Themes and motifs in Harry Potter

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Contents 1 Themes 1.1 Love 1.2 Death 1.3 Friendship & loyalty 1.4 Adolescence 1.5 Prejudice & discrimination 1.6 Choice 1.7 Power & ambition 1.8 Ego and self-actualization 1.9 Success and achievement 2 Literary motifs 2.1 Description 2.2 Everyday language 2.3 Wordplay 2.4 Irony 2.5 Myth and folklore 2.6 Arthurian Motifs 3 References

[edit] Themes

There is much moral subtlety in any of the series', though the central clash between good and evil is drawn in largely black-and-white terms. Nevertheless, as the series develops, several characters have faced a choice between doing what is right or what is easy (a central theme), and moral "shades of grey" have been presented. This is especially relevant to characters such as Dolores Umbridge, some Ministry of Magic employees, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape. While ideas of racism, genocide, anti-establishment and prejudice are, as J.K. Rowling states, "deeply entrenched in the whole plot", the writer prefers to let themes "grow organically", rather than sitting down and consciously attempting to impart such ideas to her readers.^[1]

[edit] Love

The theme of love is perhaps the most enduring throughout the series, being portrayed as a powerful form of magic in and of itself. When Lily Potter willfully stepped in front of the curse meant for Harry, her sacrifice put in place an ancient and powerful magic grounded in love. Later in the series, the theme continues when it is revealed to the sceptical Harry that he possesses a "power the Dark Lord knows not", a force that, according to Dumbledore, Voldemort detests: the ability to love. It is Dumbledore's belief that it was this power that allowed Harry to resist Voldemort's temptations of power during their second encounter, prevented Voldemort from being able to possess him during their forth encounter, and will eventually lead, in Dumbledore's opinion, to Voldemort's downfall.^{[2] [3]}

It has been stated that true love cannot be created or imitated, even by "Love" potions, and that infatuation without romantic love is not true love. The character Voldemort, who was conceived and born out of wedlock and whose father was forced into it, is an example stating the wrongness of illegitimacy. True love cannot exist with merely infatuation.

[edit] Death

The series can be seen as a fight between good and evil, or love and death. "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it", said Rowling. ^[4] In fact, Voldemort's name suggests the words for "flight of death" in Latin and French, and "steal death" in French and Catalan. Voldemort's attempts to avoid death, exemplified by his drinking unicorn blood for a half-life and splitting his soul using horcruxes, contrasts with Lily's sacrificial love for Harry and the extraordinary magic her act leaves to him through his scar, as well as Dumbledore's love for Harry, which Voldemort continues to fail to understand and appreciate.

[edit] Friendship & loyalty

Friendship and loyalty are perhaps the most "organic" of the series' themes. Their main conduit is the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which allows these motifs to naturally develop as the three age, their relationship matures, and their accumulated experiences at Hogwarts test their trueness to each other. These ordeals become progressively difficult, keeping in line with the series' increasingly darker tone, and the general nature of adolescence.

"The trio" are for the most part portrayed as warm, supportive and quick to come to each other's aid. Though they do, over the course of the series, experience significant fallings-out, they quickly recover once a greater crisis arises (or becomes apparent, where its obviousness was initially obscured by personal concerns) and the need to respond in unity supersedes the spat. Their mutually supportive and generally warm nature is in stark contrast to the relationship that Draco Malfoy shares with Crabbe and Goyle, who are better described as cronies than as friends. They are commonly portrayed as dim witted and dependent on Malfoy, who in turn uses them mostly for his own purposes. The result is a lack of genuine emotional support, which Malfoy discovers as he struggles through his sixth year at Hogwarts virtually alone. Harry, who has always dealt with his friends on equal terms, never experiences such isolation. Throughout his many trials at Hogwarts, he draws on the support of both Ron and Hermione, and also many more friends including Hagrid, the Weasleys, other Gryffindors, and Albus Dumbledore.

[edit] Adolescence

In addition to this, the author is purposeful in her portrayal of adolescence. While not thoroughly exploring her characters' sexualities, she does not ignore them either, refusing to leave Harry, as she has said, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence". Along the same lines is her approach to the portrayal of evil. According to Rowling, "Evil is not something you can deal with lightly—there are consequences, there are victims". Those are exemplified when Harry stands before the Mirror of Erised and sees his heart's greatest desire — his unreachable, deceased parents, a chapter whose writing she has said to be one of her proudest. ^{[5] [6]}

[edit] Prejudice & discrimination

Prejudice and discrimination feature prominently throughout the series. As Harry's education in the magical world continues he learns that there are wizards and witches who hate Muggles and view them as inferior because of their lack of magical ability. Furthermore, the magical world utilises a system of designations, Muggle-born, half-blood, and pure-blood, to indicate a wizard's heritage. The more prejudiced within the magical community take these designations a step further, viewing them as a system of ranking to illustrate a wizard's worth, pure-bloods being the preferred sorcerers, and Muggle-borns (alternatively known by the slur "Mudblood") as the most despised. In addition to prejudices held for fellow humans, there is also a common shunning of non-humans and even part-humans (commonly known by the offensive epithet, "half-breeds").

At every turn, Rowling seems to contradict these prejudicial views of marginalised magical groups. Hermione Granger, the so-called "Mudblood", is made to be the brightest young witch at Hogwarts; Hagrid, derided by some as a dangerous "half-breed" for his giant blood, is shown to be a gentle lover of all creatures; half-bloods including Harry Potter, Severus Snape and Voldemort himself (though the theme is made more complex when one considers that Voldemort heads the Death Eaters, an organisation that subscribes to the supremacists' beliefs), are shown to be among the most magically powerful in the wizarding world. The subscribers of prejudiced views are often cast in a negative light, with characters like the Dursleys, Lucius Malfoy, and even Ministry of Magic officials as high as the Minister himself being portrayed as greedy, power-hungry, and at times, incompetent.

Further information: Blood purity

[edit] Choice

One of the most significant recurring themes is that of choice. In Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore makes perhaps his most famous statement on this issue: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."^[7] He confronts the issue again in Goblet of Fire, when he tells Cornelius Fudge that what one grows up to be is far more important than what one is born. ^[8]

Many pairs of characters with similar backgrounds throughout the series are presented with comparable situations but their choices with respect to handling them distinguishes them from each other, making them foils to one another. Both Sirius Black and Draco Malfoy were born into prejudiced pure-blood families but Black chose to reject his family's ideology, while Malfoy embraced it. Dobby and Winky were both born into slavery as house-elves, but Dobby aspired to freedom while Winky aspired only to servitude. Hagrid and Madame Maxime were each born half-giants, but only Hagrid chose to publicly and unabashedly embrace his heritage while Madame Maxime chose to hide for fear of what others would think of her, declaring herself to merely "'ave big bones!" ^[9]

One of the most powerful choices of the series was that presented to Lily Potter the night she died and Voldemort was defeated. After killing her husband, Voldemort ordered her to step aside so that he could dispatch the infant Harry. She refused, stepping in front of the curse meant for her son. Thinking that she was only buying Harry a few more seconds of life, her choice unknowingly gave him a magically powerful protective shield rooted in love that prevented Voldemort from doing him harm, causing Voldemort's curse to backfire.

As it has been for many characters throughout the series, what Dumbledore termed the "choice between what is right and what is easy" has been a staple of Harry Potter's career at Hogwarts and his choices are among his character's most distinguishing traits from Voldemort's. Both he and Voldemort were orphans raised in difficult environments, in addition to sharing characteristics including, as Dumbledore points out, Voldemort's "own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness, determination" and "a certain disregard for rules".^[7] However, Harry, unlike Voldemort, has consciously elected to embrace friendship, kindness, and love, where Voldemort knowingly chose to reject them.

[edit] Power & ambition

Rowling often presents morally grey characters, areas, and situations in the thematic context of power and ambition (usually in the pursuit of them, though the morally ambiguous character of Severus Snape is an exception). These are in stark contrast to the morals and motivations of Dumbledore and Harry who are often clearly portrayed as virtuous, and those of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who are for the most part shown as evil (although inalterably bent on securing power and their own ambitions), with rare exceptions. Such presentations include the relatively benign character of Professor Horace Slughorn, whose ambitions of influence over students who show promise of future power and prestige often result in the minimisation of those who do not. Darker is the recurring presentation of the Ministry of Magic, whose actions have been shown to blend the needs of the country with the personal desires of high-ranking officials.

[edit] Ego and self-actualization

It has been stated that the protagonist, Harry Potter, is the sole person who can defeat the antagonist Voldemort. At first, when Harry is a young child, he gets by with help and advice from family and other adults. However, as he grows older, Harry loses not only his parents, but also his godfather (Sirius Black) and greatest mentor (Albus Dumbledore). It is after every one of these losses that Harry realizes that only he alone can defeat Voldemort and save the wizarding world. The theme reflects upon the moral that nobody can love one's self more than one's self, that sometimes, a person has to deal with matters solo.

The theme relates to friendship/loyalty (see above) but the two should not be confused.

[edit] Success and achievement

When learning apparition, young wizards are taught to think of the three D's: destination, determination, and deliberation. Many young wizards, like Ronald and Charlie Weasley, find this very difficult, while other wizards who are determined enough to put in more concentration are able to succeed. Outside of the fictional universe, the same lesson applies to teach children how to succeed in life: Destination: know the goal(s), Determination: concentrate and work at it, and Deliberation: fantasize and dream about achieving the goal(s).

[edit] Literary motifs

[edit] Description

One major literary device which Rowling employs is a kind of minimalist yet informative description. She will often contain in a very few words enough information to create a small vignette in the reader's mind. An example of this is the line, "Harry knocked over a deck of self-shuffling playing cards", which immediately conjurs, without Rowling having to mention it, the image of the cards gathering themselves off the floor, quickly shuffling themselves back into place and then neatly restacking. This method allows her to create a world that is very information-dense, with every nook and cranny filled with some bit of humorous, unusual, or threatening activity. Information that is vital to the plot of the novel, or even of further novels, can be hidden within casual phrases or half-sentences. The title character of book three, Sirius Black, is mentioned offhand in the first chapter of book one.

[edit] Everyday language

The characters in the novels, especially the children, speak in a very accessible, naturalistic way; Ron, despite having spent his entire life in the wizard world, uses words and idioms such as "mental", "git" and "taking the mickey" that are common on British playgrounds. While the professors, particularly Dumbledore and Snape, can occasionally wax lyrical on certain topics, there is little of the deliberate archaism of speech typical of other fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings.

[edit] Wordplay

The novels make frequent use of punning, wordplay and allusion. One of the best examples of this is the name of the eight-foot tall half-giantess and Headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Maxime; "Maxime" is French for "principle", which puns on "principal", but it is also derived from the Latin "maxima" which means, "the biggest feminine [thing]." Hagrid's first name, Rubeus, is a play in Latin both on "bramble" and "red", which describe his features very well. The school's watchful caretaker is named Argus, after Hera's 100-eyed giant, while the teacher of the hardest class in the school is named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom. Rowling also employs wordplay such as "Diagon Alley" (Diagonally) and "Knockturn Alley" (Nocturnally). Also, there is a mirror which shows us what we want called "The Mirror of Erised" ("Erised" being "desire" spelt in reverse).

[edit] Irony

The series also frequently employs irony and satire. Many of the novels feature ironic twists involving cases of mistaken identity and betrayal. While her satirical touch is light, rather than savage, Rowling nonetheless lambasts the occasionally corrupt and incapable Ministry of Magic, whose leader, Cornelius Fudge, is characterised by Professor Benjamin Barton as being "a bumbling politician just trying to hang onto his job".^[10] This in addition to Rita Skeeter, described by Boyd Tonkin (literary editor at The Independent) as a "tabloid hackette", whose caricature is Rowling's "satirical zenith".^[11]

[edit] Myth and folklore

Like C. S. Lewis, Rowling employs a mixture of classical and Nordic mythology in her works. The wizard world is populated by not only centaurs, wood nymphs, hippogriffs, and sphinxes, but also by dwarfs, elves, and trolls. Unlike Lewis, however, she also includes creatures from British folklore, such as redcaps, merrows, grindylows, boggarts, and hinkypunks.

[edit] Arthurian Motifs

Many scholars have commented on the use of "Arthurian motifs"^{[citation needed]} in the Harry Potter series, and have gone so far as to see Harry as an Arthur in miniture, "Harry Potter is a latter-day version of the Christian knight. He resembles Arthur not only in being the chosen one for the magical sword, but also for his qualities as a natural leader, and in an assumption of responsibility, for himself and his peers, that begins at a very early age..."^[12]

[edit] References