Around this time last year, in honor of Harry’s birthday, I wrote a blog post on “Gothic Elements in Harry Potter.” Earlier this month, I expanded on that post to do a full panel about “Gothic Influences on Harry Potter” for a convention called MISTI-Con. I’ve found working on this topic to be so much fun that I wanted to share with you a bit more of what I’ve learned. This post may even become part of a series as I continue to explore the connections between my favorite genre and the books that kicked off my early love for literature.
Last time, I touched on some of the Gothic settings, themes, and motifs in J.K. Rowling’s books. Now I want to examine in more depth a few specific plot tropes that Harry Potter borrows from the Gothic.
- Faustian Bargains and the Pursuit of Immortality
This is a particularly common trope among Gothic villains and anti-heroes. The term is named for the folkloric character Faust who appears in Goethe’s eponymous Gothic play, written around the turn of the nineteenth century. In the play, Faust is a scholar who bargains away his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Another example of this trope appears in Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). Like Faust, Melmoth is a scholar who sells his soul to the devil, this time in exchange for 150 extra years of life. Quickly realizing his error, Melmoth proceeds to spend those years searching for someone to take over the pact for him. A more subtle example of this trope appears in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Dorian does not intentionally enter into a bargain with the devil, but upon seeing his youth and beauty captured in a portrait, he murmurs to himself, “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! … I would give my soul for that!” From that moment on, as Dorian descends into a life of depravity and sin, the portrait grows older and uglier while he remains young and beautiful.
In the Harry Potter series, Voldemort’s quest for immortality has much in common with these tales of Gothic anti-heroes. Like the three men mentioned above, Voldemort sacrifices his soul—on both a physical and metaphorical level. In order to create his horcruxes, Voldemort breaks his soul into multiple pieces and seals them away inside objects. More abstractly, he corrupts his soul through the horrific murders that he has to commit in order to create each horcrux. Voldemort’s horcruxes are particularly reminiscent of Dorian Gray’s portrait—they are objects that contain his soul and represent his corruption, and destroying these objects ultimately destroys him. As in each of these Gothic tales, Voldemort’s quest for immortality is ill-fated. Though his horcruxes are successful and he survives the backfiring of the killing curse, his extended life is not enjoyable or fulfilling. He spends the decade after his attack on the Potters wandering like Melmoth, searching for someone that can help him regain a body. When he drinks unicorn blood during Harry’s first year, Voldemort damns himself further to live only “a half life, a cursed life.” Even after acquiring a new body and beginning to rise to power once more, Voldemort is killed at the age of seventy-one—much younger than the average lifespan of a wizard who has not pursued immortality.
- Prophecy
Prophecies are another central motif in Gothic literature. I’ve written about this in depth in my post on “Gothic Tropes: Prophecies and Curses.” The trope extends back to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a proto-Gothic work that has deeply influenced the much later literary genre. In Shakespeare’s Scottish play, Macbeth encounters three witches who pronounce that he shall soon be king, but go on to predict that the crown will then pass to Banquo’s children. As Macbeth tries to prevent the latter half of the prophecy, he inadvertently acts in a way that brings it to pass. Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) follows a similar model. At the beginning of the story, the villainous Lord Manfred is aware of a cryptic prophecy, which predicts that the lordship and the castle will eventually pass from his family. When his only male heir dies, Manfred fears that the time has come and decides to pursue his son’s intended bride to both satisfy his lust and produce more heirs. Manfred’s immoral actions ultimately prove that he is unfit to rule and lead to the discovery of his family’s dark secrets and the identity of the rightful ruler of the castle.
As with the two villains above, Lord Voldemort encounters a cryptic prophecy that foretells his downfall: Trelawney’s prediction that “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…” Also like those two examples, this prophecy is self-fulfilling. When Voldemort is made aware of the prophecy, he chooses one of two possible children that it could be referring to and tries to kill him. When Voldemort’s attack on Harry backfires, he ends up giving Harry the very power needed to vanquish him.
- Family Legacy
One last set of Gothic plot tropes I want to discuss are those associated with family legacy and resemblance. Throughout Gothic literature, characters are often closely identified with one or more of their ancestors. This identification is usually made clear through physical resemblance—a typical scene that recurs in many books involves the discovery of an ancestor’s portrait in the old family home that perfectly resembles a living character. These characters are usually either destined to follow in their predecessor’s exact footsteps, or else may be living out the consequences of some misdeed committed by a forebearer. One of the clearest examples of this appears in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables. The villain of the story, Judge Pyncheon, is a dead ringer (in both appearance and actions) for the original Colonel Pyncheon, who brought a curse down on their family after stealing land from Matthew Maule. In contrast, other characters are able to break the hold of the past by righting that earlier wrong. Young Phoebe Pyncheon falls in love with an artist named Holgrave, who turns out to be a descendant of Matthew Maule. When they decided to marry, the two feuding families are united, the property is restored to its rightful owner, and the curse is presumably broken.
Both forms of family legacy are present in the Harry Potter series. Like Judge Pyncheon, Lord Voldemort serves as a perfect parallel to his much earlier ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. He follows in Slytherin’s footsteps, upholding his beliefs about blood purity and continuing his agenda of separating out pureblooded wizards from all others. Other characters wrestle with their familial legacies and strive not to follow the same path as their ancestors. Harry is told repeatedly throughout the series how much he resembles his father, but eventually discovers that there are some sides to James he does not want to emulate. Harry is mortified to learn that his father bullied Snape in school, and that his own strained relationship with the Potions Master is the consequence of the sins of his father. Harry and Snape have a reconciliation of sorts, and Harry reverses his father’s legacy by choosing to honor Snape’s sacrifice and give one of his children the middle name Severus. Draco Malfoy is another character with a strong physical resemblance to his father. In the early books, his resembles Lucius Malfoy in behavior as well, and starts down the same path of becoming a Death Eater. Ultimately, however, Draco realizes that he doesn’t want to be the same as his father, and in the last two books has the beginnings of a redemption arc.
These three tropes are only a few of the many ways that the Gothic leaves its mark on the Harry Potter series. If you’re interested in reading more about this topic, please let me know in the comments!
interested in reading more about this topic,