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Symbolism in Harry Potter
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Recommended: Symbolism in Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone follows Harry Potter’s journey through his first year at Hogwarts and how he overcomes the challenges he faces. Throughout his struggles, multiple archetypes are demonstrated. Archetypes describe a certain situation, symbol, character, hero, number, or color, and they each contribute to the development of the plots of stories. J.K. Rowling displays the use of archetypes in various ways in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. THE ORPHAN The orphan archetype describes a character that was somehow deprived of their parents and naturally ends up feeling like they are alone, such as Harry Potter. In the introduction of the story, we learn by Dumbledore that Harry’s parents were killed by Voldemort, leaving
Every story has characters with different roles, and each of them are important to make the story complete. Three characters, Bilbo, Gandalf, and Smaug represent three archetypal roles in this story. Their guide Gandalf, represents the mentor, Bilbo represents the hero, and Smaug represents the shadow. Smaug symbolizes fear to the characters, and the dragon represents one of the characters that are most often causing the most terror and trouble to the other characters in the story. The hobbit symbolizes the hero of the story, because he sacrifices himself throughout the book. Mr. Bilbo Baggins learns more and more each day, and he tries to always do the right thing. Gandalf symbolizes the guidance and help as a mentor, and he provides training and motivation to the characters. These three important characters greatly explain the
Le Morte d’Arthur and many other stories have many wonderful archetypes in them. The definition of an archetype is a typical character action or situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. This means that things represent things that naturally happen and will still happen. Archetypes play into Le Morte d'Arthur by showing how the character act and react with other characters and objects. In Thomas Malory´s Le Morte d´Arthur he illustrates the three types of archetypes they include character, situational, and symbolic.
When referring to archaic writing, it is clear to see the recurring archetypes and symbols throughout plots and situations. Understandably, certain patterns involving such motifs have continued through centuries, resulting in various works based around the same monomythic template with slight variations. All the big movie titles we love, Aladdin, Shrek, even, Sharknado contain more than traces of these archetypal patterns, consisting of a hero, a mentor, a dark figure and so on. Prime examples of this archetypal plot structure, with their own unique adaptations, may be found within the two poetic narratives Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Aside from their completely disparate backgrounds and morals, both works include and follow the monomythic journey, as perceived by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as in the secondary works of others who have helped to further our understanding of this analytical method. This generalization, however, is shifted when one dissects further into these two pieces of literature. As in the majority of monomythic quest narratives, the protagonist often practices and displays the characteristics of courage, loyalty, humility
"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that many wonder about. It teaches a lesson and has many archetypes in the characters. In literature, an archetype is a typical character, a type of action, or a situation that leads to the representation of such universal patterns of human nature. An archetype may be a character, a theme, a symbol or it can even be a setting. Tom walker is the protagonist of the story he is the main character.
The archetypes that permeate many different stories all originate from Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. More specifically, in the medieval story, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a variety of different archetypes are especially necessary to the theme of the story. An understanding of three key archetypes—the temptress the magic weapon, and the task—reveal the essence of Gawain’s role within the archetypal quest motif.
Consistent in literature throughout every era and culture, archetypes represent a recurring image, pattern, or motif mirroring a typical human experience. An idea developed by Carl Jung, archetypes in literature exist as representations reflecting vital perceptions of the human psyche expressing the manner in which individuals experience the world. Using Jung’s concept, writers of all epochs embeds archetypes in structures, characters, and images of their narratives. John Gardner, in his novel Grendel, integrates several of Jung’s archetypes into his epic tale derived from the early story Beowulf. Gardner associates Jung’s personas of the outcast, the shadow, and the mentor-pupil relationship through the identities of Grendel, the narrator of events, and the dragon.
An archetype is a model of a character, that reflects what everyday people believe how a character should look or act in a situation. Archetypes help the reader easily understand a character’s purpose, and follow commonly accepted universal traits. Two recognizable archetypes include The Villain and The Hero. In the book Highly Illogical Behavior, Lisa Praytor is willing to do anything to be accepted into a psychological college. She uses the town hermit, who is known as Solomon Reed to promote herself for college acceptance. Lisa’s decisions and behavior present her as The Manipulator, (a person who plays with people, situations, or opportunities to get what they want) who is self-absorbed, determined, and underhanded.
... Though this is becoming less and less, it still happens. Orphan trains are an unknown time period in American history, where children were taken from urban centers and shipped west in order to start new lives. Many children had one or more parents still living, but their parents could not afford to take care of them. Siblings split up and often never saw one another again.
In literature, Archetypal Criticism is a critical approach where the reader interprets the meaning of a story by looking at the archetypal characters, events, and symbols that it contains. In general, an archetype is a universal, primordial representation of an event or character that is seen as a general blueprint for stories and myths, such as the Hero or Death and Rebirth (Meyer 1587). Archetypes can be very important in identifying and supporting a theme by giving us background and references for aspects throughout the story. Carol Joyce Oates uses a couple vital archetypes in her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” a tale about Connie, a teenage girl, who goes through an innocence to experience situation, signifying a transition from childhood to adulthood.
An archetype in literature is defined as a typical example of a certain type of person. A character in a poem or play can be placed into many different archetype categories. Archetypes help a reader to gain a better understanding of who a character in the work is on the inside. This deeper insight into the character allows the reader to follow the flow of the story easier and more effectively. There are many different archetypes that can help to advance the story. One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunningness this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”,
Without archetypes, characters would be harder for the audience to relate to and understand. They help people from all over the world comprehend foreign characters. Through The Odyssey and The Alchemist, the audience is exposed to a diverse group of characters with a variety of traits that contribute to their personalities and the way they are perceived. The Bildungsroman, vengeful villain, damsel in distress, sage, and flawed hero then become recognizable in other pieces of literature and in films. Therefore expanding the audience’s experiences and ability to understand diverse compositions and apply what they know to real life
Fear has controlled the world and shaped humans into what they are now. New technologies have been created, because of the fear humans have. Over time new fears have evolved, and illnesses occurred due to anxiety and depression from these fears. The terror that runs through each individual is different. Without fear there would be no evolution or protection.
Archetypes have been around for thousands of years, dating back to at least Plato discussing his “Theory of Forms”. In a literary contexts we think of archetypes such as the hero, the mentor, the journey, or the initiation. When looked at from these perspectives it appears that there is nothing original to write about, but these archetypes are used over and over with much success. The reason is because the writer and the reader empathize with the archetypes. Take for example the Initiation archetype, also called the Coming of Age story, in it is the struggle of the young against the old in an attempt to obtain individuality, and freedom that reflects what Jungian psychologists call, a “father complex”, a type of subset to the oedipus complex, in the authors.
adventure. Exploring the use of the bildungsroman motif, this book contains a mood of innocence and self-discovery as Harry starts out in his novel as a naïve victim. The root of his troubles lies in having to endure family problems, which results in a lack of identity. However, upon being introduced to a different world, Harry starts to break out of his shell. Throughout his journey, he not only meets and makes the distinction of good and evil, but he consciously makes a choice as to where he stands. He overcomes obstacles and dangers, meets temptation and desire, fights fear and defeat, and accomplishes a moral mission. In the end, Harry grows emotionally, mentally, and physically as throughout the course of his adventure, he begins to form his identity and embrace oncoming adulthood.
Some examples of archetypes are, the wounded child, the victim, the villain, the rebel, the savior, finding redemption, death, and the happy ending. Now that there is an understanding of what an archetype is, we can look at four different archetypes in The Bell Jar. The first archetype in The Bell Jar, is the character of Doreen, who would be seen as the bad girl. She is very easy, not very smart but very pretty, she relates well to the character of Helen of Troy who embodied all of the things she had before. The second example is the character of Esther, she can be seen as the victim and as the heroine.