The Sociology of Harry Potter: 22 Enchanting Essays on the Wizarding World

by Unknown

  Fleur plays the role of home healer as well, attempting to nurse both Griphook and Ollivander back to health at Shell Cottage after the skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Their injuries take much longer to heal and include the use of Skele-Gro for Griphook’s broken legs. Keeping them at Shell Cottage is a necessity of both the dangerous times and Harry’s need for both as he formulates a plan for the next stage of his battle with Voldemort.

  Disability

  Sociologists think about disability in a unique way that is very different from how disability is often understood, especially in the media and in public discussions. The usual understanding of disability is that it refers to a physical or intellectual impairment that causes suffering and merits medical treatment. This is called the medical model of disability because it understands disability primarily through a medical framework. The medical model does not ignore the negative social experiences associated with disability, but it does treat them as consequences of physical and intellectual conditions.

  Sociologists and other social scientists who study disability often examine disability through a lens known as the social model. The social model treats disability as a consequence of social inequalities and understands the concept of disability as a form of social construction. This social construction approach, put simply, claims that the meaning of social life is not inherent to our experiences but rather is constructed in ways that are fluid, often ambiguous, and usually quite powerful. So what it means for someone to be disabled depends on how society constructs and approaches the idea of disability, and how society selects which kinds of physical experiences determine who is disabled. The problem that sometimes occurs with the social model is that it can go so far as to ignore physical conditions and even ignore the body altogether. However, sociologists like Carol Thomas, the director of the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University in the UK, are working to transform the social model so that it is capable of acknowledging physical conditions. Thomas defines disability in a way that focuses on the social condition of people with impairments. “[O]nce the term ‘disability’ is ring-fenced to mean forms of oppressive social reaction visited upon people with impairments, there is no need to deny that impairments and illness cause some restrictions of activity – in whole or in part” (Thomas 2004: 579).

  Disabilities cause social restrictions in the magical world as well. St. Mungo’s contains a closed ward for permanent residents within the Spell Damage wing located on the fourth floor. This is Ward 49, also called the Janus Thickey Ward, after a wizard who is discussed in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These patients have been removed from society almost entirely and have only limited human contact through healers and the occasional visitor. Witches and wizards treat the long-term resident ward with a mix of fear and disdain. It was fear of the social isolation of this ward that persuaded the Dumbledore family to keep Ariana at home after her attack. Even the Welcome Witch of St. Mungo’s treats the long-term residents with ridicule. When a visitor asks to see the patient Broderick Bode, he is told “you’re wasting your time…. He’s completely addled, you know, still thinks he’s a teapot” (OOTP 486).

  Voldemort and Harry as Disabled Wizards

  Voldemort is a doubly-disabled wizard. The combination of his seven-part soul and the disablement that occurs in his confrontation with baby Harry cripple his mind and his body. We can say then that Voldemort experiences both mental and physical disability. His accomplishment of transforming his soul into more Horcruxes than any other wizard could achieve makes him both a freak and a savant. Sociologist Fiona Whittington-Walsh (2002) has reviewed tropes like these in an article published in the journal Disability & Society. She discusses the trope of the freak through an analysis of Muggle filmmaker Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks, which features a murderous battle between two groups of circus performers – one group made up of people with disabilities performing as circus freaks, and one group made up of non-disabled people who perform other roles in the show (the starlet, the strong man, etc.). The freaks in Freaks may have bodies that seem to stray from the mainstream, but they also have a very strong sense of identity and solidarity. They show no shame in their disabilities and they are fiercely protective of their social world. This is true also of Lord Voldemort, who sees the division of his soul as his greatest accomplishment. In that sense he also fits the trope that Whittington-Walsh calls the savant, because his disability is a path to success.

  The term savant is used at times to describe individuals who have exceptional expertise in a particular area, and idiot savant has been used to describe people with developmental disabilities who nonetheless have tremendous talent. Whittington-Walsh identifies several examples from film, including Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, an autistic man with extraordinary abilities at mathematical calculations. Voldemort is an exceptionally powerful wizard who is often compared to the likes of Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore has none of the physical encumbrances that Voldemort faces with his divided soul and dismantled body.

  But the wounds he suffers from his battle with young Harry, inflicted really by the love that Lily Potter holds for her son, diminish his body almost to nothing and introduce two other tropes that Whittington-Walsh refers to as violence, and isolation and pathology. Disability is often framed as a motivation for extreme violence, and that appears to be partially the case with Voldemort. His path to violence began long before the fated night in Godric’s Hollow, but the wounds he suffered that night gave him a particular hatred for Harry Potter and help to explain why his attempt to return to power is so entwined with the need to destroy Harry.

  The decade that Voldemort spends rebuilding his strength and eventually his body is a time marked by extreme isolation. Even when Voldemort’s body is rebirthed and his Death Eaters have returned to him, he never seems to trust or love any of them. As Dumbledore says, “Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one” (HBP 277).

  But if Voldemort is a villainous disabled wizard, then his affinity with Harry Potter makes Harry a heroic disabled wizard. Harry, too, suffers after his early confrontation with Voldemort and the Avada Kedavra killing curse that he (alone in history) survives leaves him with wounds that are deeper than the lightning shaped scar on his forehead. Harry’s success with magic takes on savant-like qualities that defy his mediocre performance at school; and like Voldemort, he is often drawn towards isolation. But his choices set him on a very different path than the one taken by Voldemort. Although Harry struggles with the darkness within him, his choices are shaped more by the protective love of his mother’s sacrifice than by the link to Voldemort that formed in the moment of that sacrifice. Voldemort may be one model of the disabled life in the magical world, but Harry Potter’s triumphant life offers a magical model of its own.

  Conclusion

  The presence of sickness, disease, disability, and stigma in the magical world is a potent indicator that even wizards and witches are subject to the confines of the body as well as the confines of the social world. Magic may create many possibilities that are unimaginable to Muggles, but these possibilities are not entirely limitless. The wizarding world has found ways to overcome some of the limitations of the body – not through magic though, but instead through social institutions. Hospitals, Healers and Mediwizards are all examples of social structures in the magical world that enable wizards and witches to find health and healing, even as they continue to struggle with the constraints of the body and the constraints of social stigma.

  References

  Conrad, Peter. 1992. “Medicalization and Social Control.” Annual Review of Sociology 18: 209-232.

  Rowling, J. K. 2005. Wizard of the Month Archive: Mongo Bonham 01/03/05 www.jkrowling.com.

  Thomas, Carol. 2004. “How is disability understood? An Examination of Sociological Approaches.” Disability & Society 19: 569-583.

  Whittington-Walsh, Fiona. 2002. “From Freaks to Savants: Disability and Hegemony fro
m The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) to Sling Blade (1997).” Disability & Society 17: 695–707.

  PART III - GROUPS & IDENTITY

  “Said Hufflepuff: ‘I’ll teach the lot/

  And treat them just the same’”

  The Magical Illusion of Inclusion

  Alice Nuttall

  At first glance, the wizarding world seems to be a fairly inclusive society. Upon his arrival at Hogwarts, Harry moves from an outsider in the hostile Muggle world to a fully accepted and cherished member of the wizarding community. Considering the wizarding world as a whole, one notices that good wizards show equal respect to those from Muggle, half-blood, or wizarding backgrounds, while only Voldemort and his allies attempt to exclude people based on strict criteria of “purity.” In the eyes of most of the wizarding world, prejudice against Muggles is as distasteful as overt racism is in the Muggle world, something underlined by the fact that the despised Death Eaters bear a strong resemblance to the Muggle hate group the Ku Klux Klan. Class prejudice is also condemned; the Malfoy family’s contempt for the hard-up Weasleys identifies them as dark wizards long before their hatred of Muggles and devotion to Voldemort is revealed. It is clear that Hogwarts, and other official organisations such as the Ministry of Magic, do not exclude people on the basis of such arbitrary facts as their parentage or income – except when they are controlled by Voldemort’s minions, as we see during the Second Wizarding War. However, in peacetime, there appears to be no obvious attempt to deal with another form of prejudice: discrimination against people with little or no magical ability.

  Sorting

  Each year, the new arrivals at Hogwarts are sorted into four Houses by the Sorting Hat. At the beginning of the ceremony, the Sorting Hat describes the character traits that it considers when deciding where a new student should be placed:

  You might belong in Gryffindor,

  Where dwell the brave at heart

  …

  You might belong in Hufflepuff,

  Where they are just and loyal

  …

  Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

  If you’ve a ready mind

  …

  Or perhaps in Slytherin

  You’ll make your real friends

  These cunning folk use any means

  To achieve their ends.

  Witches and wizards from Gryffindor are known for their “daring, nerve, and chivalry” (SS 118). Many of the most prominent figures who stood against Voldemort in the First and Second Wizarding Wars are Gryffindors; they make up the majority of the Order of the Phoenix, and can be found on the front lines of nearly every battle. Professor McGonagall stays at the Death Eater-controlled Hogwarts to protect the students from the Carrows, and, during Umbridge’s time as Headmistress, takes several Stunning spells to the chest when she attempts to defend Hagrid. Remus Lupin infiltrates the werewolf community to try and win support away from Voldemort, even though this brings him into close contact with Fenrir Greyback, the sadistic werewolf who targeted and bit him as a child. He and Sirius die fighting Death Eaters, while James Potter is killed trying to buy time for his wife and child to escape from Voldemort; similarly, Lily Potter gives her life to save Harry. Almost all of Voldemort’s Horcruxes are destroyed by Gryffindors: Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Harry himself.

  Gryffindors do not only display courage in battle, but in everyday life. Harry goes out of his way to face his fear of dementors and stand up to manipulative adults such as Umbridge, Fudge and Scrimgeour. The all-Gryffindor Weasley clan consistently choose, as Dumbledore would put it, to do what is right rather than what is easy. It is strongly implied that Mr. Weasley has been passed over for promotion because he does not hide the fact that he likes Muggles, or his disapproval of the more hypocritical actions of the Ministry. The rest of the Weasleys support him, despite the fact that promotion and the accompanying pay rise would mean an easier life for all of them – they put integrity before their own comfort. Even Percy, who for several years supports the Ministry’s policy of enforcing all laws, even those that are unjust, eventually swallows his pride and admits he was wrong – a very difficult task for such an ambitious over-achiever. Arriving in the Room of Requirement prior to the Battle of Hogwarts, he exclaims to his family “I was a fool!...I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a – a-”; and as Percy is lost for words Fred offers “Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron.” Percy swallows and replies “Yes, I was!” (DH 487).

  Similarly, although the Sorting Hat considered placing Hermione in Ravenclaw because of her intelligence, she proves herself to be a textbook Gryffindor. Not only does she fight alongside Harry, she campaigns for house-elf rights despite being ridiculed, and stands up to her friends even at great emotional cost to herself – for example, when Harry and Ron refuse to speak to her after she suggests to Professor McGonagall that Harry’s Firebolt may be booby-trapped.

  The cunning and ruthless Slytherins seem to be natural villains; the placement of the bigoted Draco Malfoy in Slytherin confirms this. Malfoy’s actions throughout most of his school life are as reprehensible as his opinions. In his third year, he succeeds in having Buckbeak sentenced to death by milking the injury he received after insulting the Hippogriff. This petty vengeance is aimed more at Hagrid, whom Malfoy despises because of his class, than at Buckbeak himself. Draco torments his Gryffindor peers, particularly Harry, whenever possible. His actions range from the antagonistic – for example, when he plays up his injured arm to make Harry and Ron do his work in Potions – to the near-sociopathic. In a Quidditch game in their third year, for example, he and his cronies dress as dementors to frighten Harry, despite knowing that in an earlier game Harry’s fear of dementors caused him to fall off his broom at a height that would have been fatal had Dumbledore not intervened. Surprisingly, Malfoy’s worst actions – his attempts to kill Dumbledore and open a way into Hogwarts for the Death Eaters – are a result of his being manipulated by Voldemort, rather than the fanatical devotion to the Death Eater cause displayed by people such as his aunt. However, even when he and his parents become disillusioned with life under Voldemort, Malfoy makes very little attempt to mend his ways. His only possible heroic action throughout the entire Second Wizarding War is his refusal to confirm Harry’s identity when he is brought to Malfoy Manor by the Snatchers.

  Like a mirror of the Order of the Phoenix, who are mostly Gryffindors, all but one of the Death Eaters are Slytherins – Wormtail, despite his cowardice and weakness, is placed in Gryffindor. Voldemort himself is, of course, not only a Slytherin, but a descendant of the founder of the House, Salazar Slytherin himself, and fulfils all of the Slytherin ideals apart from blood purity. He is utterly ruthless, using any means to achieve his ultimate goal of immortality: drinking unicorn blood, attempting to steal the Philosopher’s Stone, and murdering people in order to split his soul and produce Horcruxes. He is also cunning, manipulating both his followers and his enemies; he wins Ginny Weasley’s trust completely in her first year, and later exploits his connection with Harry rather than going after the prophecy himself.

  However, not all Slytherins are villains, although their motives for doing good are never selfless. For example, although Slughorn reluctantly agrees to teach in Harry’s sixth year, it is clear that he does this because of the protection Hogwarts will offer, and as a way to “collect” Harry. As we see from Bellatrix’s exchange with Snape in Spinner’s End (HBP 25-31), many Death Eaters view working for Dumbledore as taking a stand against Voldemort, and it is unlikely a coward like Slughorn would risk being perceived this way without a guarantee of protection. Similarly, although giving up the Horcrux memory could be seen as brave – it is, after all, the key to defeating Voldemort – Slughorn only does so after some heavy emotional blackmail from Harry.

  Snape uses his Slytherin qualities of cunning for good, acting as a double agent in order to undermine Voldemort. He protects Harry on several occasions and is eventually killed in the line of duty. Hi
s actions make him arguably the most heroic figure of the Second Wizarding War; and many years after the war is over, Harry describes him to his son Albus as “probably the bravest man I ever knew” (DH 758). However, unlike other self-sacrificing figures such as Dumbledore, or indeed Harry himself, Snape does not act for the greater good, or out of a belief that Voldemort’s plans are evil; after all, as a young student he was clearly drawn to the Dark Arts and the company of future Death Eaters. Instead, Snape is motivated by his love for Lily Potter, and his wish to avenge her death by bringing down the wizard who killed her.

  This brief overview of the lives and actions of notable Gryffindors and Slytherins is given to demonstration that next to these protagonists, antagonists and anti-heroes, the students of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff often become secondary figures – and even here, Hufflepuff seems to lose out. Ravenclaw, the House renowned for the intelligence of its students, provides several of Harry’s most useful allies. Through her father’s newspaper, Luna Lovegood provides Harry with an opportunity to tell the story of Voldemort’s return, thwarting Umbridge and the Ministry’s draconian attempts to silence him. She also not only joins Harry and the otherwise all-Gryffindor rescue team in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, but solves the problem of how to get there by suggesting the Thestrals. Even more importantly, when Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived at Hogwarts in search of the final Horcruxes, it was Luna who suggested the diadem of Ravenclaw, an option even Dumbledore had not considered. Luna’s Ravenclaw ability to think laterally, combined with her own open-minded approach to the world, enabled her to help her friends even without full knowledge of the situation. Other Ravenclaws likewise stand out from the crowd at Hogwarts: Cho Chang and Padma Patil are renowned for having beauty as well as brains, as is Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw boy whom Fleur Delacour takes to the Yule Ball. Even the Ravenclaw ghost is more significant than her Hufflepuff counterpart; although the Fat Friar is often seen at the feasts, it is the Grey Lady – Helena Ravenclaw – who provides Harry with a vital clue to finding and destroying one of the Horcruxes.