)ORULGD6WDWH8QLYHUVLW\/LEUDULHV

2018 Fantasy, Legend, and the Generation Jordan Taylor Goodson

Follow this and additional works at DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]

Goodson 1

Introduction

“No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, will always be there to welcome you home.”

-J.K. Rowling, 2011

In 1997, J.K. Rowling published a novel that would become, arguably, the most popular children’s story of the early twenty-first century. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the start of seven books published between 1998 and 2007, chronicling a young wizard’s struggle with family, fame, and the regime of an wizard, . Warner Brothers Pictures distributed eight films based on Rowling’s story that together have grossed over 7.7 billion U.S. dollars. Today, one can buy butterbeer at Harry Potter World in Universal Studios Orlando; devotees can be sorted into the Hogwarts Houses on , a website designed in-part by

Rowling herself. The franchise has expanded to include a play, Harry Potter and the Cursed

Child, along with books which appear in the canon: Tales of Beetle the Bard, Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (which are also being turned into films).

Collector’s wands, robes, action figures, chocolate frog cards, and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour

(Jelly) Beans make up shrines by the most devoted fans. While some may argue that Rowling— and the studios which own rights to the franchise—continue to churn out books, movies, and merchandise in the name of capitalism, there is no denying that their success is due to the lasting impact that the story itself has made on children and adults alike. Goodson 2

For the purpose of this thesis, I will be focusing on the original seven Harry Potter books in order to analyze the way that the story of Harry, Ron, and Hermione has been so prominent in

Western culture. To achieve this, I will draw on the works of Rowling’s predecessors of fantasy literature and children’s stories, along with other primary texts that date back to the Middle

Ages. By tracing Rowling’s inspiration through famous legends, it is clear that Harry Potter’s relevance today is owed heavily to the lasting impact of children’s fantasy and the way in which myth and legend is appropriated and adapted over centuries.

Much of my research has focused on the components of the Potter series that directly influence children as its audience, but I must make clear that I do not believe Harry Potter, along with other fantasy novels or many stories that are labelled as “children’s,” should be strictly reserved for a young readership. As Eleanor Cameron notes, “It is never important to pigeonhole works of fiction nor insist that a certain book should belong, in a child’s estimation, in this category or that” (“High Fantasy”). Therefore, I will start by addressing the genre of fantasy literature, its tropes and motifs, and how Rowling utilizes these elements to touch on real-world issues within the context of an imagined universe. Literary critics, including C.S. Lewis and

J.R.R. Tolkien, have commented on the nature of such stories, and I will employ their theories as part of my justification for the literary success of Harry Potter.

I will then discuss a handful of allusions and references within the series that come from texts that fall outside of the modern classification of fantasy. Although it is impossible in this space to name every piece of work from which Rowling draws inspiration, some of the obvious examples include the Bible, Chaucer, and ancient mythology. Much scholarship has been written about the religious elements in the Potter books, but my purpose is not to argue for Rowling’s successful (or unsuccessful) employment of Christian theology, and I, therefore, do not want to Goodson 3

be too long-winded about it here. However, there are some notable mentions of how the Bible is used as a well-known piece of literature, in the same way that notable fantasy motifs are recreated and appropriated. Without claiming that Harry Potter is a direct stand-in for Jesus

Christ, I do think it is important to discuss how Rowling toys with religious symbolism, both

Christian and Pagan. Furthermore, she invokes authors like Chaucer, Chretien de Troyes, and the

Gawain Poet as her characters face challenges and embark on journeys where the stakes are high and their world is threatened by the .

In what may seem similar to the idea of religion in Harry Potter, I will underline the ways in which the books deal with the question of “good and evil.” Since Rowling is not advocating for a devotion to Christ, or any God for that matter, this topic deserves its own section. Authors of all sorts of books use different symbols and motifs to address this issue, but it seems that fantasy in particular provides an intriguing lens through which young readers can confront the of the real world. Joseph Young succinctly puts it: “While fantasy may depict wizards, goblins and dragons, it achieves its resonance because it is about people” (72, emphasis in original). I will expand on this idea to emphasize how Rowling uses her wizards, elves, and magical creatures in a way that allows readers to deal with the evils of the world around them.

This subject will necessarily relate back to some of the points about genre and children’s literature.

Finally, this thesis will deal with one of the major elements of the series that prompts both young readers and adults to keep returning to the Potter books: the heightened importance of love and community that Rowling shares with us. I think that Kornfeld and Prothro are right in their argument that in “British books of magic, it seems that a major purpose of the ‘real’ world is to show how much more real the magical world is: a place where all important events occur, a Goodson 4

place where someone alienated and alone might find a home” (124). Harry’s life changes for the better when he discovers that he has magical capabilities and will get to spend the majority of his adolescent years in a new school, with new friends who offer him support that he has never encountered in the non-magical world. The setting of Harry’s school life, where he forms his best friendships and memories, is also a factor in the reader’s desire to get lost in a fantastic tale, even if, in doing so, he or she must also ponder questions about good and evil, life and death.

Goodson 5

Fantasy and Myth

There is no denying that the Harry Potter books were first written for and consumed by a young audience, with some readers as young as six or seven years-old; the age range of readers does expand into the late teens and beyond due to the increasing maturity that comes with each installment of the series. The Sorcerer’s Stone can be read by young children who are just learning about the importance of friendship and loyalty, but as the books progress, they get darker and introduce more difficult concepts like betrayal and death. To use the words of C.S.

Lewis, “no book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty” (15). J.K. Rowling succeeds in her ability to write for a wide audience, but I do believe it is important to address the “childhood” genre under which the

Potter books fall: fantasy literature.

Fantasy as a genre, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, did not become prominent until the 1940s (Fantasy, n4f). Writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were arguably the most popular pioneers of this style of fiction with the captivating Lord of the Rings saga, and the famous Chronicles of Narnia. The success of these works, along with Rowling’s, have not come without challenge from critics who claim that their status as “children’s stories” excludes them from any serious literary canon. James Edward and Farah Mendlesohn address this issue in their book A Short History of Fantasy:

“Susanna Clarke and David Mitchell, who won critical and commercial acclaim in the

early twenty-first century with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell and Cloud Atlas, books

which any fan of fantasy would recognize, were presented to the world as literary writers,

while Tolkien’s pre-eminence and the popularity of both Rowling and Phillip Pullman

were dismissed as evidence of an adolescent society […].” (1) Goodson 6

These scholars seem to stand in line with Lewis, as quoted earlier, in their opinion that we should

“challenge the notion that only one mode of adulthood is acceptable.” Tolkien takes this a step

further by suggesting that the relationship between children and fairy-stories—the notion that

they are inherently connected at all—is false. He writes:

“I think this is an error; at best an error of false sentiment, and one that is therefore most

often made by those who, for whatever private reason (such as childlessness), tend to

think of children as a special kind of creature, almost a different race, rather than as

normal […].” (34)

In his essay “On Stories,” Lewis attempts to explain and defend the kind of pleasure we receive

from the “Story itself.” What Lewis believes is important in our enjoyment of “sensational

stories” is a sense of place and time (of which I will go into detail later). It is not acceptable to

state that any kind of or setting can be used equally to convey excitement, fear, or

social anxiety. For example, Lewis argues that in Jack the Giant-Killer, it is significant that the

danger comes from giants: “It is quite easy to contrive a story in which, though the enemies are

of normal size, the odds against Jack are equally great. But it will be quite a different story” (8).

It seems that many stories which are classified as fantasy, because they involve fantastic or

imagined circumstances, fall victim to readers and critics equating certain characters or plot

elements with religious, political, or social realities. However, I think Lewis is right in stating

that the imagined story matters just as much as what it may or may not represent. For Rowling’s books, questioning whether Harry is a , or deciding that Voldemort’s regime is an illustration of Nazi Germany, does not overpower the sensation of reading about a young English boy who faces death at the hands of an evil, snake-like wizard. Goodson 7

That said, Lewis has written about the explicit Christian undertones in his Narnia books,

and the Potter books include symbolism and underlying messages which I will discuss in the

following pages. In a letter to a fifth-grade class, Lewis explains the method behind his allegory:

“I did not say to myself, ‘Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in

Narnia’: I said, ‘Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of

God, as He became Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what

would happen.’ If you think about it, you will see that it is quite a different thing.” (480,

emphasis in original)

This imagining of a complex world beyond our own is one reason that readers are so captivated by works of fiction such as Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and His Dark Materials. Our “suspension of disbelief” is so great because these authors have gone to such lengths to make us believe in their imagined worlds. On the subject of what we call the suspension of disbelief, Tolkien writes:

“this does not seem to be a good description of what happens. What really happens is that

the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator’. He makes a Secondary World which

your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that

world. You, therefore, believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.” (37)

He goes on to say that adults, if they really like a story for the story itself, “they would not have to suspend disbelief: they would believe – in this sense” (38, emphasis mine). Fans of the Potter books know that Rowling spent years before publishing the first volume tirelessly working out details, laws, and the history of the space and time within her creation. There is much to be discovered about the Potter-verse in media outside of the books, such as interviews with the author, the Pottermore interactive website, and the companion books like Fantastic Beasts and Goodson 8

Quidditch Though the Ages. However, it is clear just by reading the original canon that Rowling

did not attempt to take any shortcuts when it came to filling in pieces of the puzzle. In a Q&A

session with her fans, Rowling explains, “The first five years I spent on Harry Potter and the

[Sorcerer’s] Stone were spent constructing The Rules. I had to lay down all my parameters. The most important thing to decide when you’re creating a fantasy world is what the characters can’t do” (Interview 2000). Patrick McCauley recognizes the depth of Rowling’s creativity, calling it

“a three-dimensional saga whose Silmarillion details have been carefully and meticulously worked out” (34). McCauley references Tolkien’s mythopoeic work in comparing Potter to the

Silmarillion. Tolkien, indeed, is one to speak about the act of “sub-creation” that convinces

readers of an imagined world. Not only are there rich descriptions of hobbits, dwarves, elves, and

other fairy creatures featured in , Tolkien has also given his readers a

detailed mythology of how Middle-earth and its inhabitants came to be. For many readers, the

shear depth of Middle-earth is what makes the story so attractive, say Mendlesohn and Edward:

“Tolkien spent almost twenty years writing the history, and creating the culture and

economics of Middle-earth before the first taste of it was given to a broader public, in the

children’s book The Hobbit.” (44)

Although it is easy to get caught up in the enchanting details and technicalities of

Rowling’s Secondary World, I hesitate to speak of the Potter books as escapist literature. It is

true that we may read them for mere pleasure, and in doing so we can forget about our current

troubles, but once we’ve closed the book, Harry’s story and the lessons provided within it stay

with us. Alan Garner, author of the fantasy novel The Owl Service, has commented on the

question of fantasy and escapism. In “Coming to Terms,” he states, “My most reputable reason

for [using fantasy and mythology] is that myth is not an attempt to entertain, it is an attempt to Goodson 9

explain something.” People originally made up fairy stories, Garner explains, because “they were

trying to come to terms with their environment” (16). Children’s literature, especially when it is

as captivating and detailed as Rowling’s creation, fosters a way for young people to confront

reality in the safety of their beds.

Rowling in particular has a unique way of presenting her audiences with the intersection

between fantasy and reality: the wizards in the Potter-verse interact with the non-magical world,

the “.” This is a much different approach from Tolkien, for example, whose Middle-

earth is a realm completely separate from the world in which we live. Likewise, in the Lion, the

Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis’s Pevensie children grow up during World War II, but their

adventures in Narnia take place in a separate dimension, which people in the “real world” have

no chance of detecting. While the muggles in Harry Potter are not supposed to know about the

magical community (according to Wizarding Law), they do, indeed, coexist. The Prime Minister

of England proves one exception of this rule when the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, pays

a visit to him:

“Fudge took a great, deep breath and said, ‘Prime Minister, I am very sorry to tell you

that he’s back. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back.’ […] While the Prime Minister

surreptitiously touched the wood of his desk, Fudge continued, “But [Sirius] Black’s by-

the-by now. The point is, we’re at war, Prime Minister, and steps must be taken.’” (HBP

10-12)

As mentioned in this chapter from the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort’s increasingly-powerful regime starts to pose a threat even to the non-magical people of England. While Harry, Ron, and

Hermione do experience real-world troubles in their magical community—homework, bullies, Goodson 10

romance, etc.—I think that the blurred boundary between real and magical brings a sense of

urgency to the text that books like Narnia and Lord of the Rings do not.

While Rowling features late twentieth-century England in her books, she also seems to draw on elements from popular literature that dates back centuries. I must point to one adaptation of the Arthurian Legend from which, I believe, Rowling gathers information. That is, one romantic hero with whom Harry seems to have much in common: King Arthur himself.

Although Arthur’s literary origin, namely Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of

Britain, is no bed-time story, today’s children are often first introduced to the young Arthur in

Disney’s film The Sword in the Stone. The story, based on T.H. White’s first part of The Once and Future King, tells the tale of a young boy who discovers his rightful place as King of Britain.

The sword that Arthur pulls from the stone and anvil is a test to his heritage and birthright.

Similarly, Harry pulls from a hat a sword that not only aids in killing a giant snake that has threatened students and faculty of Hogwarts, it also solidifies Harry’s place in the house

Gryffindor. Early on in his magical life, Harry is nervous that the Sorting Hat, who places young wizards and witches into their “appropriate” houses, will sort him into Slytherin, a house known to foster wizards associated with dark magic. Harry is further convinced that he has Slytherin characteristics when he learns that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes, also associated with Voldemort and his followers. Harry says to his headmaster, “I should be in

Slytherin.” Dumbledore consoles him by pointing to the sword which Harry discovered in the

Chamber, upon it the name of Godric Gryffindor. “Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry,” he says, putting to rest Harry’s anxiety about being placed in the wrong house (CS 334). Goodson 11

Alton argues that Harry and Arthur are also connected “in terms of the hero’s initially

unclear origins” (216). In White’s novel, Wart, like Harry, grows up as an orphan, not knowing

who his real parents are, and is especially unaware that he possesses any claim to royalty. In the

Sorcerer’s Stone, we learn that Harry’s parents were killed by the Dark Lord, and he is taken to

live with his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Until his eleventh birthday

when he receives his acceptance letter from Hogwarts, Harry has no idea that he is a wizard. This

trope, as Nikolajeva points out, is not exclusive to Harry and Arthur: “A child deprived of his or

her birthright is one of the most common mythical and folktale motifs, occurring in stories as

diverse as Cinderella and the Bible” (229). Harry’s case is quite extreme because, not only is he

a wizard, he is very famous one. Therefore, he must deal with learning how to use his magical

capabilities while encountering difficulties that relate to his status as “the Chosen One,” or, the

one who sent Voldemort into hiding. In the very first chapter of the series, Professor McGonagall

says to Dumbledore, “He’ll be famous – a legend – I wouldn’t be surprised if today was known

as Harry Potter Day in the future – there will be books written about Harry – every child in our

world will know his name!” (SS 13). J.K. Rowling was probably unaware at the time that Harry

would, indeed, be celebrated by adults and children all over the (real) world.

I have chosen to draw on White’s Once and Future King in this section, rather than an

older form of the legend, because of the generic components in the novel. White’s version is the

first explicit iteration of the Legend of Arthur that is given the fantasy label. I believe this is due in part to his construction of Arthur’s—or Wart’s—childhood, which we do not receive in any

previous telling; the novel was ripe for Disney to pick and adapt into a film because the main

character is a young boy. I am especially interested in the character Merlyn and the possible

influence that White’s characterization had on Rowling’s creation of the Potter mythology and Goodson 12

her character Dumbledore. Merlin appears in Arthurian literature as early as Geoffrey of

Monmouth in the form of a wizard who ultimately aids in the conception of Arthur. In the

medieval tradition, Merlin’s role is limited mainly to the beginning of the story.

That changes in the 1930s when T.H. White alters the spelling to “Merlyn” and gives him

a major part in teaching Wart important lessons that he will use when he becomes king. Rowling,

who seems in favor of this larger role, chooses Merlin as “the most famous wizard of all time,” at

least in the history of the . According to Potter lore, Merlin was a student at

Hogwarts in the Middle Ages, and is one of the few Slytherins who is ever described as a lover

of muggles. He believed in the peaceful co-existence between wizards and the non-magical community, prompting the creation of the Order of Merlin1. Merlin is clearly prominent enough

in wizarding society, especially among the older wizards, that his name circulates in casual

conversation: Professor Slughorn is known to exclaim, “Merlin’s beard!” when he is shocked or

surprised (HBP 480). In keeping with Arthurian tradition, Rowling is sure to conclude that

Merlin was a member of Arthur’s Court, as stated on his chocolate frog card, which can be

likened to a collector’s baseball card.

Not only has Rowling worked the famous wizard into her larger universe, it seems that

she was also inspired by T.H. White’s depiction of him for the characterization of Professor

Dumbledore. When Merlyn first appears in The Sword in the Stone, he is described wearing a

robe with “signs of the zodiac embroidered over it” and a pointed hat. He also carries a wand and

a pair of unusual “horn-rimmed spectacles” (28-29). Dumbledore bears a stark resemblance

when he first appears on Privet Drive:

1This organization eventually became an award given to exceptional wizards—Dumbledore is part of the Order of Merlin, First Class (SS). Goodson 13

“He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were

both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that

swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and

sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though

it had been broken at least twice.” (SS 8)

Beyond physicality, Dumbledore also resembles Merlyn in his quirky, bumbling personality.

While it is common knowledge throughout Hogwarts and other magical societies that

Dumbledore is a renowned, powerful and intelligent wizard, he also possesses a child-like nature which can be shocking during serious moments of the story. A good example of this comes from the first book when the Headmaster finds Harry looking in the Mirror of Erised, an enchanted object which shows one his or her greatest desires. For Harry, it is his parents, but Dumbledore warns him to not get caught in its power: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.” But when Harry asks Dumbledore what he sees in the Mirror, Dumbledore says,

“I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks,” breaking the tension which allows Harry to peacefully return to his dormitory (SS 214). Finally, Dumbledore serves as Harry’s main guide and authority figure throughout the series, just as Merlyn guides Wart through his childhood, leading up to the day when he is crowned King.

Goodson 14

Beyond Fairy Tales

As a story for children, the Harry Potter books clearly encapsulate all the tropes that we

expect from the genre. But Rowling does not stop at magic wands and house-elves. From

Nicholas Flamel to the “Tale of the Three Brothers,” the series is full of references and inspiration from medieval, historical, and religious literature. In the introduction to her book,

Beatrice Groves points to the more understated literary allusions throughout the books:

“Harry Potter builds on the rapport created through its generic connections with the common

culture of childhood reading – of fairy tales, Lewis, Tolkien, Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl –

to take its readers forward into its more subtle connections with the great works of the

Western literary tradition.” (xxii)

In this section, I will underline some of these allusions to bring forward the depth which Rowling

creates in her books by drawing on famous literary masterpieces.

J.K. Rowling does not limit her characters and mythology to her own imagination; she occasionally summons real historical events or people and fits them into appropriate parts of her narrative. As I mentioned previously, King Arthur is an historical figure in the Potter-verse, along with other members of the Round Table. These details show up throughout the series in places like Hermione’s knowledge of Hogwarts: A History (quotes from which she constantly rattles off to Harry and Ron), and lessons given by the faculty and staff of the wizarding school.

On the train to Hogwarts, Ron and Harry indulge on chocolate frogs, allowing Harry to start building a stack of the collectable cards: “Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but

Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin” (SS 103). This list Goodson 15

includes not only a few of Rowling’s own made-up wizards, but a Greek goddess, a Swiss physician, and popular characters from Welsh and British legend.

In her essay on “playing the genre game,” Anne Alton discusses the tropes and motifs

presented in the Potter books that not only appear in fantasy, but combine elements of genres that

include mystery, horror, gothic, and the school or sports story (199). I agree with Alton’s claim

that the blended genres in Harry Potter have a positive effect on the readership of the series.

Adults and children alike “gain the delight of recognition as they read something that feels

familiar in form: they know the conventions of the game, or the story, before they begin” (Alton

221). Maria Nikolajeva expands on the idea of Harry Potter reintroducing the romantic hero into

children’s stories: “The conventions of the romantic mode dictate that the hero pass the trial and

win the combat with the evil forces” (230). In each installment of the Potter series, Harry and his

friends are presented with a trial which they must overcome. Of course, each book’s challenge

against evil becomes increasingly difficult and oppressive. As first-years, Harry, Ron, and

Hermione find out about the Sorcerer’s Stone and must get past a giant three-headed dog, play a

deadly game of wizard’s chest, and answer a difficult riddle to keep Voldemort from finding the

Stone for power. The fourth book includes Harry participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament and

ends with Voldemort regaining his physical form. This leads to the rise of his evil regime, which

culminates in the final battle at Hogwarts. Although the final two books are focused mainly on

Harry learning how to defeat the Dark Lord, the majority of them present a “trial pattern” that is

reminiscent of romance fiction.

In the seventh and final book, the three main wizards come across an important piece of

information which helps them to defeat Lord Voldemort: a legend about the “Deathly Hallows”

after which the book is named. Hermione reads a story from a volume of children’s tales called Goodson 16

“The Tale of the Three Brothers.” In the story, the Peverell brothers come to a river guarded by

Death, a cloaked figure who grants each of the siblings a wish: the first brother wishes for “a wand more powerful than any in existence;” the second brother for a stone which can “recall others from Death;” and the third brother wished for something which would “enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death,” provoking Death to hand over his own

Cloak of Invisibility. According to the mythology, the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak make up the three Deathly Hallow and possessing all three makes one the “master of

Death” (407-410). A reader who is familiar with Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales will recognize the similarities in this chapter with the “Pardoner’s Tale.” Rowling has, in fact, admitted to taking inspiration from this specific story (Interview 2007). She titles other chapters in the series using this same format, such as “Hagrid’s Tale,” “Kreacher’s Tale,” and “The

Prince’s Tale,” which invoke the style of Chaucer’s text (Groves 51). In both the “Pardoner’s

Tale” and Rowling’s spin on it, a group of brothers meet a personified version of Death: “Right as they would have stepped over a fence, / An old and poor man met with them. / This old man full meekly greeted them, / And said thus, “Now, lords, may God look after you” (Chaucer 712-

715). According to scholars, there has been some confusion over the Old Man’s identity in the medieval text. Rowling probably read this character as Death himself, which we see in her own version of the tale (Groves 55).

It seems that Rowling is also drawing on a common trope that we often find in medieval romance: the importance of liminal spaces, or spaces in-between. Liminal spaces, Groves discusses, “are traditionally important in works about magic or the uncanny” (56). In Chaucer’s

“Pardoner’s Tale,” the brothers meet the Old Man at a stile, or fence (712). Likewise, the

Peverell brothers in Rowling’s tale run into Death when they reach “a river too deep to wade Goodson 17

through and too dangerous to swim across” (DH 407). In the medieval epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author tells us that, “Where [Gawain] bridges a brook or wades through a waterway / it’s no surprise to find that he faces a foe / so foul or fierce he is bound to use force” (715-717).

These liminal spaces also show up elsewhere in the Potter books. One of the first boundaries between the muggle and wizard world, Rowling explains, is at Platform Nine and

Three Quarters in King’s Cross Station. Students who travel to Hogwarts run through a brick wall between platforms nine and ten in order to board the Hogwarts Express (SS 93). King’s

Cross proves to be important toward the end of the series, as well, when Harry finally confronts

Lord Voldemort, and is hit with the Killing Curse. He wakes up to a surrounding which he does not recognizes at first, but it becomes clearer when he speaks with the deceased Albus

Dumbledore. He informs Harry that he has a choice on whether to “go back” and finish fighting

Voldemort or not:

“Dumbledore smiled at him. ‘We are in King’s Cross you say? I think that if you

decided to not go back, you would be able to…let’s say…board a train.’

‘And where would it take me?’

‘On,’ said Dumbledore simply.” (DH 722)

C.S. Lewis does something similar in the first part of the Narnia series, The ’s Nephew.

His two main characters, Polly and Diggory, discover a realm with multiple ponds, which, as they later find, will transport them to different worlds. However, Rowling’s use of King’s Cross as a “world-between-worlds” seems especially appropriate, with the sense that the train is a moving, tangible object that can move one to his or her destination. Groves underscores how this Goodson 18

idea fits with the larger theme in Harry Potter about one’s ability to confront death. She explains that, “like King’s Cross in Deathly Hallows, both the bridge in ‘Tale of the Three Brothers’ and

Chaucer’s stile are physical symbols for the division between life and death” (56).

One major, and sometimes controversial, subject that is discussed around Harry Potter is

that of religion. As a child, it may not be obvious to us when Rowling drops hints that her novels

are Christian-based. Especially in the first few books, the only imagery we receive of any kind of

religion is the celebration of Christmas and Easter. In the Sorcerer’s Stone, we learn that Harry

stays at Hogwarts for Christmas rather than returning to the Dursleys’ home for the holiday: “He

didn’t feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he’d ever had”

(195). Harry’s best friend, Ron, and the other Weasley brothers also stay; during the break, they

play wizard’s chess, eat mountains of holiday food, and share their gifts with one another. There

is no mention, however, of Christ.

The most obvious reference to Christianity that Rowling provides is on the tombstones

Harry and Hermione find in Godric’s Hollow, which also happens to the place Harry was born

and where is parents are buried. The theme of coming face-to-face with death is present again in

this scene. On the headstone of James and Lily Potter, there reads: the last enemy that shall be

destroyed is death, from 1 Corinthians 15:26. Hermione comforts Harry, telling, “It doesn’t mean

defeating death in the way the Death Eaters2 mean it […] It means…you know…living beyond

death. Living after death” (DH 328). J.K. Rowling’s explanation of this chapter is quite simple:

“They’re very British books, so on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical

quotations on tombstones” (Interview 2007).

2 “” is the name given to Voldemort’s most trusted followers. Hermione refers to their longing for immortality. Goodson 19

Potter’s Christian undertones are at least much more subtle than they appear in the works of C.S. Lewis, and even Tolkien. In The Chronicles of Narnia, it is obvious that Aslan is equated with Jesus. A culminating scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe describes Him being sacrificed for the sake of Edmund Pevensie upon a stone table. But the next morning, Susan and

Lucy witness “deeper magic from before the dawn of time”:

“The rising of the sun had made everything looks so different—all colors and shadows

were changed—that for a moment they didn’t see the important thing. Then they did. The

Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end;

and there was no Aslan.” (177)

Tolkien, although he claims to be less explicit than Lewis in his allegory, includes a scene in which Gandalf the Grey falls off the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm in a moment of pride: “the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard’s knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. ‘Fly, you fools!’ he cried, and was gone”

(331). He returns, however, in Two Towers as Gandalf the White. Dumbledore, who is often compared to Tolkien’s white-haired wizard, has a clear downward spiral, portrayed through an illness caused by Tom Riddle’s—Lord Voldemort’s—old, stone ring. We learn that the ring is one of Voldemort’s seven horcruxes, objects he has used to split his soul in order to remain immortal. Dumbledore’s pride gets the better of him and he tries to wear the horcrux without any precautions, and this is ultimately what kills him. He says of this action: “I…was a fool. Sorely tempted” (DH 680). The parallels to Christianity in this realization, along with the religious symbolism in Gandalf’s fall, can be found in St. Augustine’s City of God. Augustine writes,

“Now, could anything but pride have been the start of the evil will? For ‘pride is the start of every kind of sin…This happens when a man is too pleased with himself” (571). The Hogwarts Goodson 20

headmaster does get a moment of redemption, even if we only become aware of it at the end of

the series. The final chapters of Half-Blood Prince are complicated, and , as we

later find out, puts the killing curse on Dumbledore as a way to “prove” his allegiance to

Voldemort.3 Dumbledore convinces Snape to kill him so that , a boy Harry’s age, does not succumb to the temptation of power through the Dark Lord. Upon learning this complex scheme, readers are left satisfied with the redemption of both Dumbledore and Snape: it is clear

that their final moments were planned for the sake of the greater good. Dumbledore, unlike

Gandalf, does not come back from the dead (to the disappointment of many heart-broken fans), and there is a general acceptance that the old wizard, as Rowling has said, is not a Christ figure

(Interview 2005).

Harry, on the other hand, does sacrifice himself when he returns to the Forbidden Forest in Book Seven, but Rowling takes us to a physical space between life and death, as mentioned earlier, where Harry ponders his next step with help from Dumbledore. Rowling has admitted to the Christian imagery in her books, especially in the final installment. She said during a tour of the last novel, “To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious. But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going” (Interview 2007). In other words, Rowling believed that if she were explicit about the Christianity in Harry Potter, readers would have been able to predict the resurrection in the last book. I believe that there is something quite different in this version of the resurrection story than in the previous examples from Rowling’s; in his conversation with Dumbledore, it

3 Severus Snape is the potions teacher and Head of House Slytherin at Hogwarts who torments Harry during most of his years there. We learn in the end that Snape was loyal to Dumbledore, but pretended to side with Voldemort for information about his plans. Dumbledore figured that Snape had to be the one to administer the curse to solidify Snape’s place in Voldemort’s circle, and to ensure the protection of the boy Draco Malfoy, who was sent by Voldemort to do the job. (DH 682-3) Goodson 21

seems that Harry’s return to finish the final battle is the result of a conscious choice, rather than a miracle: “By returning, you may endure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present.” (722) This brings full circle the lesson that Dumbledore shares with Harry in Book Two: “It is our choices,

Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” (CS 333).

Goodson 22

Good and Evil

The notion of good and evil, especially when it is addressed in children’s stories, has been widely discussed by scholars. J.K. Rowling draws many clear lines between the good and bad in Harry Potter, which is why I have chosen to discuss this subject, if somewhat briefly, on its own. This topic will necessarily relate back to some of my points in my section on fantasy and myth because the genre is so apt at dealing with dichotomies. Cameron agrees, writing, “The great fantasies leave with child readers a scarcely realized sense of something beyond their reach…They help children to orient themselves, help them to distinguish good from evil, and to learn how the forces of good and evil work” (“High Fantasy”).

Throughout her books, Rowling introduces us to characters who possess qualities of different kinds of evil. In the first book, especially for young readers, the Dursleys are a typical representation of the oppressive authority, making it easy for children to relate to Harry’s grief over having to return to Privet Drive when the school year is over. Though we may not categorize Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon as particularly evil, their attitudes toward Harry make clear the fact that they think of him as an outsider. And while we cannot imagine guardians choosing to send a child a toothpick for Christmas (CS), the Dursleys do present a real-world issue regarding the fear of those deemed “Other.” This theme shows up frequently in each of the seven books, on both large and small scales.

Once the readers are taken outside of the Dursleys’ home and into the magical realm, we see more examples of children and adults being chastised by the society around them. In the third book, the character is introduced; on the Hogwarts Express, Harry, Ron, and

Hermione learn that Lupin is there to refill the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor. In due course, Rowling reveals that Lupin suffers from lycanthropy, or, in simpler Goodson 23

terms, he is a werewolf. Even though he is trusted by the main characters for most of the novel,

Ron exclaims, “Get away from me, werewolf!” when he is confronted with this news. Ron’s

reaction to his professor, who he otherwise adored, shows that a stigma resides around those with

the condition; they are thought to be terribly violent and dangerous because they cannot control

their transformations without the help of a potion. Even after Lupin has found love, he has

trouble attempting to live a normal life, and goes so far as to explain to Harry and Hermione why

he regrets having conceived a baby:

“Don’t you understand what I’ve done to my wife and unborn child? I should never have

married her, I’ve made her an outcast! […] You don’t know how most of the Wizarding

world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to

me! Don’t you see what I’ve done?” (DH 213)

Rowling has admitted to hinting at themes of racism and intolerance in her characterization of

Lupin: she gave him an “infectious disease” that makes people afraid of him (Interview 2003).

Our author is successful in portraying the effects of society’s harsh judgements by making some

of our favorite characters suffer.

Hermione, too, is often singled-out for her “un-pure” heritage; she is called a

mudblood—a derogatory term used to belittle witches and wizards who are born to non-magical

parents. Draco Malfoy is known for using this word, which we discover is a product of his

parentage, since Lucius, his father, is a well-known and loyal Death Eater. Aside from a moment

of anger in which Hermione delivers a punch to Malfoy’s face (PA), she does not let this

chastisement bring her down or leave her bitter. Instead, Hermione uses her passion for research and study to become an activist, sticking up for causes such as muggle rights and freedom for

house-elves. Other characters who receive similar forms of social out-casting include Hagrid Goodson 24

(half giant, half human), Ron (from a lower-class family), Professor Trelawney (teacher of the art of Divination), and Firenze (a centaur who is shunned by his own species because of his friendly relationship with humans). By including so many instances of the struggle with intolerance, Rowling appears to be advocating for social activism. Joseph Young writes:

“Rowling’s wizarding world, just like our own, features a number of institutions –

notably Hogwarts itself – that both encourage the pursuit of power, rank and material

success as well as moderating that pursuit by encouraging moral and humanitarian

behavior.” (70)

In Order of the Phoenix, a select group of people—including Harry, Ron, Hermione,

Dumbledore, and tight-knit group of professors and Ministry members—know that Voldemort has returned in full form. But their patience is put to the test when other people, including

Hogwarts students and faculty, do not want to believe in such a horror. Hogwarts is thrown into

chaos when , originally Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, fills the post

of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. One should not be fooled by her pink wardrobe

and cat paintings: Umbridge shows clear signs that she is on a mission to keep Dumbledore and

Harry from spreading the word that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. At the welcoming feast in the beginning of the school year, Umbridge says to the student and faculty body,

“progress for progress’s sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering” (213). In investigating Umbridge’s possible motives for how she treats the students and other professors of Hogwarts, Scholz explains:

“[She] presumably grew up in the society oppressed by Voldemort and was affected by

his reign prior to his disappearance, but rather than revolting against it she chose to Goodson 25

become one of the oppressors and embodies everything that is the opposite of critical

pedagogy.” (136)

In their first three years at Hogwarts, the students were encouraged to put the theoretical

practices to the test and use their wands to conger Patronuses to ward off dementors, use humor to face their worst fears, and practice proper technique to disarm threatening wizards. Dolores

Umbridge criticizes these hands-on lessons. In their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with their new teacher, the students are appalled when they learn that Umbridge will not be allowing the students to actually practice or use the defensive spells in the classroom. She

explains, “it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient

to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about” (243). This

shocking new course description is a way for the to regulate control and

oppress those who would otherwise have power. Even though Umbridge is answering to the

Minister, it is obvious that she is more than a pawn in the government’s attempt to regulate

wizarding education; her scare tactics are rather sinister. This is exemplified in scenes when

Harry serves detention with Umbridge, during which she forces him to write lines with a special quill: Every time he writes, “I must not tell lies,” the letters appear on the back of his hand, “cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel” (267). And by forcing Harry to “admit” to telling “lies” about Voldemort’s return, she puts the lives of the students at Hogwarts, as well as the greater wizarding population, at risk. As the book continues, Harry does keep a low radar around Umbridge, and she seems to succeed in using pain and punishment to silence him.

Harry and his gang have another plan, though, and eventually form what is known as

Dumbledore’s Army, or the DA, named for their beloved Headmaster who is under fire from the

Ministry based on Umbridge’s reports of his behavior. The purpose of this group is to allow Goodson 26

students who believe in Harry’s claims about Voldemort’s presence to practice spells and

counter-curses that they may use when it comes time to fight him off. Not only do the DA

meetings allow members to feel more properly equipped for their final examination, they are

prepared to use their knowledge for diverse circumstances. The students are engaged in activism,

“whether battling oppressors in a government establishment or defending their school against

those same oppressors” (Scholz 132). Rowling, again, seems to be advocating, particularly for

young people, this same sort of involvement against oppressive powers.

The Umbridge character can be compared to other loathsome authority figures in

children’s literature. Agatha Trunchbull, the principal from Roald Dahl’s Matilda, is a popular example of another oppressive school administrator. In fact, in an essay on Pottermore, Rowling admits that Umbridge was partly inspired by a teacher whom she “disliked intensely.” Characters like Umbridge and Trunchbull do bring a certain amount of relatability to their stories; I think every child has had one teacher or another who they believed was positively cruel. The fact that

Umbridge treats students so horribly and gets away with it, or is even encouraged by members of the government, makes it possible to despise her, even more so, at times, than the Dark Lord.

“Her desire to control, to punish and to inflict pain, all in the name of law and order,” says

Rowling, “are, I think, every bit as reprehensible as Lord Voldemort’s unvarnished espousal of evil” (Pottermore).

While it is easy to categorize Dolores Umbridge as one of the most miserable characters in the entire series, she is ultimately just a road block stopping Harry from learning and practicing what he needs to do in order to defeat the obvious evil threatening Great Britain, Lord

Voldemort. While some arguments around Voldemort and the question of good and evil have been strictly religious, I do not believe the motivations behind his regime must be related to Goodson 27

scripture. Tom Riddle, as I mentioned before, was a student at Hogwarts when he was a boy, but

Dumbledore first found him at an orphanage, where he was isolated from the other children. The

matron of the orphanage admits to there being trouble surrounding the boy Riddle:

“’…He scares the other children.’

‘You mean he is a bully?” asked Dumbledore.

‘I think he must be,’ said Mrs. Cole, frowning slightly, ‘but it’s very hard to catch

him at it. There have been incidents…Nasty things…’” (HBP 267)

As an angry child, Riddle would often make strange things happen with his mind. This is a common occurrence among many other wizard children as a result of not knowing how to control their magical capabilities; Harry freed a large snake from a glass zoo enclosure before discovering he was a wizard (SS), and he accidently blew up his Aunt Marge like a balloon in a fit of rage (PA). The difference between innocent children like Harry and Tom Riddle is that the latter seems to take pleasure in the pain he inflicts, and he is proud of it. When Dumbledore tries to explain to the boy that what he does is magic, Riddle says to him, “I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to […] I knew I was special.

Always, I knew there was something” (DH 271).

This feeling of superiority festers inside of Riddle as he hones his skills at the wizarding

school. Some professors, including Dumbledore, admit that Riddle was an upstanding student,

engaged in his studies and skilled at his wand work. But he had some interests that were

worrisome, as we learn in Half-Blood Prince from one of Professor Slughorn’s memories: Riddle

wanted to know how to create Horcruxes. As I mentioned previously, Horcruxes are used by Goodson 28

those who desire immortality, and are created, Slughorn explains, by a “supreme act of evil.” But

Riddle’s ambition goes beyond splitting his soul in two:

“’Wouldn’t it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces, I mean, for

instance, isn’t seven the most powerfully magical number, wouldn’t seven –?’’

‘Merlin’s beard, Tom!’ yelped Slughorn, ‘Seven! Isn’t it bad enough to think of

killing one person? And in any case…bad enough to divide the soul…but to rip it into

seven pieces…’” (498)

I agree with Young that the reason Voldemort is such a convincing villain is because Rowling made sure to give us his back story to explain how he becomes so feared by people that they refuse to call him by name. “Voldemort thus becomes not a depersonalized, objectively evil

‘Dark Lord’ but someone whose undeniably evil acts have a clear, psychologically plausible explanation” (70-71). While there is no evidence that there was something inherently evil in the young boy, Rowling also does not provide a straightforward moment of downfall, or what religious scholars might argue is his original sin. There is, however, a clear progression of his desire to be more powerful than those around him. According to Voldemort, strength comes from overcoming Death in a very literal way—unless every Horcrux is destroyed, a part of his soul will live on forever. He also dreams of an ideal world in which the magical community will remain forever “pure.” Even though Voldemort was born to a muggle father and wizard mother, he resented his parentage, leading him to believe that “half-bloods” and those born to two

muggle parents were impure and deserved to be tortured or killed (HBP).

Jean Elshtain, although she speaks about Voldemort’s evil in relation to sin, she does present some intriguing ideas regarding what she calls the “confrontation with evil.” In Book Goodson 29

One, she recalls, Voldemort convinces Professor Quirrell, whose body is possessed by a piece of

Voldemort’s soul, that “there is no good and evil, there is only power” (SS 291). Voldemort is able to rally his followers and Death Eaters by this rhetoric. Other children’s stories confront this same theme. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, as the title suggests, is about overcoming an evil lord who is seeking the “One Ring to rule them all.” Frodo, the hero of the trilogy, comes to the brink of temptation after spending so much time carrying the Ring to Mordor. Upon reaching Mount

Doom, Frodo finds it hard to get rid of the Ring: “I have come…But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!” (945). Frodo is almost lost, but

Gollum, who has already suffered from the powers of the Ring and has no chance of redemption, bites into Frodo’s hand, taking the Ring and Frodo’s finger with him into the pits of Mount

Doom. Similarly, Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is convinced to join the White Witch when she tells him, “I want a nice boy who I could bring up as a Prince and who would be King of Narnia when I am gone” (40). Edmund’s pride, especially his belief that he is more special than his siblings, ultimately results in a large battle and Aslan’s death.

Dumbledore, though he never makes the switch to the side of evil, does have regrets about his behavior as a young wizard seeking glory. According to his brother, Aberforth, their sister died as a result of Albus’s obsession with “plans for the benefit of all Wizardkind” (DH

567). As I discussed in the previous section, Dumbledore is redeemed by his actions in preserving the innocence of those whom he looks after. Even with Harry, he makes sure there are consequences for breaking school rules, and he often reminds him the importance of family and friendship. Unlike Voldemort’s decision to defeat death by becoming immortal, Dumbledore stresses that death is not something to be feared, but embraced, when the time comes. When

Harry must decide whether or not to return to the final battle, Dumbledore offers his last piece of Goodson 30

advice: “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love:

(DH 722). Rowling, again, makes it about choices. The ones who choose to do good, like Harry and his friends, “harbor something of the temptation of evil in themselves, but they do not capitulate to it” (Elshtain). Old fairy tales and children’s stories, such as those by the Grimm

Brothers, have been sterilized or completely dismissed in favor of tales with pretty princesses

and happily ever afters. Elshtain blames this on the lack of discussion or representation of evil in

the read world. But children know that bad things exist, and Rowling addresses that issue by

presenting evil in a world surrounded by fantastic creatures, beasts, and magic spells. It is not

difficult to see the parallels between Voldemort’s worldview and historical evils like Hitler’s

fascist regime. These sorts of connections to very real, very scary issues, provide readers with a

way to indulge in an epic fantasy without losing touch with the evils that threaten society, and

most of all, they present an answer as to how we may face and overcome those issues.

Goodson 31

Conclusion: Community and Sense of Place

The bulk of the story of Harry Potter and his endeavors takes place at Hogwarts School of

Witchcraft and Wizardry, a boarding school for children with magical capabilities which we know is located somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland. When young wizards around Great

Britain reach the age of eleven, they receive their Hogwarts acceptance letters, and prepare to journey to their new home where they will learn about potions, magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts. In this section, I will explore how readers of all ages have become so engrossed in the Potter books due to the sense of place and the strong community that Rowling builds around her main character.

When the tale of Harry Potter first begins, it is clear that his family life is not ideal, first and foremost because his parents were killed by the Dark Lord when Harry was an infant. He is therefore sent to live with Petunia and Vernon, his non-magical aunt and uncle, along with their miserable son, Dudley. These characters are the first ones we meet at the beginning of Sorcerer’s

Stone, and Rowling is sure to inform her readers of their prim and proper ways: “they were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense” (1). The Dursleys definitely include magic on their list of nonsensical subjects, and resent Harry’s parents for their status and wizards—a resentment they pass on to the orphaned boy. A cupboard under the staircase serves as Harry’s bedroom for the first eleven years of his life, he is given hand-me-down clothes to wear that are too large, and when they are not forcing him to do chores, they treat him as though he is invisible. In Book

Two, Vernon invites a business partner over for dinner, so Harry says to his uncle, “I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I’m not there” (CS 6). The Dursleys’ attitude toward

Harry makes the reader incredibly sympathetic for him, and we are relieved when Harry finally Goodson 32

sets off for Diagon Alley, where he gets his first real taste of fulfillment in the magical community.

Right away, there are groups established amongst the students when Harry meets a few of his fellow classmates on the train to Hogwarts. He realizes rather quickly that Draco Malfoy is not someone he wants to spend his time with when Draco criticizes both Ron’s family and

Harry’s own parents: “I’d be careful if I were you Potter,” he says, “Unless you’re a bit politer you’ll go the same way as your parents. They didn’t know what was good for them either” (SS

109). Luckily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all sorted into Gryffindor House, while Malfoy and his cronies get placed in Slytherin. All four of the houses participate in competition and rivalry with quidditch matches and points for the House Cup, but the Slytherins and Gryffindors especially butt heads.

The three main characters stick together for the entirety of their journey at Hogwarts, and in their efforts to defeat the Dark Lord. They do, however, take part and pioneer other micro- communities. These include Dumbledore’s Army, which the students create themselves, and the

Order of the Phoenix, established in the era before Voldemort went into hiding. These groups share a “family theme”:

“This shared purpose and emphasis on caring characterizes the other groups of which

Harry becomes a part throughout the series […] No matter what the danger, no matter

what obligations may hinder them, each member can count on the other to provide the

protective factors that Gilun (1999) says are key to resilient families.” (Kornfeld and

Prothro 124).

Arguably the most important piece information that Harry learns about his community is the protective spell that allows him to return to Privet Drive, free from the grasps of Voldemort. In Goodson 33

Book Five, Harry receives letters from and Arthur Weasley, urging him to stay put in his Aunt and Uncle’s house, much to Uncle Vernon’s chagrin. However, Petunia also receives a letter from a mystery sender, at least in Harry’s point of view. The only words inside read,

“REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA.” Without any further explanation, Aunt Petunia agrees that Harry must stay with her and her husband (OP 40-41). It is not until the end of the book that

Dumbledore finally gives Harry (and the audience) some answers regarding his decision to place

Harry in the hands of the Dursleys, rather than with a more loving, wizard family:

“I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a

lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I

put my trust, therefore, in your mother’s blood […] While you can still call home the

place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by

Voldemort.” (836)

This idea of family, including friendships that mimic family, serves as the core value of

Rowling’s seven-part saga. The issues presented in Harry Potter, along with Rowling’s answers to dealing with the difficulties we face are “meant to serve as an effective wake-up call to the young reader who is just about to encounter the threshold of his or her own epic voyage”

(McCauley 31). Adults, too, I believe benefit from returning to fairy tales and fantasy so that they may be reminded to never underestimate the power of loyalty and love, as Dumbledore reminds Harry.

I would like to take some time here to discuss the physical setting of the novel because I believe that it is important in the development of our main character’s idea of home. Hogwarts and its grounds provide the foundation on which the communities are built. To start, the boarding school takes the shape of a gothic, medieval castle, complete with gargoyles, dungeons, and Goodson 34

secret rooms. The new Hogwarts students marvel at their school from afar: “Everyone was silent,

staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to

the cliff on which it stood” (SS 112). As first years, Harry and Ron are constantly confused by

the inner-workings of the castle; moving staircases cause students to lose their way in the

corridors, the password to the Gryffindor House common room changes frequently, and there is

something mysterious in the lake.

Amanda Cockrell explains that Rowling “has abandoned the realm of high fantasy and

laid her story in the contemporary England, rather than in the imaginary and medievally flavored

otherworlds” (15). I disagree with this position to an extent. While Rowling does include our real

world within her creation, as previously discussed, she draws heavily on medieval imagery, from

the description of the castle to the Forbidden Forrest. England, perhaps more than any other

country in Western Europe, is known for preserving and revering sacred and mythological sites.

From Stonehenge to Glastonbury, the English soil is full of stories that prod at out belief in

magic and miracles. Part of the draw to the Potter books, I believe, lies in our fascination with

legendary places.

Rather than the twentieth-century setting taking away some magical element from the

story, I believe it enhances it. Since we are readers in the twenty-first century, it is easy for us to relate to Harry’s shock and surprise at the magical creatures and places, because we discover them at the same time that he does. Rowling also has time on her side, especially for audiences who literally grew up with Harry. Because of the length and number of books in the series, readers get to mature as they see Harry mature in the novels. Furthermore, and more to my point, as Harry forms relationships in his magical community, readers are drawn to the physical spaces, and we, too, make Hogwarts a second home. I believe this is partly why such spaces like Harry Goodson 35

Potter World in Orlando and the Harry Potter Experience in are so popular and successful: the people who have built as much of an attachment to Hogwarts as Harry get to walk through the halls and drink butterbeer or pumpkin juice. Perhaps even more importantly, it is why we can rely on Harry, Ron, and Hermione, “whether by book or by big screen,” to welcome us home.

I am willing to bet that if you were to ask someone on the street what Hogwarts is, he or she, even having never picked up one of Rowling’s books, would be able to say, “It is where

Harry Potter goes to school.” Hogwarts, by the conversations and actions it incites, is much more than a setting of a children’s tale. The sense of community that Rowling has created within her story has inspired communities in the real world to take part in literature, sports, and activism that might not exist without Harry, Ron, and Hermione as companions. As stated by writers like

Lewis and Tolkien, it is common for critics to dismiss these conversations as mere pleasures of adolescence. To those who scoff at the debates over which Hogwarts house is the best, or who cannot understand the tears shed for Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, I urge the consideration of the last line spoken by Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows, which I believe sums up all devotion to fantasy: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Goodson 36

Bibliography

Alton, Anne Heibert. “Playing the Genre Game: Generic Fusions of the Harry Potter Series.”

Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, edited by Elizabeth E. Heilman, Routledge, 2009,

pp. 199-223.

Cameron, Eleanor. “High Fantasy: .” The Horn Book, Apr. 1971,

hbook.com/2018/01/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/high-fantasy-wizard-

earthsea/#_.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Pardoner’s Tale.” The Canterbury Tales,

harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/pard-par.htm#TALE

Cockrell, Amanda. “Harry Potter and the Secret Password: Finding Our Way in the Magical

Genre.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon,

edited by Lana A. Whited, University of Missouri Press, 2002, pp. 15-26. EBSCOhost,

login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=nlebk&AN=113900&site=eds-live.

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “Harry Potter, St. Augustine and the Confrontation with Evil.” YouTube,

uploaded by GoogleTalksArchive, 22 August 2012

youtube.com/watch?v=aXKso3GmT6E.

Garner, Alan. “Coming to Terms.” Children’s Literature in Education.

link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF01139449.pdf

Groves, Beatrice. Literary Allusion in Harry Potter. Routledge, 2017. Goodson 37

Kornfeld, John and Laurie Prothro. “Comedy, Quest, and Community: Home and Family in

Harry Potter.” Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, edited by Elizabeth E. Heilman,

Routledge, 2009, pp. 121-137.

Lewis, C.S. “On Stories.” Of This and Other Worlds, edited by Walter Hopper, Collins, 1982,

pp.25-45.

---. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Harper Collins, 1994.

McCauley, Patrick. Into the Pensieve: The Philosophy and Mythology of Harry Potter. Schiffer,

2015.

Mendlesohn, Farah and Edward James. A Short History of Fantasy. vol. 2nd ed, Libri Publishing,

2012. EBSCOhost,

login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=nlebk&AN=749068&site=eds-live.

Nikolajeva, Marie. “Harry Potter and the Secrets of Children’s Literature.” Critical Perspectives

in Harry Potter, edited by Elizabeth E. Heilman, Routledge, 2009, pp. 225-241.

Rowling, J.K. “Dolores Umbridge.” Pottermore. pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/dolores-

umbridge.

---. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic, 1999.

---. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scholastic, 2007.

---. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scholastic, 2000.

---. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Scholastic, 2005. Goodson 38

---. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Scholastic, 2003.

---. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Scholastic, 1999.

---. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic, 1997.

Saint Augustine. City of God. Translated by Henry Bettenson, Penguin, 2003.

Scholz, Victoria Lynne. “Other Muggles’ Children: Power and Oppression in Harry Potter.”

Midwest Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 2, Winter2018, pp. 123-144. EBSCOhost,

login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=hft&AN=127683938&site=eds-live.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1, 9th ed.,

edited by Stephen Greenblatt, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012, pp. 183-238.

Tolkien, J.R.R. “On Fairy-Stories.” Tree and Leaf. 1964. Harper Collins, 2001, pp. 3-81.

---. The Lord of the Rings. Harper Collins, 2004.

White, T.H. The Once and Future King. Berkley, 1987.

Young, Joseph. “Faces of Evil in Modern Fantasy.” Epiphany, vol. 9, no. 3, Sept. 2016, pp. 61-

78. EBSCOhost,

login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=hus&AN=123031053&site=eds-live.

Goodson 39

Selected Interviews with J.K. Rowling

Adler, Shawn. “Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling Opens Up About Books’ Christian Imagery.”

MTV News, 17 October 2007. mtv.com/news/1572107/harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-

opens-up-about-books-christian-imagery/

Fry, Stephen. J.K. Rowling at the Royal Albert Hall, 26 June 2003. Accio Quote! accio-

quote.org/articles/2003/0626-alberthall-fry.htm.

Grossman, Lev. “J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All.” Time Magazine, 17 July 2005. Accio Quote!

accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-time-grossman.htm

J.K. Rowling and the Live Chat, Bloomsbury.com, 30 July 2007. Accio Quote! accio-

quote.org/articles/2007/0730-bloomsbury-chat.html

“World Exclusive Interview with J.K. Rowling.” South West News Service, 8 July 2000. Accio

Quote! accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0700-swns-alfie.htm