Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:Archetype Analysis

Harry Potter: A Hero’s JourneyThe main plot concerns Harry's quandary against the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and oppress non-magical people. (Harry Potter, 2010)

A Hero’s Journey: Analysis of Harry Potter

Chris Vogler’s 12 stages of plot patterns. 

He clearly states that the Hero’s Journey is a guide, not a rigid formula. 

Some steps can be out of order. 

Or some steps can be missing entirely.

Ordinary World

Most Hero’s Journeys start in the Ordinary World.

This setting usually allows us to get to know the Hero and identify with him

Let’s us see the flaws and special attributes

Is important to set up a contrast with the special world.

Ordinary World

Most Hero’s Journeys start in the Ordinary World.

This setting usually allows us to get to know the Hero and identify with him

Let’s us see the flaws and special attributes

Is important to set up a contrast with the special world.

Ordinary World: HP1

Although most Hero’s Journey stories start in the Ordinary World, there is a short prologue where the Special World comes to the Ordinary World.

This is the opening scene where Dumbledore and McGonnagal meet in Privett Drive and await Hagrid’s arrival with baby Harry.  And if we didn’t know there was magic in the air we’ve got Professor McGonnagal changing shape from cat to woman and Dumbledore casting spells to dim the street lights to tell us.

McGonnagal doesn’t think Harry should be left with the Dursleys, but Dumbledore tells her they are the only family he has. And that he will be better off being brought up in ignorance of who he truly is.

And so he is left with the Dursleys.  This becomes his Ordinary World. 

They  don’t want to bring him up.  His bedroom is a cupboard under the stairs.  He is treated poorly – the story opens on Dudley’s birthday and

Harry is making the breakfast and fetching coffee whilst Dudley counts his presents.

Call to Adventure

Disrupts the comfort of the Ordinary World

Presents a challenge

Gets the story and excitement going

Delivered by the Herald: letter, riddle weather, arrival of the villain, death, abduction, etc)

Consequences for refusal

Call to Adventure

Set up by the conversation with the snake

An owl drops a letter, and it  pops through the doorway addressed to Harry. 

That letter is the invitation to come and study at Hogwarts School Of Wizardry And Witchcraft.

Refusal of the Call

Hero refuses the call or is reluctant

Insecurities and fears of the Hero are outlined

Risks of the journey are outlined

Refusal of the Call

Letters are torn up and burned

The mail box is sealed, and the Dursleys even leave Privett Drive and to an isolated lighthouse. 

Because Hagrid arrives, and delivers the letter to Harry along with a birthday cake.

Harry is reluctant to accept that he is a wizard, but he is excited to get out of his dreary world.

Meeting with the Mentor

Meets a mentor

Gives Hero confidence, knowledge, and insight.

Is a profoundly knowledgeable character

Gives wisdom

Reassures the Hero

Meeting with the Mentor

For the first part of HP1, Hagrid is Harry’s mentor. Hagrid starts as the Herald, but must wear the Mentor mask in Dumbledore’s absence.

Introduces him to his destiny and the wizarding word

The primary mentor will become Dumbledore

Crossing the First Threshold

Hero commits to the journey

Hero confronts a special event

Commits to entering the new world

No turning back

Crossing the First Threshold

Starts with Ollivader’s test at the Wand shop

Ends when he boards the train to Hogwarts

Harry has to board the Hogwarts Express by himself.   His ticket is for platform 9 ¾ .  Harry asks a ticket inspector, who thinks Harry is playing a joke on him.

Harry meets the Weasley Family about to make the transition to platform  9 ¾ .

Tests, Allies And Enemies

Hero faces tests and throughout the process figures out allies and enemies

Learns the rules of the Special World

Each test prepares Hero for the Ordeal

Allies can help guide the HeroEnemies reflect the Hero’s dark

side

Tests, Allies And Enemies Starts on the train, meets Ron and Hermione

First test is to shake Draco’s hand (potential enemy)

Sorting hat (not slytherin)

Classes: Draco and Harry feud on brooms

Fluffy (3-headed dog)

Troll

Quiddich Game

Wraith of Voldemort

Philosopher’s Stone

Approach the Inmost Cave

Hero makes preparations

Leads to the Ordeal

Often involves planning: maps, reconnaissance, picking off the enemy

Hero faces biggest fear

Consists of reorganization and the rekindling of morale

Approach the Inmost Cave Fluffy’s guarding, but is asleep.  Fluffy wakes up.  They are forced to jump down the trapdoor as

Fluffy tries to attack them. They must now find the Philosopher’s Stone. Before reaching the Inmost Cave and the Supreme Ordeal –

there are 3 more tests.  And each of the trio take the lead in one test.

Hermione uses her spell and herbology knowledge to rescue them from the Devil’s Snare, Harry puts his ‘seeker’ skills to good use to find the flying key with the broken wing to open the door, and Ron leads the game of Wizard’s chess to get them through this obstacle.

Ron falls at this obstacle, and Harry leaves Hermione to look after Ron as he descends to the Inmost Cave to confront Snape and The Supreme Ordeal.  Only it’s not Snape, it’s Quirrell.

Supreme Ordeal

Central life-or-death crisis

Confronts his greatest fear, most difficult challenge, “death”

On the brink of failure

Climax

Can witness the death of an ally

Often faces the villain

Supreme Ordeal

Quirrell is revealed as the adversary, with a creepy Voldemort under his turban.

The Supreme Ordeal is about the hero facing his biggest fear – and also facing death.  And Voldemort is always Harry’s biggest fear – the wizard who killed his parents when he was a baby and left him with a permanent scar.

And Harry faces down both of these – even though he ends the Supreme Ordeal unconscious, and wakes up in the hospital.

The Reward

Hero survives death

Overcomes greatest fear

Earns the reward: A magical or special item

Greater insight

Knowledge

Their life

A moment of celebration

The Reward

Delivered in the End Of Term banquet.

Gryfindor is transformed from 4th place for the Hogwarts Cup into first place by the extra points that Dumbledore awards for Ron, Hermione’s and Harry’s actions in stopping Voldemort gaining the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Road Back

Hero completes the journey and heads back to the ordinary world

Often needs a push to get the Hero going in the right direction

Changes the direction of the story

The Road Back

The stage of ‘The Road Back’ is symbolized by the Hogwarts Express getting ready to depart. 

The Resurrection

Harry wakes up in the hospital

Return with the Elixir

The final rewardEarned the right to return to the Ordinary World

Can be love, acceptance, survival

Return with the Elixir

And there are two things that signal the ‘Elixir’ that Harry takes away from his first year at Hogwarts.

The first is the picture that Hagrid gives to Harry of his parents and Baby Harry. 

The second is a line of dialogue.  “I’m not going home.  Not really.”

The Hero: The Chosen One… Or most worthyArchetype characteristics:

Unusual circumstances of birth; sometimes in danger

Reluctant, or uncomfortable with role

Leaves family or land and lives with others

An event, sometimes traumatic, leads to adventure or quest

Hero is special in some way, but not all ways

Hero has supernatural help

Hero must prove himself many times while on an adventure

At the end of the journey: hero has an unhealable wound, must change in some way

The Hero: Harry Potter

What kind of hero is Harry Potter according to Carol Pearson, PhD? The Warrior

Gift/Virtue: Courage, discipline

Examples: flying, explores threats, fights a troll, defeating Professor Quirrell

Orphaned.

Special: survives Lord Voldemort’s attack

The Mentor

Archetype characteristics

Usually a profound philosopher

Distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment

Characters usually have beards

Kind and wise

Offers guidance that in a mystical way may impress upon someone a sense of who they are, thereby acting as a mentor

May appear as an absent-minded professor

The Mentor: Albus Dumbledore

Widely known as being wise, yet odd. Chocolate frog card describes him as being “the greatest

wizard of modern times” and indicates that he “enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.”

Does not fear death, and claims that choosing money and life are precisely the things that are worse for humans.

Cautions Harry to always use the proper name for Lord Voldemort, as “fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself”.

The Threshold Guardian

Archetype characteristics

Protects the special world

Beyond the guardian lay danger

May be a character, locked door, secret vault, animal, weather, etc.

Provides a test of some sort Hero must pass the test by:

Ignoring

Outwitting

Overcoming

Appeasing

Befriending

The Threshold Guardian: Ollivander

Possesses the last of Harry’s supplies

Makes Harry test the wands

Gives Harry information about Voldemort: Danger ahead

Twin cores/wands

Harry might be the “chosen one”

The Herald: An Agent of Change

To warn and challenge

Can be a person or a thing, but must call the Hero to adventure.

Can be combined with other characters. Even the Hero (in the form of dreams, etc).

The Herald: Hagrid and the letters In Harry Potter, the letters herald him to come to Hogwarts.

As the carrier of the final letter, Hagrid, is also a herald.

Gives the call to adventure: “Harry yer a wizard!”

The Shapeshifter

Archetype characteristics

Misleads the Hero

Ambiguous intentions and loyalties

Can put doubts into the hero’s mind

The audience is usually left asking, “Whose side is this character on?”

The Shapeshifter: Professor Severus Snape Head of Slytherin (a word we associate with snakes, an

allegorical symbol of evil); name SNAPE almost SNAKE

He makes Harry’s scar hurt

Seems to pick on Harry

Stares at Harry intensely during the Quiddich game, and Harry is almost killed

Even when Quirrel is revealed, he states “Severus does seem the type, doesn’t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat…”

The Shadow

Archetype characteristics

Forces within and outside of us of war against the power of positive life and change

Enormous resistance to the very experiences or insights that would lead to healing

Embodies all that is dark in ourselves

The Shadow: Lord Voldemort Main antagonist and archenemy of Harry Potter.

He is so feared that no one dares to say his name, known as “He Who Must Not Be Named” (Rowling, 1997).

Killed Harry’s parents, and many other wizards and muggles (non-magical people)

Video: Voldemort’s purpose is to murder

The Tricksters: Fred and George

Disrupt, cause chaos, or provide comic relief

Funny, witty, or titillating dialogue

Physicality is meant to entertain

They may not change, but may cause change in their world

Loyal Companion

Archetype characteristics

Driven by loyalty and a need for harmony

Can always be counted on

Usually provides comic relief (trickster)

Ready to lend a hand, yet may fail to realize that he or she needs to take the lead

Stable, supportive, tolerant

Chief flaw: being too compliant or unassertive

Loyal Companions: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger Harry’s first friend when they meet on the Hogwarts

Express.

Ron and Hermione are selected to be Gryffindor (like Harry) because they are all brave at heart, with daring, nerve and loyalty.

Hermione is also the Guardian of Knowledge and Mother Figure

Ron also acts as a trickster, providing some comic relief