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

by Unknown

  Hagrid lives with “an enormous black boarhound” called Fang of whom he is very fond (SS 140). Others animals to which he is mostly drawn are creatures whose very shape and form make them outsiders within their own species. In the six years that Harry attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hagrid is associated with animals that produce fear or are generally disliked. First, he buys a giant three-headed dog, whom he names Fluffy; and then he hatches a dragon to whom he sings lullabies. Next, Harry and Ron learn that Hagrid has been taking care of a giant spider, Aragog, ever since the spider was an egg. When the spider gets accused of a crime, it is Hagrid who protects the arachnid and his family. When Harry and Ron meet Aragog, the spider speaks of Hagrid’s goodness and of how much respect he has for his caretaker (COS 277-278). As the new Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, the first creature Hagrid introduces to students is a giant beast known as a Hippogriff, which you must take care not to insult because “it just might be the last thing you ever do” (HP3).

  While Hagrid seems accustomed to stand out in every crowd because of his enormous size, he appears the happiest when he is surrounded by giant creatures. Furthermore, the Hogwarts’ groundskeeper clearly favours animals that are met generally with fear, repugnance or disdain. In fact, most of his animal friends are classified as XXXXX, i.e., “known wizard killer / impossible to train or domesticate” by the Ministry of Magic’s Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (FB xxii). The result is that while others are terrified of fire-breathing dragons and angry Hippogriffs, Hagrid considers them “Beau’iful” (POA 114). Because he is half-giant, and because giants are reputed to be savages from whom wizards and witches need to be protected, he chooses to interact with and protect those who are regarded with the same attitude. The personal network Hagrid creates with his chosen non-human animals is a marker of his self-identity that has been, in part, imposed by the wizarding society. It has been suggested in the late twentieth century that “dog owners come to resemble their pets” because there is a desire to choose a breed that is “consistent with [the owner’s] social identity” (Franklin 1999: 99). The same can be said about Hagrid. His social and personal identity, as I already mentioned, is that of an awkward giant man called a savage or an oaf who comes from a race of vicious, bloodthirsty brutes. And yet, like most of the animals that he befriends, he is a gentle giant who can be dangerous only when provoked.

  Hermione Granger and Crookshanks

  Randy Malamud, in his study A Cultural History of Animals in the Modern Age, says that “animals are thickly enmeshed in human culture simply because people are so interested in them. We use them in a range of ways – some benevolent, some silly, some violent – in the service of our own cultural drives, desires, fantasies and obsessions” (Malamud 2007: 3). Wizarding culture shares this interest in animals and allows students to bring them to school. When Harry Potter first receives a letter from Hogwarts about being accepted, he is informed that he may “bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad” (SS 67). While Harry brings a snowy owl and Ron an old rat, Hermione does not acquire a non-human companion until their third year.

  Although Hermione occasionally lacks self-esteem as a young girl and is subjugated to offensive remarks because of her Muggle parents, she is a good friend to many students and a good advisor. Hermione is intelligent, has sound judgment and clarity of perception. She is the one who, during the search for the sorcerer’s stone, frees herself from Devil’s Snare and saves Harry and Ron from its deadly grasp. She is the one who, two years later, helps Harry save Sirius Black and Buckbeak the hippogriff from certain death. And in the sixth year, in her true academic fashion, Hermione deduces that the word Prince in “Half-Blood Prince” might be a woman’s last name and not a man’s title. No other student at Hogwarts equals Hermione’s intellect and clarity of mind, and no other student possesses her impeccable work ethics and thirst for academic knowledge. Therefore she finds an equal in her cat companion Crookshanks, whom she purchases from the Magical Menagerie in the Leaky Cauldron. On many levels, Crookshanks complements Hermione’s drive to succeed at everything she does and her superior moral judgment.

  Crookshanks is a large orange half-kneazle feline with thick fur and “oddly squashed face” (POA 60). Unlike the relationship that Filch and Hagrid have with their animal companions, where the connection is based on emotional needs, Hermione’s companion fulfills her intellectual needs that humans are unable to provide. Whereas Harry and Ron often act in a foolish manner and on impulse, Crookshanks has the ability to solve problems on his own and recognize potentially dangerous persons and situations. He immediately takes a dislike to Ron’s pet rat Scabbers, who is later revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, and independently seeks out the rat in order to destroy him. Like Hermione, who does not yield when she knows she is right, Crookshanks goes after Scabbers whom he senses is a fraud despite protests from Ron and pleading from Hermione. When Harry is threatening to kill Sirius Black because he is convinced that Black was responsible for the death of his parents, Crookshanks first tries to take Harry’s wand away and when that fails, he leaps “onto Black’s chest” and forms a shield over “Black’s heart” (POA 342). Being able to perceive right from wrong, Crookshanks takes charge and saves an innocent man from a certain injury, if not death.

  Like Hermione, who is praised for being clever and frequently referred to as the brightest witch her age or the best student in her year (HP3, HBP 70), Crookshanks also is recognized for his intellect, being described by Sirius Black as the “most intelligent of his kind that I’ve ever met” (POA 364). Hermione is the first student to guess that professor Lupin is a werewolf, while Crookshanks recognizes that a large black dog is, in actuality, Sirius Black. Moreover, he shares Hermione’s need for adhering to rules and academic honesty. When Harry and Ron make up answers for the Divination homework, the cat makes his disapproval known. Harry recalls: “Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at [him], rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren’t doing their homework properly” (GOF 222).

  Conclusion

  Most animals in the wizarding world do not fare well. Some lose their lives, some are given away, others are set loose when their usefulness reaches its end. The wizarding society lives with animals and interacts with them, but does not always consider them to be more than body parts, study aids or sources of food. Those who have the strongest connections to non-humans are those whose characteristics of whatever sort prevent them from forming certain types of bonds with their own kind. But despite the lack of compassion that witches and wizards often show to them, the animals persevere, urging us to look more critically at our own relationships with those around us.

  References

  Eisenberg, John. 1971. “Introduction.” Pp. 131-139 in Man and Beast: Comparative Social Behavior. Edited by J. Eisenberg and W. S. Dillon. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press.

  Franklin, Adrian. 1999. Animals and Modern Cultures: A Sociology of Human-Animal Relations in Modernity. London: Sage Publications.

  Malamud, Randy. 2001. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-26 in A History of Animals in the Modern Age. Edited by R. Malamud. Oxford: Berg.

  Mills, Charles Wright. 2000 [1959]. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Thomas, Keith. 1983. Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800. London: Allen Lane.

  Wischnitzer, Rachel. 1985. “Picasso’s Guernica: A Matter of Metaphor.” Artibus et Historiae 6: 153-172.

  “You’ll never know love or friendship,

  and I feel sorry for you”

  Voldemort as a Queer Child

  Gráinne O’Brien

  According to Freud, to understand adult desires, one must examine childhood experience (Freud 1920). This chapter will examine latent homosexual desire in Tom Riddle, the forced suppression of which, I maintain, may have been partly responsible for the creation of Lord Voldemort. Voldemo
rt’s sublimation would have begun during his childhood when he was in an orphanage, unable to express himself, magically or sexually, because of the repressive nature of the environment. Once established, the sublimation continued into his adulthood.

  In past work regarding Lord Voldemort, I have expressed the view that the wizarding world is the perfect, microcosmic, queer world (O’Brien 2010). I subscribe to the belief that “queer” not only can refer to sexuality but also can refer to anything that goes against the dominant society (Halperin 1995). Queer implies anything that is deviant, i.e., a refusal to conform to societal norms. It includes, but is not limited to, behaviours that go against the heteronormative expectations of society. “Heteronormativity” refers to the “institution of heterosexuality” and the idea that heterosexuality is the only normal, socially acceptable way to live (Giffney 2009).

  This chapter will trace the life of Tom Riddle, Jr. who became Voldemort, The Dark Lord, discuss his queerness as a child in terms of psychoanalytic theory and then examine the possibility that his “queerness” was the root of his darkness.

  The Pureblood Mother and the Muggle Father

  From his conception, Tom Riddle, Jr. was destined to live an abnormal existence. His mother, Merope, was mistreated and abused by her family. She experienced both verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her father and brother. “Pick it up!” her father once bellowed at her. “That’s it, grub on the floor like some filthy Muggle, what’s your wand for, you useless sack of muck?” (HBP 205). The abuse she experienced affected her ability to perform magic, and though she was a very capable witch, her repeated abuse made her feel terrified and incapable of performing magic properly. Once she was free of her abusive father and brother, she found just how capable of performing magic she was.

  Tom’s father was local Muggle man, Tom Riddle, Sr. Merope magically seduced him (likely via love potion) into marrying her. Riddle, Jr. was conceived, therefore, under unusual circumstance in terms of sexual consent. Likely consumed with guilt at her actions, Merope stopped giving Tom, Sr. the love potion, hoping that he would love her without the magic or at least stay for the sake of their unborn child. However, she was wrong on both accounts. The Muggle abandoned Merope and she – left impoverished, heartbroken, and alone – died almost immediately after Tom, Jr. was born.

  Riddle was raised in a Muggle orphanage until he was eleven years old, at which time Dumbledore, who was given the responsibility to tell him about Hogwarts, arrived. The child Dumbledore met had clearly evident psychological issues. He demonstrated serious paranoia, kleptomania, and was a “quazi pathological child” (Stockton 2009). Tom Riddle, Jr. was “growing sideways” as his circumstances had resulted in abnormal growth and left him unable to “grow up straight” (ibid). He had suffered a traumatic conception and birth and loveless early upbringing. As a result he was practically incapable of growing up “normal” in accordance with the societal view of what “normal” is.

  Tom had a very aggressive personality, even at the young age of eleven. To me, the aggression that Dumbledore witnessed in the orphanage was a glimpse of the desire for power that would eventually consume Riddle and evidence that he had been forced to repress himself growing up in the institution. I believe that his desire for power was sublimation, resulting from his need to constantly supress himself, due to an unaccepting, and hostile environment. The Muggle orphanage was not an ideal environment for him to be free, magically or sexually. He could not understand either urge, and the constant need to repress them damaged him.

  Knowing You Are Special

  Dumbledore encountered a very disturbed child when he first met Tom. During his conversation with Mrs. Cole, who ran the establishment, she said he, “was a funny baby…when he got older he was.... ‘odd’” (HBP 267). He demonstrated his power over the other children in the orphanage by stealing their possessions and traumatizing them. Mrs. Cole told Dumbledore of two examples: the death of Billy Stubbs’ rabbit, found hanging off the rafters of the orphanage; and the apparent mental anguish he caused two other children in a cave[xviii]. Dumbledore claimed Riddle had “obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy and domination” and could use his powers “against other people, to frighten, to punish, to control” (HBP 276). Already at the age of eleven, Tom has demonstrated that his desire for power was much stronger than any human attachment he may have made. Dumbledore believed that Riddle regretted revealing so much of himself during their first encounter, in the excitement of finding out he was a wizard that he let his guard down. I disagree. In regards to his sexuality and “queerness,” I believe he let his guard down around Dumbledore because Riddle saw something familiar in Dumbledore, and felt the need to reveal more of himself. He confided: “I knew I was different.... I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something” (HBP 271). In research on queerness and homosexuality, it has often been shown that children “knew” there was something different about them from a very young age (Stockton 2009). Could Riddle be alluding to something here? Was his magical ability not the only thing that made him a queer and different child?

  Once Riddle arrived at Hogwarts he learned the value of using his good looks and unassuming manner to charm his fellow students and teachers and was able to manipulate them to get what he wanted. It is interesting to note that Dumbledore was the only person to recognise there was something off about him. The sixteen-year-old Riddle, who came out of his diary in the form of a memory, told Harry that Dumbledore was the only one who did not fall for his charms, who mistrusted him. This, I believe, is evidence that Dumbledore saw something in Riddle that others did not: Recognition of the queer nature, that was Dumbledore’s also, combined with Tom’s inclination towards evil.

  Dumbledore continued to “ke[ep] an annoyingly close watch” on him (COS 312), I believe, seeing more than just a growing desire for power but also a reflection of his own desires and queerness. Dumbledore himself had the same desire for power when he was younger. He had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelwald, and the two “flirted with the idea of exactly what Voldemort goes on to do” (Rowling, quoted in Granger 2008: 181-182); however Grindelwald soon became consumed with power, desire, and darkness. After Dumbledore’s heartbreak at the death of his sister Arianna, he chose to live a safe, celibate life, devoting his time to his students and Hogwarts. He chose to suppress his love for Grindelwald and lust for power and not allow either to consume him. In contrast, Riddle successfully rid himself of not only sexual desire, but any desire for human contact whatsoever; his repression was absolute. The asexual nature of both Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort is also a powerful reflection on the treatment of homosexuality in the wizarding world, and highlights that even when one is not sexually active, abstaining completely, he or she is still queer.

  I maintain that Dumbledore recognized in Riddle the desire to pursue that same darkness that he himself had turned away from and a young man struggling with his queerness as he had been. And yet, he did not spend much time on, nor give much attention to Riddle, beyond observing him from afar. Dumbledore was the member of staff who was adamant the children of Hogwarts not have access to knowledge in books like Secrets of the Darkest Arts, which describes how to create a Horcrux (DH 102), perhaps evidence of Dumbledore’s attempts to suppress the darkness he sensed was growing within Riddle, without taking the time to try to uncover why Riddle was the way he was or offer him guidance.

  How to Acquire the Blood of the Enemy

  By the time Harry Potter is born, Tom Riddle, Jr.’s transformation into Lord Voldemort was complete. He had created six Horcruxes and probably intended to have his seventh be created as a result of the murder of Harry Potter. His fixation about the child Harry came from his belief in a prophesy about Voldemort’s death. Voldemort became evil beyond repair and because of his Horcruxes was as close to immortality as he could be. When trying to kill baby Potter, however, he accidentally transferred part of his soul to the child and Potter survived. Having failed to kill him, we now see
Voldemort’s desire for something in addition to and more than power: He transferred his need for power, to a desire to acquire Harry. The two desires became entwined.

  Without a doubt, his infatuation with Harry Potter should be examined within this Muggle notion that Voldemort was a queer wizard. Voldemort killed Harry Potter’s parents and marked but failed to kill Harry the infant. In Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, Voldemort came face to face with Harry for the first time since he attempted to kill him as a baby. Instead of trying to kill him now, he tried to recruit him to “save your own life and join me” (SS 294), perhaps inviting Harry to become at Hogwarts what he had been as Tom Riddle, Jr.

  Voldemort further demonstrated his desire to acquire Harry when he missed the opportunity to finally defeat him in the graveyard where Voldemort’s father, Tom Riddle Sr. is buried, after the Triwizard Tournament. Voldemort used Harry’s blood to regenerate his human form. He claimed it was because Harry’s blood, which contained the magical protection from his mother’s sacrifice, would make him even more powerful than before. His need to have Harry’s blood run through his own veins, to complete the connection of their souls that already exists, is evocative of a desire to keep Harry close. It also provided him with an opportunity to penetrate Harry both metaphorically and physically. Harry was taken prisoner, and forced to take part in the magical ritual that provided Voldemort with the human body he needed to return to power. The ritual included fourteen-year-old Harry, bound and gagged to the grave stone of Voldemort’s father, penetrated by a phallic object, a dagger, to provide the life giving liquid, his own blood, to regenerate Voldemort, against his will (HP4). Harry’s life force has provided Voldemort with the body he needed, and he has, in this way, successfully penetrated Harry, and gotten what he needed from him, a human shape. He has, in essence, satisfied himself, using Harry as a means to acquire what he needs.