Harry James Potter is a fictional character and the main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series of books. He is the eponymous viewpoint character of these seven books. According to author Rowling, the character of Harry Potter came to her while waiting for a delayed train in 1990 and made him an anguished orphan after Rowling experienced the death of her own mother.
In the world of the Harry Potter books, Harry Potter is best friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and later marries Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley. In the Harry Potter film adaptations, Harry is portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe.
Contents1 Character development |
Character development
According to author J. K. Rowling, the idea for both the Harry Potter books and its eponymous protagonist came while waiting for a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990. Rowling stated that in these hours, her idea for "this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me." While she fleshed out the ideas for her book, Rowling also decided to make Harry an orphan and to make him visit a boarding school which she called Hogwarts. She explained in a 1999 interview with The Guardian: "Harry HAD to be an orphan - so that he's a free agent, with no fear of letting down his parents, disappointing them […] Hogwarts HAS to be a boarding school - half the important stuff happens at night! Then there's the security. Having a child of my own reinforces my belief that children above all want security, and that's what Hogwarts offers Harry."
The tragedy of her own mother's death on December 30, 1990 inspired her to write of Harry Potter as a boy longing for his dead parents, his anguish becoming "more deeper, more real" than in earlier drafts because she related to it herself. In a 2000 interview with The Guardian, Rowling also established that the character of Wart of T.H. White's novel The Sword In the Stone is "Harry's spiritual ancestor." In that book, a child called Wart meets the mysterious sorcerer Merlyn, who grooms the hapless child into a noble, powerful warrior who later becomes King Arthur. Finally, she established that Harry was born on 31 July and thus shares his birthday with herself. However, she maintained, Harry is not directly based on any real-life character, "he came just out of a part of me".
Appearances
First book
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter makes his first appearance as the eponymous main protagonist of the novel. It is learned that when Harry was a baby, his parents were killed by the powerful Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort; but for some reason, Harry survived Voldemort's Killing Curse, which rebounded and ripped Voldemort's soul from his body. As a result, Harry carries a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. According to a 1999 interview with Rowling on the The Diane Rehm Show, fleshing out this backstory was a case of backwards planning: "The basic idea [is that] Harry … didn't know he was a wizard … and so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was.… When he was one-year-old, the most evil wizard in hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry - he tried to curse him.… Harry has to find out, before we find out. And - so - but for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since".
As a result, Harry is written as an orphan living miserably with his only remaining family, the cruel Dursleys. On his eleventh birthday, Harry discovers that he is a wizard from Rubeus Hagrid, who tells him he is to attend Hogwarts school of magic. There he learns about his parents and his connection to the Dark Lord, is befriended by classmates Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and thwarts Voldemort's attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He also forms rivalries with characters Draco Malfoy, a classmate from a racist and elitist wizarding family, and the cold, condescending Potions teacher, Severus Snape, Draco's mentor. Both feuds continue throughout the series. In a 1999 interview, Rowling stated that Draco is based on several prototypical schoolyard bullies she encountered and Snape on a sadistic teacher of hers who abused his power.
Rowling has stated that the Mirror of Erised chapter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is her favourite; the mirror reflects Harry's deepest desire, namely to see his dead parents.[1] Her favourite funny scene is when Harry inadvertently sets a boa constrictor free from the zoo in the horrified Dursleys' presense.
Second to fourth books
In the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling pits Harry against Tom Marvolo Riddle, the "memory" of Lord Voldemort that is within a secret diary which has possessed Ron's younger sister Ginny Weasley. Harry becomes more alienated when Muggle-born students are suddenly being petrified and many suspect he is behind the attacks. When Ginny disappears, Harry battles Tom Riddle and the monster he controls that is hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. In the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling uses a time travel premise. Harry learns that his parents were betrayed to Voldemort by their friend Peter Pettigrew, who framed Harry's godfather, Sirius Black for the crimes, condemning him to Azkaban prison. When Black escapes to seek revenge, Harry and Hermione use a Time Turner to save him and a hippogriff named Buckbeak.
In the previous books, Harry is written as a child, but Rowling states that in the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Harry's horizons are literally and metaphorically widening as he grows older." Harry's developing maturity is shown as he becomes interested in Cho Chang, a pretty Ravenclaw student. Tension grows, however, when Harry is mysteriously chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament, even though he never entered, is underage, and another Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, was already selected. It is actually an elaborate scheme by Lord Voldemort to lure Harry into a trap. In the climax, Harry and Cedric are teleported to a graveyard. Cedric is killed, and Lord Voldemort, aided by Peter Pettigrew, uses Harry's blood in a gruesome ritual to resurrect his body. When Harry duels Voldemort, their wands' magical streams connect; the spirit echoes of Cedric and Harry's dead parents are forced from Voldemort's wand. The spirits protect Harry as he escapes to Hogwarts with Cedric's body. For Rowling, this scene is important because it shows Harry's bravery, and by retrieving Cedric's corpse, he demonstrates great selflessness and compassion because, "he wants to save Cedric's parents additional pain.". Rowling added that preventing Cedric Diggory's body from falling into Voldemort's hands is based on the classic scene in the Iliad where Achilles retrieves the body of his best friend Patroclus from the hands of Hector. The author said: "That [Iliad scene] really, really, REALLY moved me when I read that when I was 19. The idea of the desecration of a body, a very ancient idea... I was thinking of that when Harry saved Cedric's body."She also said that she cried while writing the scene when Harry's dead parents are drawn from Voldemort's wand, the first time she cried while penning her story.
Fifth and sixth book
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic has been waging a smear campaign against Harry and Dumledore, disputing their claims that Voldemort has returned. A new character is introduced when the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the latest Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor (and Ministry spy). In response to the Ministry's paranoia that Dumbledore is creating his own army, Umbridge refuses to teach real defensive magic and eventually seizes control of the school, ousting Dumbledore. As a result, Harry's increasingly angry and erratic behavior nearly estranges him from Ron and Hermione. Rowling says she put Harry through extreme emotional stress to show his emotional vulnerability and humananity—a contrast to his nemesis, Voldemort. "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanized himself. And Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down, and say he didn’t want to play anymore, he didn’t want to be the hero anymore – and he’d lost too much. And he didn’t want to lose anything else. So that – Phoenix was the point at which I decided he would have his breakdown." At Hermione's urging, Harry secretly teaches students real defensive magic in an effort to thwart Umbridge and the Ministry. Harry suffers a severe emotional blow, however, when his godfather, Sirius Black is killed during a battle at the Department of Mysteries, but Harry ultimately defeats Voldemort's plan to steal an important prophecy and helps uncover Umbridge's sinister motives. Rowling stated: "And now he [Harry] will rise from the ashes strengthened." A sideplot of Order of the Phoenix involves Harry's romance with Cho Chang, but the relationship quickly unravels. Says Rowling, "They were never going to be happy, it was better that it ended early!"
In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry enters a tumultuous puberty that, Rowling says, is based on her and her younger sister's own difficult teenage years. Rowling also made an intimate statement about Harry's personal life: "Because of the demands of the adventure that Harry is following, he has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had". This inexperience was a factor in Harry's failed relationship with Cho Chang. Now his thoughts concern Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, a plot point that proves vital in the book's last chapter when Harry ends their budding romance to protect her.
Through private meetings with Dumbledore, Harry learns about Lord Voldemort's orphaned youth, his rise to power, and, in an effort to achieve immortaity, how he split his soul into fragments called Horcruxes that are hidden in various objects. Two Horcruxes have been destroyed, and Harry and Dumbledore locate another, although it is a fake; the real one has been stolen by an unknown person. When Death Eaters invade Hogwarts and Dumbledore is killed by Severus Snape, it falls upon Harry to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. In a 2005 interview with NBC anchorwoman Katie Couric, Rowling stated that [after the events in the sixth book] Harry has, "taken the view that they are now at war. He does become more battle hardened. He’s now ready to go out fighting. And he’s after revenge [against Voldemort and Snape]."
Final book
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry, Ron and Hermione leave Hogwarts to complete the task that Albus Dumbledore left them: to search for and destroy Voldemort's remaining four Horcruxes, then find and kill the Dark Lord. The three pit themselves against Voldemort's newly-formed totalitarian police state, an action that tests Harry's courage and moral character. According to J.K Rowling, a telling scene in which Harry uses Crucio and Imperius (unforgivable curses for torture and mind-control) on Voldemort's servants shows a side to Harry that is "flawed and mortal." However, "He is also in an extreme situation, and attempting to defend somebody very good against a violent and murderous opponent".
Harry comes to recognize that his own single-mindedness can sometimes cloud his perceptions. When Severus Snape is killed by Voldemort later in the story, Harry comes to realise that Snape is not the traitorous murderer he believed him to be, but a tragic anti-hero who was loyal to Albus Dumbledore. In Chapter 33 ("The Prince's Tale") Snape's memories reveal that he loved Harry's mother Lily Evans, but their friendship ended over his association with future Death Eaters and "blood purity" beliefs. When Voldemort killed the Potters, a grieving Snape vowed to protect Lily's child, although he loathed young Harry for being James Potter's son. It is also revealed that Snape did not murder Albus Dumbledore, but carried out a mercy killing that was prearranged by Dumbledore, who was dying from a weakening potion. Dumbledore also wanted to spare Draco Malfoy from completing Voldemort's task to murder him.
To defeat Harry, Voldemort steals the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb. It is the most powerful wand ever created, and he twice casts the killing curse on Harry with it. The first attempt merely stuns Harry into a death-like state. In chapter 35 ("Kings Cross"), Dumbledore's spirit tells Harry that when Voldemort failed to kill baby Harry and disembodied himself, Harry became an unintentional horcrux; Voldemort could not kill Harry while the Dark Lord's soul shard was within Harry's body. Voldemort's second killing curse also fails because Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection. In chapter 36 ("The Flaw in the Plan"), there is a longer plot dump which establishes that Harry, not Voldemort, became the Elder Wand's true master. In the book's climax, the Elder Wand disobeys the Dark Lord's command and rebounds the curse onto Voldemort, killing him J.K Rowling said, the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry willingly accepts mortality, making him stronger than his nemesis. "The real master of Death accepts that he must die, and that there are much worse things in the world of the living."
The Deathly Hallows epilogue is set 19 years later. Harry and Ginny are married and have three children: James, the eldest, Albus Severus, and Lily. Ron has married Hermione and they have two children, Hugo and Rose Weasley. Harry and Ron are aurors for the newly revolutionized Ministry of Magic, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic, appoints Harry as the department head. In the end, J.K Rowling said, his old rival Draco Malfoy has overcome his animosity because Harry saved his life in the seventh book.
Movie appearances
In the five Harry Potter movies screened from 2001-2007, Harry Potter has been portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe. Radcliffe was asked to audition for the role of Harry Potter in 2000 by producer David Heyman, while in attendance at a play named Stones in His Pockets in London. The role of Harry Potter has been highly lucrative for Radcliffe; as of 2007, he has an estimated wealth of £17 million.
In a 2007 interview with MTV, Radcliffe stated that for him, Harry Potter is a classic coming of age character: "That's what the films are about for me: a loss of innocence, going from being a young kid in awe of the world around him, to someone who is more battle-hardened by the end of it." He also said that for him, important factors in Harry's psyche are his survivor's guilt in regard to his dead parents and a lingering feeling of loneliness, so that Radcliffe talked to a bereavement counselor in order to prepare for his role. At one point, Radcliffe was quoted that he wished Harry to die in the books, but he clarified that he merely he "can't imagine any other way they can be concluded". After reading the last book, where Harry Potter and his friends survive and have children, Radcliffe stated to be glad about the ending and lauded author J. K. Rowling for the conclusion of the story.
Finally, Radcliffe stated that the question of how Harry Potter has influenced his life has been the most repeated question of his life, and regularly answers it has been "fine", and that he did not feel pigeonholed by the role, but rather sees it as a huge privilege to portray the character of Harry Potter.
Personality
According to author J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and what is wrong. Having "very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced to make his own decisions from early age on." He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead colleague Cedric Diggory's body from from archvillain Lord Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and unselfish.
Rowling also said that Harry's two worst character flaws are "anger and occasional arrogance", but that Harry is also innately honorable. "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those qualities most of us really admire."After the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, being able to do what even Voldemort can not: he is not afraid of death anymore.
Rowling has also maintained that Harry is a suitable real-life role model for children. "The advantage of a fictional hero or heroine is that you can know them better than you can know a living hero, many of whom you would never meet […] if people like Harry and identify with him, I am pleased, because I think he is very likeable."
Fears
Harry is the main hero and doesn't have many fears. In the third book however, he meets a dementor on the Hogwarts Express. After the encounter Profesor Lupin has the class face a boggart which takes the shape of what that particular person fears the most. At first Harry thought of Voldemort, but remembers the dementor which becomes his worst fear. In the book it is stated how it is ironic that the worst thing Harry fears is fear itself.
Outward appearance
Rowling also gave Harry Potter an uncanny outward appearance. Throughout the entire series, Harry sports his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's green eyes, a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result of his encounter with Lord Voldemort and round, thick eyeglasses. She explained this that this image simply came to her when she first thought up Harry Potter, seeing him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy".
In the books, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or feeling particularly murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby, Voldemort gave him "tools (that) no other wizard possessed – the scar, and the ability it conferred, provided a magical window into Voldemort's mind." Asked why Harry's forehead scar is lightning bolt-shaped, Rowling said, "to be honest, because it’s a cool shape," and joked, "I couldn’t have my hero sport a doughnut-shaped scar."
Abilities and interests
In the books, Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because although both his parents were magical, his mother, Lily Evans, was "Muggle-born". According to Rowling, to characters for whom wizarding blood purity matters, Lily would be considered "as loathsome as a Muggle", and derogatively referred to as a "Mudblood."
Throughout the series, Rowling wrote Harry Potter as a gifted wizard apprentice. She stated in a 2000 interview with South West News Service that Harry Potter is "particularly talented" in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and also good in Quidditch.[24] Rowling said in the same interview that until the fourth book, his good friend Hermione Granger –written as the smartest student in Harry's year– would have beaten Harry in a magical duel, but later, Harry would have at least matched her power. His power is evident from the beginning of the series, but most prominently from the third book onward where produces a Patronus, fights Voldemort, and is the last one standing in the Battle of the Ministry. From the first book on, Harry is also able to speak and understand Parseltongue, a language associated with Dark Magic, which is according to Rowling because he harbours part of Lord Voldemort's soul; however, after Voldemort destroys that soul fragment in the seventh book's climax, Harry cannot speak Parseltongue anymore, and "is very glad to do so".
Finally, according to Rowling, Harry's favourite book is Quidditch Through the Ages, a book that Rowling also wrote herself in real life for the Comic Relief charity.
Possessions
As a wizard, Harry's most valued possession is his wand. Harry's wand is made of holly, which Rowling chose because holly is alleged to repel evil. It forms a deliberate contrast to the wand of his nemesis Lord Voldemort. His wand is made of yew whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. Rowling later also found out that also in the Celtic calendar, where each month is assigned to a wood, Harry's fictional birthday (July 31) is linked to holly, too. Since other characters like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger later received wands made from the appropriate wood according to their fictional birthdays in the Celtic calendar, Harry's choice was thus a lucky coincidence.
Throughout the majority of the books, Harry also has a female pet owl named Hedwig, used to deliver and receive letters. When Hedwig is killed in the seventh book, the author said she expected the strong emotional reaction of her readers: "The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood. I’m sorry… I know that death upset a LOT of people!"
Family
In the novels, Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter, born July 31, 1980. Author Rowling made Harry an orphan from the early drafts of her first book on, because she felt an orphan would be the most interesting character to write about.However, after losing her mother, Rowling also wrote Harry as a person longing to see his dead parents again, transferring her own personal anguish into him. Harry's aunt and uncle had kept their murder a secret and told Harry that it was an accident.
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| | | | | | | | Tom Marvolo Riddle | | Septimus Weasley | | Cedrella Black | | Mr and Mrs Dursley | | | | | | Mr and Mrs Evans | | | | Mr and Mrs Potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | Apolline Delacour | | Monsieur Delacour | | Molly Prewett | | Arthur Weasley | | Marjorie Dursley | | Vernon Dursley | | Petunia Evans | | Lily Evans | | James Potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | | | | Gabrielle Delacour | | | Charles Weasley | | | Fred Weasley | | | | | | | | | | | Dudley Dursley | | | | | | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | Fleur Delacour | | William Weasley | | Percy Weasley | | George Weasley | | Hermione Granger | | Ronald Weasley | | Ginevra Weasley | | Harry Potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | Victoire Weasley | | Other Children | | | | | | Fred Weasley | | Rose Weasley | | Hugo Weasley | | James Potter | | Albus Potter | | Lily Potter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: The different colours denote the different generations.
In popular culture
In 2002, Harry Potter was voted No. 85 among the "100 Best Fictional Characters" by Book magazine and also voted the 35th "Worst Briton" in Channel 4's "100 Worst Britons We Love to Hate" program. In addition, Harry Potter is spoofed in the Barry Trotter series by American writer Michael Gerber, where a "Barry Trotter" appears as the eponymous anti-hero. On his homepage, Gerber describes Trotter as an unpleasant character who "drinks too much, eats like a pig, sleeps until noon, and owes everybody money." The author stated "[s]ince I really liked Rowling's books […] I felt obligated to try to write a spoof worthy of the originals."
In real life, Harry's iconoclastic appearance has become cult. According to halloweenonline.com, Harry Potter sets were the fifth-best selling Halloween costume of 2005.In addition, wizard rock bands like Harry and the Potters and others regularly dress up in the style of Harry Potter, sporting painted forehead scars, black wigs and round bottle top glasses.
Wizard rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of at least 200 bands made up of young musicians, playing songs about Harry Potter. The movement started in Massachusetts with the band Harry and the Potters, who cosplay as Harry during live performances
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