Myths and Symbols in J.K. Rowling′s 
Harry Potter and the Philosopher′s Stone

by 

Volker Geyer

Contents

Preface 4
1. Introduction 5
2. Symbols and Myths 6
3. The Good and the Evil - The General Conflict in Harry Potter 7

4. Mythic and Symbolic Things 8
4.1. The Philosopher′s Stone 8
4.2. The Mirror of Erised 8
4.3. The Sorting Hat 9
4.4. Mythic Numbers 10

5. Persons and Figures 11
5.1. Magicians and Wizards 11
5.2. Witches 12
5.3. Giants 12
5.4. Ghosts 12
5.5. The Man With Two Faces 13

6. Skills 13
6.1. Never Ending Life 13
6.2. Flying 14
6.3. Going Through Walls 14
6.4. Spells 14
6.5. Doing Magic 15
6.6. Being Invisible 15

7. Animals and Mixed Creatures 15
7.1. Dogs 16
7.2. Dragons 16
7.3. Trolls 16
7.4. Unicorns 17
7.5. Centaurs 17

8. Epilogue 17
Works Cited 18

Preface

I chose the topic

Myths and Symbols in J.K. Rowling′s Harry Potter and the Philosopher′s Stone

because I have been fascinated by the wealth of myths and symbols in this book. A big part of the book′s value bases on their usage and deep inner meaning. Searching for them let me better understand the book and its own myth.

Many thanks to my girlfriend Silke for her support. She helped me with her big knowledge about myths and symbols to understand some of them.

Quotations and references taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher′s Stone are given in parentheses without the author′s name. Other sources are mentioned in parentheses with the author′s name and the page respectively the websites. For the most part, I followed the MLA style (http://wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/).

1. Introduction

It′s beyond doubt that J.K. Rowling′s Harry Potter books are one of the biggest surprise and success in literature history. They influenced the youths′ reading habits in a never known way.

What is this great success founded on? This question can′t be answered sweepingly. The reasons are many-sided.

In my opinion, an important reason is the combination of the youths′ real world with the fantastic and mystic world. The youths find their real experiences at school, with parents, friends and enemies combined with a realm of witchcraft, symbols superhuman skills and dangerous adventures.

But a lot of youths know a big part of the mystic world, too. Subconsciously the old fairy tales and legends are waked up again. And so the fascination from childhood days is swinging in the background while reading Harry Potter. The youth find again well-known symbols and myths, e.g. mystic numbers, ghosts, struggle between good and evil, transformation and invisibility, animals like dragons, owls, rats and mystic places like a dark wood, an old hut, secret passageways etc. But they discover or learn about new aspects of the mystic world by reading Harry Potter, e.g. the wish for never ending life, the philosopher′s stone, desire and craving, meaning of unicorn or the search for wisdom. They get new experiences and see some new aspects of their own life. These delicate net of myths and symbols woven in the books make they very exiting for adults, too.

Besides some new ideas, there are a lot of traditional symbols and myths with different origins and meanings. In this paper I am describing only the most important symbols and myths. I am going to explain the general meaning from history and the specific meaning in Harry Potter and the Philosopher′s Stone.

2. Symbols and Myths

Symbols are found in all cultures. From stone age to the present, symbols accompany the human development. They show as a part of human communication a concrete meaning, e.g. an owl is a bird hunting mice in the dark. But symbols often have contact with our psychic and spiritual world (Fontana 8). They carry a deeper inner meaning. So an owl is also a sign for wisdom but also for dark frightening power. Humanity uses symbols to express dynamic and creative power of its existence, especially basic and abstract characteristics like truth, justice, heroism, compassion, wisdom, courage and love (Fontana 13). To put symbols in concrete terms they are used in understandable context like fairy tales, legends and myths. So the symbol’s inner meaning comes into people’s consciousness and influence the personality development.

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