallel version of it. Her
fantasies are set neither in the real where the marvellous

48
occurs exceptionally nor in a complex imagined reality. The
cross-reference between the two worlds shows that they are
involved in a parallelism of some kind. In the Harry Potter
books, magic calls attention to the awe and wonder of
ordinary life, Rowling ingeniously enhances and amplifies
the vitality of ordinary objects. Portraits hang on the walls,
all snoozing gently in their frames. Books bite and argue,
“locked together in furious wrestling matches and snapping
aggressively” (HPCS 203). When trains are missed, the twin
wizards, Harry and Ron can fly to Hogwarts in the latter’s
Ford Anglia.

“We can fly the car to Hogwarts!”

“But I thought __”

“We are stuck, right? And we’ve got to get to school, haven’t
we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it’s
a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the
Restriction of Thingy___”. (HPCS 69)

There is a big sense of mystery inviting the reader to

experience a sense of wonder, adding a touch of the surreal
to the everyday. David Carr says:
The strange and confounding moments of this imaginative and
adventurous literary genre may appeal to strong readers who
seek intellectual pleasure beyond reading pure fantasy, readers
who do not depend on literal explanations for satisfying literary
experiences and yet who are not escapist readers. It’s a genre
that’s subtle, rather than overt. (Get Genrefied: Magical
Realismn.pag)

In Rowling’s world, the interpenetration of the two worlds

suggests the way in which we live, with the life of the
imagination and daily life moving in and out of our
consciousness. The two realms of the romantic and the
realistic are located in the imagination, which is always

49
created by and rooted in the details of everyday life (Ivory
Tower128). The realm of fantastic, based on the
unconscious, is firmly and inevitably a reconfiguration of
everyday reality, transformed and disguised. In creating the
world of Harry and Hogwarts, Rowling has bent so many
rules of the fantastic and other genres to give something
new and rejuvenating (Amanda Cockrell 15).

Abandoning the entirely supernatural realm of high fantasy,

she lays her story in contemporary England, rather than in
the imaginary medievallyflavoured other worlds of Middle
Earth or Earthsea, where the magic is a remnant, revenant,
of ancient and powerful myth. There are no swords in this
sorcery. There are no quests for magic rings or dragon
feathers. There is no search for the lost princess or a
kingdom. It is contemporary England and even the magical
beings have to get jobs. Magic is part of everyday life,
practised not for riches or treasures, but learnt as an art, to
attain wisdom.

Teachers at Hogwarts can be imaginative and

compassionate, vindictive, dim-witted and frightening.
Students are clever, kind, weak, cruel and snobbish. Lessons
are inspiring and tedious-as in the best and worst of real
schools. Situating the train that takes people to Hogwarts
at platform 9 ¾, between tracks nine and ten, reinforces the
central location of these stories between the earthbound
and magical worlds. As Harry transports himself beyond
the boundaries of the real world, he breaks through what
appears to be a solid barrier, as the imaginary may seem in
real life. The school and its various accoutrements
epitomize simultaneously the imagination of childhood and
the real concerns involved in childhood.

50
At Hogwarts, everything is adorned with magic so that the
point of entry into the bank, a warning against the worldly
concerns of greed and snobbishness, is heightened by the
poetic language on the sign: “Enter stranger, but take heed/
of what awaits the sin of greed” (HPCS 72). Hogwarts
contains all the offensive and irritating aspects of real life-
mirroring its elitism and petty power struggles. As is true of
all great writers, Rowling draws these opposing realms so
seamlessly that they appear to have always been there, side
by side, the event and its meaning exquisitely illuminated.

In the Harry Potter tales, distinctions are more blurred. The

world of wizards is a hidden world, just behind or below
the surface of our own world. The portkeys used for
transport to the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire are objects Muggles would see and dismiss as
mere litter, like a junk tyre. At the cup premises wizards
temporarily lodge themselves in a muggle campground and
though their tents and fires ape the outward appearance of
authentic campers, the exteriors hide magical interiors with
features such as en-suite Jaccuzis. More importantly, it is
the magic itself that it crosses over boundaries between
worlds. Harry’s friends, the practical-joking Weasley twins,
can feed magical toffees to Harry’s repulsive and vengeful
cousin Dudley, even though they are not supposed to use
magic during school vacations. One effect of this
transversal is to make Rowling’s wizarding world seem
closer.

Rowling suggests the existence of witches and wizards in

the world we live in. Hogwarts, the setting of the plot is
enchanted so that it cannot be located on a map, and its
architecture is highly unstable.
Rowling’s world is a secondary secondary world, made up of
intelligently patchworked motifs form all sorts of children’s

51
 literature-from the jollyhockey-sticks school story to Roald
Dahl, from Star Wars to Diana Wynne Jones and Susan
Cooper…. Derivative narrative clichés work with children
because they are comfortingly recognizable and
immediatelyavailable to the child’s own power of fantasizing.
(qtd.in. Tereza 89)

Rowling’s world is symbiotic with the modern world

presenting a caricature of the real world. Rowling creates a
parallel world much like the real, not the completely
imaginary world like Middle Earth, it is magic that separates
one from the other. In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, magic is
not the ruling element. It is subordinate to living creatures
and their skills but in Harry Potter, magic becomes the
essential part of the narration. The magic and the ordinary
are mixed throughout the narrative, for the Muggles and for
the readers, they seem extraordinary but to those at
Hogwarts, it is an experience of everyday reality.

The elements of the magical and the mundane are

interwoven seamlessly, making it impossible to determine
where reality ends and the extraordinary begins. Objects
and settings within the story may take on lives of their own
in a way that is ordinary to the characters in the story. The
story as it unfolds gives the reader a sense of being inside a
puzzle or a maze. Contradictions, inconsistencies and
ambiguities colour the point of view making it questionable
about the understanding of people and events. A
metamorphosis takes place, which is treated not as a
miracle, but as an everyday event. The story bears the
influence of oral traditions, fables, urban legends and a
charmed unreliable narrator. Magic occurs without devices
typical of the fantasy genre like ghosts or angels. Ghosts
and angels appear but not in a way that is surprising or
unusual to the characters in the book. “Rowling doesn’t tell
a tale of trolls and elves that come and go in faraway

52
mountains, or a tale of heroes who have never lived and
never will” (Ivory Tower 286).

Harry Potter’s world is a world within our own, our Muggle

world, in the manner of what if something extraordinary
happens suddenly, what if unnatural incidents happen, and
what if an innocent boy is introduced surprisingly to the
world of magic. Harry is an ordinary boy grown up in the
midst of the worst of muggles, who on a fine morning of
his eleventh birthday is revealed the mystery behind his life
that he is no ordinary boy but the son of celebrated wizards
of a magical school.

The world created by Rowling is a real world, despite all its

magical attributes. The memories can be erased, people can
apparate or become animagi, and time can be turned back,
because magic is not miraculous in Harry Potter’s world.
“They have no gods. They work magic, and think they are
gods themselves. But they are not. And when they die, they
are not reborn. They become dust and bone, …. They do
not have immortal souls” (In defence of fantasy 179).

Even with a wand that is the twin of Voldemort’s, Harry

cannot permanently defeat the Dark Lord. Remus Lupin
can be treated but not cured. Sirius Black must remain on
the run. Harry’s parents cannot be resurrected. Bones may
be regrown in the hospital wing, but injuries to the psyche
or the soul such as those inflicted on Barty Crouch’s son
are not easily repaired. Death cannot be escaped and
immortality is really a big thing hard to achieve. When Harry
is desperate to bring back his Godfather Sirius,
Dumbledore answers helplessly,

‘There is nothing you can do Harry’

‘Get him, save him, he’s only just gone through!’
‘-it’s too late Hary.’

53
 ‘We can still reach him-‘Harry struggled hard and viciously, but
Lupin would not let go…’
‘There is nothing you can do, Harry…nothing…he’s gone’.
(HPOP 711)
Death must be faced, when it is inevitable, it must be
accepted. Defying death would be an act of violating the
natural law. With magic, one can heal the wound, and cure
the illness but the dying spirit must be let go.

In a confusing world such as Rowling’s, as in the real world,

one can depend on knowledge, represented by Hermione;
on loyalty, represented by Ron; or on scruples, which Harry
increasingly represents. But, of course, even these can be
put to misguided purposes. It remains, for Harry, and for a
young person reading about him, to navigate the maze in
hopes of moving closer to the centre and farther from the
obstacles and dangers. Dreams play a significant role in the
series. Dreams, in the opinion of Freud, are revelatory of
the repressed desires and fears. Every time Harry dreams,
he anticipates a future development or manages to gain
insight into his surroundings. Visions and hallucinations are
frequent conveying something or instigating him to a
further move. Menacing voices are heard warning him of
the impending danger.

The use of some aspects of Bakhtinian carnivelesque is

prominent throughout the series. There is a reversal of the
natural order at the very outset of the plot engaging Harry
in a position high above the adults and the authorities in the
Wizard world as he is the one chosen to redeem them. The
responsibility of an eleven-year-old boy saving an entire
community is definitely carnivelesque, which is common to
almost all children’s literature, as they portray children in
authorial position. The carnivelesque is marked by displays
of excess and grotesqueness. Magical realistic fiction is
notable for its hybridity structurally and thematically.

54
Rowlings’ texts are hybrid in the broader sense as they are
a fusion of many genres including fantasy, bildungsroman,
detective story, adventure fiction and school story. It is the
best example of genre hybridity.

Margaret J.Oakes makes a detailed analysis of the

techniques of magic in Rowling’s world and reiterates how
the author is careful enough not to allow the element of
magic to manipulate complete control over the natural. She
quotes Alan Jacobs’ words:

In Rowling’s world, magic works as reliably in the hands of a

trained wizard, as the technology..._ those products of applied
science being, ...sufficiently inscrutable to the people who use
them that they might as well be the products of wizardry.
(Reading Harry Potter119)

Wizards trained for seven years in the magical school have

definitely a certain control, yet they have a different
approach to harness nature for fulfilling their purposes. She
makes a comparison between the modern scientific
advancements of the real world with that of the
supernatural strategies employed by the wizards in the
magical world. It is truly ironical, that man who has
invented so many devices to accomplish tasks that would
promise to make his life more comfortable, has very little
control over them.

In a way, man has become slaves to his own inventions

without which he feels helpless and confined in chains. On
the other hand, in the magical world which Rowling has
portrayed the wizards and witches at least those who are for
the cause of good are not bound to it. They are not slaves
to the art they have learnt; Rowling never allows magic to
supersede nature. Though magic in many ways makes
things easier for the wizards, the author is stern to make her

55
characters more human and the world more real by
restricting magic not to go beyond what is necessary. She
sets up certain defined and distinct limits upon the wizard’s
powers. She had to set limits on what magic could and could
not do, in order to keep her characters real. Even the
magical ones are defined by their human as well as magical
traits. The real world becomes illuminated by these
characters who can span both the worlds.

Rowling does not fail to pinpoint the limitations of magical

skill. She does not present the wizards with omnipotent and
omniscient power that enable them to conquer death and
remain immortal. There seems to be some absolute
limitations on the magical control the witches can exert. For
example, magical creatures must be handled with care, as
they cannot be controlled with spells or charms, and
Hogwarts’s students must read actual books on magic
rather than snap their fingers to transmit information into
their heads. Even the Dark Lord Voldemort with all his
powers of black magic is physically dependent on others
like Prof. Quirrell, Mad-Eye Moody, Wormtail to resurrect
and resume to power again (75).

Harry’s supernatural rival is Voldemort, the Dark Lord,

whom he battles because it is preordained to do so. In the
school story that frames this epic conflict, Harry must also
face his earthly rival, who is the school bully, Draco Malfoy.
Accompanied by his two schoolboy goons, Crabbe and
Goyle, Draco taunts adults and school children alike. The
rule structure, the punishments, the point system, and the
ever-present threat of explosion in the Harry Potter books are
absolutely typical of the traditional boarding school story.
Rowling uses them to embed the fantasy elements of her
books in a world where children can comprehend and with

56
which they can identify. As Margaret J. Oakes quotes Alan
Jacobs words,
For writers such as J.R.R.Tolkien and J.K.Rowling, the sina qua
non of such mythopoeia [the creation of other worlds in fiction]
is the making ofa world that resembles ours but it is not ours, a
world that possessesinternal logic and self-consistency to the
same degree that ours does-but not the same logic; it must have
its own rules, rules that are peculiar to it and that generate
consequences as well as others peculiar to it. (121)

Maggie Anne Bowers makes a very valid and convincing

observation that magical realism is an appropriate mode
especially in the field of children’s literature by providing
moral teaching or social critique in an entertaining form as
it is providing a commentary on real political situations
when it comes to magic realist texts written for adults.
Magic realism contains an implicit criticism of society;
under this logic, the texts are subversive revolutionary
against socially dominant forces. The wizarding school that
Rowling portrays offers a caricature of so many social issues
including primarily the Boarding School system with its
prevalent prejudices and class discriminations, and the racial
discrimination hinted at through the clash between Muggles
and Wizards at the outset and pure blood and half-blood
wizards within the framework of the Secondary world that
is Hogwarts, the magical School. The series becomes a
platform for portraying gender issues and problems
pertaining to adolescence and the concept of growing up in
a world of paradoxes and complexity.

The hierarchy of magical races is further seen in the

treatment of the house-elves, and their quest for freedom.
The elves are the slaves of the wizarding world, as Rowling
painstakingly elaborates. The wonderful food and luxury of
Hogwarts is, as Hermione reminds everyone, based on the
slave labour of house-elves. Rowling uses the fairy-tale

57
from to discuss problems in our own history, past and
present. The situation of the house-elves unites the issues
of race and class, and Rowling shows how even the liberal
bastion of Hogwarts engages in racist classist acts. Through
Hermione, she protests economic slavery, implicating the
class system in general. Rowling makes an admirable
attempt to broaden children’s perspectives on social justice
(Reading Harry Potter 96).

There is a magic in Rowling’s postmodern realism, beyond

the three obvious elements accounting for the immense
appeal of the series- that is to say her artistry and storytelling
genius, an echo of eternity in using traditional symbols and
an edgy relevance to our times creating powerful resonance
with readers worldwide. The transcendent elements of her
story fill the vacuum created by the radical scepticism of our
time with a magic that cannot be deconstructed because it
is atemporal and about love.

The magical and the real in Rowling’s world intersect

brilliantly, complementing and enhancing each other. As in
the words of Antara Mukherjee:
Quite in tune with the present time where multiplicity has to be
acknowledged as nothing is small and insignificant, Rowling’s
narrative strategies bring the muggle and the magic into such a
synthesis that heruniverse is neither a technically perfect,
scientific world, nor a mysterious world where there is no logic
and rationality. It is a chiaroscuro of the real and the magical.
(Dialogue 114)

Magic realism comes from a life lived, not a life imagined.

It comes from what happens, not from all the things that
could happen. Its explanations are answers, right or wrong-
not suppositions or possibilities. Magical realism is a
moment encountered, a moment found- not a moment

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predicted or planned for. It is true that magical realism is a
branch of fantasy and both belong to the same guild.
Both partake in Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival, Octavia Paz’s fiesta,
Rosemary Jackson’s literature of subversion and Tzvetan
Todorov’s narrative of perception and imagination and all of
these elements cometogether in magical realist narratives.
(Sharon Sieber 177)

The fabric of everyday life is stitched together in such a

fashion as to reveal the marvellous within time and space
that are both distant and near.The unknown is approached
always through the known. One cannot exist without the
presence or structure of the other.

Discussing the future of this complex genre or style of

fiction, Bowers hints at the most important consensus that
magical realism is an intimate affair between the reader and
the text, the comprehension of which relies on the belief,
the perspective of the reader and also in the readiness to
change those beliefs and perspectives. Being a fashionable
narrative device, magic realism proves to stimulate a
consideration of fiction and its representation of reality.

Magic realist literatures hold in their single embrace all

truths simultaneously- scientific, public, private, dream and
the unknown in order to create one reality comprised of
many, symphonic reality. The best in the literature
combines objective and subjective realities together, not
deciding between the two. Creating a world of synthesis-
offered as a world that includes dream, but a world that
includes possibility along with what is familiar. With Harry
Potter, Rowling has brought reality back into the literature
of escape, and back into the fantasy culture.

Magic in this sub-genre is very nearly mundane; it is so

much a part of everyday life that it is not elitist and it is not

59
fantastical. Characters are our lenses into the world and so
their development is often less important than world
building. Most stories have some terrible act that can haunt
the reader. It handles violence, and other disquieting acts,
in an interesting way because resolution is not always
achieved. These acts represent an imperfect world. “Magic
in the Harry Potter novels is at its best when it’s varied and
balanced, much like a good diet, everything in moderation”
(Emma Walker n.pag).

Magic is akin to science in that it is based on man’s

confidence that he can dominate nature directly, if only he
knows the proper rules or laws. The function of magic is to
ritualize man’s optimism, to evaluate his faith in the victory
of hope over fear. Magic expresses the greater values for
man- of confidence over doubt, of steadfastness over
vacillation, of optimism over pessimism (Defining Magic: A
Reader 169). Excellent magical realism uses magic
unnoticed – the magic is seamlessly integrated with the real
world. The story is based on the real world rather than the
fantasy land. The plot is realistic and believable dealing with
mundane everyday issues. There is a poetic nature to its
prose; there is a magical element to its writing to make the
reader feel that it may exist. This is exactly where authors
like Rowling prove their prowess and no wonder Harry
created a revolutionary cyclone of reading audience and the
impact created is not just a myth but an undeniable reality.

Magic is a part of everyday life-magical life and mundane

life coexist and are not in conflict. This sub-genre tends to
be more literary than fantasy. Magic realism is argued to be
an extension of post-colonial writing, where writers try to
make sense of two distinct realities (the colonizer and the
colonized). Magic realism crafts a world that is at once real
and contrary to our objective reality: time is often nonlinear,

60
causality can be subjective, and the mundane and the
magical context.

Everything is mundane and everything is magical. It leaves

readers with a feeling of disquietude,enchantment,
tranquility etc (bestfantasybooks.com). Magic seems to stir
up in everyone, ancient, or modern, some lingering hopes
in the miraculous, some dormant belief in man’s mysterious
possibilities.

Rowling’s employment of the magical in juxtaposition with

the realistic ends up not just with creating the effect of
wonderment and surprise but invokes the combined
paraphernalia of mystery and suspense which pronounces
the author’s efficacy in handling the plot of the seven-time
series.

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 Mystery and Suspense: The Twin
Wands of Fantasy

Books survive after centuries because they always have

something to say to readers. While times have changed, the
human condition has not; we still have hopes, fears and
desires. The novels that have made the transition from pure
entertainment into classics still seem relevant for what they
tell us about life, people and the forces that control us. The
books are complex enough for people in different
circumstances. The books defy attempts for easy
classification and operate on multiple levels. Series books
remain a larger but contested segment of children’s
literature.

Series books are an integral part, a dominant form of

fantasy genre. Victor Watson in Reading Series Fiction,
asserts that “reading a series involves a special relationship
between reader and writer which the reader has made a
conscious decision to sustain” (Karl Maund 148). The series
reader undertakes to stay with a group of characters or a
place over a prolonged period. Mystery fiction in a series
structure needs a lot of planning on the part of the author
to render the books to be intriguing and entertaining. The
mysterious element is an important feature of magic
realism. The elements of mystery and suspense are the twin
wands of a fantasy, and they form an integral part of series
fiction genre; the all-pervasive elements, the components
without which the series would otherwise become less
interesting and even boring. So, it becomes necessary to

62
look into the essentials of series fiction to which the present
selection of works belong.

Tolkien considers the element of mystery as an inseparable

aspect of fantasy and to him it is this mystical nature that
gives the most outstanding quality “eucatastrophe”. Tolkien
in his Tree and Leaf explains this eucatastrophe as “the
sudden joyous ‘turn’....a sudden and miraculous grace: This
glimpse of joy and heart’s desire, that for a moment passes
outside the frame, lends indeed the very web of story, and
lets a gleam come through” ( qtd.in Ann Swinfen,7). Even
the physicist Einstein does not fail to acknowledge the
importance of mystery. According to him as he explained
in his Living Philosophies, mystery is an element to be
savoured, even as it cannot be explained.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It
is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this
emotion is a stranger,who can no longer pause to wonder and
stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. (qtd.in
Connie Ann Kirk np)

Rowling does something amazing with the Harry Potter series;

the novels read like a gripping suspense-filled mystery.
Having planned the plot in a seven-volume framework,
Rowling manages exquisitely to maintain the mysterious
vein throughout. She incorporates and interweaves the
elements of mystery, suspense and horror into the series
that keeps the reader engaged.

The element of mystery and suspense pervades like a veil

over the entire narrative. Both the individual books and the
entire series demonstrate a mastery of story structure.
Detailing gives a sense of originality to a story and Rowling
is undoubtedly a master of it. The plot contains
proportionate elements of horror, suspense and mystery

63
and so defies easy categorization. Individual scenes clearly
serve the story and the readers are left eager for
more.Specific mysteries propel each book from beginning
to end. The Harry Potter books that abound in mystery are
meticulously planned. There’s very little that is accidental or
spur-of the moment about them. John Granger quotes
Rowling’s own words for an interview to throw light on
how the author is keen on planning. “I spent five years-it
was five years before-between having that idea and finishing
the first book.... I really plan quite meticulously” (Unlocking
Harry Potter 4).

The series on the whole explicate a mastery of interweaving

subplot with plot. The novels do not simply rely on interior
monologues or character development to move them along;
rather they proceed with action and choice. The novels do
not lack pace, action and visuality which make them
enduring owing to their inherent screen quality. Christian
Schoefer identifies that Harry Potter series is so alluring
because of the “glittering mystery and nail-biting suspense,
compelling language and colourful imagery, magical feats
juxtaposed with real-life concerns” (Reading Harry Potter
IntroX).

Each book is governed and dominated by an overarching

riddle that the three detectives strive to unravel without
breaking too many Hogwarts’ rules. Of course, it is
impossible to predict the nature of the puzzle in each book;
the only sure thing, is that there will be one puzzle to be
solved. Every year’s mystery comes to a crisis, at which time
Harry has to decide whether to risk his life to save the world
or not. The suspense is built moreover by the fact that the
evil of Voldemort and his followers is a tricky enemy to
defeat because much is hidden from plain sight.

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Mystery and suspense in plot:
Harry Potter is partly a “whodunit” (Sime Silverman 1934)
crime story. The readers always know the name of the
villain ‘You-Know-Who’. What is more important is to
puzzle out what Voldemort is up to. This is a very
compelling ingredient of all mystery stories. “As Rowling’s
plots grow in complexity, no detail of Harry’s life seems
incidental, for each may be a part of Dumbledore’s master
plan to defeat Voldemort or Voldemort’s plan to defeat
Dumbledore” (Alice Mills 9). The fact that the good guy
who solves the mystery is a teenage boy is another element
that makes the stories so, successful as that of Enid Blyton’s
The Secret Seven Series (1949-63).

Rowling is undoubtedly a master in choosing names be it

for her characters or for her titles of the chapters and books
at large. The very title of the first book The Philosoper’s Stone
implies the significance of the existence and the possession
of some stone for some unimaginable reason that suggests
fantasy, magic and myth. The opening of Book I adds
suspense, alerting the reader that something unusual and
exciting is afoot. It builds tension in a way common to
thriller and horror stories, while the mundane setting
provides a nice contrast to the magical environment. The
title of the first chapter of the first book ‘The Boy who
lived’ is again identifiable with the note of mystery that
would fill the entire book and in fact the complete series.
The surprise element is the introduction of the bizarre
features of the magical world.

The opening scene does a good job of adding suspense,

alerting the reader that something unusual and exciting is
afoot. Mr.Dursley noticed the first sign of something
peculiar- a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr.Dursley
didn’t realise what he had seen. He sat frozen in his

65
armchair in his office wondering “shooting stars all over
Britain. Owls flying by daylight. Mysterious people in
cloaks.... And a whisper about the Potters...” (HPPS 11).
Rowling furnishes plenty of details and descriptions to
enhance and heighten the note of mystery. The cat
transforming into a woman, the giant Hagrid entering
Privet Drive in a flying motorbike, the white-bearded
oldman putting off the street lamps with what looked like a
silver cigarette lighter-all are infused with the strain of
mystery.

The descriptions, aimed at imagination, have instant appeal,

the moreodd, the better. This narrative timeline is cleverly
constructed, chapter one functioning as a kind of prologue.
It is akin to the “back story” (Anthony Friedmann 339) in
films where events leading up to the main plot are shown.
In film, backstory refers to the life and background of a
character that does not appear in the film or TV Episode
but that explains who the person is and why he or she is
that way. Back story is usually written up for a series which
befits the novels of Rowling. The back story fills in how
Harry came to be living with his Aunt and Uncle and also
introduces the theme of evil and dreadful catastrophe.

The readers are given a tantalising glimpse of an alternative

world existing alongside the normal world. The readers get
struck with wonder and awe, when Harry the infant boy is
left wrapped in a blanket at the doorstep of the Dursley’s
house. The brief communication between Dumbledore and
Professor Mc Gonagall speaks something about the
innocent boy’s mysterious destiny.

They’re saying he tried to kill the Potter’s son, Harry. But he

couldn’t kill Harry Potter, Voldemort’s power somehow broke-
and that’s why he’sgone...

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 Dumbledore nodded glumly. “It’s-it’s true.?” faltered Prof
McGonagall. “After all he’s done...all the people he’s killed...?
It’s just astounding ...of all the things to stop...but how in the
name of heaven didn’t Harrysurvive? (HPPS 15)

Harry’s encounter with Malfoy in Diagon Alley introduces

us to one of the evil characters, who will be the bad guy as
the story progresses. Rowling introduces clues as the
narrative progresses. The wand Harry buys in Ollivander’s
shop is the twin of the wand that gave Harry the scar and
the episode is cleverly written to suggest a very serious
process of selection. Rowling’s description of Harry’s first
entry to Hogwarts is an incredible play of mystery and
wonder. The apprentice wizards led by Hagrid, the half-
giant reach a steep narrow path, from which they see the
castle over a dark lake.

“The narrow path had opened suddenly on the edge of a

great black lake. Perched atop on high mountain on the
other side, the windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a
vast castle with many turrets and towers” (HPPS 83).
Hogwarts is a mysterious place full of locked doors and
winding corridors. The fact that the castle is invisible to the
muggle eyes is intriguing. The castle is a terrific place to
explore - with its hidden doors, secret shortcuts and
disappearing staircases. As in the words of Hermione in
Goblet of Fire: “It is bewitched.... If a muggle looks at it, all
they see is a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the
entrance saying “DANGER, DO NOT ENTER,
UNSAFE”” (HPGF 148).

It is not only the structure of the school that poses threat

to the students, especially the new comers, but also the
existence of fantastical creatures and the exploration of
unknown places. The magical school is a locus for
fantastical creatures of all kinds- some harmless and even

67
benign like Firenze, Nearly Headless Nick, and Dobby but
some others dangerous as is the case with Fluffy, the three-
headed dog or the mountain troll (Anna Gunder 296).

The Quidditch match itself would suffice to keep the reader

in mounting tension that is another element of the
marvellous that Rowling’s inventive imagination is at its
excellence in the sport. The match is more than an action
sequence, and it introduces a threat to Harry’s life. Upto the
point of obtaining the golden snitch that symbolizes victory
for the House, every moment of the game quickens the
pulse rate of the reader. The first ever Quidditch match that
Harry plays as the youngest Seeker of the game is an
eventful and adventurous one. Rowling plays the trickery of
magic here when Snape is shown as pronouncing some
spell with his eyes fixed on Harry high above over the
broomstick. The author very subtly manipulates the
reader’s belief and fascination for Harry and makes them
overlook the important clue strewn in the narrative that is
revealed later. “Snape was in the middle of the stands
opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was
muttering non-stop under his breath. ‘He is doing
something-jinxing the broom,’ said Hermione (140). But
the truth behind this instance is cleared when the real culprit
Professor Quirrell confesses to Harry towards the end of
Book I:
I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally
knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that
Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another
few seconds and I’d have got you off that broom. I’d have
managed it before then if Snape hadn’t been muttering a
counter-curse trying to save you. (HPPS 209)

Voldemort’s residing in Quirrell’s body and trying to tempt

Harry to join hands with him in his power hunt is

68
perplexing and mysterious. All the more mysterious is the
way he tries to lure Harry with a false promise that he can
reawaken and bring Harry’s parents James and Lilly back to
life, if he takes sides with him and remains loyal to him.
Harry, mature above his young age, overcomes this
alurement and stands tiptoe to defend the good cause of the
wizarding society. The central mystery of the first book
revolves around Professor Quirrell and his quest to obtain
the Philosopher’s stone with Snape serving as the red
herring. The big three investigate the mystery but only in
the end the reader gets the surprise revelation (Destiny
Unfulfilled 147).

The discovery of the Mirror of Erised with a note on its

frame reading “I show not your face but your heart’s desire”
(HPPS 152) is a poignant sequence. While Harry sees his
live parents, Ron sees him as head boy and Quidditch cup
winner. “... he stared hungrily back at them, his hands
pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall
right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of
ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness” (153).
Dumbledore brings out Harry from the illusion with his
homily: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to
live” (157) and it is concerned with moving the mystery
narrative along as the trio discover the identity of Nicholas
Flamel the owner of the Sorcerer’s Stone that gives Elixir
of life. Snape’s character is projected as even more
suspicious with Harry’s overhearing his conversation with
Professor Quirrell.

The episode featuring Harry’s detention in the Forbidden

Forest introduces some more fantastic creatures like
centaurs and unicorns. There is a convincing menace in the
description of the silvery unicorn blood and something
slithering over dead leaves nearby. “Harry had taken one

69
step towards it when a slithering sound made him freeze
where he stood .... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded
figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking
beast” (187). There is real dramatic intensity as Harry meets
with the hooded figure and his screaming pain “as though
his scar was on fire” (187). Firenze, the centaur and rescuer
of Harry explains the purity of Unicorn blood and the
heinous sin in slaying such a heavenly animal.

The task of the Triumvirate is made even more difficult

because their adult masters are not ready to believe their
suspicion. The young detectives are not successful in
convincing their superiors of the impending danger. When
the clues and their guesses point out to a possible
catastrophe, the trio venture to make it known to their
masters.

For example, in Philosopher’s Stone, they try to convey it to

them that the stone is about to be stolen by somebody and
there is the necessity of some precautionary measure.
Dumbledore, is not readily available to be informed and
Professor Minerva McGonagall is blissfully reluctant to
probe into their suspicions to find out if there could be any
truth behind them. Such a situation inevitably compels
Harry, Ron and Hermione to fight the great challenges
without any adult support until the last moment of
resolution.

Harry’s accidental discovery of the forbidden third floor

corridor continues the important plot element of the
mysterious package from Vault 713, which Hagrid opens as
per the order of Dumbledore. The initial introduction of
this package in the narrative has less significance and so it
is forgotten momentarily, just as a trivial occurrence. With
Harry’s realization that Fluffy the three headed dog is

70
standing guard over it, the package gains significance and
becomes the driving force of the narrative. The presence of
the Stone in Hogwarts adds an element of adventure and
horror in addition to the strain of suspense. Instead of just
a novel about a young boy’s first year at magic school, the
text becomes a narrative about Harry’s detective skills, the
plot gains momentum and gets triggered into an action-
oriented narrative.

The final chapters of the first book involve Harry’s quest to

find the stone and the identity of the mysterious hooded
figure whom Harry encountered in the Forbidden Forest.
There is little doubt at this stage to Harry and even the
reader about Voldemort’s involvement in the crime. Rather
there is enough mystery to keep the reader guessing as to
what form the hooded figure will take. Solving a series of
clues and passing several barriers on the way, with the
noteworthy assistance of Ron and Hermione, strengthens
the bond of friendship, Harry enters the last chamber
expecting to confront Snape redhanded in his attempt to
steal the stone.

Good mysteries always have a twist and Rowling

manipulates it skillfully to reveal that the villain is not Snape
but the meek Quirrell. Very great revelation happens and
acts as an eye opener to Harry as well as the readers that
appearances can deceive. Professor Quirrell who had always
been viewed as harmless, turns out to be the double agent
of the Dark Lord. The moment Quirrell is revealed to be
Voldemort’s agent proves to be thrilling. As in the words of
Veronica L. Schanoes in her essay “Cruel Heroes and
Treacherous Texts” in Reading Harry Potter:Critical Essays, “It
carries great implications for the reader’s comprehension of
the possibilities for virtue and depravity in the world of
Harry Potter” (133). Rowling, like all good mystery writers

71
uses the cliche of the criminal explaining the motives
behind the crime, which is another way of filling in the
details, which cannot be revealed otherwise.

‘See what I have become?’ the face said. ‘Mere shadow and
vapour...I have form only when I can share another’s body...but
there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts
and minds...Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past
weeks...you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the
forest...and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create
a body of our own. (HPPS 213)

Book II Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets abounds in

events that are mysterious to the core. Spending his worst
summer holidays, Harry gets ready to return to Hogwarts
when a strange creature Dobby warns him not to go to
school, for there awaits danger and disaster. Dobby is
reluctant to reveal the nature of the danger and the cause of
it. “Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great,
too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts, he will
be in mortal danger” (HPCS 16). Harry however dismisses
Dobby’s warning in his longing to go where he belongs
ultimately, proceeds only to get entangled in a chain of
mysteriuos circumstances- the strange behaviour of Ron’s
younger sister Ginny Weasley; rumours about the Chamber
of Secrets, a deep cavern buried below Hogwarts once
opened fifty years ago, and an equally mysterious diary
owned by Tom Riddle, former student of Hogwarts. Very
little is revealed about this Tom Riddle about whom Harry
as usual cannot get any information from adult masters; he
has to venture on his own.

The plot becomes more sinister; Legend tells of a secret

chamber built within the castle by one of the school’s four
founders, Salazar Slytherin. Within this chamber, resides a
monster that can be controlled mainly by the wizard’s heir,
who will unleash it in order to purge the school of those

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that Slytherin deemed unworthy of a magical education.
Students are being attacked mysteriously, left alive but
totally petrified. Only a magical potion can revive the
victims but that would take months for its preparation.
Harry hears a strange, menacing voice, that is audible only
to him. Threatening messages are displayed on the school
walls announcing that any wizard who is not of pure blood
lineage will die. No one- not animal, witch, wizard or even
ghost is safe.

In the absence of any trustworthy evidence, suspicion falls

on the unlucky Harry. At one point, most of the school
turns its back on him, glaringly opposed to the fame and
approval he had been enjoying in his first year. Everyone’s
prying and suspicious eyes fall upon him as Harry seems to
be much present wherever something wrong and hideous
happens- for example when Mrs. Norris, Filch’s Cat gets
attacked and petrified. In a session of dueling practice,
Harry to his own astonishment is revealed to possess the
ability to speak to snakes - which again is mysterious
because it is a skill possessed by Voldemort. In the wrong
place at the wrong time, his ability to speak Parseltongue
marks him out as evil (Back to Hogwarts: Rereading Harry
Potterand Chamber of Secretsn.pag).

Horror strikes the campus when queer happenings occur-

students are turned to stone. Hermione falls a victim to one
such attack and paralyzed on her way back from the library.
Unknown to anyone else, Ginny, Ron’s younger sister
obtains a magical diary, which slowly takes over her. The
Dairy being bewitched to respond when written in, Riddle
feeds on Ginny’s fears and secrets, and manipulates her into
doing what he wants; that is to open the Chamber and
setting free the basilisk. Despite Ron’s warning that books

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could be dangerous in a place like Hogwarts, Harry tries to
read through the Diary in which letters are invisible.

Chaos rules over unawares who the culprit might be.

Suspicion falls on Harry who is now skeptically seen as the
great great grandson of Slytherin and possessor of Dark
arts. Ginny gets dragged into the Chamber as one final
sacrifice to the monster before the Dark Lord could resume
his full strength. It is again Hermione who comes to help
when Ron finds a scrap of paper hidden in the folded
paralyzed arm of the former giving a clue as, how the
chamber could be reached. The end of the book resolves so
many unanswered questions about the owner of the diary
none other than young Voldemort, Harry being saved
miraculously by Dumbledore’s phoenix Fawkes.

The book is a clear mystery, with a real air of intrigue and

uncertainty, with some false clues and red herrings. No
element is wasted, from Moaning Myrtle and Nearly
Headless Nick’s Death Day Party and Ron’s slug attack-
Rowling has placed enough clues to the identity of the
monster and the Heir of Slytherin both satisfying and
pleasingly obvious when revealed. In many ways, the book
opens doors to aspects of the Harry Potter series that gains
huge importance in the later part of the works
(www.bestfantasybooks.com np). The halls of Hogwarts
seem more dangerous, characters are more devious and
even Harry goes through much more soul-searing trials.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which sounds almost

like a racy crime thriller, is the first of the series that
mentions a person in the title rather than an object, the only
other being Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The
title, like the Chamber of Secrets stands out for being the
most misleading and really fitting. Azkaban is largely a

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mystery story and the narrative helps set up mystery
elements from the get go, raising questions who the
Prisoner is and why he has escaped. This tome seems to be
the best part of the series, “because every detail and sub-
plot serves a specific purpose within the novel’s structure.
The clues are well set and make up the solution very
convincingly. The plot ceases to a mere children’s book in
this part” (Claudia Fenske 89) and it marks the turning
point of the series.

The night before Harry heads of two Hogwarts, he

overhears Ron’s parents discussing Sirius Black’s escape
from prison and that he is after Harry. Azkaban is a prison
for the most heinous crimes and criminals. “...it was the
worst place he’d ever been; he came back all weak and
shaking [...] They suck the happiness out of place,
Dementors. Most of the prisoners go mad in there” (113).
The fact that one could escape from such a place indicates
his criminality. Sirius is an infamous prisoner who has been
convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse and
who is suspected to have been the Dark Lord’s agent
assisting perhaps in executing the death of the Potters,
Harry’s parents. The Azkaban guards reported Sirius’
muttering in sleep, He’s at Hogwarts...he’s at Hogwarts”
(HPPA 54). The fear about the Azkaban prisoner is stressed
more than once by almost all. Mr. Weasley is worried when
he expresses his fear:
Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask
me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back
to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-
Know-Who, and he’s hadtwelve years alone in Azkaban to
brood on that.... (54)

Harry who always had plenty to worry about now feels

being pursued by death omens at every turn. Harry is in

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mortal peril and a mass murderer seems to be planning to
kill him. Harry realizes that even the magical world is not
free from criminality, death and torture. A dementor attacks
Harry, as soon as he boards the train. Mystery note
intensifies when in Divination Session, Professor
Trelawney foresees danger and even death for Harry by
reading tealeaves and finding the representation of a grim,
large black dog symbolizing death. When the Fat Lady’s
portrait is destroyed, alarm strikes the school of Sirius’s
entry. Queer enough to alarm him more, Harry receives two
mysterious gifts: a top-of-the-line Firebolt Broomstick, and
the Marauder’s Map that shows the whereabouts of all at
Hogwarts. The soulless dementors are brought to guard
Harry, but they are more scary than the escaped fugitive.
Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth.
They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and
despair, theydrain peace, hope and happiness out of the air
around them. [...]If it can,the Dementor will feed on you long
enough to reduce you to something like itself [...]:( soulless and
evil. You’ll be left with nothing but the worstexperiences of your
life. (HPPA 140)

Remus Lupin, the Defense against Dark Arts teacher

teaches Harry to make a Patronus Charm, that would
defend him. But it is ultimately true that even with his
broom, his map, his wizarding skill and his loyal friends,
Harry seems to be unsafe, because on top of everything
else, there’s a traitor hidden at Hogwarts. To add to the
fright, Professor Trelawney predicts the return of
Voldemort’s servant before midnight on a particular day. A
large black dog pounces on Ron, on the trio’s return from
Hagrid’s hut, dragging him under the Whoomping Willow
where surprisingly it is revealed to be Sirius in his animagi
form. Lupin arrives on time to resolve the mystery when
they try to kill Black. The real convict behind the murder of

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Harry’s parents is not Black, as all fear but Peter Pettigrew,
one of the confidants of James and Lily, who turned to a
traitor.

The more Harry knows about Sirius’ relation to his parents

or about the history of the secret chamber- the closer he
gets to unravelling the mystery. The technique of analepsis
is used, there is a dramatic showdown right before the end
of the story. It is nothing but a form of flashback in which
earlier parts of a narrative are related to others that have
already been narrated. It is a recurring, intensely vivid
mental image of a past traumatic experience.

The third book of the series Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban is intricate and enthralling because of Rowling’s
use of a queer device of Time Turner, which travels back
into the past and has the ability to undo the deeds.
Dumbledore gives permission to Hermione to use the time-
turning device to save Sirius and Buckbeak. Hermione turns
her hour-glass necklace three times and the two are thrust
into the past. The time- turner in fact helps Harry to realize
that it was he who conjured the patronus. When the whole
thing is figured out, the novel throws for a loop and the
readers are convicted and befooled for wrong judgement.
When the veil over the Azkaban Prisoner is removed, it is
once again reinstated and affirmed that appearances are
deceptive. When the story and the suspense around Sirius
Black is unravelled, there is an entire story-within-the story,
a history of the conflict with Voldemort, a crash course, in
the lives of James and Lilly Potter. The title Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban works as a metonym indicating the
entire war with Voldemort and the ways in which Harry’s
personal history is closely linked to that conflict.

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The novel poses a significant plot of the duality of things
and reveals an important mystery making a clear
understanding that everything is capable of having two
sides. Lupin who is seen as a respectable professor is on
other side a man-eating Werewolf. This novel plot one
guilty creature after the other, only to wipe the slate clean
and have someone else entirely prove to be guilty. The
events remind that things are rarely as easy as they may
appear. The wizard world is full of secrets and spells, the
false alarms in Harry’s detective work, the deeper he will
have to dig, the wiser he will become (SparkNotes Editors).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is an action-oriented tome

where Harry is midway through both his training as a wizard
and his coming of age. The very title, “invokes images of
adventure and mysticism” (Alton 200). Rowling introduces
Triwizard Tournament where a Hogwarts champion will
compete against rivals from two other wizarding schools
involving three highly dangerous tasks. The name of the
participants of the competition will be chosen from the
Goblet and the contestants have to be above the age of
seventeen but to the bewilderment of all, Harry’s name is
chosen which implies that someone wants him to get in
danger. Someone wants him nearly dead. Harry has to face
the contempt of his peer Ron who feels jealous of Harry’s
growing fame. The Triwizard tournament is not a funny
sport played for attaining fame and victory as Ron thinks,
but it involves mortal peril. The three stages of the
tournament are nonetheless dangerous. Harry is guided
through the competition by Professor Alastor Moody.

Harry gets warning from Sirius to be careful and practises

hexes for the third task. Cedric and Harry arrive at the
trophy unanimously and they agree to touch it together. The
trophy turns out to be a portkey, they are transported to the

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grave where Voldemort kills Cedric instantly. The whole
thing is staged before Barty Crouch in the disguise of ‘Mad-
Eye-Moody’ Wormtail puts the foetal form of Voldemort
into a cauldron adding ashes of Voldemort’s father, Harry’s
blood and his own hand to help the dark lord resume his
body. Cedric’s death represents a great shift in Harry’s
world- until then the danger to Harry has seemed a bit
ineffective, as he has the belief that Hogwarts is well
secured by Dumbledore’s watchful eyes, which nolonger
works to save Diggory. The tapestries decked all in black,
in honour of Cedric’s death is a sign that Harry has no
haven in Hogwarts. From now on, his world is surrounded
on all sides by the threat of death, misery and ruin.

This part of the series puts Harry in a graver combat, for in

the end he is on a hazardous encounter with the Dark Lord.
The Yule Ball is the only escapade from the otherwise
restless narrative involving dangers and trials. There is
always the impending danger, Voldemort having a faithful
servant at Hogwarts to carry out his command waiting only
for a signal. Nothing is normal for Harry, in his case being
different always means it can be deadly. Harry Potter and the
Order of Phoenix again offers a surplus of mysterical events,
the title carrying the “medieval connotations of chivalry and
knighthood (associated with ‘order’) along with the promise
of hope and rebirth (associated with ‘phoenix’)” ( Alton,
200).The Sorting Hat in the commencement of the fifth
year predicts the possibility of danger:

I fear.
our Hogwarts is in danger
From external deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we’ll crumble from within. (HPPS 206-7)

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Harry is bewildered by Dumbledore’s unusual silence even
in moments of utmost urgency. Harry faces the bitterest
period of gloominess and feels being betrayed by the most
trusted and honoured headmaster. Feeling left out, he
simmers with fury all the time. None of his friends is writing
to him about the happenings. Harry starts fighting with his
dumb cousin Dudley in his urge to have an outlet for his
rage. Something bizarre happens in Little Whinging,
Dementors show up and try to attack the two. Despite
being restricted from using magic outside Hogwarts, Harry
has to forego the rule and cast a patronus charm to repel
the dementors and thereby save Dudley’s soul being
drained out.

When Harry is summoned for the hearing to the Order,

Harry to his surprise finds his friends and godfather Sirius
too assembled there already. Though Dumbledore comes
to defend the young wizard for his act of self-defense,
Harry is still furious that his master is not ready to speak or
even look at his ward. The pain of being kept ignorant and
uninformed instigates his anger and when the Order of
Phoenix works to protect Harry from danger, it does
nothing more than provoking Harry to burst out in anger.
He too decides to turn his back against Dumbledore and
refuses to confide in him as he usually had done before.
Further the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge discredits
Harry as much as possible and dismisses Harry’s claim that
Voldemort is back.

The newly appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor Professor

Dolores Umbridge gives unbearable torture to Harry and
of course to all who fight for the good cause. She gives a
lifelong ban for Harry from his favourite Quidditch match
that gave him his true identity. The terrible nightmares that
Harry experiences, add to the crux of mystery. Even the joy

80
of working with ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ - a group of
Hogwarts students dedicated to and strength of his friends
and their boundless loyalty and limitless sacrifices. Things
come to a head when Harry has a seeming vision
Mr.Weasley being attacked by Voldemort’s snake. Harry is
perplexed all the more when Dumbledore being aware of
his vision puts Harry in still more painful ordeal of learning
Occlumency with his much despicable master Severus
Snape.

Occlumency is a field of magic by which a wizard learns to

defend his mind against external penetration. The word
etymologically derives meaning from the Latin occludere,
meaning ‘to shut up’ and mens, for ‘mind’. It is the act of
magically closing one’s mind against Legilimency. The
practice is ancient and it can prevent anyone from accessing
one’s thoughts or feelings, or influencing them (that is
defeating Voldemort- can’t dispel the gathering darkness).
His fate depends on the depth supposed to protect a
wizard’s mind from magical scanning. As per Dumbledore’s
orders, Harry takes lessons from Snape.

The power of Occlumency “seals the mind against magical

intrusion and influence” (HPOP 530). I am about to
attempt to break into your mind,” said Snape softly. “We
are going to see how well you resist…. Brace Yourself, now
….Legilimens!” (HPOP 534).The pity is that the lessons
Harry undertakes leaves his mind even more open than
before. Snape gets a peep into Harry’s most painful and
embarrassing memories that rather irritate him to the core.
The memories Harry perceives in the Pensieve shatters the
former’s idealistic views about his father James and his God
father Sirius and his godly mentor Dumbledore.

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All his heroes and idols seem to fall off their high pedestals.
This leaves the protagonist without any obvious mentors or
allies at school. Harry becomes assured that Professor
Dumbledore has been deliberately cutting him off from
necessary information regarding the conflict with
Voldemort, the information which he desperately tries to
see through all his frequent nightmares. Moreover, Harry is
haunted by dreams of a heavy door in a corner of a silent
corridor where he sees Sirius being tormented. In an
attempt to save Sirius, Harry rushes to the department of
Mysteries accompanied by his comrades and members of
the ministry only to find themselves trapped by a circle of
Death Eaters. If in Goblet of Fire, Harry witnesses the murder
of Cedric Diggory, in Order of Phoenix, he is forced to witness
a still more cruciating pain of the loss of his Godfather
Sirius. The latter when he thinks he could rescue Harry,
finds himself victimized and finally finished off. Sirius’s loss
is even more mysterious for Harry because of the way he
just slips through the empty archway in the Department of
Mysteries.

Cornelius Fudge at this juncture can but believe Harry’s

claims when he happens to see Voldemort trying to possess
Harry, the result of which ends in dethroning Dolores from
power and resuming Dumbledore as Headmaster once
again. The revelation is finally done by Dumbledore who
explains why he had been alienating himself from the
innocent boy, only in a way of saving him. The book Order
of Phoenix is significant in the sense that it is at this point
Harry comes to know of his destiny, his being marked as
the chosen one, his name being pronounced even before he
was aware of the existence of the wizarding school.

Dumbledore explains the prophecy regarding his destiny

that acted as a spur to all that was going on for these years

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at Hogwarts, the prophecy that was made at the time of
Harry’s birth which stated that a boy born at the end of July
to parents who have defied the Dark Lord thrice will arrive
with a power unconquerable, a power that Voldemort will
never even dream to acquire. In truth, the prophecy could
fit not only to Harry but also to Neville Longbottom. But it
is Voldemort who by attacking Harry as a baby thereby
establishes a mystical connection and chooses the latter to
be his nemesis. Now that all of Harry’s doubts are cleared,
it is up to him to stop emo brooding and act like an adult
to face the tough challenges on his way to redeem mankind.

The much-feared battle begins in the sixth novel Harry

Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, casualties mount to the
extreme and the Order of Phoenix suffers grievous losses.
The mysterious element reaches its climax in this book and
the author admits:

I really like how the sixth book is going. A lot happens...and a

lot of questions are answered. I really have a sense that we are
really nearing there and it’s time for answers, not more questions
and clues, althoughobviously there are a few clues as I am not
quite finished yet.(J.K.Rowling/MuggleNetn.pag)

Harry’s sixth year has got off to an unusual start, as the

worlds of Muggle and magic start to intertwine.
Dumbledore is away from the scene of crisis for long. Lord
Voldemort is definitely back with a vengeance and his
sinister forces amass and a spirit of fear and gloom sweeps
the land. Second Wizarding War begins, Wizards and
Muggles die despite the efforts of the Ministry of Magic and
the Order of Phoenix to prevent them. Danger seems to
lurk around every corner, and Harry is determined to
unmask it. The destiny is made clear that Harry is the
Chosen One.

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The whole book centres on the discovery of the titular Half-
Blood Prince and the mysterious assistance Harry receives.
Harry’s endeavour is to uncover the complex story of Tom
Riddle and how he got transformed into the gruesome
agent of evil. The episodes are revelatory of Riddle’s
personal life and his spoilt childhood being raised as an
uncared unloved child. Harry comes to know of
Voldemort’s mastery of the Dark Arts and his singular
interest in the making of Horcrux that in itself is the act of
utmost irredeemable sin when he dares to splinter soul
through murder. It is only at this juncture, Harry and the
headmaster realize through Horace Slughorn’s memory in
the Pensieve, that Voldemort has succeeded in creating not
just one but seven Horcruxes.

Harry grows suspicious of Draco Malfoy being involved in

a treacherous deed. He uses his Marauder’s map to track
Draco’s proceedings but mysteriously the map sometimes
fails to show. Eventually it is revealed through Dobby that
Draco is using the Room of Requirements on the seventh
floor. Harry and Dumbledore work together to resolve the
mysteries and hold the key to Voldemort’s weaknesses.
Harry’s venture along with Dumbledore in this process is
shockingly mysterious. It involves overcoming a variety of
traps and challenges before reaching the destination where
the Horcrux in the form of Merope’s locket is hidden under
a poisonous potion. To retrieve it, the Headmaster has to
drink the whole potion that weakens him infintely and
Harry has to fight Voldemort’s Inferi.

What follows this heartrending episode is still more painful.

To his absolute shock, a reversal exposes Dumbledore’s
own vulnerabilities and casts Harry’s future in shadow.
Bellatrix strikes at the pivotal point of Snape’s character
when she doubts his sincerity to Voldemort. If Harry is

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confirmed about Snape as Voldemort’s agent, Bellatrix is
suspicious of Snape’s allegiance to Dumbledore and to the
Order of Phoenix. She rightly doubts if Snape is actually on
the side of the Dark Lord. He answers with a quick retort
saying: “Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not
asked me each and every one of those Questions? And do
you really think that had I not been able to give satisfactory
answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?” (HPBP 26).

To assert his trust worthiness in the role as a spy, he makes

an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, Draco Malfoy’s mother
magically binding him to aid Draco in his first mission as a
Death Eater, the heinous work being the murder of the
Hogwarts Headmaster.

The last and final book of the series The Deathly Hallows
denotes a gothic element evoking a sense of deadly mystery.
It is in fact of epic grandeur not only by its voluminous
pages but also by its depth and darkness of the conflict
between the twin powers good and evil. “While each of the
Potter books has strong claims on my affections, Deathly
Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful to
finish the series” (J.K.Rowling/Harry Potter Wiki). The
book is marked by a dark atmosphere of confusion and
indecision for Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Evidently the book becomes graver and more complex in

tone featuring a desperate quest of the three wizards to
locate and destroy the remaining four Horcruxes. The acute
problem is that the triumvirs lack clarity as to where to find
them and how to destroy. They visit every possible locale-
the Burrow, Malfoy Manor, Godric’s Hollow; but every
time they succeed in solving one clue three more riddles
evolve entwining about the past of Harry, Riddle or
Dumbledore. So far Harry was instructed just to destroy the

85
Horcruxes but now he tumbles upon the existence of the
three Deathly Hallows, that gives a promise of making its
possessor the master of death. The Hallows ensnare Harry
with their tantalizing claim of invulnerability. Another
important revelation is Harry’s learning that he too is one
of the Horcruxes.

The innate theme of tragedy rears its head in the novel,

causing several to be wounded even leading to the loss of
few. Arriving safely at the Burrow, the trio decides to isolate
themselves to be on safe side- Ron arranges his household
ghoul act as stand in, Hermione performs a complex and
heart wrenching charm that removes all memory of her
from her parent’s mind. The Horcrux, the trio retrieves
from Dolores Umbridge in the form of an amulet, which
they do not know how to destroy has dangerous and
mysterious effects. It has a psychologically disturbing effect
on the person who wears it. Ron, when he wears it,
develops bitterness towards his peers due to its negative
impact resulting in a temporary rift in relationship.

There is a dark and tense interlude in Godric’s Hollow,

leading Harry and Hermione to seek succour in the Forest
of Dean, where a mysterious silver Patronus assists Harry
to get the Sword of Griffindor that aids in the destruction
of the amulet Horcrux. A series of life-threatening events
resume, including an encounter with a dragon, meeting with
Aberforth Dumbledore who reveals much about the
master’s past and also grants them a secret entrance into
Hogwarts’ castle. A strongly rebellious army is by this time
well organized under the so far meek Neville. The
concluding part of the book is more eventful abounding in
a serious battle between the forces of good and evil. A face
to face combat between Harry and Voldemort ends in the

86
seeming death of Harry leading to a surreal dream sequence
in which Harry in King’s cross meets Dumbledore.

In structuring the plot, Rowling uses a traditional rhetorical

device called hysteron proteron (later before), which has been
a successful fictional device since classical era as in Virgil’s
Aeneis. It is a way of providing the reader with the
information which is expanded only later. In terms of
revealing about the past, Rowling proceeds rather slowly.
No one knows the whole story of Harry’s family, the poor
boy has to put together pieces of information he collects
from people, either by coincidence or deliberately. It is an
arduous process gathering information
‘But why would he want to kill me in the first place?’

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.

‘Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today.
Not now. You will know one day…put it from your mind for
now, Harry.’ (HPPS 298)

This sense of mystery, and gradually uncovering of facts is

one of the typical features of formulaic literature based on
action and unexpected twists in the plot. Tension and
suspense are richly represented on the expense of the
reader.

Rowling demotes Hermione’s use of logic into mere

guesswork or dumb luck. By turning both Ron and Harry
against Hermione, Rowling turns the reader against her as
well- making them believe that Hermione tried to ruin their
fun. Rowling tricks or seduces the reader to join Harry’s
side of the argument by only giving us his inner thoughts
through narration, while Hermione is only represented
through direct dialogue, and is therefore less appealing in
the argument.

87
Mystery and suspense in characters:
Rowling works out the component of mystery not just in
plots and events of surmounting tension. Mystery prevails
in her delineation and skillful handling of characters too.
The element of unpredictable mystery veils some of her
characters around Harry whose innocence and ignorance
are always at stake. In every book there is a character that is
not what he appears to be.

Severus Snape:
The most complex and mysterious of Rowling’s characters
whose complexity accounts also for his endearment and
popularity is Severus Snape, the Potions Master. The
complexity of Snape’s character both necessitates and relies
upon Rowling’s manipulation of written narrative. The
construction of good and evil and the representation of
written narratives are inextricably intertwined. (Reading
Harry Potter133)

He is a Legilimens, a wizard who is apt at reading other

wizards’ minds with a spell. He is not friendly with the
Gryffindors and likes to pick on them. He is the kind who
wouldn’t think twice to smack his students on the head for
insolence and disobedience. That’s why the mixed signals
coming from him jam the reader’s perception and so are
kept on the edge of seat every time (as portrayed in the
films) he shows up on screen in his austere black robes to
torment the heroic teen wizards. A man of few words with
dark and cold looks, Snape immediately projects himself as
a mysterious person who is beyond scrutiny. His long black
robe and flowing greasy hair dark as the night, evokes a
feeling of awe and fear amongst all especially the first years
who know almost nothing about him.

88
Even to those who have known and worked with him for
years, he remains a mystery. Except to Dumbledore whom
even the Dark Lord fears, Snape is an unapproachable,
unfriendly and scary master. Harry particularly feels a lot
uncomfortable and even disturbed in the presence of Snape
right from his entry to Hogwarts. Snape too seems to justify
Harry’s feeling by sparring no occasion to demean the
apprentice wizard. Harry’s lightning scar aches painfully in
the presence of Snape which baffles him. Their very first
encounter turns out to be intriguing and embarrassing.
Harry feels a piercing scornful look from the Professor
immediately after the sorting ceremony, even before the
classes begin.

From that moment onwards, there steams a fierce cold war

between the two; none ready to spare with the other
regardless of age and cadre. Snape, being the elder master,
stoops too low to berate Harry and his adolescent ego and
Harry in his turn mounts beyond his apprentice level and
skill to combat on equal grounds with his master. In the
words of Mary Pharr in her essay “Harry Potter as Hero-in-
Progress”, “Throughout the story, both Snape and Harry
are continually caught in the unfortunate repurcussions of
mutual misunderstanding, always suspecting each other of
skullduggery” (Ivory Tower 59). Half Blood Prince is essentially
Snape’s story and the readers are able to catch a deeper
glimpse of the man who perpetually stands on the grey area
of the saga. Nothing piques the curiosity more than the
mysterious man on the background. In Snape, the readers
confront a person who is callused on the outside. What
makes him unique is that his dualistic nature is never
completely and the profession of a double agent fits him
well.

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In the personae of Snape, Rowling has created a man whose
soul is constantly at war with itself. It is quite impossible to
predict whether he is innately evil, or “he crafted himself
like an actor on the stage” (Appelbaum 99). By ultimately
sacrificing his life, he enables the mystery of his character
to live forever. He is the epitome of unrest, a man of few
moral loyalties, significant of which is his love for Lily. In
many ways, he is childlike in his devotion to Lily Evans,
never truly grows into adulthood. As Veronica L. Schanoes
argues justifiably:
Rowling, by presenting Harry’s doubts about Snape’s animosity
manipulates her reader into...equating Snape’s nastiness with
evil.... The reader is made privy to Harry’s thoughts...entices us
into equating Harry’s thoughts with our own. This seduction is
especially effective given the reader’s (and Harry’s) desire for
Snape to be evil. (Reading Harry Potter, 134)

Dumbledore, the silver bearded mentor:

The character of the silver bearded master Dumbledore is
at the outset less complex character to the extent that can
be categorized as flat but in the later parts of the book
growing more subtle and complex. As in the words of
Elphias Doge in Dumbledore’s obituary: “...he could find
something to value in anyone.... That he was the most
inspiring and the best loved of all Hogwarts headmasters
cannot be in question” (HPDH 20). In the first four books,
Dumbledore is portrayed as infalliable and all-knowing. To
Harry, he is the epitome of wizarding ability whose “powers
rival those of He-Who -Must-Not-Be-Named [Voldemort]
at the height of his strength” (HPCS 17). Dumbledore was
not charmed by the natural charisma and cunning of Tom
Riddle. Even in their first encounter, Dumbledore became
immediately suspicious of his obvious instincts for cruelty,
secrecy and domination.

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When Voldemort returns to power, Harry fully expects
Dumbledore to be the saviour. But as the years grow and
the books progress, this heroic vision Harry has of his
master, systematically gets destroyed. Harry begins to
gradually lose his faith in the white bearded man as he learns
more of his savory past. Burning with frustration and anger
after Sirius’s death, Harry is unforgiving when the
Headmaster seems to apologize admitting “an old man’s
mistakes...I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I
had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid” (HPOP
838).

The illusion of the master’s god-like invincibility is

shattered when Harry watches Dumbledore die, leaving no
doubt about his mortality. When the past of the master
comes as a revelation, transforms the vision as one of a
power hungry, Muggle hater, is overwhelming. He admits
to himself, “He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite
well, but ever since reading [Dumbledore’s] obituary he had
been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at
all” (HPDH 21).

Sirius Black:
It is in the third book Rowling introduces one of her
striking creations. The name of Sirius is first mentioned in
the Daily Prophet newspaper warning the public of his
escape. “Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be
held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of
Magic confirmed today”. He is pronounced to be a danger to
anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle (HPPA 33).
When Harry saw his picture on the newspaper Sirius was
no less frightening than a vampire whom Harry had seen in
his Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

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The Narrative Strategies:
The text like a painting is the product of a linear string of
information. The words making up a literary text build an
image gradually in the minds and memories of its readers.
The literary image has to be assembled in such a way to ease
the reader into its details and its complexities, while being
provided with sufficient narrative momentum to motivate
them to follow the informative thread to its terminus (The
Historical Definition of Fantasy xlix).

Besides being strewn with the episodes and events that are
mysterious, and the dangers and twists involved in the trio’s
adventures, what is more intriguing and makes the story
appealing is the narrative strategy which Rowling
implements in the novel. Rowling is the master of the
mystery novelists’ speciality, narrative misdirection.
Rowling manages to tap into the imagination of the readers
who respond to each book with mounting enthusiasm.
Narrative misdirection is Joanne Rowling’s signature device
as a writer. Using the narrative line to turn the reader from
what is happening requires remarkable planning and care.
This trick is so much a part of her way of thinking and
writing. Controlling or restricting the narratological
perspective in such a way that the readers believe we know
much more than sets up for the stunning ending. The
readers find that their attention was focused elsewhere. In
literary terminology this kind of manipulation of one’s
attention is aptly named ‘misdirection’.

The term describes a technique of prestidigitation or sleight

of hand: a skillful pickpocket may distract a victim by
directing his attention away from his belongings. A
magician draws attention of the audience so that they get
diverted from the real trick he plays to hide his next prop.
While the viewers think that they are keenly observing

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everything, they are actually seeing just what the magician
wants them to see, by giving an elaborate distraction that
allows time and scope for the magician to play his trick.
Misdirection is a common feature found in mystery fiction.
One way of hiding the information is to use the time-
honoured method of misdirection. Good ways of
misdirecting are to include the information in a long list of
items, or in a paragraph of over-detailed description.

For a mystery writer, misdirection is handy tool to create

suspense as a hammer to a carpenter. There are examples
from literature for a good handling of this misdirection
apart from Jane Austen. The Hound of Baskervilles is a classic
sample of the usage of misdirection wherein Sherlock
Holmes disappears for long leaving an outmatched
Dr.Watson on his own with the likely murderer. In a
moment of high tension, the readers are made to know that
Holmes had been all along the narrative in the disguise of
the gardener of the house where Dr.Watson has been
sequestered. We have more vivid examples in movies like
those of Alfred Hitchcock, who was considered to be the
first great master of the mystery, of misdirection in cinema.
His films Vertigo and Psycho are threaded through with
misdirection. Since the advent of the novel, writers have
developed a complex armoury of transferable narrative
techniques by means of which mimesis can be cultivated-
most obviously the development of the “third person
limited” viewpoint. This device is uniquely conducive to the
facilitation of a reader’s intimate identification with the
viewpoint character-a degree of intimacy impossible in any
medium (page l, Historical Dictionary of Fantasy).

Rowling owes gratitude to Jane Austen, her most favourite

author, for the usage of this narrative misdirection through
the third person limited omniscient point of view. “The

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best twist ever in literature is Jane Austen’s Emma. To me,
she is the target of perfection, at which we shoot in vain”
(http://www.accio-quote.org). Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice too is told in third person limited omniscient view
mainly through Elizabeth’s consciousness. This point of
view is a successful narrative technique. It also arouses the
reader’s sympathy for Elizabeth because we can see that she
is being honest to herself, which is essential for her reform.
By using this technique, Jane Austen controls how much
the reader must know about events and emotions which in
turn help to create suspense.

Occasionally, Austen narrates from Darcy’s consciousness

too so that the reader is aware of his growing feeling for
Elizabeth and to highlight Elizabeth’s prejudice against
Darcy. Austen slyly puts the reader in Lizzie’s shoes; the
narrator is definitely third person but not omniscient. It is
limited to what Lizzie knows. Austen deceives her readers
for most of the book, revealing that Mr. Darcy is not the
villain of the piece, but an honourable man, a true friend,
and worthy suitor and that Lizzie has been misled by
Wickham, the superficial and amoral lieutenant, whose true
depravity is revealed until after he has seduced and run off
with Lizzie’s youngest sister.

It is this twist that Rowling aims at in the series, the

“delicious surprise and turnaround at book’s end
consequent to brilliantly executed narrative misdirection in
the lead-up to the story’s climax. What you believed to be
the case is not; what you never expected turns out to be the
forehead-slapping truth...” (Granger 36). The greatness of
both Austen and Rowling lies in the subtlety and dexterity
with which they set their plots in motion. Their novels
reward the careful reader and encourage rereading;
apparently minor details frequently turn out to have larger

94
significance (Philip Nel 24). The chess games Ron plays
before the Gryffindor fireplace becomes significant
elsewhere when the triumvirate try to reach the Chamber of
Secrets.

Like Austen, Rowling favours a style that relies upon limited

perspective to restrict the reader’s experience to one
character’s view of the world. The reader’s perspective on
the wizarding world is primarily shaped by Harry’s
perspective, just as Emma’s limitations prevent our
knowledge of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax’s
engagement. Such a narrative voice is called “sympathy
through control of Inside Views” (Wayne Booth). Our
ironic distance emerges gradually from a tension between
our previous knowledge of Harry’s character alongside his
new circumstance or thought rather than being the result of
an intrusive narrative voice. The result is a narrative that
traces the influence of society upon the individual in order
to mark the limitations of a private vision, while also
evoking the sympathy for others (The Oxford Handbook of
Children’s Literature 95).

At its simplest, narrative is transformation. Transformation

occurs at a deeper level through the narrator’s focus on
Harry Potter’s character as he moves through adolescence
to adulthood, making more and more difficult choices.
Elements transform when joined by narrative. The change
in Harry’s perceptions and invariably the readers too
indicate how the narrative transforms as the series
progresses. Core facts remain the same from first to last but
the perceptions change as the story and the characters grow
in complexity and the action of the plot gains momentum
(Kate Behr 257). The reader’s understanding undergoes a
hermeneutic circle as Rowling plants clues or references
earlier in the books just as passing hints only to be

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developed later. The narrative arc for Harry and the reader
moves from wonder, innocence and comedy to fear,
experience and tragedy as the series progresses. Narrative
works within time and space and readers acquire experience
and lose their innocence as Harry does.

Rowling uses Narrative misdirection in each of her books

to create the impression in the reader’s mind that they have
a good idea of what is going on when really all they have is
Harry’s view. But his view is ever restricted one like a
braided horse, making hasty judgements often owing to lack
of information or neglecting the right clues on the periphery
of his vision (bookclubs.barnes and noble.com). Each
book’s end hits a dagger at his mistaken perceptions, yet the
next book continues to mislead the readers with the same
wrong mistaken pattern of belief. There is slap-in-forehead
revelation at the end of every book. This is the magic of
Rowling’s narrative mastery keeping the reader blinded by
their love and admiration for Harry. The readers are heavily
connected to the hero that he becomes something of a
higher being.

Nothing is what seems in the Harry Potter series - the world

seen through Harry’s eyes too often goes wrong.
Throughout the individual stories, Rowling seems to scatter
riddles and clues in unveiling the mystery. Often, she uses
overhearing of a conversation, or following a person as
means of reaching information.

‘What was that about?’ whispered Ron, reeling in the Extendable

Ears.

“Dunno,” said Harry, thinking hard. ‘He wants something

mended…andhe wants to reserve something in there…could
you see what he pointed at when he said “that one”?’. (HPCS 9)

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Rowling in every book works to stun the readers in the end
by the tricks they missed because of the trust kept on
Harry’s view of things. She presents the facts in such a way
as to assert the belief of having all the facts when one really
has only a narrow perspective of what is happening.
Everything can be understood differently if only the readers
have a larger view of things. Narrative point of view is the
most important and powerful means by which the reader’s
perceptions and sympathies are manipulated. In first person
narratives, the character telling the story filters the events
through his/ her own consciousness. A first-person
narrator may be naïve or limited in understanding so that
the reader will be skeptical of his judgements.

Reading Harry Potteris a delightful introduction to the

importance of striving to understand how little we see
through our eyeballs and how much one’s prejudices can
cloud our vision of events. In real life too, one often
confuses the first-person ignorant view with the third
person omniscient, the all-seeing god view. We act as if we
know everything when in reality, we don’t even have a clue
about what others in our lives are doing or thinking.

The narrator in Harry Potter is not the omniscient one

having everything under spectral view. It is not one of a
subjective first-person narrative of any particular character.
The story in fact is not told by the author as an invisible
omniscient god or Dumbledore or Snape’s perception. The
narrative is as if from an angle slightly larger high over
Harry’s shoulder. The readers never have anything but the
smallest fraction of information about what is going on with
Voldemort, Dumbledore, or Snape. Of all the perspectives
on the story, Rowling chooses to give the relatively clueless
angle of Harry’s on the proceedings of the wizarding world,
“because it’s the easiest way to keep us from knowing

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what’s really going on so we can be stunned at the story
ending” (John Granger 102).

Misdirection always reinforces the reader’s prejudices. If

Harry is all admiration and reverence for the white-bearded
headmaster Dumbledore, the reader too definitely goes for
it. If on the other hand, Harry is guided by a strong dislike
or disbelief regarding Severus Snape, no doubt the same
with the reader too. The readers are mesmerized to view the
happenings of Hogwarts through the eyes of Harry whose
judgement is foreshadowed by prejudices. Nearly every
scene we behold is processed through Harry’s subjective
consciousness and filtered through his perspectives and
biases.

The Harry Potter series is generally written in a limited third

person point of view. But it does dip occasionally into
omniscient narration, when Rowling wants to get the reader
outside Harry’s consciousness and give us a broader view
of the action. At other times she takes us down into the
stands far away from Harry’s point of view. Words put into
the mouth of characters by an author are not always
intended to be taken literally, whether contradicted or not.
Rowling is talented in drawing three dimensional characters
who have their own agendas and biases. Rowling often uses
third person omniscient narrator especially with Snape, but
curiously enough it paints a decidedly unreliable portrait.

Narrative Misdirection occurs when the author sets the

readers upto identifying emotionally with a particular
character and thus only really see things the way, their
favourite character does. In Harry Potter obviously, the
much-sympathized character is Harry the skinny boy, the
reader is led by Harry’s beliefs and fears even when there’s
enough evidence to contradict the prevalent

98
misinterpretation and misjudgement of men and matters.
The readers miss or mistake the clues, follow red herring;
jump to partially correct or obviously wrong conclusions.
This happens because the reader’s eyes look into Harry’s
world, and so has limited scope and perception. The readers
see through Harry’s dim glass that too broken to give only
a distorted vision. The readers need Hermione’s charm to
set it right with her intellect. Harry is often a clueless
teenage boy. Rowling limits her narration to Harry’s point
of view, but also intentionally and repeatedly demonstrates
to the reader that Harry is an unreliable narrator.

At the end of every book, a conversation takes place

between Harry and Dumbledore, the latter evidently
divulging vital information that finally reveals the bigger
picture behind Harry’s personal experiences throughout the
year. In each book’s end the author clears misconceptions
but works a trick again to make us engrossed in some spell
leaving few questions unanswered so that in the next book
we are blissfully and willingly drawn into the mire. With
each episode building on the prior ones and the complexity
of the overarching mystery, the reader is glad to go with
Harry’s simplistic unquestioning perspective, atleast for the
time being.

Rowling’s narrative works wondrous magic making the

readers’ sympathies go with the boy living in the cupboard
under the stairs in Dursley’s house. Poorly clad in the hand-
me-downs of Dudley, the marked boy wins the hearts of
the readers and from that moment on, everything is for
Harry’s sake. The author makes the readers empathize with
Harry and willingly forego his mischievous pranks and
misconceptions. The readers, atonce fit themselves in his
shoes and whatever happens is viewed only from his
perspective. In instances that would normally demand the

99
play of reason and analysis, the readers are ready to wink at
the clues that are too obvious to miss and are bound with
Harry’s prejudiced decisions and drives.

Harry’s first meeting with the Potions Master for instance,

exemplifies how Harry and inevitably the reader too form a
negative impression of him without ever examining the
reason behind the outright animosity. Harry has no slight
inkling of who Snape might be and there is no justifiable
ground on which the darker image of the Dark Arts master
is projected even at the first sight. Rowling maintains a
perfect balance between providing clues for her reader and
at the same time maintaining the suspense of the novel. The
readers are surprised at the end of the books, and keep
wondering how they missed the clues that seem obvious
with hindsight. Rowling’s use of a third person limited
narrative voice produces an effect similar to the experience
of reading the Book of Revelation. Restricting the audience’s
knowledge to Harry’s experiences conveys the same feeling
of tunnel vision evoked by John of Patmo’s first person
account in the Book of Revelation.

The world of Harry Potter is rife with mystery. J.K.Rowling. In

creating scenes of heroism and hysteria, not only captures
imaginations for an enticing read, but also incorporates life
lessons through her characters and events. (Jann Lacoss 67)

Harry Potter is definitely darker in tone to a large extent, but

this darkness serves a purpose. Besides providing a thrilling
read, the elements of darkness and horror convey the
author’s realistic ideas of the wizarding world and the real
world at large. Throughout the whole narrative of the epic
long series, to quote the words of John Granger, the readers
are, “under the spell of Rowling’s real world, literally Felix
Felicis, the magic potion of narrative misdirection”
(Unlocking Harry Potter 23).

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In fictional works of all kinds, there is a narrative drive that
compels the reader to continue the perusal of a text, and
this lies in arousing the reader’s interest in the unfolding
discourse and the secrets it will disclose. In simple words,
the interest is directed toward untold events. The
established terms of narrative drives are suspense, curiosity
and surprise which Rowling manipulates to its fullest
potential. In the series as a whole, these elements create an
effective and tight narrative pattern that quickly engages the
reader’s attention and keeps them in a firm grip until the
last page (Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter 301).

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 Anthropomorphisms and
Transmogrification in the Series

Animals have long been popular subjects in children’s

literature. Throughout the history of storytelling from the
oral traditions of primitive people to the canon of modern
literature - animals have been represented extensively.
Children’s literature is full of animal characters widely
understood to be symbolic humans. They are believed to
provide the reader with a combination of delight and the
neutrality and emotional distance considered necessary for
navigating various stages of maturation or complex and
charged social issues. Anthropomorphism is too deeply
embedded in our literature to be easily eliminated even if it
is proved desirable.

Anthropomorphism is a term coined in the mid 1700 to

refer to any human characteristics to animals or nonliving
things, phenomenon, material states and objects or abstract
concepts. The term derives its meaning from the
combination of the Greek ‘anthropos’ meaning ‘humans’
and ‘morphs’ meaning shape or form. Sonia Vogl takes
liberty to quote Sutherland: “Talking beast stories are
perhaps the first kind of fantasy that younger children
encounter” (69).

Anthropomorphism has literary and practical virtues of

engaging the attention of young readers serving as a vehicle
for slightly veiled teaching about social relationships. (Sonia
Vogl 72). While each literary device differs in its application,
anthropomorphic entities of any type can be used to further

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describe and illuminate an event. The major purpose is to
give a wider appeal-visually and also in a non-threatening
way.

In literature, it serves an effective tool to create political and

social satire, besides its entertainment value. In its simplest
form, the animal fable has been used for didactic and moral
purposes and the tales of Aesop are the best-known
examples of this genre. Talking beasts enter man’s literature
at sometime early in the remote past and survive in many of
the most ancient and widespread folk-tale motifs (Ann
Swinfen 14). Tolkien links this tendency to
anthropomorphize with the deep desires of man. “There
are profounder wishes: such as the desire to converse with
other living things.... Other creatures are like other realms
with which Man has broken off relations and sees now only
from outside at a distance” (TL 58).

In the process of writing The Cronicles of Narnia (1949-54),

C.S.Lewis gradually expanded the breadth and scope of his
literary ambitions. Set in the fictional realms of Narnia, a
fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts and talking animals,
the series narrates the adventures of several children who
play central roles in the unfolding history of that world.
Intended originally as a collection of stories for children, it
evolved into a complex depiction of an entire moral
universe, adding subtle moral and spiritual complexities.
They are woven into the very fabric of the creative universe
and thereby making the books delight the senses as they
challenge and stir the soul. By using animals, Lewis could
communicate very subtle shades of human personality
without taking the young audience’s level of
comprehension or interest (Mark Banen.pag). Aslan, the
Great Lion, is a wise, compassionate magical authority who
serves as a mysterious and benevolent guide to the human

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children who visit the land and also a guardian and saviour
of the magical land. Lewis presents Aslan as an alternative
version of Jesus as the form in which Christ might have
appeared in an alternative reality.

Following the masters like C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, Rowling

too employs anthropomorphic characters to an invariably
greater degree to meet some important and indispensible
demands. Rowling’s world is a “shadow world of wizards
and witches, of curious creatures and fantastic beasts”
(Peter Dendle 163). Many aspects of this hidden world
prove to be parallels and even parodies of our own society.
Rowling devotes significant attention to animals and animal
sentience, the nature of monostrosity and its relationship
between humans and the natural world. The line between
human and animal or indeed between animate and
inanimate, is fluid throughout the series.

Werewolves abound, Ron’s pet rat turns out to be a

Hogwarts alumnus, hiding from justice in rat form.
Hogwarts students engage in Transfiguration classes,
turning objects into animals, and back again and often,
apprentice wizards end up in a mess creating an animal
object hybrid by mistake. Peter Dendle, goes to the extent
of saying that “Harry himself seems part animal at times: he
can converse with snake through the innate Parceltongue
ability” (Critical Perspectives 164).

Rowling’s use of the anthropomorphic device varies in

slight degrees to that of her predecessors in children’s
literature. The characters she portrays are not entirely
anthropomorphic in the strict sense of the term but
befitting the need of the hour. The author makes a sensible
and masterly use of the device to cater to her need
modifying it when and where it is necessary and

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appropriate. In a wider sense, it can be asserted that
Rowling employs different kinds of transformations and
transfigurations to embody several nuances of meaning and
values to her texts.

Shape Shifting or Metamorphosis:

According to Jack Zipes, metamorphosis is the key theme
of fairy tales, marked by the transformation of physical
form (8). In mythology, shape shifting or metamorphosis is
the ability to transform. This is usually achieved through an
inherent faculty of a mythological creature, divine
intervention or the use of magic spells or talismans. The
idea of shifting shape has been present since antiquity and
present in the oldest forms of Shamanism and in the epic
poems of Gilgamesh and Iliad where it is induced by the act
of a deity. It remains a common trope in modern fantasy,
and children’s literature. The most common form of shape
shifting is that of therianthropy, transformation of a human
being into an animal or conversely of an animal into human
form.

Hogwarts exemplifies the concept of transformation as well

as other-worldliness, as everything is in flux at this magical
school. (Reading Harry Potter 90) Staircases shift; whole
rooms appear and disappear at random. Besides the slight
usage of anthropomorphic elements, Rowling employs
exuberantly in the entire series can be categorized as
transmogrification, which in turn is the act or process of
being transformed into a different form.
Transmogrification, people morphing into animals is a
special case of anthropomorphism. This has a long and
respected history in many world cultures (“Animals as
People” 207). Rowling’s wizards shift from human to
animal form on a regular basis.

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Transformations in the Potter series are of varied nature.
There are the animagi transformations, werewolves, ghostly
transformations and even nymphs; each with its own
significance in relevance to the betterment of the plot. Sirius
changes his shape between human and dog, having acquired
the skill through long training. Rowling’s choice of the
name suggests that his weredog transformations may be
innate as much as acquired. Similarly, the name of her
werewolf character Lupin hints at an innate wolfish nature
via the Latin for wolf, ‘lupus’. In contrast, the author’s other
two shape-shifters Peter Pettigrew and James Potter have
nothing of the rat or the stag about their human names. The
present chapter attempts at an elaborate study on the varied
forms of transfigurations and their purpose in plot and
narrative. There are the animagus transformations,
werewolves and metamorphmagus.

Animagus:
An animagus is a witch or wizard with the rare ability to
transform into a particular animal at will. In Hermione’s
words, “An animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an
animal” (HPPA 246). Rowling coined the term ‘Animagus’
adding ‘magus’, the Latin word for wizard to animal
denoting a wizard who can become an animal yet retain
magical powers. Such an ability to transform into an animal
is as old as legend. In Celtic mythology, such
transformation is frequently referred. In Greek mythology,
Proteus was one of the very first wizards to display the
ability of transformation. Proteus was a servant of
Poseidon, God of the oceans, the term ‘Protean’ came to
signify transition from this allusion. In keeping with the
high status of Proteus, the Proteus Charm is the use of
advanced magic (Seeker’s Guide 23).

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A great difference between Rowling’s world and that of
others is the restriction on Animagi. In other fictional
worlds, wizards are capable of becoming any animal they
please. Rowling is aware of the risks of taking animal form
as “The witch or wizard who finds him or herself
transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but having a bat’s
brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the
moment they take flight” (Quidditch Through the Ages 1) .
Animagi are extremely rare. It is revealed that Prof. Mc
Gonagall is the only one of the seven registered Animagi of
the century, whereas Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, James
Potter and Rita Skeeter are unregistered. The registration of
the Animagus includes one’s animal form and its
distinguished markings. The penalty for failing to register as
an Animagus is a sentence in Azkaban, which is
considerably a very cruel punishment.

Owing to these factors, becoming an animagus is a rare

phenomenon, very few wizards choose to go with it. The
Animagus transformation is one of a very few forms of
magic that can be performed in a controlled manner
without a wand. Sirius and Wormtail display this ability to
transform into their Animagus shapes, without wands. It is
to be noted that there is no possible spell to prevent an
animagus to take its shape whereas there is a possibility,
though tough, of restoring one back to his human shape. It
needs more than one wizard to use the spell. For instance,
Sirius and Remus Lupin are seen employing a spell.

Animagus transformation requires a learned rather than a

hereditary skill, unlike those of a metamorphmagus. It
demands skill and practice and patience for witches and
wizards to become Animagi. Once the initial training is
over, an animagus can change at will, with or without a
wand. The process of becoming an animagus is long and

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arduous, and it has the potential to backfire and go horribly
wrong. Therefore, the animagus transformation is better to
be employed in moments of emergency and peril
demanding concealment or disguise.

A distinct quality of being an animagus is that it can only

take on the form of one particular animal, which is not
within the choice of the wizard. Rather the animagus form
chooses itself in accordance with the inner personality of
the wizard. It goes in tune with the character traits of the
wizard either good or bad. There are still more
characteristics peculiar to an animagus. The lifespan of the
animal may be less but that does not in any way restrain the
lifespan of the animagus form inherited by the wizard. In
the series, Peter Pettigrew stayed safely alive in his animagus
form of a rat for twelve years though the life span of the
rodents is limited to a short period.

Each animagus bears an identifying mark on their animal

form that is caused by something on their human body.
Professor McGonagall and Rita Skeeter have the markings
of their spectacles and Pettigrew has a bald spot on his
Animagus form his balding head. An animagus loses its
clothing upon morphing which reappears once the human
form is resumed. An animagus still thinks as a human does,
Rita Skeeter is able to eavesdrop on others’ conversations
when she is in her animagus form of a beetle. It is said that
they have the ability to communicate with normal animals.

Minerva McGonagall is the first animagus to be introduced

by the author in the early episodes of the book. She is
beady-eyed and thin-lipped. The reader’s first meeting of
Professor McGonagall is as a cat consulting a map. The first
instance of transformation of any kind can be seen even in
the commencement of Book I Harry Potter and the

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Philosopher’s Stone wherein a cat is seen reading a map,
keeping a keen eye upon its surroundings. To the surprise
of the readers, the cat gets transformed into a woman. With
this unusual occurence, Rowling taps a chord of magic,
mystery, suspense and thereby inducing a sense of wonder
and awe (HPPS 84). Fit enough, the woman in the guise of
a tabby cat is the transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts,
Minerva McGonagall. In ancient Rome, the goddess Diana
had the power to transform herself into a cat.

Minerva is always in the goodwill of Professor

Dumbledore, both of whom share a strain of respect and
unconditional bond of friendship that is exemplified
throughout the course of all the events in the whole series.
Not only does Dumbledore show reverence for the
Transfiguration Master, but also has in store unbeatable
trust, which is revealed in the confidential missions assigned
to be carried out under her surveillance. Before Harry is to
be left in the doorstep of Dursleys, it is McGonagall who is
missioned to watch the Muggle family. She in turn is sure
of her observation that they are the worst kind with whom
Harry’s life cannot be made a pawn.

Throughout the books, Minerva is the only one to be

assigned a responsible and confiding position. She is the
only known registered Animagus portrayed in the books,
and ever vigilant over the welfare and security of the young
wizards. She may at times be emotional and sentimental,
however the author makes her an extremely sensible master
who is in no less degree an intelligent and skilled teacher.
Like Dumbledore, or Snape, she too contributes equally to
the utmost protection of the school when the philosopher’s
stone, promising the Elixir of Immortality is brought back
from the Gringott’s vault. She draws a defense line with a

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chess game of real players, which any intruder is destined to
complete to progress further to the chamber of secrets.

In rewarding any good or punishing any offence, Minerva

never shows prejudice or favour for her own house
Gryffindor. She is always a just and stern master whose
ultimate concern is wizard discipline and welfare. She metes
out punishment for all the four wizards, Harry, Ron,
Hermione, and Draco who are seen wandering the halls.
When Ron and Harry are caught using Flying Ford Anglia,
she readily punishes them with detention. Despite her strict
disciplinary attitude, she never fails to acknowledge and
reward the merit and any goodness in her students or her
fellow wizard masters. She is the first to observe and
acknowledge Harry’s extraordinary flying skill making him
the youngest ever seeker in the Quidditch match. When she
watches from the tower Harry’s prowess at flying, she
readily makes him a seeker in the team though he is
inexperienced in the game till date.

Though generally respectful of her fellow teachers she has

little patience for the less competent colleagues. She is in
short, a tough bold woman strong enough to take four
stunning spells to her chest in the battle. Being a woman of
strong ethical mould she is fit to be the head of the most
prestigious house Gryffindor. Eliza T. Dresang goes on to
say that Minerva McGonagall is neither a caricature nor a
stereotype, but a strong, independent female. Stern instead
of charismatic, she is described as eyeing her students like a
wrathful eagle. She is the epitome of fairness (Ivory Tower
234). Like Hermione, she believes in rules but she is not
chained to them; she is ready to break a rule wisely, and not
out of favouritism, like Snape for Slytherin house or even
Dumbledore for Harry. She displays maturity in not
adhering to it just because it is the written law.

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 Fig. 5. Sirius, The Azkaban Prisoner
(http://moviemorgue.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Black)

Sirius Black is the second animagus, the readers get

introduced to in the third book Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban, the other being Minerva McGonagall familiar
from the very beginning of the plot. The name Sirius Black
is a pun on his animagus form of a black dog. The term is
derived from the ancient Greek ‘Seirios’ meaning ‘glowing’
or ‘scorcher’(David Colbert 41). Sirius as a teenager was a
tall, well-built, darkly handsome man with fair skin, long
lustrous black hair and striking grey eyes. He displayed an
air of casual elegance, a vestige of aristocratic beauty
apparently due to his royal lineage from the Black Family.

As an animagus, Sirius was able to perform human

transfiguration and defensive magic like Disarming and
Stunning Spells non-verbally. This is a testimony to his
superior magical ability as performing non-verbal magic is
rather difficult. Known as Padfoot or Snuffles in his
animagus form, Sirius is the son of pure-blood wizards. The
Blacks are an unpleasant and malicious set of people
believing that magic should be kept within pureblood

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families like themselves, and not to muggles. Sirius
disagreed with his family’s belief in blood purity and defied
tradition when he gets sorted into Gryffindor instead of
Slytherin.

Sirius seems to have certain traits related to his animagus

form. He is descried ‘as perfectly like a dog smelling a
rabbit’, and having a bark like laughter. Sirius gained lifelong
friendship with James Potter with whom his loyalties lie
down to the last moment of his life for which he is best
deserving to be Harry’s Godfather. Like James, Sirius too is
witty and talented wizard but equally arrogant and
troublesome, even vicious to those whom he despised. Like
James Potter, Sirius too shared his friend’s malignance for
Severus Snape. In the author’s own words: “Sirius loathed
Snape and the feeling was entirely mutual”
(www.accioquote.org).

After joining the Order of the Phoenix, he found himself

rolling with mistrust and stress due to the great terror
imposed by Lord Voldemort. He failed to trust Lupin
suspecting him to be Voldemort’s spy and therefore
committed the most dangerous insensible mistake of
entrusting Pettigrew with the responsibility of safeguarding
the Potters and also excluding Lupin from important
information regarding their whereabouts. Sirius exemplifies
true friendship throughout his life during and after Potters’
life and death.

Sirius is the only known person to have escaped the Prison,

made possible only through transforming into his animagus
form- a massive black dog. The whole mission of his life is
to protect Harry, his friend’s son, he is justifiably fit to be
the titular character of a book other than the Potter wizard.
The depression and maltreatment he underwent for twelve

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long years in Azkaban is the reason for his sullen, ghastly
look in the late years. In the words of Dumbledore: “Sirius
was a brave, clever, and energetic man, and such men are
not usually content to sit at home hiding while they believe
others to be in danger” (HPOP 825). Sirius seemed to
possess a remarkable mental control though at times,
capable of an explosive temper due to anger. Dumbledore’s
words about Sirius speak of the indomitable will of the
Azkaban prisoner, without which he would not have
survived the soul-sucking dementors in the prison. Sirius’s
character is marked by a great passion and devotion for
Hogwarts, which reveals itself in his words and his actions
to redeem the same from evil powers.

Sirius is a man with flaws; he is not wholly wonderful for he

is good at spouting bits of excellent personal philosophy
but he does not always live upto them. He propounds
speculative thoughts of wisdom to Harry: “If you want to
know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats
his inferiors, not his equals”.(HPGF 27) But it remains a
matter of great contemplation whether he adheres to his
own philosophy. He is not even able to be benign with his
equal like Snape and for no reason ready to bully him along
with James Potter. Yet Sirius’s character remains significant
in that his “redeeming quality is how much affection he is
capable of feeling. He loved James like a brother and he
went on to transfer that attachment to Harry” (Ivory Tower
61).

Sirius Black is not so imposing a figure, but he is critical to

Harry’s development in a different way. He remained
brotherly to Harry throughout his hardships with Dolores
Umbridge, encouraging him to oppose her reforms and
strongly approving of Harry’s tutorship under
Dumbledore’s Army. He finally designates his friend James’

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son Harry as heir to all his possessions endowing him the
inheritance of his fortune and also the house at 12,
Grimmauld Palace, which Harry hands over to the Order
to function. Shobha Ramaswamy likens Sirius to a
scapegoat who leads a blighted life, bearing the blame for
the crimes of others. He refrains from defending himself
owing to the pricking conscience that it is due to his
negligence; Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters. If not so,
he could have taken on his animagsus form and escaped the
Azkaban prison much earlier. Only when Harry’s safety is
at stake, does he attempt to come out of prison to safeguard
his friend’s son (140).

Rita Skeeter:

Fig. 6 Rita Skeeter the Vicious journalist

(http://guide-to-pottermore-items.blogspot.in/2012/09/what-to-
find-to-collect-legs.html)

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Rita Skeeter is one of the unregistered animagi portrayed by
Rowling. She is a journalist by profession. Her years of
training to become an animagus, enabled her to transform
herself as a beetle at will, the ability which she manipulated
to act as a spy and eavesdrop anywhere unnoticed. The
name befits her so well; Skeeter is a female mosquito that
feeds on sucking blood leaving an itching lump on the skin.
This animagus too is more-or-less a parasite living at the
cost of other’s privacy and individual will. Her profession
as a witch journalist, goes in tune with this character of her
resulting in her contribution to the Daily Prophet spinning
stories about the wizards who climb the ladder of fame and
popularity. Building on invented stories, false information,
added spice by her wild and crooked imagination, she is
keen to pull down the legs of those who are on progressive
graph in their career or life.

Benign to none, equally malicious to all, her poisonous quill

spares no one including the great wizards like Dumbledore.
In the words of Hermione, she is truly a horrible woman.
Molly Weasley fears that Rita Skeeter goes out of her way
to cause trouble. Dumbledore describes her writing as
enchantingly nasty, for she always tended to give a
sensational report which often turns out to be out rightly
dishonest.

Rita Skeeter shows a rather unsympathetic attitude towards

Harry whom she sees as exposing “a pathological need for
attention? At worst a psychotic death wish!” (HPGF 310)
Such a scathing remark is made by her in the report of the
interview she had with Harry after his name being unusually
chosen by the Goblet of Fire as the fourth contestant for the
Triwizard Tournament. Her report projects a thoroughly
falsified account of Harry as one after vain glory and fame.

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It is Hermione who lets the cat out of its bag, revealing
Skeeter to be an animagus.

Hermione at the right moment unravels the mystery behind

the witch journalist, when she and her comrades Ron and
Harry persistently being tormented by her. Hermione traps
her in a jar when found in her animagus form perched on
top of the castle. She nearly confiscates her with an
Unbreakable Charm so as to prevent her from being
transformed. Hermione is eventually able to manipulate her
shady practice threatening her to expose her as an illegal
animagus to the Ministry of Magic, she agrees upon writing
a true story for the first time, in support of Harry’s claim
about the Dark Lord’s resurrection.

Through the character of Rita Skeeter, Rowling

seems to assert the transformative power of
language of a reporter. In the words of Kate Behr,
Skeeter is an “irritating muckraker” (258) and
reporter, who with her words, can change the
perception of people from positive to negative and
vice versa. She corners Harry in the name of taking
an interview.
Frowning, he avoided her gaze, and looked down at words the
quill had just written: Tears fill those startling green eyes as our
conversation turns to the parents, he can barely remember.

“I have NOT got tears in my eyes!”said Harry loudly. (HPGF

306)

The published edition of the Daily Prophet almost

demolishes Harry’s credibility, making him seem an
attention seeker, and a violently disturbed young man.
Harry is not the only victim of her vicious green quill. She
damages and even transforms Harry’s high regard for
Dumbledore with her narrative. To her, the white bearded

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master is “an obsolete dingbat” (HPGF 307). Her
venomous report is a major influence in the movement of
the plot of the final book. Harry’s undaunted faith in his
master is shaken by revelations. It becomes an integral part
of his maturation in becoming an individual rather than just
a cog in Dumbledore’s machine. Vain and self-serving, she
is a ruthless and unethical journalist who uses any means to
gather information, accurate or fake for her sensational
reports.

Rita Skeeter wrecks considerable damage to Harry’s life at

Hogwarts by her irresponsible manipulation of the written
word. Her writings have darker consequences and causes
embarrassment to Harry. As Rowling quotes in her
prologue to her book Cuckoo’s Calling, Rita Skeeter makes
Harry’s life miserable by publicaly portraying Harry’s
misfortune. “Unhappy is he whose fame makes his
misfortunes famous” (Lucius, Telephus). Not loyal to any
particular person, she caters to popular writing in and of
itself. Her desire to fulfill the agenda of writing itself links
her to Tom Riddle’s diary. She becomes an agent of the
writing, letting its needs dictate her actions, almost as if it
were a being of its own (Reading Harry Potter142). Her
writings have their own agenda and make their own
demands but they create a reality of their own.

Peter Pettigrew:
Pettigrew is the weakest of the animagus; he is known to be
a coward. In Voldemort’s own words, he is devoted to the
Dark Lord only due to his cowardice. “Your devotion is
nothing more than cowardice. You wouldn’t be here if you
had anywhere to go” (HPGF 9). His cowardice is
exemplified once again when he confesses, “Sirius, Sirius,
what could I have done? The Dark Lord…You have no

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idea…he has weapons you can’t imagine…I was scared,
Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James”
(HPPA 274).

Known by his nickname Wormtail, Pettigrew is one of the

four Marauders, the other three being James, Sirius and
Lupin. During the first Wizarding war, he became a
member of the Order of Phoenix but became a spy to
Voldemort. Pettigrew’s role as a spy is crucial to the plot of
the Potter series, in the way that he betrays the hiding place
of the Potter family, whose safety was alleged to him. Of
the Marauders, Pettigrew was the weakest physically,
intellectually and magically lagging behind the others in
ability. After Voldemort’s fall, Pettigrew faked his own
death and framed Sirius for betraying James and Lily and
his own murder along with twelve Muggles. Peter spent
twelve years in his Animagus form as the Weasley family’s
pet rat Scabbers. Pettigrew’s role grows crucial in
materializing Voldemort’s rebirth.

As a student of Hogwarts, Pettigrew idolized Potter and

Sirius for their popularity and talent. It was as in the words
of Minerva, “Hero-worshipped Black and Potter. Never
quite in their league, talent wise. I was often rather sharp
with him. Stupidboy...Foolish boy...” (HPPA 207).
Pettigrew’s rat form helped him slip through the
Whomping Willow’s branches and immobilized the tree, in
order to let himself enter the Shrieking Shack. In a point of
misjudgement, Pettigrew was chosen as the secret keeper by
Black, and Lupin was unaware of this, the consequence of
which was irrepairable. When Sirius sensed the injustice and
disloyalty of Pettigrew, he rushed to avenge the great
betrayal done to the Potters. But before Sirius could make
it out and draw his wand, Pettigrew snatched the same and
finished off twelve muggles with a single curse proclaiming

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that Sirius betrayed the Potters. To strengthen his false
charge upon Sirius, he cut his own finger to convince the
Order of the accused thereby getting him imprisoned in
Azkaban prison even without a trial. Even Remus the only
other living Marauder believed Sirius to be the murderer.

James Potter:

Fig. 7. James Potter as animagus

(https://www.tumblr.com/search/animagus%20form)

Very little is known of James as an animagus, as he never

appears, alive in the story as the other animagus characters
Pettigrew or Lupin do. Whatever is known is only through
the narration done by some others or through Harry’s
visions or penetrations into the Pensieve. Here and there,
few glimpses of James’s life as a student and as Harry’s
father are explicated. He appears mostly in flashbacks and
photographs as ghost or spirit. In other occasions, just a
mention is made by other characters.

James Potter is the pampered child, grown up to be

arrogant, boastful and proud but deep down a good person.
He was a clever and talented Gryffindor Chaser, he was
somewhat an obnoxious youth, exceptional self-confidence
that bordered on arrogance. James had a strong sense of

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rivalry with Snape partly because of the latter’s indignance
over James’s popularity at Quidditch and he had the habit
of hexing innocent students and especially Snape. Both
exercised an inexplicable hatred for reasons unknown.
Snape looked for every reason to get James expelled and the
Potter in turn, took every chance to bully him. It is indeed
strange that Lily to whom James got married, was initially
resentful towards him as Snape was. She was equally
unimpressed with James’ arrogance and haughtiness, and
tried all means to defend Snape, who was her friend then.
Snape: “he fancies you, James Potter fancies you! And he’s
not…everyone thinks…big Quidditch hero_”

Lily Evans: “I know James Potter’s an arrogant toerag. I don’t

need you to tell me that (HPDH 674).

When James spared Snape on Lily’s request, Snape in

humiliation retorted with the most cutting remark on his
beloved calling her as filthy mudblood.

The most important thing that separated Lily from Snape

was his fascination for the Dark Arts, but for which their
friendship would have lasted forever. It is this leaning
against the evil that broke their bond once for all and in the
course of events, Lily and James developed a good rapport
that ended in marriage. But for his bullying nature and vain
glory, James Potter had always remained a loyal and true
friend to the rest of the Marauders. He always did his best
to lend a supporting hand to Sirius or Lupin whenever they
demanded so, and consistently funded the werewolf Lupin
in times of his unemployment and financial crisis.

As a wizard, James was unquestionably skilful and even in

his early age of fifteen, he was able to master the Animagi
transfiguration. He could conjure a corporeal patronus in
the form of a stag, a mark of superior magical ability, a

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testament to his extraordinary talent. Rowling expressed the
reason behind James’ hatred for Snape which may be
because James always suspected Snape harboured deeper
feelings for Lily. This factor can be accounted for James’
behaviour to Snape. “Avada Kedavra!” The green light
filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the
wall, it made the banisters glow like lightning rods, and
James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut….
(HPDH 344)

The transformations of James Potter, Sirius Black and

Pettigrew, are examples of voluntary shape shifting where
they choose to do so as a means of escape and liberation.
Here their abilities allow them to escape certain occasions
and act in a manner otherwise impossible in their normal
form. But for his animagus form, Sirius would not have
been able to escape the prison of Azkaban and Peter
Pettigrew would not have survived safely if he had not been
in his rat form. In Professor Lupin’s case the
transformation is not voluntary like the animagi. When a
form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect can be
one of confinement and restraint.

Werewolf:
In the Harry Potter series, the case of Professor Lupin as a
werewolf, is a case of an involuntary transfiguration where
he is destined to take the form of a wolf during the full
moon not out of will but because of the lycanthropic bite
he received in his young age. It becomes a state of
confinement and restraint; he is not free to move with the
rest of the wizards as a normal human being. Rather, it
imposes restrictions and inhibitions on his affairs. Lupin’s
shape shifting becomes an imprisoning metamorphosis as
in Ursula LeGuin’sEarthsea: “…as a wizard, he had learned

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the price of losing one’s self, playing away the truth. The
longer a man stays in a form not his own, the greater this
peril” (Seeker’s Guide 23).

Fig.8. Lupin and his Werewolf

transformation(http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/remus-
lupin/images/36381498/title/remus-lupin-photo)

A werewolf is a human being who upon the complete rising

of the full moon, becomes a fearful and deadly wolf. The
prefix ‘were’ coming from the old English word for ‘man’
is also used to designate shape shifters.

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The word ‘Lupin’ is derived from Latin ‘Lupinus’, ‘wolf-
like’; ‘lupus’ ‘wolf’, being the basic word. This condition is
caused by infection with lycanthropy, which happens when
bitten by another werewolf. Werewolves are distinct from
normal wolves, by their shorter snout, human-like eyes, and
they are noted for their mindless hunting of humans when
they are in their wolf form. They behave and appear like
normal human beings but completely forget their human
identity once they are in the beastly form and are likely to
kill even the best and closest of their friends.

Werewolves usually infect their victims through biting, but

sometime take it too far and kill victims. It is but strange
that they can recall what they did after retrieving back into
their human form. A mixture of powdered silver and dittany
applied to a fresh bite will seal the wound and allow the
victim to live on as a werewolf. But there are tragic tales of
such victimized begging for death rather than becoming a
werewolf. “I did not know, for a very long time, the identity
of the werewolf who had attacked me; I even felt pity for
him, thinking that he had no control, knowing by then how
it felt to transform” (HPPA 256).

Remus is described as having a pale face with premature

lines, and light brown hair that with each book becomes
more and more grey. Harry describes his first opinion on
Remus: “The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set
of wizard’s robes that had been darned in several places. He
looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light
brown hair was flecked with grey” (HPPA 59). He bears
more scars from his self-inflicted injuries, and his hair was
thicker and darker. Remus was compassionate, intelligent,
calm, tolerant, levelheaded, brave, kind and good natured.
Despite having suffered a great deal of prejudice in his life
due to his lycanthropy, he managed to remain an ability to

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see the good in almost everybody, never partook in
bullying. Therefore, he could be described as the most
mature, and responsible of the four Marauders. Remus was
a gifted teacher, with a rare flair for his subject and a
profound understanding of his pupils. He is able to extract
the best in everyone. He is one of the very few to deal with
Neville’s lack of confidence and helping him to overcome
it by teaching him how to defeat the boggart.

Lupin gets bitten by a werewolf at his early age and all

efforts become futile to find a cure for him. “My
transformations in those days were- were terrible. It is very
painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from
humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead”
(HPPA 259). This resulted in self harm, for Remus attacked
himself in frustration and isolation. Though he became the
best friend of James and Sirius, his identity of being a
werewolf was kept a secret, for fear of being deserted. Every
month, during the full moon, Remus would be taken to the
Shrieking Shack to prevent him from attacking others. But
during the second year of their school, the truth was known
by James and Sirius, who in turn decided to learn to become
animagi, just to free Lupin of his isolation during the most
crucial period of the full moon.

Apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever

been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great
friends...I was terrified they would desert me the moment they
found out what I was. But of course, they like you, Hermione,
worked out the truth...and they didn’t desert me at all. Instead,
they did something for me that would make my transformations
not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They become
Animagi. (259)

Remus shows signs of gratefulness to his friends and even

to Snape, the supposed enemy. He is particularly thankful
to Lily, Harry’s mother, “Your mother was there for me at

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a time when no one else was” (256). Remus recognised
Harry not by his scar, as others do, but by his eyes, which
closely resembled Lily’s. The two shared an ambience, an
ease in friendly relationship, Remus finds Harry to be kind,
intelligent and an excellent Seeker and shares a strong
empathy for the Potter boy. Unlike Snape, who shows
prejudice against select wizards, Professor Lupin was the
one who treats all alike, based on their character, and not
by their magical skill, blood status or their wealth. This
makes him the best Defense against Dark Arts Teacher
Hogwarts ever had. He was held in high esteem and
students love the practical, hands-on-experience he
provides in his classes. Though Remus married
Nymphadora Tonks, he thinks it his grave mistake for
which he is guilty.
Don’t you understand what I’ve done to my wife and my unborn
child? I should never have married her, I’ve made her an
outcast!”.... And the child-the child _.” “My kind don’t usually
breed! It will be like me, ... – how can I forgive myself when I
knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent
child?! And, if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be
better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it
should always be ashamed!”. (HPDH 213)

He suffered great mental anguish, when he heard of

Tonks’s pregnancy. He tore out a clamp of his own hair in
anxiety over the possibility of his child inheriting his
lycanthropy by heredity. Remus was posthumously awarded
the Order of Merlin, first class, the first werewolf ever to
have been given this honour. The example of his life and
death bear weight on discarding the stigmatisation of
werewolves as outcasts among the wizarding folk.
Werewolves live normal lives, except on full moon, a
werewolf goes through an incredibly painful transformation
from a human into a wolf-like creature. “There was a

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terrible snarling noise. Lupin’s head was lengthening. So
was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was
sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling
into clawed paws” (HPPA 259).

Lupin turns out to be a paradoxical figure; a force of good

that can be dangerous as well. Rowling’s relating the
werewolf condition to the split self is astute and Roni Natov
makes a comparison with Red Riding Hood in which a
werewolf being a fusion of animal and human tries to
seduce a young girl (136). Rowling establishes Lupin’s
innocence and evokes compassion for him as he tells his
story. Skipping wolfsbane potion, the only preventive
measure, madness and self-destructive impulses may be the
ruling passion and all these are depicted with a kind of
psychological truth. In the case of Lupin atleast, the author
attempts to humanize the demonic, rather than demonize
the human (Natov 136).

Rowling in most of her communication with the press, has

stated that Prof. Lupin is her favourite Hogwarts teacher.
Rowling makes him a symbol of the consequences of
prejudice and segregation as well as society’s often negative
reaction towards the ill and the disabled. Rowling states that
Lupin’s characterization and history are HIV metaphors in
the sense that he was infected young and suffered prejudice
and terrified of passing the conditon on. (qtd.in
harrypotter.wikia.com)

Metamorphmagus:
Rowling invented the word ‘metamorphmagus’ in the same
way as animagus, combining the words ‘magus’ with
metamorphosis to mean transformation. Contrary to the
Animagus transfiguration, which needs skill,
“Metamorphmagi are really rare, they’re born, not made”,

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as said by Tonks in Order of the Phoenix (52). A
metamorphmagus is a witch or wizard with the ability to
change his or her physical appearance at will. They can take
a wide variety of forms, changing age and sex, potentially
looking like anyone else, or a changing just a part of their
physique. They cannot take the full form of an animal as the
animagus does. It denotes a trait of heredity to be
metamorphmagus. A metamorphmagus’ abilities are
affected by his or her emotional state. The person’s
appearance often reflects the emotion felt at the time of
transformation. The animagus spell is very difficult and
dangerous to perform and it is also ordained by the Ministry
of Magic, that it needs to be registered for one to become
an animagus to prevent any illegal use of power in their
animal forms. Rita Skeeter enters Hogwarts undetected
after being banned by Dumbledore, in her animagus form
beetle.

Nymphadora Tonks
Commonly known as Tonks, Nymphadora is a half-blood
witch, she is a meatamorphmagus, a very rare power which
allows the person to change their appearance, even without
a wand. It might be the colour of one’s hair or the shape of
one’s features. The name Nymphadora means the gift of
the Nymphs, which in Greek myth refers to a member of
female spirits found in different forms of nature. (David
Colbert 30) Nymphs usually are said to possess the ability
to change shapes, an appropriate relativity here to Tonks’
own ability to shape-shift. She is known for her clumsy
behaviour and bubble-gum pink hair. Her natural
metamorphic abilities helped her to easily pass the
Concealment and Disguise position in the training for
becoming an Auror, one who fights dark wizards. Tonks’
love for Lupin the werewolf is unconditional. She feels a

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deep unfathomable love for him, though infact he was too
old and even dangerous for her. Fearing he might pass on
his lycanthropy the werewolf condition to her, Remus keeps
himself away from reciprocating and even rejects her
outrageously. The rejection of her love plunges her in a
deep melancholia which the others understand to be
because of the death of Sirius. “Harry thought she looked
drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her
smile. Certainly, her appearance was less colourful than
usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink
hair”. (HPOP)

It is with her only adult friend Molly Weasley that she

confides her unrequitted love for Lupin. Tonks has always
been a welcome member in the Weasley family and after
her death, it is Molly who duels Bellatrix Lestrange in the
final battle as a means of revenge.

Fig. 9. Nymphadora Tonks as metamorphmagus

(http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Metamorphmagus)

Transfiguration is a branch of magic that focuses on the

alteration of the form or appearance of an object through
the alteration of the object's molecular structure. (Harry
Potter wiki) It is a systematic, exact magical discipline
working best for the scientifically inclined mind. “When

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transfiguring, it is important to make firm and decisive
wand movements. Do not wiggle or twirl your wand
unnecessarily, or the transfiguration will certainly be
unsuccessful” (HPPSch 4). In Rowling’s own words, “It is
regarded as a very hard work and more scientific than any
other form of magic, as in you have to get it exactly right
for the transfiguration to be successful” (Rowling at the
Royal Albert Hall).

Anthropomorphic Characters:

Fig. 10. Firenze, the

Centaur(http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Forbidden_Forest_
Centaur_colony)

Firenze is a centaur seen in the Forbidden Forest

introduced in the second book of the series, the Chamber
of Secrets. Harry’s encounter with him during his detention
is the first real experience of a serious non-human
perspective on the magical world of the novels. A great deal
is known about Hogwarts from the point of view of the
house elves, who are bound to the wizard household work
and have a vested interest in maintaining the human-elf
status quo. But opposed to these house elves is the
perspective and status of the centaurs who keep their brain-
in-tact; they are serious, wise and completely reject human

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domination of the magical world. He is courageous, not
traditional or proud as most of his kind.

The Centaurs generally despise human folk and deem it a

dishonour to serve them by any means. Firenze stands
distinct in this that he has no false inhibitions against the
humans and chooses to stand along the cause of
Dumbledore in resisting the evil power of Lord Voldemort.
Dumbledore assigns him the post of the Divination
Teacher along with Professor Trelawney as Centaurs are
noted for their reading of the stars. Firenze saves Harry
when confronted by Lord Voldemort as a hooded figure
whose identity Harry was then unaware of. “This is where
I leave you. You are safe now. Good Luck, Harry Potter”
(HPPS 189). When the other centaurs see Firenze carrying
Harry on his back, he is looked upon with disgust and
shame as a centaur is not for humans to ride and it is a
despicable act.

Bane: Firenze! What are you doing? You have a human on your
back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?
Firenze: “Do you know who is this? This is the Potter boy. The
quicker he leaves this forest, the better”. (HPPS 187)

Firenze’s clan so take him to be a traitor and even attempt

to kill him but safeguarded by Hagrid. Firenze has great
respect for the master Dumbledore, whose death was a
huge blow to him. He stood like a sentinel by the shores of
the Lake, attending the funeral, paying homage to the great
wizard who had given him a home and identity. He stayed
loyal to the cause for good and after the battle, was accepted
proudly into his own colony of centaurs, with the right
acknowledgement that his pro-human leanings were not
shameful.In the Magical Worlds of Harry Potter, the author
makes a reference to the centaurs in myths. Centaurs are
mythical beasts with the legs and bodies of horses, with

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human torsos, arms and heads. According to legends,
Centaurs fought many battles with humans. They tended to
be boisterous, wild, and quick to anger. Chiron was a Greek
centaur who was supposed to have taught Achilles and
Odysseus. The Greek god Zeus, in recognition of Chiron’s
benevolence, placed him as the Constellation Sagittarius.
These myths related to the heavenly connections explain
why the centaurs look to the stars to read the future.

Mandrakes:
Rowling uses anthropomorphic elements to the slightest
degree in her presentation of Mandrakes. Mandrakes have
the semblance of a human physique having arms and legs.
Infact even in botanical texts mandrake roots are pictured
in the form of a human. “Instead of roots, a small muddy
and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The
leaves were growing right out of its head. He had pale green,
mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his
lungs” (HPCS 72).

Legend goes on to insist that mandrakes release a scream

fatal to the listener when being pulled out from the soil.
Nature spirits and tree gods are a common sight in ancient
mythology and every ancient religion. It could be
remembered that in Cinderella, the heroine is helped by a
hazel tree rather than a fairy godmother (Magical Worlds of
Harry Potter 128). Venus, the Goddess of Love was
sometimes called as mandragoritis. A mandrake can restore
people who have been changed from their usual selves. In
Homer’s Odyssey, mandrakes helped the sorcerer Circe,
change Odysseus’s men into pigs and then back into
humans again.

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 Fig. 11http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/mandrakes

Rowling describes mandrakes as babies. Because the root

of the plant is shaped vaguely like a human, the mandrakes
are thought of to be possessing human spirits, with the
ability to feel pain, to bleed and scream when pulled from
the ground. The mandrakes are even shown to have gender.
Each plant could be identified as either male or female, so
it is associated with love and fertility. It is used in medicine
to ease pain. It contains a strong narcotic essence inducing
sleep. Professor Sprout, the Herbology Professor
introduces the magical plants in her class and Harry is
surprised to see its humanesque form. They seem to possess
behaviour similar to man. They become moody and
secretive at times. They are certainly sentient beings as they
are shown to possessing varying state of mind. They even
arrange parties, implying social interaction. A mature
mandrake is used as prime ingredient in making Mandrake
Restorative Draught to cure the Petrified. They form an
essential part of most antidotes. In Antony and Cleopatra,
Shakespeare makes a note of mandrakes and their power of

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inducing sleep through the words of Cleopatra: “Give me
to drink mandragora...that I might sleep out this great gap
of time my Antony is away” (1.5. 525).

Aragog- the giant spider:

Fig. 12.Aragog, The Giant

Spiderhttp://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Aragog

Aragog is the giant talking spider owned by Hagrid. He has

a taste for human flesh and is able to communicate with
humans. Aragog was originally brought as an egg in a
distant land. “I come from a distant land. A traveller gave
me to Hagrid when I was an egg” (HPCS 277).
“They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they
call the Chamber of Secrets”.
Harry: If you’re not the monster, then-then what did kill the girl
50 yearsago?
Aragog: We do not speak of it! We do not name it! I never told
Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me
many times. It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all
others. (278)
Harry’s encounter with the acromantula is significant that it
reveals a third party involving in the opening of the

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chamber. It leads him in an entirely different path to
revelation, sharpening his wit to probe deep into the
matters.

Though Harry gets a hint at the mystery behind the secret

chamber, it takes him nearly his life, for aragogs are fatal to
humans. It is nearly an edgy escape the trio indulge in
getting a warning from the giant spider. “My sons and
daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I
cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly
into our midst. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid” (HPCS 279).

The House Elves:

The house elves are the most useful of all non-human,
magical creatures. Tiny with bat-like ears, they are the
servants of the wizard family that owns them. Addition to
doing the house chores of their masters, they keep their
secrets too and oblige whatever is ordained. They are
characterized by a speech that is odd, with pronouns and
word-order mistakes. The story of the house elves hints at
a psychological enslavement deeper than mere fetters. The
idea of slavery is impinged in their life that they have lost
the ability to even conceive of freeing themselves. Even
when freed, they continue to follow their internalized logic
of bondage, enslaved by mind forged shackles (Reading
Harry Potter103).

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 Fig. 13. Dobby, The House
Elf(http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Dobby)

The house elves seem to have no loyalties to the abstract

notions of good or evil; rather they abide by their masters’
orders. Rowling uses their enslaved plight as a commentary
on the society and economy of the magical world. Dobby is
the first magical creature to be introduced in the series.
Dobby is vaguely anthropomorphic, small with protruding
eyes and ears. “The little creature on the bed had large, bat-
like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls”
(HPCS 12). The strange self-punishing behaviour of Dobby
is the most memorable feature that impresses the readers in
Harry’s first encounter with Dobby at the Dursley’s house.
It is somewhat a perplexing affair for the young wizard, for
Harry is still an outsider from the wizarding community.
For Dobby, Harry represents justice. By defeating
Voldemort unknowingly as an infant, Harry improved lives

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of creatures battling the prejudice and bigotry of the
pureblood wizards. Dobby comes to the rescue of Harry
voluntarily.

If (Harry Potter) knew what he means to us, to the lowly, the

enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers
how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the
height of his powers, Sir! We house-elves were treated like
vermin, Sir! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, Sir [···]
But mostly, Sir, life has improved for my kind since you
triumphed overHe-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. (HPCS 178)

By protecting Harry, Dobby is trying a future for his own

kind. Farah Mendlesohn in her essay, “Crowning the King”
asserts that the house elves are tied as if in a kind of
bondage that is peculiarly difficult to break even if they
want. Self-liberation is explicitly denied. They cannot leave
on their own volition (Ivory Tower 178). A house elf can be
freed only if his master gives him a gift of clothes. In the
case of Dobby, he is freed by magical means. Harry ensures
that his master presents him with a sock. “Got a sock,” said
Dobby in disbelief. “Master threw it, and Dobby caught it,
and Dobby – Dobby is free” (HPCS 338). When Dobby
speaks of the pleasures of freedom, the other elves edge
away from him and think Dobby shouldn't have left his
master even if he is bad.

Goblins:
Similar to house elves, is the position of the goblins, though
the latter enjoy a privilege better than that of the elves who
seem to be born just to serve the wizards and
witches.Goblins are little creatures related to gnomes. It is
a legendary being, short bearded men who inhabit the
underworld and act as guardians of mines, treasure etc.
They are of small dwarfish stature, with misshapen features
and a strange appearance. In myth, there are allusions to the

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goblins having magical abilities and being greedy especially
of gold and jewellery. It is no wonder Rowling makes
appropriate use of these goblins in Gringotts, the wizard
Bank holding in secrecy the wealth, the wizards possess in
the form of galleons of gold. Amanda Cockrell opines that
the Goblins who manage the Gringotts Bank are among
Rowling’s best inventions (16).

Fig. 14 Goblin (http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/harry-

potter/images/34478117/title/harrys-1st-visit-gringotts-
wizarding-bank-photo)

In the very first tome of the series, Rowling introduces

goblins to the readers and to Harry, through his visit with
Hagrid to the Gringotts Bank. “The Goblin was about a
head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a
pointed beard and Harry, noticed, very long fingers and
feet” (HPPS 56). According to Hagrid, Goblins are not the
most friendly of beasts. Goblins are extremely clever with
the matters of money and have established themselves as a
vital part of the wizarding society but they are treated
subservient and subordinate.

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Howlers:

Fig. 15. http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/howler

Oxford Dictionary defines a howler as something ‘crying’,

‘clamant’, or ‘excessive’ for it is literally something that
howls or cries for notice (qtd.in Wikipedia). Rowling
attributes humane qualities and gives a name as howlers to
the letters received by the wizards of Hogwarts. A howler
is a magical letter in a red envelope which enchants the
written message into the writer’s voice, usually at a very high
volume. The physical temperature of the Howler begins to
rapidly increase upon delivery, and it will explode if left
unopened for a long time. The purpose of the Howler is to
deliver a message expressing anger or great displeasure in a
manner which standard writing cannot adequately convey.
As such, a howler will convey the dissatisfaction of its
sender, even if left unopened, for it will shower the recipient
with insults and cursing upon exploding. “You’d better
open it, Ron. It’ll be worse if you don’t. My gran sent me
one once, and I ignored it and-it was horrible.” (HPCS 45)

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When a wizard receives a howler, it is too obvious that it
carries an unpleasant message, for it is the usual occurrence.
To be precise, howlers can be likened to a voice message
sent through any social network, in the internet era. Once
the message has been received, the envelope bursts into
flames, leaving only ashes signifying the complete delete
mode. Ron receives a howler from her mother giving an
angry message about his stealing his father’s flying Ford
Anglia. In the film version of this particular episode, more
of anthropomorphic touch is being employed giving some
sentient feelings to the howlers. Ron’s howler resembles a
mouth with white teeth and a ribbon for the tongue.
Bellowing at Ron for his mistakes, the howler becomes
pacified in tone to congratulate Ginny for her being sorted
into Gryffindor.

The Sorting Hat:

The Sorting hat is the first inanimate thing to be attributed
humane qualities by the author. Rowling gives a touch of
anthropomorphism through the hat that sorts the first-year
wizards to their respective houses. The hat is shown with
human features with a pair of eyes and a mouth and more
humane the hat is shown singing songs whenever the
sorting ceremony takes place.

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 Fig. 16. (http://whichhogwartshouse.weebly.com/)

Then the hat twitched - A rip near the brim opened wide
like a mouth - and the hat began to sing:
Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,
But don’t judge on what you see,
There is nothing hidden in your head
The sorting hat can’t see.
You’re in safe hands (though I have none)
For I’m a thinking Cap! (88)

The sorting hat places each first year student in the most
appropriate house. As David K. Steege rightly points out
that by using the device, Rowling makes house affiliation
more integral to the plot as the hat does not sort them
randomly into one of the four houses but rather picks
carefully based on a deeper analysis of everyone’s moral and
mental integrity befitting each house. Hogwarts’s houses
have their own individual characteristics, long-standing and
self-perpetuating ones, heightened through magical means
(146).
Hmm, said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult.
Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent,

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 oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now
that’s interesting. So where shall I put you? (HPPS 90)

Fig. 17. Monster Book of Monster

(http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fantastic_Beasts_and_Wher
e_to_Find_Them )

Harry gets this book as a gift from Hagrid, the keeper of

keys at Hogwarts. It is a vicious guide to monstrous
creatures. When Harry goes to the Flourish and Blotts store
to get the school supplies for that year, he wonders at the
way the monster book of monsters are stocked.
There was a large iron cage behind the glass which held about a
hundred copies of The Monster Book of Monsters. Torn pages
were flying everywhere as the books grappled with each other,
locked together in furious wrestling matches and snapping
aggressively. (HPPA 44)

The manager of the store was happy and heaved a sigh of

relief when Harry said that he does not need the book for
he has already got one, because the book attacks anyone
who attempts to open it. “I’m never stocking them again,
never! It’s been bedlam!” (45). The only way to subdue the
book is to strike its spine upon which the book opens

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placidly. Sometimes the book had to be shut forcibly with
belts and spello-tape inorder to be calmed. Hagrid sends the
book as a gift to Harry. The book was like ‘some wild crab’.
When Harry tried to handle it, “the book toppled off the
bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room”
(HPPA 16). Harry had to buckle a belt around the book to
tame it.

There are the Boggarts which are also signatory of

transformations. In the words of Hermione, ““It’s a shape-
shifter,’… ‘It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will
frighten us most.’” It’s always best to have company when
you’re dealing with a Boggart. To repel a Boggart, laughter
is the simple solution just as to fight a dementor one needs
to relive the happy memories. It requires force of mind to
make it “assume a shape that you find amusing” (HPPA
101).

The Marauder’s Map is a magical document that reveals all

of the school- its nook and corners, its secret passages
invisible, hidden within its walls. In addition, it shows the
location of every person present there visible or invisible,
as a dot, each with a name tag so that the person using the
map can see the whereabouts of persons. The map is
enchanted to look like any old scrap of paper, a worn-out
parchment which anyone would just deem as trash. It
includes a Homonculous Charm enabling the possessor of
the map to track the movements of every person in the
castle. Anyone who needs its access should tap it with his
wand with the proclamation of the words: “I solemnly
swear I am upto no good!”

The distinct feature of the marauder’s map is that Animagi

transformations, polyjuice potion and even an invisibility
cloak cannot hide one from being shown on the map. Even

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ghosts are no exemption. If the bearer of the map
approaches the entrance to the secret passage protected by
a password then it will also appear on the map. Yet there
are certain flaws - the map cannot distinguish people with
similar names, nor show unplottable rooms like the
Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirements. One
cannot help being reminded of the GPS system available
nowadays to track the route map of places within the
defined structure of the site where one travels. If in case
there are unknown hidden places not in the recorded data,
then that too are untraceable as is the case with the
Marauder’s Map. It is limited as per the knowledge with
which its creators have designed.

The map is one of the marvellous and duplicitous written

artifacts in the series. It is created as a means to sneak out
of the school premises without getting caught. According
to Veronica Schanoes, in Reading Harry Potter“The map like
its creators, reflects a rather conflicted moral valiance, it is
explicitly made for mischief” (136). Harry gets the map
from Fred and George Weasley who had been using it for
fun and mischievous adventures. The Weasley twins
conclude that the map is really a wonder. “This little
beauty’s taught us more than all the teachers in this school”
(HPPA 143). Harry gets out of trouble often with the help
of the parchment, yet at times he voluntarily gets into
trouble too. The parchment at first functions as a vehicle
for merriment rather than actual evil, allowing Harry to take
unsupervised trips into Hogsmeade.

The map becomes significant in giving a clue to Professor

Lupin of Pettigrew’s existence despite the disproven charge
against Sirius Black’s murder of Pettigrew and few other
Muggles during the first Wizarding War. Harry gets the clue
to Malfoy’s occasional disappearance which he later gets to

143
know from Dobby that it is the Room of Requirements
which the Malfoy boy uses to establish contact with the
Dark Lord Voldemort now resurged to full power.

The Golden Egg:

The golden egg which Harry wins in the first of the three
challenges in the Triwizard tournament is another magical
object to which is attributed certain anthropomorphic traits
by Rowling. The golden egg is presented in the fourth book
The Goblet of Fire, wherein Harry retrieves the egg from the
dragon which marks his victory in the first phase.

Fig. 18. The Golden

Egg(http://www.harrymedia.com/details.php?image_id=35179 )

The golden egg is not just a token of victory but it has still
more revelant functions to perform. The egg contains
disembodied merpeople voices singing a song to the
champions, letting them know the secret. As the voices
were those of menfolk, they could only be understood
underwater. If opened in open air, the egg would screech
and make a horrible racket. When Harry won the first task,
he did not pay much heed to the significance of the egg until
Cedric Diggory gave a clue to take bath along with the egg.
With the insistence of Moaning Myrtle, he opens the egg
under water and hears the song.

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 Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground
And while you’re searching ponder this,
We’ve taken what you’ll solely miss,
An hour long you’ll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect’s black
Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back. (HPGF 463)

There are various minor elements of anthropomorphism as

the books are centered on magic. There are a number of
magical portraits in the school of Hogwarts, each having the
ability to communicate with the passersby, make
comments, scare or appreciate and also move in and out of
their frames. The subject of a portrait is sentient due to
enchantments placed on it. The Gryffindor tower is
guarded by the portrait of the Fat Lady who lets the
students in only when they answer the password.
Password? said the Fat Lady, jerking out of a doze.
Fortuna Major, said Harry listlessly.
The portrait swung open and he climbed through the hole into
the common room. (HPPA115)

The vessels clean themselves on command and the swish of

a wand, plates fill with food and desserts.

Almost every culture around the world has some type of

transformation myth. Authors frequently use
anthropomorphism to represent abstractions or metaphors
in the form of a traditional object or animal. Through this
device, writers are able to universalize human traits and
ideas. Empathy for animals is one of the moral signposts
Rowling employs to direct the reader’s sympathy for
various characters. The author no doubt succeeds beyond
measure in creating the intended impact on her readers.

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 Harry Potter’s Bildungsreise

Heroes abound in life and in literature and there has always

been an attractive trend for heroes to be adored and
followed. Humanity has always had a boundless interest in
heroes, the chosen few among us who rise to perform great
as well as arduous deeds. This interest in the presentation
and (re)presentation of the heroes can be seen down to the
ages past memory, in the recurrent myths. According to
Gregory Maguire, in the essay “Lord of the Golden Snitch”,
the education of the hero is “one of the archetypal patterns
of fantastic children’s literature” (Mary Pharr 54). In the
opinion of Le Giun, Individuatio or maturation can be
represented as a journey across a landscape and “fantasy is
the medium best suited to a description of that journey, its
perils and rewards” (91).

Life, metaphorically is a journey and each individual

journeys from birth to adolescence and then to his
adulthood making choices that shape his being- both moral
and psychological. These choices, be it good or bad,
valorous or vain lead to the destined goal. Man, in this way,
invariably becomes a victim, if the choice is wrong and
hideous; on the other hand, a consummate success if it is a
sensible and benevolent one for his own good and that of
humanity in wider sense. In the words of Don Williams.Jr,
an American novelist and poet, “The road of life twists and
turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our
lessons come from the journey, not the destination” (Ruskin
Bond: Trends and Motifs 80).

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As the pebbles that take its shape and texture from the
surfaces of its rolling down the stream and the storm, the
life of an individual gathers meaning and completion by its
encounters and enterprises with various experiences,
benign and malevolent whatsoever it may be. If academic
books are a storehouse of knowledge, literary books are a
treasure of life experiences. Presenting lives of characters of
varied cultural and social milieu, literature offers a rich
source of gaining life lessons. Bildungsroman literature
extemporizes this immaculate experience of life.
‘Bildungsroman’ otherwise known as ‘novel of education’
owes its origin to Germany in the 18th century. The idea
of bildungsroman was first discussed by Fredrich Von
Blackenburg in 1974. The term however was coined by
Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern in 1819. It was introduced
to the critical vocabulary by the German philosopher and
sociologist Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1941) who employed it
in the biography of Friedrich Schleirmacher and
popularized it with the success of his study Poetry and
Experience.

The word ‘bildung’ etymologically carries various meanings

– ‘to educate’, ‘formation’ whereas the word ‘roman’
generally denotes ‘novel’. There are a few variations and
subgenres of Bildungsroman that traces the growth of an
individual – an Entwicklungsroman (development novel) is
a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation; an
Erziehungsroman (education novel) focusing on training
and formal schooling; a Kunstleroman (artist novel) is
about the development of an artist and a growth of the self.
These subdivisions sometimes intertwine and often
complement each other.

Bildungsroman novel involves the idea of reciprocal growth

or change in which the individual and his environment are

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engaged in a process of mutual transformation, each
shaping the other until the individual has reached the point
where he or she experiences a sense of harmony with the
environment (Gohlman x). The bildungsroman novel is
significant in the sense that it is a novel in which the hero
actively shapes himself both from within and without. This
creates personal harmony and balance between the hero
and the world. “The protagonist gains knowledge of the self
and the world through direct experience as opposed to the
indirect means of acquiring knowledge-as for example,
formal education” (“Journey of the Villain” 13).

Broadly defined in the English-speaking world, as the novel

of youth, the novel of education, of apprenticeship, of
adolescence, of invitations, even the life novel, the
Bildungsroman has specific reference to the genre which
Germany contributed to western literary heritage. The
individual, works out questions of identity, career, and
marriage, as in the words of Wilhelm Dilthey, ‘a young male
hero discovers himself and his social role through the
experience of love, friendship and the hard realities of life’.
Though the history of Agathon, written by Wieland in
1766–67 may be the first known example of
‘bildungsroman’ genre, it was with Wilhelm Meister’s
Apprenticeship (1795) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe,that
the genre reached its celebrated status. It was with his novel;
the genre took the form from philosophical to person
development. He embarked the idea that “living is an art
which may be learned and that the young person passes
through stages of apprenticeship in learning it, until at last
he becomes a Master…” (Goethe)

Goethe’s novel portrays a bourgeois merchant’s son,

Wilhelm who is dissatisfied with the Social Strictures and
finds it empty and lifeless. He eventually gets solace and a

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place in Shakespeare’s plays. The bildungsroman novels, of
German origin, contrite on the internal struggles of the
hero. The protagonists’ adventures can be seen as a quest
for the meaning of life or as a vehicle for the author’s social
and moral opinions demonstrated through the protagonist.
The English novelists demonstrate the protagonist’s battle
to establish an individual identity with conflicts from
outside the self.

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) is one of the first

bildungsromans with a female protagonist. It traces Jane’s
development so far constrained by social expectations,
determined by gender – specific beliefs. Through the novel
Jane grows up, moving from a radical stage to a more
pragmatic consciousness. Jane goes through a series of
challenges and changes in order to finally achieve self-
actualization. The various challenges during Jane’s growing
process that educate and change her emotions and identities
align with the basic definition of a Bildungsroman genre.
Stevenson’s Treasure Island is traditionally considered a
coming-of-age story and is noted for its atmosphere,
characters and action. It is one of the most frequently
dramatized of all the novels. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
(1952) expresses metaphorically the theme of search for
identity. The nameless black protagonist comes to the
realization that he has been living the roles prescribed by
the white society. He steps outside the assigned sphere and
culture that does not recognize his individuality.

Bildungsroman literature is highly associated with

introspection; an individualistic conscience, considering
careful tending, shaping and the deepening of one’s own
personality. The individual or the hero begins with a sense
of self and with outside guidance and help of mentors,
would develop to its fullest potential. The various

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temptations and obstacles he has to surmount rely on his
real capacity leading him toward greater self-awareness. As
Dilthey argues, in a bildungsroman, “[a] regular
development is observed in the life of the individual:each
of the stages has its own intrinsic value and is at the same
time the basis for a higher stage”. (390) Bildungsroman
centres on the all-round development or self-culture of the
hero who displays a more or less conscious attempt to
integrate his powers, to cultivate himself by his experience.
By virtue of this portrayal, the writer of bildungsroman
novel furthers the reader’s bildung to a much greater extent
than any other kind of novel.

The genre is significant in the sense that it exemplifies

struggles that everyone must face. Within life, there are few
wholly accepted truths – life and death being the most
predominant; but within everyone’s life, there is the time of
facing the fear of growing up, ‘coming of age’. As Achal
Sinha points out in her essay “Childhood: Nostalgia”,
“Growing up is always a problem… It is the time for the
development of personality and the cultivation of the
immediate perception of the world, a time when fantasy and
life are still inextricably connected through rituals of work
and play.”(80) The immediacy and the aesthetic depth of
childhood experiences are never equalled in later life.

The Harry Potter novels explicate Harry’s maturation from

adolescent years to self-awareness. The novels from the
first till the last, cover Harry’s apprenticeship period in the
Hogwarts School of Wizadry, where he is glorified as ‘the
Chosen One’; Harry’s journey definitely befits the
prototype provided by Goethe. He, like Wilhelm, is
innocent, inexperienced, well-meaning, but often a foolish
and erring young man who sets out in life with perhaps no
serious aim. Harry looks at Hogwarts, just as an escape from

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his uncle’s home at ‘Privet Drive’. By a series of false starts
and mistakes and with the help of well-disposed friends and
teachers, Harry finally reaches self-evolution and maturity.
Joseph Campbell’s title ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’
befits any bildungsroman hero and it fits Harry as well.
Harry’s adventures follow a familiar pattern. From
Odysseus of ancient Greek myth to Luke Skywalker of Star
Wars, these heroes and their legends bear a striking
similarity.

The main mythical feature of Harry Potter series is the

archetypal journey of the hero, which is lived by Harry in
every separate volume of the series, but also in the sequence
as a whole. The journey of the hero, symbolizes the effect
of growing up. A crucial step in the journey is the
overcoming of obstacles and the hero’s confrontation with
the villain. Harry embodies the archetypal Hero, and as such
he finds in his way a long road of trials to overcome before
he can face his arch-villain Voldemort. Rowling sets up the
thematic element common to bildungsroman genre in the
very first page of Book I: a conflict between the protagonist
and the society. The Dursleys, Harry’s uncle and aunt are
“proud to say that they were perfectly normal” and “they
didn’t think they could bear it if anyone found about the
Potters” (HPPS 1). They represent ‘Muggles’, the non-
magic folk as opposed to wizards, who do not conform to
their standards and Harry is always an embarrassment to
them because of his nonconformity. Harry is relegated to a
lesser position in the family and he is by all means
suppressed and the facts about his parents are kept as a
secret.

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The Hero’s skill:
In keeping with the theme of education, it is very rare for a
protagonist, in a bildungsroman novel to be unintelligent.
Jeffrey L. Sammons describes the ‘bildung’ as “the early
bourgeois, humanistic concept of the shaping of the
individual self from its innate potentialities through
acculturation and social experience on the threshold of
maturity” (41). Harry may be naïve and uninformed, but he
certainly possesses a sharp mind and a definite ability. The
journey towards maturation usually involves mastery of this
ability. David K. Steege makes an analytic study of Harry’s
character with Tom Brown, both of whom prove
themselves more adept at sport than academics. Harry is
admired by his peers for his prowess at sports and his out-
of- class exploits. They are not superlative academically but
their achievements are concerned about their out- of-
classroom adventures.

The emphasis is mostly on their reckless courage and wild

adventuring. Harry is physically meek, ‘small and skinny for
his age’ compared to Dudley, who is ‘about four times
bigger than he was’(HPPS 20). Harry remains uninformed
until Hagrid, the gatekeeper of Hogwarts says ‘Harry-yer a
wizard’. Hagrid bursts out in rage when he comes to know
that Harry is kept misinformed of his parents’ death. “How
could a car crash kill Lily an’ James Potter? It’s an outrage!
A Scandal! Harry Potter not knowin’ his own story when
every kid in our world knows his name!” (HPPS 44).

Harry possesses an ability in wizardry which is unknown to

him until revelation comes through Hagrid. He is probably
the one who has outlived Voldemort’s attempt to kill. He
has survived the most powerful, evil curse that could leave
only a lightning shaped mark on his forehead. “cause
something about you finished him Harry…somehow lost

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his powers. Too weak to carry on”(47). The growing child
in a bildungsroman novel is generally orphaned either
literally or metaphorically. Harry too is orphaned even in
his childhood, when his parents James and Lily Potter are
killed by Voldemort’s evil curse. Voldemort, the archetypal
villain, enters Harry’s life very early, making him an orphan.
During his journey, Harry is constantly learning about his
past, his enemies and his own life. Harry’s cyclical journey
is lived through the seven volumes of the series. During his
road of trials, Harry has to first identify his enemies and
then come up with strategies to defeat them. The hero
learns and grows with the surpassing of every new challenge
and those become increasingly difficult, building up for the
encounter with his nemisis (Journey of the Villain 11). As
Mary Pharr says:
For Harry Potter, Hogwarts is a place of tests: some academic,
some practical, and some moral. Many of these tests include
adventure, danger and choice- heady stuff that forces Harry to
grow up or fail. And failure in a universe of magic is all too often
fatal. [...] He must practice the skills that will let him face
increasingly arduous trials. (58)

The orphan bildungsroman hero:

Wicked surrogate parents are not uncommon in
bildungsroman novels. Even if they are not wicked to the
core, they are thorns in the way of their pubescent wards.
Petunia Dursley’s efforts with her husband to force Harry
to behave in acceptable ways before guests, to deny his very
identity that of a wizard child, mirrors exactly such attempts
to bring approved manners in a growing child. Infant Harry
is left at the doorstep of the only relative of his mother Lily-
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley. “Harry Potter
rolled over inside his blankets without waking up…he slept

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on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was
famous…”(18).

Harry, thus is an orphan with literally none to confide with,

nothing to share, and there is not even any sign of his being
a member in the house. The humiliation and desertion he
undergoes is heart rending and the immaculate patience and
ungrudging attitude with which he bears them all is
indicative of the greater feats he would soon be achieving
in his later years. Harry is looked upon not as a person but
as a detestable drudgery and he is prohibited even from
asking questions, about his lost parents. There were no
photographs of them in the house. “Don’t ask questions-
that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys” (20).
Harry has never had a birthday celebration until Hagrid’s
visit on his eleventh year whereas Dudley is pampered
always and showered with birthday presents. Harry yearns
for an escape from such a hostile home and its unwilling,
uncaring guardians who treat him as said in Book II Chamber
of Secrets like “a dog that had rolled in something smelly” (5).

A new found home for the hero:

As Rochman and Mc Campbell say, “We leave home to find
home. Journey away from home is a necessary abyss” (13).
When Harry arrives at Hogwarts, he is sorted into the
Gryffindor house well known for bravery.
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won, the hero comes back
from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons
on his fellow man. (qtd.in “Archetypal hero” 4)

Harry finds in Hogwarts and the Gryffindor house in

particular, a home which he has longed for, a home where
he belonged finally. In his departure from his uncle’s house

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to Hogwarts, Harry metaphorically moves from a sense of
alienation to belongingness. As Professor Mc Gonagall
says, “Your house will be something like your family within
Hogwarts…each [with] its own noble history” (HPPS 114).
When Harry completes his first year, back home for
summer vacation, he feels what it is to be at home. He
missed Hogwarts so much that it felt like having a constant
nagging pain. As Kornfled and Prothro argue in “Home
and Family in Harry Potter”:
Home for Harry represents connection, shared meals, the
bonding of a team sport, even a specific place within the
Gryffindor quarters respected by others as his own individual,
private space, for the first time in life, Harry knows what it
means to belong. (125)

As per Goethe’s standard traits of a bildungsroman hero,

Harry is well-meaning full of good intentions. He is
relentlessly nice in spite of his hostile atmosphere. He has
been brought up entirely by people who hate him, who have
half-starved him and abused him, yet he is
incomprehensibly a nice child. Benignity is bred into him
and this is rewarded. As Farah Mendlesohn quotes the
words of Andy Robertson, “Harry Potter is a Returning
Prince who gets his worth 100% from heredity and
genetics”. (162) Another even more important feature of a
bildungsroman novel is that it speaks of the protagonist’s
development phase from adolescence to adulthood. A good
story is an account of change that all people can relate to
and the change is essentially human-centered. The novels
cover Harry’s transformation from childhood to maturity
from his eleventh year to seventeenth year; the age of
maturation in the English context. Rowling follows Harry’s
life in the formation of an identity rooted in his interior
personal growth touching upon stages related to his
philosophical and spiritual quest.

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Peer Support:
Harry’s success does not simply rest on his inherited genius
but also on the attributes of his companions. They provide
their skills to enable the hero achieve and teach life’s
lessons. Harry feels at home in Hogwarts, finds
companionship in Ron and Hermione.

Traditionally fairy tales and fantasy stories have surrounded

the hero with comrades whose role is twofold-they assist in
the hero’s achievement and they do not take credit for it.
The companions bring the hero into maturity by teaching
him new skills drawn from their strength and new wisdom
from their application.

Hermione in this regard is crucial and impeccable to Harry’s

success. She acts as an intellectual problem solver. She is a
prime example of the fact that information and knowledge
gives power and she employs her acquired knowledge to
assist and save Harry. She possesses a skill of logic that is
quite missing in her companions.

Hermione infact is the smartest of the three, the one most

likely to get Harry out of trouble, as well as to command
him bossily. Ron assists Harry invariably in all his
adventures; whether it is just the mischievous pranks of
adolescent peers or the more grave encounters.

Supernatural Aid:
In his quest, the bildungsroman protagonist is aided by so
many factors-both human and superhuman. Hagrid, the
half-giant, and Dobby, the house elf lend their intrinsic
qualities to Harry’s service. Dobby even sacrifices his life in
order to save Harry. Dumbledore’s phoenix, Harry’s owl
Hedwig are of no less importance in rendering timely help

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to Harry in danger. Harry deserves and is blessed enough
to be led by a collection of hands higher than he is aware
of, towards his destiny. His longing for a foster parent finds
fulfilment in the person of Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black
and even Snape, who dies as a tragic hero in saving Harry’s
life, the wizarding community and humanity at large.

Mentor’s Role:
Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster, guides Harry and
works as a force for good. He protects the infant Harry
invoking an ancient magic to shield him. He comes to the
orphaned boy’s rescue whenever he needs adult help. He
acts as an armour in his fight with Voldemort and supports
him morally whenever his sincerity is questioned and
invariably exempts him from punishment weighing his
good intentions and selfless service to his peers. He plays
the role of the mentor perfectly well in guiding and shaping
the hero for his heroic destiny. He is the ‘ageless guardian,
the powerful patron who intervenes whenever required and
thereby becomes ‘the hero’s unseen shield and companion
in arms” (Mary Pharr 61).

Dumbledore cannot just be said as the unseen shield

because it is too overt for anyone to sense that the master
is ever protective of the boy as Hermione and Mrs.Weasley
often confidently proclaim that Harry can never be in
danger until Dumbledore is there to guard him. Rowling
presents Dumbledore as beloved by some but not all-
certainly not by Slytherin House. Harry and his friends
remain loyal to him throughout. His ability to discern when
to nurture, when to pardon, and when to exert his power
over his rivals are surprising similar to that of the mentor in
Tom Brown’s School Days (Ivory Tower 150).

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Megan L.Birch speaks of Dumbledore’s greatness as a
teacher. He is a “paragon, a quintessential teacher. Like his
Patronus form, the Phoenix, he continues to rise up to
…ward off danger” (113). He provides learning
opportunities and instils confidence and promotes the
presence of hope even in the most desperate situations.
Harry rightly observes the master’s pedagogical strategy
which is indirectly providing a platform to attempt self-
pursuit. “I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I
think he knows…everything that goes on here…and
instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help…”
(HPPS 302).

Dumbledore offers Harry lessons of life- courage,

compassion and integrity. When everyone withdraws out of
fear for the Dark Lord and even refrain from calling him by
his name, it is Dumbledore who keeps insisting Harry to
speak out his name for the fear of the name would definitely
increase the fear of the thing itself. If only Harry prepares
himself driving away his inhibition and fear for the unseen
enemy who had been the reason behind his parent’s death,
he could prepare for the final confrontation. In all possible
ways, Dumbledore is a “very alluring, larger-than-life,
positive even heroic representation of a teacher” (Birch
114). Rowling stresses the important ties between the hero
and his mentors, the adult who helps him develop into a
functioning, useful young man of good character. He, as his
name implies (Albus-‘albumen’- egg white) “nourishes the
yolk of young wizards and witches, preparing them to hatch
into a world they know how to improve” (Lana Whited
205).

Sirius contributes to Harry’s development in a different

way- to the growth of Harry’s emotional well-being.
Suffering many years of imprisonment in the prison of

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Azkaban under the conspiracy of Peter Pettigrew who is
Voldemort’s spy, he finally finds the stamina to escape in
order to protect Harry. Sirius is surely a survivalist whose
skills and knowledge Harry needs to acquire and adopt. He
is the living embodiment of all what the Potters stood for
and thereby a direct link to the past that Harry vaguely
remembers. The attachment and fondness which Sirius and
Harry share is different from that which Harry shares with
Dumbledore. Plainly, “Sirius and Harry are family both
having survived the unsurvivable” (Mary Pharr 61). Harry
has survived the killing curse of Lord Voldemort, whereas
Sirius has survived the imprisonment in Azkaban, both
equally obnoxious.

Professor Severus Snape is a more complex and

multifaceted teacher to Harry. According to Peter
Appelbaum, it is Snape “who steers Harry’s actual
apprenticeship throughout. He looks like the bad guy, but
is the real teacher” (“The Great Snape Debate” 85). A
liberating apprenticeship requires a student to disobey his
teacher. As general with the Bildungsroman tradition, this
liberating pedagogy is even more paradoxical in a way that
it leads the apprenticeship to accept fate through a series of
disobedience. A good mentor is liberal, allowing his wards
to make choices, commit mistakes and learn from them.

Students learn more from teachers as moral actors than

from their pedagogy, which depends on the true character
of the mentor. Like a child that learns from the actions of
its parents, a student learns better and more from their
teachers as role models. Viewed from these perspectives,
Snape’s motives which first appear to be villainous are in
fact selfless and even Harry’s success depends wholly on
Snape’s protection, which is based on the master’s eternal
love for Harry’s mother. His devotion to the son of his dead

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beloved makes him act as a triple-agent bearing the mark of
the Dark Arts on his body, living “a life of lies and pretence,
of contempt and hate” (Maria 239). Snape’s ultimate loyalty
is not with Voldemort as it appears to be and believed by
all, but with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix and
invariably with Harry and the cause of good.

No doubt, Harry’s life is full of risk and dangers, yet with

high stakes to win, but Snape’s life is utter misery and no
reward except contempt and death. He rises to the level of
a tragic hero teaching a more valuable lesson to Harry – a
lesson of self-sacrifice and embracing death. Harry cannot
survive with his integrity “by avoiding death, he must
embrace it. Choosing death is the only way he can win”
(Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter 269). Harry’s attitude to
death is the most remarkable of his transformation. He goes
willingly and deliberately to face death with no thought of
gain.

Harry gets help, not just from the living alone, but from his
dead parents too. They reach even beyond the grave to give
him protection in his confrontation with Voldemort and
the Death-Eaters. The scar in his forehead is a symbol
notably of Voldemort’s failure and also of his mother’s love.
As Dumbledore tells Harry: “If there is one thing
Voldemort cannot understand, it is love….to have been
loved so deeply even though the person who loved us is
gone, will give us some protection forever” (HPPS 299).
The Invisibility Cloak passed on to Harry from James
Potter provides undeniable assistance for Harry, in all his
adventurous endeavours at night. When he first holds the
cloak, he is filled with excitement, “…this had been his
father’s. He let the material flow over his hands, smoother
than silk, light as air” (205). He uses the cloak to gain
knowledge that he couldn’t access otherwise. He uses it to

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look for information about Nicholas Flamel in the
restricted section of Hogwarts library. The cloak is of use
when Harry goes to see the dragons for the first task in the
Triwizard tournament. Sirius gifts a piece of mirror to Harry
who turned the mirror over. There on the reverse side was
a scribbled note from Sirius.
This is a two-waymirror; I’ve got the other. If you need to speak
to me, just say my name into it; you’ll appear in my mirror and
I’ll be able to talk in yours. James and I used to use them when
we were in separatedetentions. (HPOP 856)

The hero’s alienation:

The Bildungsroman hero, in spite of being assisted by so
many around, is often alienated from the society, where he
wants to belong. There is always an acute sense of alienation
reinforced in Harry’s life. The mark on his forehead, the
symbol of his fame and identity as someone special, is on
the other hand, a brand of alienation forever making him
different from the rest of the leaving wizards. He is cast as
an outsider as it goes with most of the heroes of coming-
of-age literature.

There are times when Harry is viewed as an icon, glorified

for being special but there are times, when he is eyed with
suspicion and contempt that promotes a sense of isolation.
When mysterious assaults happen in Hogwarts, the fellow
wizards keep him aloof and Harry feels a sense of despair.
As a participant in the Triwizard Tournament, he feels
himself ‘as separate from the crowd as though they were of
a different species’ (HPGF 349). This sense of alienation
eventually gives Harry the resolve to leave the familiar
environment and Hogwarts and progress in the journey of
his self-discovery, acting on his own self-will instead of
adult authority. In the words of Rebecca Stephens:

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In classic young adult fashion, Harry has literally been on
his own since he was a baby, so despite the guardianship of
his aunt and uncle, he is the ultimate authority for himself.
His absent parents and their surrogates- Dumbledore, Sirius
and even the Weasley family- help him make his way but
their distance makes him essentially self-responsible. (57)

Dumbledore’s Hogwarts can give Harry the tools and

wisdom for the war, but the young boy must fight the battle
himself. This factor parallels the life of the adolescent.
Being guided in his childhood by parental protection, the
growing adolescent must learn to advocate for himself, to
fight off the bullies and tolerate the injustices of life. Often
times Harry has to manage the battle himself though only
at times he could get the help of the adults, be it living
masters, or his dead parents’ spirits.Every bildungsroman
novel centres on the driving motto in the life of its
protagonist. The destined purpose in Harry’s life is to
defeat Voldemort, who caused his parent’s death and who
is a threat to Hogwarts and even the Muggle community.
The Potter boy is looked upon as the saviour, the redeemer
of the wizarding world. Harry being the one to have
survived the death curse even as a baby, had stripped
Voldemort of his powers. The latter has been destined to a
life of exile and obscurity searching for a human form to
reincarnate him. Harry in his destined mission has to work
through a confusing maze of mysterious events that offers
diverse choices at every turn.

The protagonist’s apprenticeship is marked by mistakes,

misconceptions and misunderstandings. Harry commits
errors in his judgement of men and matters owing to his
immaturity and lack of experience. Especially with regard to
Snape, for whom he develops a sense of scorn and mistrust,
he is always misled by his own prejudice. The initial

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unaccounted malice of the Potions Master fosters negative
interpretations of his actions, which adds spur to the feeling
of hatred between the two. “The expression twisting his
face …was beyond anger; it was loathing” (HPPA 93).
Harry unfalteringly assumes Snape to be the one behind the
attempt to rob Sorcerer’s Stone and even the jinxing of his
broom in the first Quidditch match where Snape is seen
casting some spells. Both the assumptions are disproved
when, to everyone’s surprise, it is revealed that it is not
Snape but Professor Quirrell who is behind it all.

The Hero’s perilous journey:

It is characteristic of a bildungsroman novel to present the
protagonist’s progress as a long, arduous process. The
journey of the hero is often perilous and psychologically
depressing. Harry gets involved in various adventures
within Hogwarts, out in the Quidditch field and deep in the
Forbidden Forest, and even in Privet Drive, the epitome of
Muggle world. Each year at Hogwarts spurs Harry to
involve in a dangerous quest, which invariably proves to be
a revelation of the hero’s skill and his intrinsic good nature
that keeps him high above his peers and sometimes even
his mentors.

Book I Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, as the title implies
deals with Harry’s expedition in safeguarding the Sorcerer’s
Stone that promises an elixir of immortality to those who
possess it. The first year of his school is a revelation of many
of his inborn talents to himself and to the reader. For
example, Harry’s ability as a seeker in Quidditch is thrown
to light, when Malfoy snatches Neville Longbottom’s
Remembrall thereby instigating Harry to come to his
rescue. The ease with which he handles the broomstick for
the first time, is indicative of his talent as a born wizard.

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Gryffindor team gets the youngest ever seeker in Harry,
when Professor McGonagall watches from the tower
Harry’s magical flight over the broomstick in the air.
Harry’s first conscious confrontation with Voldemort
happens at the climax of book I in the presence of
Professor Quirrell. Harry’s powers are reinforced in his
heroic fight with ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ which
once again proves that he is definitely the chosen one not
simply the one as conceived by Snape in his malignance for
the boy in his class.
How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter,” Snape said
suddenly, his eyes glinting? “He too was exceedingly arrogant.
A small amount of talent on the Quidditch field made him think
he was a cut above the rest of us too. Struting around the place
with his friends and admirers... (HPPA14).

The second year at Hogwarts featured in Harry Potter and the

Chamber of Secrets proves to be even more depressing, black
period for Harry because he is constantly put under the
scrutinizing, doubtful looks of his peers too. When
mysterious attacks surround Hogwarts and the Forbidden
Chamber of Secrets is feared to be opened, Harry is
suspected to be behind all mishaps. An acute sense of
alienation engulfs him in a place where he has identified
himself to be at home, with a sure feeling of belongingness.
Hogwarts for the first time begins to look strange and he
feels out of place in the midst of his peers who once cheered
over his bravery and popularity. “An invisible barrier
separated him from the rest of the world. He was- he had
always been – a marked man. It was just that he had never
really understood what that meant….” (HPOP 856)

The shortest of the seven books, Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban abounds in chilling escapades of Harry being
stalked by the sceptre of Death. Sirius Black, the bearer of

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the title, is supposed to be after him; the former had been
accused of aiding Voldemort in his attempt to kill Harry. As
it happens often, appearances and assumptions can prove
false. The book unravels many mysteries around Harry’s
past and Sirius is proved inoffensive.

Death is a constant visitor to Harry’s world whose shadow

always hangs over his head. He is closer to death on many
occasions and watches helplessly his companions die before
his eyes. In Goblet of Fire, where the Triwizard Cup acts as a
portkey and transports Harry and Cedric Diggory into the
world of the Dark Lord, the moment they touch it, Harry
is compelled to witness the cold blooded murder of Cedric
with whose lifeless pale corpse he returns to the Hogwarts
Campus through the very same cup as portkey. This heart-
rending death of his peer strips Harry of all the vigour and
positive spirit asserting the power of the unconquerable
Death. As Dumbledore says, “No spell can reawaken the
dead” (36) and one has to simply watch with tied hands the
blows of Death heavy on man.

Serious lessons are taught to the apprentice and the most

significant is the real meaning of death. Harry learns to
distinguish wishful thinking from reality and also that Death
is not the ultimate end; it is not to be feared. “To the well
organised mind, death is but the next great adventure”
(HPPS 215) and Harry is daring enough to face it. In this
aspect, Harry stands as a stark contrast to Voldemort, who
is always in fear of death. It is this fear that drives him mad
for power, in possessing Sorcerer’s stone of immortality
and the Resurrection Stone that brings back the dead. “As
for the stone, whom would he want to bring back from the
dead? He fears the dead. He does not love” (HPDH 721).

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Harry’s apprenticeship and his adventures are inevitable
and mandatory to his developmental process. It is marked,
however, by contradictions and clashes between his own
desires and that of the restrictions laid down by the adult
mentors. Use of magic is banned for the underage wizards
outside Hogwarts, but this holds no good for whom danger
is awaiting everywhere.

He has to tramp in forbidden areas, use prohibited spells

and charms and break rules. Always in fear of expulsion and
getting detention, Harry goes through a tough time,
balancing the power enforced by the adult authorities and
that which drives the adolescent authority to play with peril.

Revelation and Discovery:

Self-discovery and revelation mark the bildungsroman
hero’s journey. Rowling uses the genre as an effective tool
to explicate the self-discovery of the maturing protagonist
and his ordeals. According to Marc Bousquet, Harry
“begins as a classically melodramatic victim hero who
becomes, ... More of a bourgeois - realist hero ...with
challenges that establish the growth and evolution of his
character” (Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter 186). The
protagonist must not be “pushed on stage in a pram”. There
must not be too much suffering. The fundamental and
unavoidable bond between self and other is one of the key
ideas of the bildungsroman. The theme of the moral and
psychological development of the hero is linked to the
question of what governs the direction of a life, and here
chance comes in as a disturbing element. Chance figures
along with ideas about fate and free will as constituents of
a theme concerning direction of a life.

Harry’s true identity is obscured even from himself. The

Dursleys cloak Harry’s virtue actively hiding his identity

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even his existence. Relegated to a closet under the stairs, he
is absent from the family records. Until the arrival of the
owl post, Harry has never attempted to know things. The
protracted struggle over the letter is Harry’s initiation- a
struggle to know. “Harry didn't move. ‘I WANT MY
LETTER! 'he shouted”. (HPPS 31) Hagrid throws light on
the hidden factors behind Harry’s life. As Hagrid’s story
came to a close, he saw again the blinding green light, more
clearly than he had ever remembered it before” (46).

Harry not only realizes about his noble lineage, but also that
he is an actual aristocrat. The revelation of his true identity
is accompanied by the realization that he is the owner of
heaps of Gold in Gringotts, of a high status and also of a
power to resolve the ensuing conflicts in the plot. He is an
actual aristocrat in disguise. The series derives tremendous
energy from continuously recycling the revelation plot. The
plot reveals time and again that Harry is good, right and
virtuous though sometimes mistaken by others, and
sometimes by himself (Marc Bousquet189). Harry is often
confused whether he is really good and doubts why
mysterious things happen only when he is present, and he
hears ominous voices.

In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry’s sense of being

misunderstood reaches its peak. Harry’s interior monologue
signifies the reader’s own fatigue with this misconception
“How many more people were going to suspect that he was
lying or unhinged?” (198). Harry identifies himself with
Sirius Black as he had been on the same situation. “They’ll
know we’re right in the end but yet he has to endure before
that time came’ (199). It is Hermione who works as a
tutelary agent moving from self-absorption to active
participation, urging him, “Oh, stop feeling all
misunderstood” (441). It is she who prepares him to take

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responsibility. As Le Guin argues in The Language of the Night,
it is in the adolescent period, such conflicts and doubts
occur.

The adolescent shadow often appears as much for the youngster

to get past the paralyzing self-blame and self-disgust of this stage
is to really look at that shadow, to face it...as part of the self...the
guide of the journey of self-knowledge, to adulthood, to the
light. (61)

Epiphany: Moments of Revelation

It is common in most bildungsroman novels that the
protagonists experience a sort of epiphany, where all
delusions are broken and misunderstandings are cleared.
This visionary moment of clarity often turns out to be
pivotal for the plot to move on in a different direction.
Harry comes across such moments repeatedly-two of which
are noteworthy. The first one is regarding Sirius Black who
is projected to be the murderer. The more important
moment of clarity is about Professor Severus Snape for
whom Harry has very little trust. From day one of his entry
to Hogwarts, Harry feels uneasiness in the Potions Master’s
presence and it thickens as days pass and events happens
though often his suspicion is disproved.

Harry continues to have contempt for Snape and all his

actions are focussed on the purpose of revealing Snape to
be guilty. Even Dumbledore’s persistent remarks on
Snape’s loyalty are not enough to change this interpretation.
There are instances to disprove the prejudice and assert that
Snape has been working to save Harry. But the initial
misconception imbibed in Harry’s mind and the explicit
contempt shown by the Professor is a hindrance in the
proper understanding and perception of reality. Snape is
outspoken in his malice for Harry’s father and his remarks

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are pungent and scathing. The all-pervading contempt of
Slytherin for the Gryffindors is also expressed to the fullest
possible measure. Harry as any other in his place would
reciprocate this bitterness and is never ready to take his
heart any possibility of Snape being good. Dumbledore’s
murder at the hands of Severus is the stark confirmation of
Harry’s judgement of Snape.

The relationship, however, shared by Harry and Snape

epitomizes the idea that “Nothing is what you think it is, no
one is who you think they are, on the surface” (Granger 55).
What is perceived can become fake and the fact is reiterated
in the final conversation between Harry and the dying
Snape. Harry grows up when he understands Snape better
and while Snape was genuinely unpleasant and sincere in his
dislike for Harry, that bitterness and hatred has nothing to
do with the question of being good or evil.

The latter gives unto Harry the last chance of revelation.

Truth is often absolutely relative, even what we perceive
becomes delusion, knowledge is never certain or more than
fragmented ideas shaped by our conceptions. Truth is made
not found. What Harry sees in the Pensieve in the final
book is an eye opener not only to him, but also to the
reader. It offers a revelation of the bitterest yet truest kind.

The Snape whom Harry sees out of the memories is not the
vindictive Professor, not the cruel and malicious follower
of Voldemort; not the power-greedy master of Slytherin but
the most offended, most neglected heart of love-a far cry
from the melodramatic, brooding stereotypical villain so far
seen. The reader’s feelings for Snape turn on a dime, along
with Harry, learning all the truth about him as a noble, tragic
and self-sacrificing person one has never dreamt of. He is
in truth, a Prince in disguise fighting for what is righteous.

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All his life, he had put himself into a tantalising game of
darkness and light so that the wizarding world and
humanity at large could be free from the threat of evil.

Snape has scarce blissful memories of the past except his

love for Lily, Harry’s mother. As Harry is bullied by Dudley,
Snape suffers the constant bullying of James Potter, the
other side of whom Harry gets a glimpse only through the
Pensieve. The Young Snape resembles Harry, the skinny
boy. “Snape the teenager had a stringy, pallid look about
him, like a plant kept in the dark” (HPOP 640). The
moment the revelation is done, Snape takes the lead
becoming a tragic hero: “the book becomes his: Snape’s
fate, more than Voldemort’s, perhaps more even than
Harry’s is the most heartbreaking, surprising and satisfying
of all of Rowling's achievements” (Elizabeth Hand The
Washington Post).

Apart from the serious plot involving the bildungsreise of

Harry, runs parallel the pranks and problems involved in
the adolescent life of a school going boy. Brought up under
the cupboard, Harry had enjoyed very little freedom so to
say in all walks of life. He is allowed mere survival and
existence. Fed always in crumbs and remains, dressed ever
in rags, Harry has no hint of the word enjoyment and
independence. When the owl delivers the letter in his name,
it is considered ominous and extremely unusual. None
dared to establish friendship with Harry even in the school
of his basic education. Admittance to a wizarding school,
would just be a dream come true for Harry who often
dreams of flying in a motorcycle. It may be because of the
vague memory of being brought by Hagrid when he was an
infant. “He rolled on his back and tried to remember the
dream he had been having.... There had been a flying
motorbike in it” (HPPS 19).

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Harry’s entrance to Hogwarts, is in itself a transfusion from
unpleasant reality to a dreamy world, alienation to
community and nothingness to completion. The need for a
secondary home during adolescence is stressed at various
levels. Not only to a bereaved soul like Harry caught in a
hostile home like Uncle Vernon’s but to any child, this
transformation is a ‘necessary abyss’ even if the family is a
harmonious, loving one, as is the case with Ron, Hermione,
Neville or Draco. Bildungsroman traditionally describes
two processes: first liberation, when the protagonist leaves
home and has to get by completely on his own; second,
there is the opposite process of reattachment as the hero
discovers that there are other people who can fill the
function of family and provide care, help and mutual
affection. The protagonists gradually find a place in society
because of this attachment to other people and what they
learn from them. The four houses provide foster homes for
the children; together they “create worlds of their own, with
particular kinds of boundaries separating from the larger
world” (Handel XIV).

Throughout the novel, there is nowhere an equal to Harry

in his agonized childhood experience except in Tom
Riddle’s life who is equally orphaned and uncared like
Harry, the result of which is his choice of the ‘dark’ side.
Ron is the child from a happy though not well-equipped
home of wizards, the Weasley family. Hermione is the well
cared daughter of Muggle dentists and Draco is the proud
and spoilt son of the Malfoys who are of pure magic origin.
The period of adolescence is crucial in the sense that it is
the deciding moment in a growing boy or a girl’s life. It is
the choice that one makes, that decides the ongoing journey
to adulthood. As Dumbledore asserts that “It is our
choices, Harry, that show who we truly are, far more than
our abilities” (HPCS 333), not the position or wealth due

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by birth as Malfoy conceives. Harry’s true nobility lies in the
choice he makes, whereas Voldemort’s descent into evil
marks the lesson in the destructive consequences of the
adult father’s covenant with his family. Voldemort’s father
abandons his mother, thus consigning him to a lonely
desertion and his parental family’s rejection make for his
hatred of Muggles and murderous obsession for power, to
seek a new family, “my true family”(HPGF 646) in the
Death Eaters.

Harry, though grown up in an equally isolated and even

more painful childhood, retains his goodness and
innocence and his choice to be on Gryffindor rather than
Slytherin, speaks of his determination to be good. It is this
indomitable spirit in remaining on the redeeming good side,
that accounts for his final victory over evil. Showing mercy
even to the bitterest enemy is the defining trait of Harry that
makes him the most lovable hero to be sympathized and
idolized by everyone. “Think and try for some remorse,
Riddle” (HPDH 741).

The series address few other issues related to adolescence

and puberty. The rivalry between friends and foe, the
prejudice and jealousy, the drive for revenge-all these are
perfectly handled by the author. The very sorting of
students into houses engenders enmity on one hand, even
though it fosters the feeling of community and
belongingness on the fairer side. A chill rivalry always runs
through the veins of both the Gryffindors and Slytherins-
be it in winning house points for their own team or getting
detention for the other. Malfoy in particular is keen on
teasing and harassing others rather proving his skill as a
wizard. Draco is named after the dragon and he typifies
some of the most negative aspects of ego-based
consciousness (Trevarthen 133).

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Draco is motivated by jealousy and snobbery, violence and
vengeance. He is proud of his status in the wizarding
community and uses it to trouble and demean others
especially those who are of lower cadre. Reflectively he
hates Harry, Hermione and Hagrid, being the son of a giant,
virtually an untouchable in the wizarding world. Though
Ron is from a family of pure wizards, he too is not spared
because of his inferior economic status. It is Harry who
protects Neville, Ginny and Colin Creevy from the vicious
jibes of Malfoy and his crew. Like Tom Brown, Harry is
admired by his peers for his prowess at sports and his out-
of-class exploits rather than his classroom brilliance. Both
boys seem to be bright but not superlative academically;
their stories of adventures do not centre around their
winning academic honours (Ivory Tower 148).

Rivalry persists not only among the conflicting parties but

also within a single team. Typical of the adolescent period
is the burning rage of jealousy and prejudice. Ron, the
harmless boy in the trio feels that Harry is unduly
supported, given more privileges and exempted from
punishments. Jealousy becomes the ruling passion of Ron
when he shuns Harry misunderstanding that Harry himself
included his name in the Goblet of Fire, and thereby his name
is chosen to represent Hogwarts in the Triwizard
Tournament. It is a common attitude of a teenager to be
treated special to excel and outwit others in the rat race.

Pranks and mischiefs, parties and unauthorized excursions

off campus are parts of the hero’s adventures. Occassional
rule-breaking is in fact, a test of the character, gumption
(enthusiasm) and originality that the lamb needs in order to
be a success in life. Most of the characters are shown fond
of breaking the rules and deriving fun out of it, with few
exceptions like Hermione, keen on adhering to the rules.

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The only reason she remains in the triumvirate in spite of
her veneration for authority is that the motive behind all
violation of rules is good. Harry, like the conventional
school story hero, is not “a habitual prankster” who
“breaches serious rules when it is necessary for safety or a
greater good” (Karen Smith 79).

The trio involve themselves in many mischiefs violating the

rules that lead them not only to confront danger but also a
resolution of a mystery. They facilitate the author’s motive
in creating a fantasy story. The trio’s use of time-turner,
Harry and Ron’s meeting with the Aragog according to the
advice of Hagrid all give a clue to resolving a mystery. Harry
is likened to Stalky in Rudyard Kipling’s Stalky and Co who
is bound for working in the British Army. Amanda Cockrell
in her essay “Harry Potter and the Secret Password” finds
similarities between these two protagonists Stalky and
Harry, both working under similar circumstances,
adulthood by a benevolent headmaster. Like Stalky, Harry
is often outside the main body of the school.
Neither abides by any but the most important of the rules of the
school, and by their very rebellion prove their mettle. Both are
chastised by headmasters who are secretly grooming them for a
future success.... Both are regarded with wary respect or jealousy
by their peers for their very capacity for rule-breakers, crafty and
dangerous in their own right... (19).

Rules may be flouted on occasions, for a good reason, in

defence against evil, and always used with responsibility.
Whenever Harry is breaking rules, he is not motivated by a
disdain for rules or any self-serving desire, but only to
defend someone in danger. Harry responds as a hero, a
defender of those who cannot defend themselves. Harry’s
actions may be impertinent and imprudent, typical of
adolescents, but never immoral.

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If the purpose of any law is to preserve life and the good of
man, then the intention behind the breakage of rules must
be weighed. The real reason Harry often goes unpunished
is because the intention is good and not driven by selfish
motives. The rules, are in fact the temporary ones, not
carved in stone by the hand of God, but by man. As
Dumbledore says, at the end of Chamber of Secrets, “I seem
to remember telling you both that I would have to expel
you if you broke any more school rules which goes to show
that the best of us must sometimes eat our words” (2). It is
true at times, the only way to get anything done, is to ignore
the rules, or at least find some way to get around them.

To the one like Harry, who is always chased and whose life
is ever at stake, adhering to rules won’t be of great good and
sometimes may even put him to danger. In moments of
extreme hazards, and when adult security is missing around,
Harry has to look to his own safety rather than to stick to
rigid norms. He has but least means and has to flout some
rules of the Order of the Magical society using some banned
spells or charms. Dumbledore comes to Harry’s rescue
when he is summoned by the judges of the wizengamot in
the Order of the Phoenix : “Clause seven of the Decree states
that magic may be used before Muggles in exceptional
circumstances and as those exceptional circumstances
include situations that threaten the life of the wizard or
witch himself...” (HPOP 8).

Like each developmental phase, preadolescence brings its

own challenges and anxieties even physically. Once puberty
is attained, the body no longer feels friendly. The physical
changes associated with preadolescence are usually
experienced as unwelcome, embarrassing and unhelpful.
Formerly cute latency-aged children become homely
adolescents; graceful athletes and dancers turn gangly and

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clumsy (Lisa Damur 22). Boys contend with awkwardly
changing voices, radical differences in the size and strength
of their peers, whereas girls grow much conscious of their
bodily features and the beginning of menstruation- an event
nothing less of a traumatic experience. The series speak
volumes of the psychological experience too of attaining
maturity than just addressing the biological factors. The
Triumvirates endure several terrifying and bizarre physical
changes-“strange, unpleasant, yet sometimes marvellous”.
(22)

Preadolescence consists of more than just the anxiety and

suspense of pubertal development. It is their own world of
peers to whom the parents become more restrictive,
embarrassing or even dorky than ever before-not the
parents but they are each other’s guardians. The Hogwarts
house system provides them with a sort of extended family.
It is amazing to note that though adults populate Harry’s
world, it is yet a world of young pupil. The children are
characters while the adults remain mainly as caricatures; the
young grow to maturity whereas the adults are just static
and flat. The characters grow increasingly complex- Harry
feels anguish and fear, torn between good and evil, faith and
distrust, grieves for his parents, yearns for Cho Chang who
is his first romantic relationship. Ron becomes jealous and
irritant, Hermione dutiful and caustic. The adults, on the
other, though critical to storyline are treated as set pieces;
on the other hand, the young get to be acting fervently in
an unfolding drama. Dumbledore is good and wise; Snape
vindictive and cruel, Dursleys stupid and cold-hearted,
Weasleys-warm and caring, Hagrid innocent and emotional.

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Making Right Choices:
Greater transformations occur as the series progresses and
the young seem to act out of maturity. Even the timid
Neville Longbottom gathers courage and Harry’s training
of his fellow wizards proves helpful. Ginny Weasley proves
valorous; Hermione is more pragmatic in erasing the
memories of her parents. Neville above all becomes ‘a hero
of resistance’ in Deathly Hallows, killing Nagini the last
Horcrux and dies a brave heroic death. “This was crucial,
he must be like Dumbledore, keep a cool head, make sure
there were backups, others to carry on” (696). In Rowling’s
own words, “The books are about moral courage”- to stand
by your choices for the right thing against your enemies and
sometimes against your friends (BBC Newsround). Not only
Harry but the other characters too mature in attaining this
self-realization.

Harry’s development phase reaches its pinnacle when he

realizes the greatest challenge to be faced by him- the
realization that Voldemort has inadvertently created a
Horcrux in Harry. He is marked for death from the
beginning and there is no avoiding it. “Either must die at
the hand of the other for neither can live while the other
survives” (HPOP 353). When the prophecy is revealed and
Harry’s parents meet their deaths, Harry is rushed away and
hidden with an ordinary family. But whatever is done, he
cannot avoid his extraordinary destiny. Rowling’s twist is
that it is not Harry’s heroism that leads him to adulthood.
It is not the battle with Voldemort that changes him. It is
the battle within himself that accounts for his maturity. He
really grows up in his maturity when realizes the illusion of
heroism, when he comes to understand that the adults he
has been idolizing – his father, his mentor Dumbledore,
Sirius and even Lupin are flawed like anyone else. Their

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perfect versions demolish and Harry accepts them as they
are.

Self will mean everything in Harry’s life. Right from

choosing to be in Gryffindor, Harry stubbornly is on the
side of good. He has courage, compassion, humility,
integrity, a desire for truth and justice and when the inner
man is so good, evil cannot penetrate into the soul. It is this
intrinsic good nature that prevents Voldemort from
possessing Harry’s soul. As Dumbledore explains, the
power of love is “at once more wonderful and more terrible
than death, than human intelligence, than forces of
nature....That power saved you from possession by
Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body
so full of the force he detests...” (HPOP 843).

Harry is heroic not simply because his parents were so, he

is a hero because he is willing to engage himself in the
defence of all that is constructively human. He prepares
himself to face Death. “I was ready to die to stop you from
hurting .... I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected
from you...” (HPDH 738). Harry’s true heroism lies in the
fact that he prepares himself for self-sacrifice, in “the
difference between being dragged into the arena to face a
battle to the death and walking into the arena with your
head held high” (HPBP 512). Harry, with a rush of fierce
pride as his parents did, gets ready to embrace death.

If the use of magic can be conceived as an art, then the

Harry Potter series can very well be categorized as
Kunstleroman novel, wherein the protagonist is shown
developing his skill as an artist, i.e., a wizard. The series are
an exemplification of Harry’s apprenticeship in the field of
wizardry. Harry excels in the use of magic, spells and
charms not just eventually but takes years of persistent

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effort and training. In Hogwarts, magic is a science to be
learned and it is dangerous in the wrong or inexperienced
hands. Ignorance remains Harry’s defining condition until
Hagrid meets him. He knows nothing about the magic
world, not even the fact that he is a celebrated wizard.
Acquisition of knowledge is the premise of learning, and so
it is with Hogwarts. Acquiring knowledge is not so easy but
it is complex as the confusing lanes and moving stairs of
Hogwarts campus.

Harry, at first, is not industrious, but once he starts working

out, he learns immense lessons. He never stops practising
new manoeuvres. Infact as Lisa Hopkins argues “Harry’s
years with the Dursleys have certainly honed his skills in
speed, self-protection and avoiding trouble, talents as useful
on the Quidditch pitch as when facing Voldemort” (27). It
is admirable, necessary, and inevitable to work hard, read
books and spend long hours in the library, because the
things learnt may save the world. The adventures are
structured as symbolic tests on what the wizards have
learnt. Many evenings spent on chess have honed Ron’s
skills and help him in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry’s
Quidditch skills come handy in reaching the flying keys, his
skill in charms helps him survive Voldemort’s attack in the
Goblet of Fire.

To excel in spells and charms, the mastery of the word is

crucial and Harry gradually masters the words. The wizard’s
skill in implementing the words, are significant. To take
instance from Le Guin’sEarthsea, “magic consists in ...the
true naming of the thing” (55). Harry master's words like
“Accio” meaning ‘approach’, “Lumos” meaning ‘light’,
“Imperio” meaning ‘to command’, “Crucio” meaning
‘cross’. The appropriate mastery of these words renders
effective magic.

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The wizard must be alert to know the consequences of his
spells as to know what good and evil will follow on the act,
for “the power of changing and summoning can shake the
balance of the world” which is in equilibrium (Le Guin55).
Harry casts spells in situations that have a function in the
overall plot, such as the Triwizard Tournament or for his
own self-preservation or the rescue of his peers and
comrades, in his encounter with Fluffy, the three headed
dog or his more grave combat with the Dark Lord.
Sometimes less harmful spells are employed as part of his
continual struggle with the Dursleys despite the rule that
magic should not be used against Muggles, the non-magic
folk.

Aunt Marge, the obnoxious relative of Uncle Vernon is

blown up, when she persistently mocks Harry and his
parents. She “...was entirely round, now, like a vast life buoy
with piggy eyes, and her hands and feet stuck out weirdly as
she drifted up into the air, making apoplectic popping
noises” (HPPA 27). Harry happens to be excellent not just
in spells but also few other talents which remain hidden
until on rare occasions. Unknown to others and even to
himself, Harry retains an unconscious facility with magic.
In one of the classes of Dark Arts, he is revealed to be a
Parselmouth, an ability to speak to snakes, a talent regarded
as sinister. Voldemort is the only other person possessing
this skill. The scar is the agent of the transportation of this
ability. As Voldemort himself says:

There are strange likeness between us after all.... Even you must
have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles....
Probably the only two Parcelmouths to come to Hogwarts since
the great Slytherin himself.... (HPCS 317)

The revelations indicate clearly that Harry is paired with

Voldemort. In the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Harry goes to buy

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things for his first year, in Diagon Alley, Mr.Ollivander, the
maker of fine wands, immediately identifies Harry’s wand,
to be twin to Voldemort’s, containing a feather from the
same phoenix. In Ollivander’s words, “The wand chooses
the wizard. I think we must expect great things from you
Mr.Potter.... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did
great things- terrible, yes, but great” (85). It is Harry’s
destiny to break this kinship, this tie with Voldemort.

Voldemort is Harry’s shadow, so to say metaphorically. As

Le Guin puts it, “The shadow is the otherside of our
psyche, the dark brother of the unconscious mind...the
shadow stands on the threshold...” (59). It is this shadow
Harry must confront and subdue. Voldemort is the heart of
the riddle that Harry must solve, on his journey to
adulthood and his journey as a hero which is truly one and
the same.

In the process of befitting a celebrated wizard, Harry not

only learns mastery over spells and charms but also
develops other abilities unparalleled by others.
Apprenticeship happens in a much moretruer sense, when
Harry receives individual tuitions and learns things outside
class. For instance, the Defense against the Dark Arts
master, Prof. Lupin teaches him Harry how to conjure up a
Patronus which is a kind of ‘Anti- Dementor’, a shield
helpful in driving away a Dementor. Lupin says:

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 Fig. 19. (http://harrypotterwikia.com/wiki/patronus)

The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of ... hope,

happiness, .... Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures
it…. ‘And how can you conjure it?’ ‘With an incantation, which
will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on
a single, very happy memory. (HPPA 176)

The true lesson for anyone rests, on knowing his negatives,

of what can’t be done equally on knowing his positive merit
what can be accomplished. In such a perception, Harry as a
wizard, learns that all can’t be done or undone by magic.
However,skilful he may be, there are certain limitations that
cannot be helped or redressed. It is the discovery of this
limited reach of his ability that marks the most painful, but
vital lesson for Harry. Like the swift footed Achilles who
has to accept his limits in spite of his Godlike reputation
and his glittering armour, Harry too has to learn his
limitation. Neither can he prevent Death nor bring back the
Dead to life again. It is with the heart-wrenching death of
Cedric Diggory, Harry learns this lesson and progresses
towards mature heroism. Harry at this point becomes
touchingly human, limited as all humans are, but

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developingthe will and judgement to direct his quest
towards greater good.

Harry acquires knowledge, as Ruth Nanda Anshen says that

is “a means of liberating mankind from the destructive
power of fear pointing the way toward the rehabilitation of
the human will and the rebirth of faith and confidence in
the human person” (qtd.in Mary Pharr 66). Through the
education of Harry, Rowling encourages people to enhance
this sense of awe, to ponder the possibility of moral action.
The Bildungsroman is utilized by authors to pass values and
morals onto youth. Like the Pensieve, that stores the
memories of people that could be cherished later, the
Bildungsroman literature allows the readers to revisit and
relive past experiences and memories, that shaped them
who they are at present.

Rowling offers, as Pat Pinsent argues, “a number of

positives, such as the companionship of friends, the danger
of being deceived by appearances and the importance of
being true to one’s own nature...” (50). Over the projected
volume of the series, she offers a bildungsroman, not only
of Harry but also of Ron and Hermione. The broader
canvas of the plot enables the author to touch upon various
issues- the need to rely on one’s integrity even during
moments of mistrust, the danger of depression and
betrayal, the necessity of qualities exemplified by the four
house teams that are essential for sound psychological
development of the protagonist.

Employing the bildungsroman element serves the

anticipated purpose of the author in making it a microcosm
of the universal experience of adolescence. The success of
the book lies in the reader’s comfortable identification with
the characters in their transformational journey. It is the

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laudable merit of the author in making the books so alluring
without losing its initial appeal that is often characteristic of
the series books. Rowling has artfully created a textual
looking-glass where the reader can observe their own
unconscious conflicts in a displaced and imaginary form,
indulge their fantasy lives and find magical solutions to
otherwise hopeless troubles. As Lisa Damour says, the
novels are an admirable portrayal of “maturing cognitive
and emotional capacities and their increasingly complex
understandings of themselves and the world around them”
(23).

The series becomes an embodiment of Entwicklungsroman

genre in a sense that it delineates the evolution of the
wizarding world to perfection from the destructive powers
of the Dark forces led by Voldemort. With the growth of
Harry to maturity, the wizarding world too is redeemed
from its blemishes and pitfalls. As Bakhtin says:

The [hero] emerges along with the world and he reflects the
historical emergence of the world itself. He is no longer within
an epoch, but on the border between two epochs, at the
transition point from one to the other. This transition is
accomplished in him and through him.... It is as though the very
foundations of the world are changing, and man must change
along with them (23).

The role of the Bildungsroman genre in the new millennium

should be pondered. The bildungsroman can be regarded
as an epic where the values expressed are the values of the
contemporary society. By using the stylistic and narrative
traits, the author employs social criticism and opens up for
pedagogical moral lessons suitable for the contemporary
society. The genre is still developing because of the way it
focuses on human development; therefore, it is still of
interest to the reading public. In the same way as a society
develops, the genre also expands to include a deepening

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human consciousness and experiences. A genre that is
ultimately intent on questioning and developing man’s
values, and consequently also dealing with the eternal
mystery of life, can never get out of fashion and irrelevant.
Personal harmony, inner peace and a balance between the
self and the world is something that might even become a
prominent theme in the future. The hero of a
bildungsroman is the lens through which we see the world
and the changing of epochs. (“Journey of the Villain” 15)

By celebrating male heroism at a moment when popular

culture fears male violence, indeed when boys are seen as
killers, Rowling has tapped into a kind of collective
unconscious need to be reminded that boys have a path
toward maturity to follow, and that they can indeed make
it, both with help and on their own. Harry, of course can be
identified as a male Cinderella: he lives humbly in a
cupboard under the stairs, and later in the attic of his hated
relatives’ home, but is revealed to be a towering Titan in the
wizard world. He is also something of a Jack figure,
however, depending on his wits and abilities to defeat a
larger, older, more powerful foe. Harry’s continued
successes, his ultimate triumph presumably waiting in the
wings, offer boys a hero to cheer, his victories are their
victories. (Terri Doughty 257)

According to the author, the creator of the bespectacled

boy with a scar, Harry is the chosen one not merely for the
elimination of evil but also for what he is- the universal boy
hero marked by his own human flaws yet with the
resolution to be on the side of good. “I wanted him to be
physically marked by what he has been through. It was an
outward expression of what he has been through inside....
It is almost like being the chosen one or the cursed one, in
a sense.” Rowling said that Harry’s two worst character

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flaws are anger and occasional arrogance, but Harry is also
innately honourable. “He is not a cruel boy. He’s
competitive, and he’s a fighter. He doesn’t just lie down and
take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes
him a hero to me. He’s a normal boy but with those qualities
most of us really admire.” (MuggleNet)

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 Poetic Justice in Harry Potter–
Achieved or Evaded

Introduction:
A story retold for children serves important literary and
social functions inducting its audience into the social,
ethical and aesthetic values of culture. As Joe George
Emmatty says: “Children’s literature is not a pastime, an
entertaining interlude, set apart from the real business of
living, but the culture foundation for it” (Research Scholar, 1.
111). Children’s books are generally morality tales
explaining real issues and unpleasant realities in a symbolic
or metaphoric way so that children may better understand
them. In early children’s literature, authors through their
works attempted to supply the needs of the incomplete,
impressionable and ignorant children by offering them
religious guidance and moral lessons.

Children’s literature that primarily began as a means of

instructing good morals to its intended audience is didactic,
in the broader sense. As the words of Peter Hollingdale,
quoted in Reading Harry Potter, “all children’s literature is
inescapably didactic” giving order to chaos (Elaine Ostry
98). It provides a forum in which individuals can grapple
with their personal queries on good and evil, experiencing
them in events and characters they might never physically
encounter in reality. Ursula LeGuin considers Fantasy as
“the natural, the appropriate language for the recounting of
the spiritual journey and the struggle of good and evil in the
soul” (64).

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The conflict between good and evil lasts through eternity
and the war of these dual forces is the one that had
dominated all the efforts of mankind since creation. This
conflict seems to have no ceasing point and humanity has
always been attempting to come to terms with the idea of
good and evil existing simultaneously. From allegorical
morality tales to imaginary fairy tales, historical narratives
to contemporary realistic postmodern fiction, literature has
always provided a comfortable platform for the delineation
of the conflicting forces of good and evil. Profoundly
concerned with the making and remaking of meaning,
literature allows for the questioning and refiguring of this
concept.

Centuries might have passed on; Cultures may have been

trampled over; Generations may have crossed; Authors may
have handed over their legacies; the targeted reader may
differ; but the propagated morale, the underlying message
of all world’ s literature remains unaltered, universally
accepted and unanimously acknowledged ones- the
delineation of human life and its concerns. Whether it is
literature of the bygone days or the literature of the
millennium, art inevitably deals with the same issues, in its
manifestation of twin purposes to delight and instinct.
Whatever maybe the genre that the author takes into his
heads, the purpose, if lofty, fulfills the function of art.

Literature, the replica of life and culture manifests this

ideology through all possible means. It is the culmination
of life’s philosophy. Whenever there is a work of art dealing
with the most universal theme of human life – good and
evil, there is definitely the question of who or what reaches
the ultimate victory; whether the dark forces or the
benevolent good ones. In such an instance, arises the
concept of ‘Poetic justice’- the consideration of whether

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good has been rewarded or victimized. Poetic Justice is a
literary device used in literature through which the author
extemporizes the concept that virtue is ultimately rewarded
or vice punished; often by the character’s own conduct. The
term ‘Poetic Justice’ was coined by Rymer, the seventeenth
century English critic when it was believed that a work of
literature should uphold moral principles and instruct the
reader in correct and moral behaviour.
(www.britannica.com)

In literature, as in life, there are always the dual conflicting

forces ever engaged in a tug of war. Ancient myths and the
age-old epics all deal with this universal conflict involving
clashes and chaos. Innumerable instances are there to be
taken as exemplifying this dichotomic struggle between
good and evil. Ever since creation and in the holy books
that portray human life, the theme had been the central and
governing principle. In literature of the bygone days,
containing the folklore of the past, this conflict had been
the only existing theme whether it is the war of Gods
among themselves or with the demons.

Almost all the religious faiths insist on the concept of poetic

justice being achieved at the end of the battle, though
initially the negative and the dark forces may seem to take
the victorious stand. The Holy Bible, The Vedas and all great
epics deal with and celebrate the ultimate victory of good
over evil at the end. Ancient Asian myths too handle the
theme of the conflicting forces of good and evil and the
resultant victory of good in the end. Dante’s Divine Comedy
reads like a compendium of examples of poetic justice. All
animated films use poetic justice as an ending device, with
the hero being rewarded and the villain being punished in
ironic and occasionally fatal ways.

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The Harry Potter series, which though at the outset, deals with
the conflict persisting in the magical world, has in its
underlying fabric, the intricate thread of the conflict
between good and evil. In the guise of young adult
adventure fiction, the novels deal with the lofty themes of
life. They explicate the struggle between good and evil and
the ultimate triumph of the good through the courage and
ingenuity of the human spirit and the power of love. The
Harry Potter series are such classic fairy tales as they revolve
around the struggle of good versus evil and moral
obligation. The exploits that Harry performs serve not only
as a source of entertainment but also provides an impetus
for children’s social and moral development as well.

Rowling doesn’t drum in lessons. Rather, her books get

their depth from a combination of allegory and genuine
human interactions that haven’t pre-chewed. She lets her
characters learn from their mistakes (Joe Trevarthan 21).
According to the traditions of the world, the focus of the
battle between good and evil is not hegemony over the
outside world but over the soul of the human individual and
the power it contains. Harry lives in a world where good
and evil co-exist and are always in competition to reign over
the wizarding school. Although the series is wholly about
learning wizardry, the underlying plot is one of war of
wands and spells to ascertain its supremacy. There is a war
over the soul of man between the pure and the right on one
hand and the appealing and seductive but wrong on the
other.

In Genesis, Chapter I, it is stated that God formed the

human being in his own image and invested them with his
own immense power, with free will (25-26). This power
when invested in a negative drive of evil acquires true
distinctive ability. When man turns over this force to the

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negative, dark side of creation, evil acquires the ability to
reshape the world in its own image not God’s. This is what
happens in the case of Voldemort, who when acquires
immense power of Magic, invests and channelizes this force
to the darker side, for the sake of his own hegemony.

External Conflict:
Before concentrating upon the greater and graver battle
between Harry and the Dark Lord, in the extreme form of
good and evil that is symbolic of the conflict between God
and Satan, it is worth looking into the less complex and less
harmful conflicts between the good and bad in a primary
level.

Harry’s life with the Dursleys is an exemplification of the

restless destiny of the infant Harry. Life in Private Drive is
incompatible and irreconcilable, the domineering elements
being alienation and humiliation, as of a scope goat in the
hands of the arrogant Dursleys, Harry’s miserable life under
the stairs is one worthy of sympathy and pity. Always
dressed in Dudley’s hand-me-downs and fed usually with
the left overs, Harry looks pathetically thin for his age with
his unkempt hair and big round spectacles. He is kept
innocent and ignorant of every fact possible regarding
himself and his birth.

Harry’s Innocence:
What is most striking about Harry’s nature in Dursley’s
household is his ungrudging attitude. He has nearly no
individual wishes and he never speaks for himself. He is
ordered never to ask question and not to be visible even.
His entity in the house is almost obscured. Rather the
impression created around and at school about Harry is that
is an extremely problematic boy who needs to be tamed.

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Consequently, he has very few friends wherever he is, be at
school or at home. Children from childhood upto early
adolescence tend to be naughty, demanding and even tough
to handle but Harry’s life in Vernon Dursley’s house is one
of confinement closely related to the life in a prison,
without any sign of hope or escape. Later when his god
father Sirius Black speaks much of the life in Azkaban
prison where he was confined, Harry could immediately
empathize with him as his life had been nearly the same in
the Muggle family. Surprisingly enough, beyond the trials
and tribulations of his growing years, Harry is rarely seen
being provoked. He always maintains a disinterested stature
and keeps himself aloof and silent without rebellion.

Very few instances are cited when Harry gets provoked to

anger and irritation. Mysteriously, to his own surprise and
shock, when he is humiliated or ill-treated, especially by the
bullying cousin, magical happenings occur. When Aunt
Petunia, in a fit of rage, deliberately cuts off Harry’s hair, it
grows back to its normal volume, the very same night. At
another instance, Harry suddenly finds himself on the roof
of the school kitchen, when Dudley along with his friends
chases him.

Harry receives the signatory letter in Green Ink that would

put his destiny over the roller coaster wheels of fortune as
well as hardships. Uncle Vernon deems it like an ill omen
and does everything possible to prevent Harry from reading
the letter from Hogwarts. The very idea that the orphaned
boy could get a letter is hideous to them. Such is the
bitterness and disregard with which Harry is treated. When
flocks of owl persistently make efforts to deliver the post,
Harry so far voiceless and tamed child, for the first time
raises his voice to assert his right. This is the first instance
of a slight rebellion of the innocent against the arrogant.

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Harry would not have asserted his will and set out on his
way to the wizarding world but for Hagrid, the half-giant’s
revelation of the secrets behind Harry’s scar and the
glimpses of the green light flashing then and there in his
dreams and sometimes in his consciousness whenever he is
in deep thoughts about his parents.

Harry had been under the illusion that the Potters met with
an accident, now comes to know from Hagrid, the mystery
behind their deaths, and their proud lineage as skilled
wizards. Entering Hogwarts, Harry meets Draco Malfoy
who is another foil, even more bitter. Draco immediately
becomes Harry’s nemises with his pride and vain glory
about his wizarding background.

Draco is a mean little boy who taunts those who are below
his status and those who are not of purely magical origin.
He constantly taunts Ron Weasley and calls Hermione,
filthy mudblood. He berates Neville and readily takes into
hand every single opportunity to demean him.

Draco Malfoy as foil:

Draco and his bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle, signify the
typical characteristic of Slytherin House that seem a bad
sort and a bit menacing even. Draco is Harry’s greatest child
enemy-pal, small and similar to Harry, in build. Draco’s
connivance with the hack journalist, Rita Skeeter testifies to
his moral bankruptcy. He is morally deprived in addition to
his physical meekness. Possible to be evil to such an extent
that Voldemort himself chooses Draco as fit enough to kill
Dumbledore. Lacking Harry’s humanity, warmth of love,
lagging in wizarding skills too, of which he is boastful,
Draco is by all means a perfect foil to Harry. Malfoy’s mean
behaviour triggers off the hero in the otherwise humble
Harry.

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The character of Malfoy is significant in the sense that it is
he who puts Harry to action. It is due to Draco’s
humiliation of Neville Longbottom that Harry’s sense of
justice is brought out. Harry’s blood boils instinctively when
Neville, the much fearing young wizard is put into shame
and his Remembrall being snatched away by Draco and his
peers. The flying lesson scene shows Harry responding
spontaneously as well as courageously to fight injustice and
evil.

Denigrators of Harry Potter claim that Harry has a

disregard for rules. Professor Snape is an echo of the critic’s
opinion that “Harry Potter is a law unto himself.... Famous
Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for
the consequences ...” (HPPA 284). Indeed, he does, but not
without thought for the consequences, but with a foresight
to defeat evil. In truth, Harry’s behaviour is not motivated
by a disdain for rules or any other self-serving desire, but by
a desire to defend someone who is under trouble. Harry
responds as a hero, a defender of another who cannot
defend himself.

Dumbledore prepares Harry to perform two different

missions – one to hunt the horcruxes in a way to destroy
evil and the other to find the three Deathly Hallows which
are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak
of Invisibility. The Elder wand signifies power specially to
conquer death. It is a wand more powerful than any in
existence, a wand that always wins duels for its owner, a
wand that is worthy of a wizard who has conquered death.
It makes the possessor invincible, giving power to resist
death or in other words, it really postpones death.
Resurrection Stone as its name implies has the power to
bring back the dead people to life. The Cloak of Invisibility

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as its name suggests is a veil that makes the owner invisible
to people or danger thereby evading death.

The Three Hallows are symbolic of three different

responses to death. People in their desire to evade death,
want to overpower it, and sometimes wish to bring back the
loved one’s to life again or by some insensible means try to
cheat death. But no such thing is possible; the Hallows
signify the illusions regarding death and Harry’s discarding
them can be symbolically taken as his breaking of all the
illusions regarding death. Death is an inevitable reality
which everybody should realize and there is no escape
possible.

Voldemort in Book I, the Philosopher’s Stone seeks to possess

the stone to get immortality but his effort is thwarted by
Harry who is keen on preventing the stone from reaching
the hands of evil. As Dumbledore conveys, the stone
reaches the hands of one who will not use it for himself,
who will not be greedy for the Elixir of life. It is ironical
that Harry who had never sought power and never been
avaricious of immortality gets all the three hallows and the
philosopher’s stone. By possessing them, he becomes the
true master of death. “You are the true master of death,
because the true master does not seek to run away from
death. He accepts that he must die and understands that
there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying”
(HPDH 720).

Harry’s understanding is the result of seven years of

struggle. He does not seek the elder wand for power over
others. He discards it when he really gets it. He is not after
the Resurrection Stone for bringing back his dead parents
or his mentors for he knows that no spell can reawaken the
dead; but only to enable his own self-sacrifice. He cast aside

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the Invisibility Cloak when it was due unto him to face
death, he doesn’t try to hide himself with a will to cheat
death. The Philosopher’s stone is visible only to him when
he stands before the Mirror of Erised, because he does not
want immortality for himself, but seeks to prevent the Dark
Lord from getting it.

In the world of Harry Potter, good in the form of

Dumbledore and his army, just wants to maintain the status
quo keeping the evil at bay from gaining foothold; whereas
evil in the form of Voldemort, does not just want to
maintain its own state of affairs but to dominate and reign
over the world. This is where the conflict begins and the
forces of good are thrust in a position to safeguard
themselves and the society and Harry’s destiny as the
Saviour of Hogwarts gains significance. As in the words of
Dumbledore, Harry being not greedy of power is best
suited to lead.

It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best

suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who
like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the
mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that
they wear it well. (HPDH 718)

Inner Conflict:
All human beings have an inner evil or heart of darkness.
The note of conflict is not just external but also internal.
Many of Harry’s combative encounters seem to be battles
within himself as much as with someone else. His psyche
has been framed by Voldemort’s negatives in a quite large
measure as that by his parent’s positives. This entwined
relationship points to Voldemort being the shadowy figure
whom we all carry around everything repressed, hated,
unacknowledged in the self. The internal foe is more to be
feared than the external one. Harry’s conflict begins with

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the Sorting Ceremony wherein the Sorting Hat is tossed in
a dilemma, whether to put him in Gryffindor or Slytherin.
Harry rightly asserts his decision to be on the side of good
and wishes to be placed in Gryffindor House, to which his
parents too belonged.

Even after being sorted into the house of his choice, he is

not at ease; conflicting questions nag his mind when he to
his own surprise, reveals his ability to speak Parseltongue,
the language of the snakes or when he is able to look into
Voldemort’s mind. He confesses to Sirius, that he was the
snake who attacked Mr.Weasley (atleast he thought so) and
asks, “It was like something rose up inside me, like there’s
a snake inside me__” (HPOP 481). In this conversation,
Sirius gives a solemn reply to Harry “...The world isn’t split
into good people and Death Eaters” (HPOP 302).

Choosing to fight evil and be on the side of good despite all

temptations needs immense moral courage and Harry
undoubtedly possesses this virtue. Bravery is the first virtue
which leads to all other virtues. In Rowling’s own words:

I see Harry as someone who is struggling to do the right thing

who is not without faults, who acts impetuously.... but who is
ultimately very loyal person, and a very courageous person...? he
is ultimately human, struggling to do the right thing....
(hplexicon.org)

Good does not always win in Harry Potter’s world, and so

to in the real world. Even the most blessed lives include
deaths and departures and lives like Harry’s seem heavily
weighted to the loss side. As Philip Nel in his essay “Lost
in Translation’ highlights one of the central themes of
Rowling’s series – “good and evil have a close and complex
relationship”.

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As Rabbi Cooper states: “[W]e are neither good nor evil in
our nature. We are simply the product of the accumulated
influences in our lives, plus the most important variable: our
free will” (rabbidavidcooper.com). The very same opinion
is endorsed by Sirius Black when initially good loses because
good has to play by the rules. Evil does not. Critics have
latched on to Harry’s disregard for rules as the most
subversive message in the Harry Potter series. But Harry
doesn’t throw the rules or his moral out of the window. If
he had not been obedient, he would never have been in a
confined life in Dursley’s house for eleven long years. He
generally adheres quite rigidly to the spirit of the rules even
when he is a bit cavalier with the letter of the law. The spirit
is about working for the triumph of a positive world order.
He may question some means, but he never questions the
validity of the good of the order itself. He remains
Dumbledore’s man, throughout. He holds truly to the good
that Dumbledore represents, despite his mentor’s
imperfection, his death, or even when he discovers that
Dumbledore had preserved him for his timely sacrificial
death.

Harry follows Dumbledore even into his death. His trust

and loyalty though tested to the extreme, is ultimately
justified. He holds up to the perennial values of love and
self-sacrifice. To elucidate and testify Harry’s mission for
social good, Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development is taken into study and analysis. Lawrence
Kohlberg is the child psychologist who expanded Jean
Piaget’s theory. Piaget described a two-stage process of
moral development whereas Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development outlined six stages within three different
levels. According to him, moral development is a continual
process that occurs throughout one’s life.

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Level I Pre-conventional Morality

Stage I Obedience and punishment Rules are fixed and

absolute.

Rules are obeyed for fear of punishment.

Harry’s initial years with his uncle’s family fits conveniently

into this phase. Harry is expected to obey the unwritten law
endorsed by the Dursleys. Harry passively adheres to the
Muggle norms for fear of confinement.

Stage II Individualism and Exchange

Actions judged on how they serve individual needs.

Level II Conventional Morality

Stage III Interpersonal Relationships

Living up to social expectations emphasis on conformity

Stage IV Maintaining social order

Maintaining law and order by adhering to rules

The years at Hogwarts are the manifestation of these two

crucial stages in the young adolescent hero’s maturing
process. Hermione is the perfect exemplar of this
maintenance of social law and order. She is never for
flouting the school norms and always conscious of the
detentions and deduction of House Points from
Gryffindor.

Level III Post conventional Morality

Stage V Social contract and individual rights

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Stage VI Universal principles

Internalized principles of justice even if they conflict with

laws and rules.

The first is almost crucial in everybody’s growing up. There

can be possibly no one who hadn’t crossed this stage. What
is crucial to the argument in the present analysis is to see in
which category, Harry’s character fits in. Kohlberg’s final
level of moral reasoning is based upon universal ethical
principles and abstract reasoning. At this stage, people
follow instinctively what must be done to bring order and
peace rather than blindly following the set rules.

It is interesting to note that Harry very comfortably fits into

this final stage of moral development. His decisions and
actions speak of this higher perception of moral justice
ultimately aimed at the good of those around and humanity
in the broader sense. Kohlberg argues that people mostly
stop with the early stages of moral development. Very few
come up to the final level and generally those people are the
ones who work for the common good.

Moral issues are rarely simple in most instances one is faced

with a complex moral situation where there may not be a
clear-out choice between good and evil, or right and wrong.
It is better to choose the course of action that appears to
serve the greater moral principle. Some moral truths are
absolute, but there is a higher law that should be obeyed.
“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral
law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out
of harmony with the moral law” [Martin Luther King –
Letter from Birmingham jail]. Valid law always seeks to
achieve the higher purpose of justice. The intent of the law
is the force of the law. If following the letter of the law is in

200
conflict with the intent of the law, then actions must be
chosen to reach the intent.

Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience and has a

keen feeling of what is right and wrong. His actions are
directed by a motive that of Martin Luther King’s, the
notion that manmade laws can be broken if a higher moral
law, justice is at stake. Having very limited access to truly
caring adults from his infancy, Harry is forced to make his
own decisions. From the beginning, Harry is never seen to
initiate conflicts on his own. Even in Dursley’s house, he
bears all humiliation without any complaint. Even when
mysterious things happen for those who trouble him, it’s
only unawares, without his intention and even knowledge
for he never knew for himself that he is a wizard capable of
performing magic.

Even when uncle Vernon asks him to keep quiet and

remain invisible to the visitors, he obeys without a word of
opposition. Had he been defiant and rebellious, he would
have reached hot in anger. Only when the occasion
demands, he raises his voice.

At Hogwarts too, he is forced to break some rules only for

the purpose of some common good not to benefit his own
selfish ends. When Hermione gets into trouble meeting
with the mountain troll, or when the chamber of secrets is
opened unawares with the help of Ginny Weasley and when
the safety of the students and the school is disturbed, it is
his breaking of rules that makes all the dangerous
adventures possible culminating the resolution of mysteries
surrounding Hogwarts.

Casting of spells and performing magic outside the school

and at Muggles is prohibited by the wizarding law anyway.
But certain situations demand violation of law so that

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human life or safety is secured and preserved. Especially
when the Dementors come to attack Harry and Dudley, it
is impossible for Harry to remain passive just witnessing the
attack and Dudley’s soul being sucked Harry inevitably has
to use some defending spell to protect himself and his
cousin. Instances such as these abound proving the fact that
Harry indeed breaks laws and goes against it not out of any
self-centered motives but only for the preservation of the
safety of himself and those around him. In Rowling’s own
words, “He does make mistakes but he does what his
conscience tells him to do” (harrypotterwikia.com).

Thanatology:
The whole series can be read as a serious story about death,
as many fairy tales are as well. The way Rowling deals with
death is quite contrary to that of the contemporary western
culture. Peter Ciaccio argues that “the modern people
forget that death is a shadow or all of our lives. Death is
either hidden or presented as virtual event.
The way Rowling deals with death in Harry Potter deal brings
instead a healthy message; one cannot remove death from life,
but one should live taking death into serious consideration.
People can overcome their grief and survive only by seriously
accepting it and fully living through it. (Harry Potter and
Christian Theology 40)

The question of death is central to the Harry Potter

phenomenal struggle and various answers are posed by
different characters with multitudes of perceptions. The
titular character from the beginning is in constant search for
an answer which when he gets is wrapped in a paradox that
only by facing and accepting death, he can master it.

Throughout the narrative, two important characters are

persistently after this great but feared concept – death. The

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name Voldemort bears the meaning ‘flight of death’ and
none dares to speak his name, even the elder wizards.
Instead, euphemisms are used such as He-Who-Must-Not-
Be-Named, You-know Who or the Dark Lord. The only
person other than Dumbledore daring enough to
pronounce his name is Harry. When he does so, people
around him cringe and berate him. The first step in
conquering death is to be bold to name it. As Dumbledore
says, “Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a
name increases fear of the thing itself” (HPPS 298).

It is through the benign mentor Dumbledore, that Harry

learns valuable lessons about death as well as about life.
Dumbledore’s strong assertion is that Death is not to be
feared and it is but a “great adventure” (HPPS 17). When
Harry gets carried away by the vision he sees in the Mirror
of Erased, it is Dumbledore again who awakens Harry from
the illusion saying no one can reawaken the dead.

Whenever in trouble, Harry does not fail to get the

assistance of his dead parents however. He gets vision or
some internal guidance from them. To quote the words of
the elder mentor Dumbledore again:
You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think we
don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great
trouble? Your father is alive in you Harry, and shows himself
most plainly when you have need of him.... you found him inside
yourself. (HPPA 22)

The way in which Harry faces his death is one of a brave,

magical and altruistic approach that one can transcend
death for it is a continuum, a journey, an entry into life
beyond. Harry walks into the forest to face Voldemort, to
face death keenly appreciating each beat of his heart and
each breath he draws. Sans fear, it is a good state to

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consciously conjure up each day, awaiting it may come at
any moment. He is not willing to bow before Lord.
He was not going to let Voldemort play with him before killing
him.... he was not going to give him that satisfaction....” This is
a sign of bravery staring at death in the face without batting an
eyelid. “...he was going to die upright like his father. (HPGF 718)

The realization that facing death and accepting it is the only

means to save Hogwarts from the rule of evil, Harry acts
nearly like a martyr to protect everyone to face the
inevitable and to fulfill the prophecy. “I must die. It must
end” (HPDH 556). When he realizes the true meaning of
the prophecy, “either must die at the hand of the other for
neither can live while the other survives” (HPOP 841), he
stands defenseless before Voldemort to kill him. It is a point
of total acceptance. Only through his death, the curse is
redeemed, it is a paradox. Harry’s survival depends on his
voluntarily laying down his life so that evil within him is
destroyed.

Contrary to Harry’s conception of death is Voldemort’s. To

him death is a fearful one and he would prefer any means
to avoid it or escape from it. It is this fear of death that
drives him to seek a means of becoming immortal and
invincible. To him, there is nothing worse than death,
therefore to escape its clutches, he fractures his soul and
stores them in separate Horcruxes as fragments. This fear
is a fatal flaw for which he commits heinous crimes. It is
ironical that, by creating these Horcruxes, Voldemort has
not succeeded in conquering death. He has made his life
liminal instead, neither dead nor alive, but existing just as a
vapour, a shadow. All his warped attempts to defeat death
turn futile, when his curse backfires on him. He has to lead
an obscure life without any formidable form for almost

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eleven years, when again he gets an opportunity to combat
Harry in his endeavour to possess the Sorcerer’s stone.

The Stone again is a symbol of immortality, which

Voldemort persistently searches for. Voldemort hopes that
if he possesses the stone, he would regain his immortality,
blind of the fact that he had already impaired his soul by
splitting it. He boats of having ‘gone further than anybody
along the path that leads to immortality” (HPGF 33). To
preserve his life, he deals death to other. Every tearing of
his soul requires him to commit a murder, taking the life of
someone else. He definitely is a kin-slayer; in an effort to
conceal his Mud blood origins, Tom Riddle, the younger
Voldemort kills his Muggle father and grandparents and
implants false memories of the killing, in the mind of his
muggle uncle.

These instances of murder are far from Aeschylean in their

motive. No curse of retribution hangs over the house of
Voldemort; he murders with no inner qualm. He cannot
even let his father’s body rest peacefully in the grave. In a
gruesome ceremony, he takes out his skeleton, plunges it
into a cauldron of boiling liquid. “Bone of the father,
unknowingly given, you will renew your son” (HPGF 556).
He ingests his father’s bone, Wormtail’s hand and Harry’s
blood to rise again in a more or less adult human stature.
He is power hungry for mastery over death, and is indeed
living life like a parasite feeding on other minimal beings.
Voldemort feels no remorse and therefore loses even the
final chance of redemption.

Inevitability of Death:
Besides presenting complex ideologies of Death, Rowling
presents concretization of Death in action. The whole series
is soaked in blood bath and deaths of so many around

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Harry. The very opening of Book I, The Philosopher’s Stone
falls immediately after the death of James and Lily Potter,
the famous wizarding couple. Their death though not
enacted but just mentioned leaves a shadow of gloominess
over Harry’s life. Empathy immediately falls on the
lonesome boy with the thunderbolt scar. James and Lily’s
death though ominous in one way, is a source of his fame
because mysteriously, the infant Harry escapes the clutches
of evil. Instanteously Harry’s name spreads as the boy who
survived You-Know-Who’s death curse Avadakedavra.

The enaction of death does not stop with the Potters. Many
more deaths are staged well before the eyes of characters
especially Harry. Few are given a passing mention while
most of them are envisioned before Harry’s eyes. Death
casts a shadow on the whole of his life ever since his birth.
He is born at the time of death, during the first war with the
Dark Lord. In the course of his maturing years, Harry
comes face to face with many deaths which in turn shape
his moral development. The death of Cedric in the
Triwizard Tournament marks a pivotal point in Harry’s
understanding of death. Death may come at any moment
without any hint of it. Cedric dies in the hands of Harry,
while the Dark Lord disposes him off like a trash because
he came to the wrong place at the wrong time. Harry stands
disarmed and helpless, awfully watching gruesome death
being manipulated.

The death of Cedric, though not one of Harry’s closest

friends, is extremely important. Not only does he feel guilty
for it, as it was aimed at Harry, but also that he feels
responsible to take his body back to Hogwarts, to his
parents. “Before Harry’s mind had accepted what he was
seeing, before he could feel anything but numb disbelief”
(HPGF 554). The loss of Sirius Black, the father figure of

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Harry dooms him to despair. Harry becomes extremely
angry and volatile when Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius. Here
again, he feels guilty that it is to save him, Sirius entered the
scene to fall a prey. “Harry felt the white-hot anger lick his
insides, basing in the terrible emptiness, filling him with the
desire to hurt Dumbledore for his calmness and empty
words” (HPGF 726).

Harry completely feels devastated by Sirius’ death. He saw

the look of mingled fear and surprise on his god-father’s
wasted, once-handsome face. The laughter had not quite
died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock when
Bellatrix’s curse strikes him in the chest. The loss is
irreparable for Harry as in the words of Dumbledore. “It
was cruel that you and Sirius had such a short time together.
A brutal ending to what should have been a long and happy
relationship” (HPBP 77).

Harry witnesses yet another heart-rending death, which is

that of Dumbledore’s. When in the Tower, Snape kills
Dumbledore with the spell, Harry stands dumb struck by
total despair and fear at the inevitability of death for even a
great wizard like Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s loss is a fatal
blow to Harry for he had been more than a mentor, a
benevolent master and a good soul. This death teaches him
the lesson that death is inevitable and there is no foregoing
it. Later when he meets Dumbledore at King’s cross, after
his own seeming death, Harry realises the implication that
death is not an end in itself and it is a beginning of a journey
into yet another world of bliss.

Harry bears witness to his own death in this way. Having

met with death through Voldemort’s spell in the forbidden
forest, Harry is nearly dead, to realize that only the horcrux
part in him, that is only the evil within him, is dead and not

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himself. Therefore, he is taught a valuable lesson that life
does not end with death. He feels newly born shedding off
the darker aspects, bathed in divine light and he could sense
that there is no paining scar, no confusing inner voices to
tempt him. He is clear in his vision and mission. Harry Potter
deals not just with the loss of lives of physical existence, but
also with the loss of souls. Especially with regard to the side
of evil, with Voldemort, the loss of soul causes
irredeemable damage that can never be sought out. Alan
Moore speaks of the search for our true self, our soul which
he calls our inner diamond is the mission, the great work of
our lives. It is the most important thing we must attain but
there are a few like the dark Lord “who seem to have the
urge not just to ignore the self but actually obliterate
themselves” (www.goodreads.com).

Voldemort tries to mutilate his own soul. He splits it and

causes irrespirable loss to himself. “What good will it be
for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?
Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
(St.Matthew 16:26). The parts of the lost soul typically take
the form of the person as they were at the time of their
extreme trauma. Voldemort takes the form of an infant,
signifying his traumatic stage at the loss of his mother.
Splitting a soul is an act of violation; it’s against the law of
nature. Making of a horcrux entails a horrible sacrifice. The
word Horcrux is again an invention by Rowling, an
interesting combination of ‘hors’ from French meaning
outside and ‘crux’ meaning essence. It is therefore a device
for keeping your soul (the essence) outside your body. The
horror in horcrux is that splitting a soul is only possible by
a supreme act of evil i.e. by a murder. By killing a victim, it
breaks the perpetuator’s soul to acquire external life in a
body for the murderer. This could be seen as an antithesis
to Christ’s sacrifice to give others, life at the cost of his own,

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to heal souls broken by sin and grant eternal life in the path
of redemption.

Snape too, in some degrees, can be said to have lost his soul
for an evil cause. Having become a death eater, choosing
to be on the darker side, Snape deviates from the path to
eternity. But he has got one source of redemption through
his undying love for Lily, Harry’s mother. When Lily’s life
is taken by Voldemort, Snape falls into the feeling of
remorse forever. He cannot forgive himself for having
betrayed and been the cause for her death. As an act of
redemption and retribution, he dares to risk his whole life
working as a triple agent and as a spy, in the process of
protecting his beloved’s son.

The black robe with which he covers himself hides his

remorse and poses as the cloak of malice and scorn. After
Lily’s death, he remains the true servant of Dumbledore and
thereby indirectly to the Order of Phoenix though he is
scornfully looked upon as Voldemort’s agent of evil.
Performing manifold duties effectively, Snape at once
draws attention and finally in one great act of self-sacrifice,
dying in the hands of Voldemort, he redeems himself for
the mistake he had once committed. A character, complex
as he was Snape surprises and shocks Harry through the
valuable memories he gives in his dying moment and Harry
feels sorry to have missed appreciating such a wonder of a
man. Harry nevertheless does not fail to pay homage to the
much-despised mentor Snape by naming his son after him.

In life whatever evil we are fighting, it is the goodness that

is innate in us that keeps us going. Harry always says yes to
the process of life as a whole. He sees the goodness in life
even as he goes to face his death. He feels that he should
have valued it more. He feels why he had never appreciated

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the miraculous mystery in Snape’s character. Rowling posits
the mechanism with which the forces of evil are at work.
Evil makes its stealthy entry into one’s life through plain
selfishness that too innocuously. The first thing evil invokes
in people is inertia, as in the words of Edmund Burke, “all
that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing” (quoteinvestigator.com). The notable example of
this ideology is the way the Dementors act. They paralyze
the people by instilling feelings of hopelessness that one can
do nothing and can never feel happy again. It is Professor
Lupin who teaches Harry how to tackle a dementor.

The dementors are sightless, soul-sucking fiends whose

effect is gruesome. They force their victims to relive the
worst memories of their lives and drown, powerless in their
own despair. Harry sees a dementor gliding towards him
and his experience of it is scary. “Its face hidden by its hood,
its rotting, scabbed hands out sketched [....] sensing its way
blindly toward him.

Harry could hear its rattling breath” (HPGF 622). The

hooded figure had “a hand protruding from the cloak and
it was glistening, greyish, slimy-looking and scabbed, like
something dead that decayed in water…” (HPPA 66). It
seemed to suck something more than air from its
surroundings. Harry felt a deep cold inside his chest, inside
his very heart.

Evil amplifies the negative qualities in us and seeks to make

the worst of the best and loftiest emotions. When Ron
wears the locket horcrux of the evil power Voldemort, it
thwarts his soul. Ron’s temper becomes negative, his love
for Hermione becomes fear, anger and jealousy. Greed and
Desire are other forms of evil that pollute the human
psyche. “Enter, stranger, but take heed of what awaits the

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sin of greed...” (HPPS 57). This is the inscription one can
see outside Gringotts, the wizard Bank. Many cultures see
greed as the root vice that leads to all disharmony. Desire is
the cause of evil, proclaims Buddhism.

Desire:
Desire according to the most psychologists, is a primary
psychic force or process which is separated from need, want
or drive, which are seen as products of social institutions or
entirely biological instincts. Everyone wants to be respected
or valued and their efforts are always for attaining this,
whether it is by exerting power and spreading fear or some
other means. Desire is the basic ruling emotion and the
excess of it leads to greed and avarice. This ruling emotion
makes the possessor a slave to it blinding his conscience,
morality and all ethical principles and making him finally an
abominable misanthropist. TaijaPippo quotes Eugene
Goodheart’s words in ‘Desire and its Discontents’, “The
desires for mastery and power results in destruction when
it is not based on self-knowledge and self-mastery” (71).

Voldemort being a slave to his own fear of death, can never

be the master of it. Throughout the whole series, we see
many characters driven mad by this dangerous emotion
Desire, of whom Voldemort is the most prominent. There
is only one driving motive behind all his hideous offenses
that is his desire for power and immortality. Voldemort’s
desire to conquer death drives him fanatic to commit Sirius
paying no heed to its aftermath. “To sin is not simply
performing an illegal action but also just wishing to do it”
(Matt. 5).

Voldemort gains pleasure in sinning and the result is that he

leads life as a parasite feeding on one after another. As
echoed in the words of Quirrell, “There is no good and evil,

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there is only power...” (HPPS 291). It is Voldemort’s desire
for power that makes him a kin slayer. The most atrocious
murder is his slaying the unicorn. Doing this, he could get
an easy call from Hell, from Sin.
That’s because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn” said
Fireze. “Only one who has nothing to lose and everything to
gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will
keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a
terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless
to save yourself and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life,
from the moment the blood touches your lips. (HPPS 15)

Dumbledore, the greatest wizard too, does not escape the

temptation of desire for power in his youth. Through his
example, Rowling shows that even the best of people like
Dumbledore can be lured and blinded by Desire. “Desire is
always predisposed to bring tragedy along, because people
desire wrong things for themselves” (TaijaPippo, 79).
Dumbledore wholeheartedly confides to Harry, “I had
proven, as a young man, that power was my weakness, and
my temptation. It is a curious thing Harry, but perhaps
those who never sought it” (HPDH 575). Dumbledore
having paid a heavy price in the loss of his sister, realizes
the destructive nature of power and so is stern in preventing
Voldemort to rise to power again.

It is of course understandable that all cannot conquer

desire. Ron, for example, is hampered by his desire for
Hermione and feels jealous of Harry because of his desire
for recognition and fame. The Mirror of Erised signifies the
eluding nature of desire and stands as a testimony to how
desire deviates people from their nobler ideals in life. To
quote Dumbledore’s words: “Men have wasted away before
it, entranced by what they have seen or been driven mad,
not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible (HPPS
157). The consequences of desire are dysfunctional,

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threatening and even fatal. Social desires are accepted if it is
directed towards the benefit of society and its greater good.
In the novels, it is Harry’s desires that are directed towards
such a goal for the common good. Of course, Harry has his
personal wishes. His repressed desire to see his dead parents
is clearly revealed in his first encounter with the Mirror of
Erised, which is the reversal of the word ‘Desire’. What the
mirror shows is only a reversal of reality, for it shows the
most desperate desire of our hearts. The mirror puts him in
a trance like state, “How long he stood there, he didn’t
know” (HPPS 153).

This encounter symbolizes his growing self-awareness as

the magic mirror forces him to look within himself and face
the question of what he really wants. Harry has never had
to inquire into his own desires, because the Dursleys never
cared about that. Accustomed to life at Hogwarts, Harry
has no desires so to say, as his minimal and humble wishes
had been always, for a small space for himself. Immediately
he finds himself belonging to that place, Hogwarts in his
ideal home. The vault in which his parents had safeguarded
their inherited wealth for their son comes as a pleasant
surprise for him, as he never had the inkling that he would
own some money in life.

The companionship he gets along with Ron and Hermione

fulfills Harry’s longing to be identified in a community, the
elderly love and care shown by Dumbledore and Minerva
MacGonagall and most importantly by Hagrid-all fill his
heart that had ever been longing for parental nourishment.
Humble as he was and a few his desires were, Harry enjoys
a blissful life except for the excess attention he receives
owing to his fame and his signal scar.

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Harry is never greedy for power too. Dumbledore is struck
with amazement and wonder when he comes to know from
Harry that he had consciously dropped the Resurrection
Stone in the forest, the one which Voldemort and others
had been seeking all their life mad to possess. When Harry
admits that he is not going to look for it, Dumbledore
adores him considering it to be a wise and courageous
decision (HPDH 748). For, it requires courage to overcome
temptation and give up greed. Harry’s strong will and
disregard for power is elucidated again in the context in
which he decides to do away with the Elder Wand.

“I don’t want it”, said Harry

“What?” said Ron loudly, “Are you Mental?”

“I know it’s powerful” said Harry wearily.

“But I was happier with mine.... The wand’s more trouble than
it’s worth...and quite frankly, I’ve had enough trouble for a
lifetime. (HPDH 749)

As Nicholas Sheltrown argues in his essay “A Morality Tale

of Technology and media”, Harry definitely had not
mastered wizardry as either Dumbledore or but he has
mastered the human use of it by recognizing its limitations
and consequences. Both the elder wizards, were powerful-
Dumbledore for white magic and Voldemort for Black Arts
had the same ends though different means to acquire
power. They were avaricious of it and hunted the
Horcruxes and the Hallows without considering its full
implications. Harry had outwitted them; he had proved to
be wise enough to scrutinize and judge its pros and cons
and bewilderingly say ‘no’ to its alluring temptations.

The question of Desire, greed and its implications

automatically lead to the necessity of a wise choice to be

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made. Mary Pharr quotes the words of Alan Jacobs to
define Harry’s character, as “not a fixed preexistent thing,
but something that has the responsibility for making” (63).
In the course of his year at Hogwarts, Harry learns lessons
and understands the necessity of making sensible choices.
There is always the engrafted urge for revenge for his
parent’s death and a thirst for justice regarding the loss of
Cedric Diggory.

There is only a thin wall between good and evil and it takes
immense courage to be in the path of good despite the
temptations posed by evil. Harry’s heroism depends on his
awareness of the seriousness and difficulty of the choice.

Choosing to fight evil requires much faith and strength but

guarantees no victory. Harry, like all archetypal heroes must
face both the temptation of evil and the prospect of defeat
and fear of death. Evil and the desire for power have the
charm that blinds the fragile barrier between them and it is
upto the choice of the protagonist whether to fight or to
yield. As Hughes speaks in Tom Brown’s School Days:

After all, what would like be without fighting, ...? From the
cradle to the grave, fighting, rightly understood, is the business,
the real, highest, honestest business of every son of man.
Everyone who is worth his salt has his enemies, who must be
beaten, be they evil thoughts and habits in himself or spiritual
wickedness..., who will not let him live his life in quiet till he has
thrashed them. (Reimer 213)

Conquering power of Love:

Love is the weapon and sacrifice are the method with which
Harry fights his epic battle. Rowling demonstrates the
power of love from the very beginning of the narrative by
explaining that Harry’s ability to survive the killing curse of
Voldemort is out of his mother’s love. Lily Potter’s

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sacrificial love provided a magical protection, a spell that so
strongly shielded Harry against evil. Set against the self-
serving cruelty of Voldemort is the self-denying love of
those who oppose him, to thwart his attempts. Dumbledore
rightly observes that “if there is one thing Voldemort
cannot understand, it is love” (HPPS 299). No spell of
Voldemort is powerful enough to break the shield the shield
of love which his mother has built around him.
He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mothers for you
leaves its mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved
so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will
give some protection forever. (HPPS 299)

Love definitely has “the power the Dark Lord knows not’
(HPOP 841). Love and compassion are the ruling passions
in Harry’s life. As Jesus said to his disciples: “No one has
greater love than this- that one lays down his life for his
friends” (John 15:13). It is this undying power of love that
Harry establishes in his life ever. It is this capacity to love
all, that makes Harry a real hero. It is in his heroic nature to
help those suffering injustices and he has also learnt to have
concern and compassion even for his enemies which is
revealed during the battle of Hogwarts, when Draco gets
trapped by an unquenchable fire. Harry having escaped it,
turns around to rescue him. Draco, having never showed
any sign of love for Harry, had been in truth aiding
Voldemort, but yet Harry goes out of his way to help him.
This is Harry’s capacity to love, not just the friend but also
his foe. It echoes the words of Solomon. “Love is as strong
as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like
blazing fire” (“Song of Solomon” 8.6). Harry learned of his
mother’s protective charm and the power of love when he
blistered Quirrell’s face by touching it with his hands.
According to Dumbledore, love has mysterious powers. It
is

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 a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than
death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature... the
most mysterious of the many subjects... you possess in such
quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. (HPOP 843)

It is the power of love that is innate in Harry that drove

Voldemort out of Harry’s body, because “he could not bear
to reside in a body so full of the force he detests” (HPOP
844).

Rowling believes in love and its capacity for self-sacrifice.

There can be no greater love to risk one’s life for others and
Harry expands this trait even in the scene in the zoo where
he feels pity for the Boa constrictor, with which he
sympathizes and talks in Parseltongue. He feels happy when
the snake is freed from the captivated life in the zoo and
bears the punishment from his uncle for doing so. Harry
bears the mark of love and sacrifice in his very skin as he
bears the mark of the lighting scar on his forehead.

Sacrifice is an inevitable part of a hero’s story. Beginning

with Lily’s sacrifice, the whole series abound in numerous
sacrifices especially for those who value goodness more
than life. The sacrificial posture that Lily and Harry assume,
works through the magic of love and unhindered will.
Comprehending the power of love and withstanding the
temptation of evil, Harry too adopts the sacrificial posture.
In the forest, at the end of the book Deathly Hallows, Harry
opens the snitch, symbolizing right choice and the
protected soul, with his sacrificial words, “I am about to
die”. Through sacrifice, as Geo Trevarthen says, “he opens
to his true, divine, eternal self, with all its power” (164).

Harry’s sacrifice is more powerful, more meaningful and

serene above all others. Lily’s sacrifice involves a mother’s

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love for her child. Snape’s sacrifice speaks of purely human
love of a man for a woman, but Harry’s sacrifice as his love,
is unconditional. He out of his own will, prepares himself
to die for the good of others. His sacrifice is even more
significant, in the sense that he takes time to prepare, reflect
on and accept his destiny. His sacrifice is not momentary
driven by any emotional impulse but purely a well thought
out and bold decision. Dumbledore knew, as Voldemort
know, that Harry would not let anyone else die for him now
that he had discovered it was in his power to stop it. “The
images of Fred, Lupin and Tonks lying dead in the great
Hall forced their way back into his mind’s eye and for a
moment he could hardly breathe. Death was impatient”
(HPDH 555).

Harry could have escaped his death by evading his meeting

with Voldemort but he did not neglect his duty and destiny.
If he had done so, the resultant fear of destruction for
humanity and self-loathing would have tortured his
conscience. Alan Jacobs in ‘Harry Potter’s Magic’ perceives
that Harry’s heroism depends on his awareness of the
seriousness and difficulty of choice. Immovable mind and
rock body are the two qualities of a warrior. Though Harry
did not possess the latter, he definitely possesses a strong
will power, which Dumbledore calls, “the incomparable
power of the human soul that is untarnished and whole”
(HPBP 478).

There are deep sorrows and abiding joys in every instant.

Harry shows something of how one can joyfully participate
in the process of life despite its sorrows. He brings together
union and loss, joy and sorrow, in spiritual awareness
beneath death’s cloak, where we can bear the transitions
with the resilience of the child who laughs with tears on his
cheeks. Harry is able to retain his capacity for joy even in

218
the face of terrible loss. His greatest message is love’s
generosity in the face of loss.

Through Harry, Rowling gives us an example of a power

we all possess. Whether to prepare for a Quidditch match
or a duel to death, Harry focuses on the positives and he
triumphs. Thoughts and words shape our reality. The magic
of moral attitude, of love and imagination is all pervasive.
They are true magic, because they change things internally
and externally. Harry propounds the world’s oft quoted
author’s ideology.

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferthe Slings and arrows

of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them (Hamlet, 3.1. 3).

Rowling’s suggestion is to take evil and turn it into good as

evil turns good into bad. The greatest pitfalls are our
greatest opportunities for triumph. Like the Fawkes of
Dumbledore that rebirthes from its ashes, we have to turn
everything into positive. Harry’s loss of his parents is tragic
to the core, but he does everything possible to make their
sacrifice meaningful by defeating and vanquishing evil
permanently.

The Room of Requirement is mysterious in that it opens

only in times of need, symbolically representing the faith
that “doors open for your where you didn’t think there’d be
doors and there wouldn’t be for anyone else”. As in
St.Paul’s words “All things work together for good to them
that love God”.

God demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the

price for the only freedom that is worth having. When a person
loses himself / herself, they immediately find themselves in the
service of all that lives. It becomes their delight and recreation.
They are a new people never weary of spending themselves in

219
 the service of God’s creation [Mahatma Gandhi]. (qtd.in The
Seeker’s Guide 179)

This is what Harry does by submitting himself thoroughly

to the service of the wizarding world.

The author does not simply stop with posing a problem,

instead set on giving a solution too. Though she does not
refer to any specific religious belief or ideology, she
definitely and very clearly recommends belief in a superior
power. To keep evil at bay, all that is needed is to stay close
to the sacred through spiritual practice and to act on its
perennial guidelines for righteous action. Calming and
strengthening ourselves is the best defense against evil and
Professor Snape in one of his lessons on Occlumency,
advocates Harry to spend time before sleep, cleansing his
mind of all emotions making it empty, blank and clean.
People who are not mentally strong, find themselves
susceptible to evil and fall an easy prey to the Dark Lord’s
power.
Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who
cannot control their emotions who wallow in sad memories
and allow themselves to be provoked so easily – weak people,
in other words – they stand no chance against his powers.
(HPOP 473)

No one stands a chance against evil forces external or

internal without a modicum of mental control. Roni
Natovasserts:
Children need to see their feelings, particularly the darkest
ones, reflected in their stories. Mitigating the darkness in the
fairy tales takes away their power to reassure the children that
they are not alone in their fearful imaginings, that they are
shared and addressed. (qtd.in Reading Harry Potter: Critical
Essays, XXII)

220
Violence and murder, magic and mysticism and the very
nature of evil are enticing yet frightening topics to consider
even for the adults. Children all over the world are
frightened by the violence of evil. When in fairy tales and
fantasy stories, good triumphs and evil is vanquished, they
gain control over their fear and helplessness.

For the child, the victory of the hero is not over his
opponents but over oneself and over their own negative
energy. Thus “fantasy and violence are antithetically related
one taking the reader to a secondary world of enchantment
and the other shocking him into the reality of a
disenchanted world” (Joe George Emmatty 1). Fantasy
addresses the question of evil. The depiction of violence
through the struggle between good and evil, conversely
serves a positive function providing great values to the
reader. Saturated in tech-ridden contemporary life,
humanity has lost its deep connections with the past,
traditional values of loyalty and integrity. Rowling’s books
celebrate those lost values and offer ways of redeeming
them. By way of returning to heroism, melodrama, wish
fulfillment and moral certainty, Rowling has breathed new
life into the traditional form of fantasy writing for children.

Presenting issues related to malicious teachers, scheming

rich bullies and terrifying evil doers, in an alternative
magical world, Rowling draws clear distinctions between
good and evil and presents negative events in relatively non-
threatening ways. The author allows space for an open
discussion of evil by having characters confront it on a
regular basis. Unlike the violence, evil and unpleasantness
encountered in real life, those depicted within the pages of
the series are presented safely and in terms that children
comprehend them better. Invoking the imagination of the

221
reader as the safety valve, Rowling omits the gory details
that populate the adult novels and prime time crime drama.

The Harry Potter series offers a complex understanding of life.

Death and grief play an important part, loyal and critical
friends are preferable to non-critical servants, love, trust
and honesty are always given priority even if they bring
perils on its way. M. Grimes in her essay, “Fairy Tale
Prince, Real Boy, Archetypal Hero”, pronounces that Harry
experiences the trials similar to that of the world’s
mythological heroes. He barely escapes from the attack of
evil, not just one, endures years of persecution and
loneliness.
Like Hercules, he has his own labours: he must fight a troll, a
basilisk, and again and again, sometimes in one form and
sometimes in another. Like other archetypal heroes, he
sometimes asks to be relieved of his tasks, often denying the
warning of his aching scar, hoping like Oedipus, that if he
ignores the warning, he can avoid the risk. (117)

But the risk can never be avoided, it has to be faced for he

is ‘the chosen one’ to do his destined purpose of bringing
redemption to the wizarding world of Hogwarts. As John
Granger elucidates in his book Unlocking Harry Potter:
A destiny which is prophesied is … just a mind-jam that
paralyses our ability to make any self-actualizing, liberating
choices. Harry is not ‘The Chosen One’ except as much as he
chooses to be; Dumbledore has liberated Harry from the
metanarrative of the prophecy and popular misunderstanding
of his situation. (173)

The fact that Harry chooses to fulfil what he was

prophesied to do may seem to make this a matter of
splitting hairs, but as Harry thinks in his moment of
revelation:

222
It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged
into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into
the arena with your head held high. Some people perhaps
would say that there was little to choose between the two
ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry,
with the rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that
there was all the difference in the world (HPBP 512).

Conclusion:
Any literary text is valuable in the sense that it provides for
its readers, a thorough and deep insight into life’s problems
and traumas. Viewed from this perspective, Rowling’s
books offer definitely a compendium of life lessons that are
universal as well as all pervasive, applicable unanimously to
all readers. The giant-sized books featuring Harry’s
predicament in the wizarding world of Hogwarts appeared
on the literary scene at a time when the habit of reading
began to wane to obscurity and negligence owing to the
obsessively alluring social networking. Years of meticulous
planning and sketching made the novels score high and
skyrocket the fame and acclaim of the author. From that
node, the Harry Potter phenomenon has become a part of
the cultural fabric with millions of avid fans who are likely
to pass their love of Hogwarts down to their generation.
The books are laudable for its captivating universe, its
unique blend of genres, its inherent re-readability and the
positive, uplifting nature of its themes and characters. Jim
Adams in his book Destiny Unfulfilled comments that the
books have the power to pull readers into this alternative
universe, make one forget the mundane existence and live
within its pages. Like Harry in Riddle’s diary, we fall
headlong into her books and are carried away through a
Magic Mountain Roller Coaster experience of Harry’s
alchemical transformation and the Kaleidoscope of

223
symbols, themes and imagery from centuries of literary
usage. One reason the books are so popular is that they
satisfy the need in us, born in a profane culture far distanced
from its rich past without heroes or avenues of
transcendent experience-a materialist world in which such
experience is not considered possible by serious people- of
at least an imaginative experience of human transformation
and perfection.

224
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