Harry Potter and Jungian Archetype

"In the chambers of the heart dwell the wicked blood-spirits, swift anger and sensual weakness. This is how the unconscious looks when seen from the conscious side," reads Jung's The Archetypes and the Unconscious (20). Jung goes on to explain that it is within the unconscious that archetypes appear and are interpreted by the conscious mind. Such archetypes are very often found in fairy-tales where the supernatural world is read and the universal characters of the unconscious interpreted as stereotypes in a present setting (21). It comes as no surprise that a modern fantasy story, intended to be read by children and adults alike, would be riddled with easily recognized archetypal characters who battle for the sides of good and evil, the conscious and the unconscious. In the magical world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, her title character is forced to confront "the wicked blood-spirits" of Jung's theory of the unconscious mind in order to reach a state of good, a state of consciousness. While Harry's role as hero might suggest that Lord Voldemort is simply the evil villain of the series, the Jungian archetype of the hero's Shadow, his ego opposite in the arena of light and dark, best fits Voldemort's methods of gaining power and the means by which he meets his eventual end.

Jung's archetypes appear throughout the Harry Potter series, found in sagely old wizards and even the mythological creatures of the magical world, but it is the archetypes explored through the title character that remain relevant throughout. All other archetypes found in Harry's world are reliant on his unconscious as means of identification, as it is in Harry's unconscious that the major antagonist of the story, Lord Voldemort, whose attempt to kill Harry began Harry's life as hero, survives as a shadow. However, in order to argue Voldemort's role as Harry's shadow or to establish him as any other archetype, one must first examine Harry himself.

Harry is hero, lead protagonist, throughout the series. His morality is representative of a hero's, as his journey to defeat the villain is a hero's quest with moral challenges, which must be acknowledged for advancement towards his goal, but Harry is also representative of other archetype personalities due to the strangeness of his heroic origin and the role that he plays in the world to which he belongs. Harry is the archetypical "child-hero" at the same time as he is its kindred "orphan-child." Jung discusses the idea of the "orphan-child" of folklore as a secondary role of the "child-god" of mythology, though which archetype made its first appearance and, in turn, which is the second variation is uncertain (Jung and Kerenyi 30). At first glance, Harry does resemble the "child-god," due to his relation to the archetype as an orphan of mysterious origins. For Harry, the divine quality of his hero status came into being at the same moment that he became an orphan, the night on which Voldemort killed his parents and attempted to kill him, only to have his curse reflected off of the child (Rowling, Sorcerer's Stone; ch. 1). For Jung, the representative of the "child-god" of story is often under the "guise of the dwarf or elf as personifications of the hidden forces of nature" (Jung and Kerenyi 77). However, Harry needs no such guise, taking on the role of a wizard, a true explorer of the "hidden forces." If Harry's magical abilities, because they are the norm in his natural world of witches and wizards, do not set him apart as "child-god," than it must be assumed that there are other factors of his persona which do determine his archetype as "child-hero."

One aspect of Harry's character that suggests his role as "child-hero" is his mysterious rise to fame. In the fourth Harry Potter book, one of Harry's professors discusses the Unforgivable Curses, the more punishable magic by wizard law, the worst of which is the Killing Curse: "'Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has every survived it [. . .]'" (Rowling, Goblet of Fire 216). The survivor was, of course, Harry, and it is his uniqueness of his survival which draws attention to him. While to muggle, nonmagic individuals (Rowling, Sorcerer's Stone 53), magic may seem unexplainable, even in a world of magic and mystery, the laws of sorcery exist, as is the reason for students attending schools, such as Hogwarts, to learn the limitations and variation of sorcery.

The disappearance of Voldemort due to the breaking of such a commonly known law of magic, the unexplained invention of a countercurse by an infant, turns Harry Potter into a legendary figure for wizarding folk: "'It's-it's true?' faltered Professor McGonagall. 'After all he's done . . . all the people he's killed . . . he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding . . . of all the things to stop him . . . but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?'" (Rowling, Sorcerer's Stone 12). In this scene from the first book, directly after Voldemort's supposed destruction, the dumbfounded Professor McGonagall speaks to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, the obvious archetype of Jung's wise old wizard who acts as Harry's guiding light throughout much of the series-both characters are introduced to readers as rational-minded intellectuals in the magical world, and their discussion on the mysterious nature of Harry's unexpected defeat of Voldemort presents the events of Voldemort's supposed destruction as legendary to not just the "celebrating" common wizards but as shocking to those who individuals who are less apt to superstition, well schooled (10). The mystery of Harry's survival parallels Jung's "child-god" who "rises up as the prophet or first-born of a new generation and appears unexpectedly in the unlikeliest of places [. . .] and in ambiguous form [. . .]" (Jung and Kerenyi 77). The supernatural feat of mere baby defeating a mass murdering wizard propels Harry into the role of "child-god," but Harry has his limitations in the supernatural world, unlike a true "child-god" who would be master of the supernatural.

Though very much like a "child-god," the "child-hero" has one major difference: "The god is by nature wholly supernatural; the hero's nature is human but raised to the limit of the supernatural [. . .]" (Jung and Kerenyi 85). The night his parents are killed, the one-year-old Harry is marked with "a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning" (Rowling, Sorcerer'sStone 15), a sign of his divinity in his survival and his humanity in his injury. It is a scar that serves as a focus for those who would praise him and a sign of his identity for those who would call him enemy, but the cut is ambiguous in the sense that it is later understood as more than a marker for "the boy-who-lived." As Harry's story progresses, it is revealed that the scar is a symbol of that which Voldemort accidentally left behind inside the child he attempted to kill (Rowling, Chamber of Secrets). The mark, in turn, is a concrete link between Voldemort and Harry, signifying to both readers and to the characters that there is more than a past confrontation between the two.

While the scar serves an indicator for the "child-hero," the mark also establishes a visible link between Harry and Voldemort, one that must be confronted in order to defeat Voldemort. The connection between the characters aids in establishing Voldemort as shadow of Harry because it is this scar which forces knowledge of a connection between them due to its literal visibility. Jung would suggest as the first step to bringing the unconsciously dwelling shadow to consciousness is this acknowledgement, and therefore the marking upon Harry serves in beginning the process of defeating Voldemort (20). Alice Mills' essay on the archetypes of the Harry Potter series places Voldemort as shadow, but the essay suggests that Voldemort is an extension of Vernon Dursley, Harry's abusive uncle, and therefore a shadow, as Dursley, of Harry's idealized father. In turn, Mills establishes Voldemort as "the monsterous father-figure" due to the "Oedipal power struggle between the son, ignorant of the whole truth of his past" (4). While Mills' argument merits consideration, it is written before the final three books of the series, before Harry is forced to confront the truth that his father was imperfect.

In order to establish that the connection between Harry and Voldemort is due to Voldemort being Harry's shadow and not Voldemort being a shadowed father-figure, one must establish who actually takes on the role of supernatural "monsterous father-figure." It is, inadvertently, through Professor Severus Snape that Harry gains the knowledge of his father's imperfections (Rowling, Order; ch. 28), and one might counter Mills' Oedipal argument with the idea that Severus Snape is a "monsterous father figure," a shadow of Harry's father, James Potter. After all, Snape presents a crude exterior opposite of what Harry, at first, imagines his father to have been like (Rowling, Azkaban 282)-throughout the series, Snape bullies his students and treats Harry with hatred instead of kindness, distrust to the point of ignorance, and is automatically associated with the Dark Arts and, therefore, is considered evil by Harry.

Though not concerning Voldemort, Mills' Oedipal argument may be applied to Harry's confrontations with Snape. Harry is at a constant struggle to prove to Dumbledore that Snape is guilty of some crime because Harry refuses to acknowledge the times in which Snape looked after his well being and because Harry is "ignorant of the whole truth of his past," including the great sacrifices Snape has made because of his love for Harry's mother, which Harry learns of in the seventh book. However, Dumbledore serves as Harry's animus, the masculine companion of the anima, who usually represents the male consciousness in the female mind, as the anima does in the male mind (Jung and Kerenyi 96). Though Harry is male, his animus is a prevalent figure because he has not reached manhood and, as "child-hero" instead of "hero," is presented as an androgynous Savior figure who must have an unconscious feminine and masculine personality (97). The animus is often "the powerful archetype of the wise old man," and he is representative of what Harry's unconscious already knows, "what one has experienced oneself" (Jung 270). Harry's animus is aware that Snape is James Potter's shadow, in turn, a "living part of the personality" (20) of James Potter; therefore, Dumbledore will not allow him to place blame on Snape and constantly assures Harry of Snape's trustworthiness. After Harry discovers that his father made his own human mistakes in his youth, Harry's rational mind, through Dumbledore, knows that Snape, as shadow of his father, cannot be wholly bad if the other part of his personality, James, is not wholly good.

While Mills' argument for Voldemort as shadowed father-figure is overturned due to the more solid suggestions in the later books that place Snape as the shadow of James Potter, her exploration of Voldemort as shadow is worth considering. Aside from her commentary on the father figure, Mills also acknowledges the connection between Harry and Voldemort, but she only hints at Voldemort's role as Harry's shadow and does so with the idea that Voldemort takes this role only after he uses Harry's blood to take on human form again in the fourth book of the series (4-5). One could argue that, while the process of becoming was involved in the establishing of Voldemort as a shadow, the becoming took place before Voldemort received his human body since the connection was not only present, but strong between the two characters from the beginning of the series.

The first hint of a still formed connection between protagonist and antagonist was presented in the first book during the eleven-year-old Harry's time under the sorting hat, the talking wizard's hat that the school employs to sort the students into different houses based on their strengths and ambition. As he is called for sorting, Harry recalls what he has been told about the four houses of Hogwarts, particularly its most ill-reputed house of ambition and cunning, Slytherin: "'There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one" (Rowling, Sorcerer's Stone 80). "You-Know-Who" was, of course, Harry's enemy, Voldemort, and with this knowledge in mind, Harry mentally wishes not to be put into Slytherin house. The sorting hat's response stays with Harry: "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that [. . .]" (121). As hero, Harry is sorted into the house of bravery, the stereotypical house of the good and courageous, Gryffindor, but Harry remembers the hat's words, and in his second year, he is given reason to worry about a connection between himself and Voldemort.

In the second book, Harry discovers that he has the ability to speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes, a dark gift that only the descendants of Salazar Slytherin, the founder of Slytherin house, share, but Harry is not a descendant of Slytherin (Rowling, Chamber). When Harry inquires about his ability, Dumbledore tells him that he can speak to snakes "'because Lord Voldemort-who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin-can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar'" (333). With this, Dumbledore makes clear the magical connection between Harry and Voldemort. Though, when Dumbledore initially discusses the connection with the twelve-year-old boy, the link appears to be limited to ability and to have no real negative side, a more sinister aspect of the connection is revealed later in the series.

While the initial acknowledgement of a connection between Harry and Voldemort is enough to establish that a shadowing might exist, it is the reason behind the bonding link which presents the characters as extensions of one another. When Dumbledore explains to Harry the reason why he was not put into Slytherin, the reason why he is not like Voldemort, Dumbledore says that the simple explanation for this difference is that Harry asked not to be put into Slytherin house and made the decision to take a path away from darkness and toward heroism (Rowling, Chamber 333). Dumbledore, as animus, holds wisdom and knows that Harry, in actuality, already knows as much, but Harry is not privy to the information due to his unwillingness to acknowledge Dumbledore as the animus of his unconscious. Harry, because he has not awakened, must eventually be told by his animus the most important detail concerning his connection to Voldemort, the reason why Voldemort originally attempted to kill Harry. In the fifth book, Dumbledore tells Harry of the prophecy which links Harry to Voldemort because Voldemort, in an attempt to keep the prophecy from coming true, attempted to kill Harry, believing him to be the child in the prophecy. In doing so, Voldemort marked Harry as his equal with the scar, in turn creating the child he wished to destroy (Rowling, Order 840). When Harry is marked as Voldemort's equal, their fates are intertwined, as is the magical abilities they possess, for the prophecy reads, "...AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES. . ." (841). The prophecy is reflective of the relationship between Harry and his shadow-"neither can live," or awaken to consciousness, so long as the other is not acknowledged-and the foretelling works as an extension to his animus, explaining to Harry that he will have to face Voldemort. The need to face his enemy is metaphoric for the need to acknowledge his shadow in order to awaken to consciousness.

According to Jung (21), before Harry can face his enemy, he must come to terms with his unconscious mind. When Snape, the father-figure shadow, kills Dumbledore (Rowling, Half-Blood Prince 596), the animus is not destroyed but acknowledged, and Harry takes on the wisdom of his own experiences and loses his androgyny. It is only after this that Harry is able to process what knowledge he has obtained through his experiences, and the unconsciousness begins to awaken to consciousness. Harry is able to obtain and accept the truth about Snape's loyalties: his shadowed father-figure had loved his mother and had saved an innocent by condemning himself through the murder that Dumbledore himself had planned (Rowling, Deathly Hallows; ch. 33). Harry finally acknowledges Snape as a balanced parallel to his father, instead of a "monsterous" shadow, through thought and action, as the readers are told in the epilogue when it is revealed that Harry names his two sons after his real father and his parallel father-figure (758).

It is also only after Harry takes on his own bank of knowledge that he is able to come to terms with his own shadow, Voldemort. With the wisdom of his adult male mind, Harry becomes the archetypical hero in place of the "child-hero" and is able to confront his "child-hero" shadow. In the final book, Harry reaches a state of consciousness through his "death," and he is resurrected with the knowledge of the severed connection (Rowling, Deathly Hallows; ch. 35). Voldemort is no longer a feared extension of Harry, and Harry accepts his shadow, having overpowered it through acknowledgement. All that is left of Voldemort's archetype is the scheming Trickster of folklore that is almost god-like in ability but, in essence, is only "a forerunner of the saviour," and whose weakness is only apparent when the one facing him is finally disconnected from the Trickster archetype (Jung 263). Harry is severed from the Trickster, and, in the true essence of the folklore (255), the Trickster makes a foolish mistake and is, himself, tricked by the hero.

Through acknowledgement of the unconscious, consciousness may be reached, and the metaphoric battle of good versus evil may be won only through the awakening of the hero. For the Harry Potter series, the struggle of the unconscious entangles the archetypical characters, forcing them forward into a state of awareness, speeding the "child-hero" into a state of adulthood. Without his acknowledgment of the villain as shadow, the hero could not be successful according to Jungian theory.

Jung, C.G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New York: Pantheon Books, 1959.

Jung, C.G., and C. Kerenyi. Essays on a Science of Mythology. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New York: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Mills, Alice. "Archetypes and the Unconscious in Harry Potter and Diana Wynne Jones's Fireand Hemlock and Dogsbody." Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2003. 3-14.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic, 1999.

---. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic, 2007.

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

---. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Scholastic, 2005.

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

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

---. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1997.