Harry Potter was what....?

By Noah Fried

Summary: While not claiming that Harry Potter was actually sexually assaulted, I explore in my essay how the language J.K. Rowling used in several key moments of her text seems to denote both the staging and consequences of it...which brings me to some rather radical, but text-based, conclusions.



Let us recap: after many failed attempts to kill Harry, (due more often than not to the strange affinity his own wand had for Harry's, which rendered it ineffective in magical combat), Voldemort became obsessed in Deathly Hallows with acquiring the Elder Wand, a wand so powerful that it is known to make its master invincible in battle. Voldemort does all this so he may defeat Harry Potter, the boy of prophecy, who was predicted to be the only barrier to his future dominion of the world. At the same time, Harry pursues a similar quest of his own in the seventh installment of the series; charged to perform this task by Dumbledore back in the sixth book, Harry, along with his friends Ron and Hermione, must travel across the UK in order to seek out and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, pieces of his soul that he has kept hidden in objects scattered all over the world that sustain his spirit on Earth even after his body is destroyed.

And yet, although each character undertakes a quest in order to destroy the other by the last book in the series, Harry and Voldemort emerge as having a connection that is closer than any other relationship J.K. Rowling depicts. They share memories and feelings - Harry could often feel it himself when Voldemort was angry or giddy. They share similar histories; both are orphans, both fall in love with their magical school. In fact, they seem to complete each other, both as counterparts in the narrative and - (oddly enough) - bodily. Voldemort takes Harry's blood, unknowingly taking Lily's Love charm into him. Voldemort also makes Harry into a Horcrux, accidentally infusing a piece of his own soul into Harry after he kills his parents, making him the final Horcrux to be destroyed. The implications of this relationship are startling; in a sense the two characters are like brothers, sharing similar wands, blood, souls, and representing equally the forces of Good and Evil in the text; but I believe the (unwilling) transfers of soul and blood which led to this mixture of identities that took place between them is telling as to the real nature of their relationship: Harry Potter is the victim of a figurative rape.

Remember that "figurative" is the operative word here. I am not aruguing that Harry was violated by Voldemort in such a way that an actual sexual assault was committed, but understanding their interactions over the course of the series in this (albeit) unusual context might let us better understand their story, or derive new understandings. Let's be real here folks - the immoral crimes that Voldemort has committed against Harry (consciously and unconsciously) are dark enough to be considered in terms of this highest form of personal offense. For the first round of evidence I will use to make my claim, let us return to Goblet of Fire, and analyze the section in which Voldemort takes Harry's blood for the construction of his new body:

"'B-blood of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will...resurrect your foe.'
Harry could do nothing to prevent it, he was tied too tightly... Squinting down, struggling hopelessly at the ropes binding him, he saw the shining silver dagger shaking in Wormtail's remaining hand. He felt its point penetrate the crook of his right arm and blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Wormtail, still panting with pain, fumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it" (GoF US edition; page 642).

Obviously Jo Rowling intended this scene to make us fear for Harry, to feel his pain as we watch Voldemort's servant take the necessary steps to restore his master. But is that all the meaning to be found in this passage? It is my firm belief that readers can take individual sections of a text and, by finding connections among words and other sections, build their own interpretations - without considering whether or not the meaning they arrived at was intended by the author. There are two schools of thought on this idea, and depending on where you stand it will influence how you read this essay.

Now consider the passage above. Through the conduit of Wormtail, Voldemort contrives in his little baby form to steal Harry's blood for the bubbling potion that will restore his body. However, the method by which he has this blood gathered is violent - and we can read it as possibly sexual. Ropes bind Harry so that he cannot move as Wormtail "penetrates" him with a silver dagger, causing blood to flow around his "torn robes" - Wormtail "panting" in pain as he goes. This language seemingly denotes a rape scene, (male on female, considering the phallic dagger), but to label it as such is complicated because Voldemort (through Wormtail) does not make a deposit; he steals Harry's blood, which he intends to take into himself.

And he succeeds: made into a man again, Voldemort rises from the bubbling cauldron with Harry's blood running through his veins. And yet, to take someone else's essence into yourself, especially in a case when that absorption provides the catalyst for new life, seems to be an inherently feminine role. Thus, if we are to consider this a kind of rape, Harry is forced into a submissive (culturally feminine position) as Voldemort takes his blood, but remains a member of the male gender, figuratively, considering that his seed is the substance at stake. Voldemort, however, initially adopts the masculine gender, forcing himself into Harry by means of Wormtail, (which is appropriately the only means by which he can use his figurative phallus), but ultimately settles himself squarely in the female gender, as he becomes the recipient of Harry's essence.

In the end of Deathly Hallows, we learned in a major plot twist that Harry Potter, himself, had been transformed into a Horcrux the night that Voldemort killed his parents. In this moment of emotional upheaval, Voldemort intended to kill baby Harry, too; but he was blocked, and a piece of his own soul was ripped from him instead and infused into Harry's head. Much like the scene in the graveyard where Voldemort takes Harry's blood, here, too, a transference of essence occurs between the two characters. But this time, the transmission is reversed, and Voldemort actually succeeds at leaving something inside of Harry. Seemingly, this switch of gender roles has suddenly transformed their struggle into something like a conventional sort of rape (aggressive male on victimized female, our common mental heuristic when we hear the word "rape"). Appropriately, Harry is traumatized by this event for the rest of his life, and only grudgingly accepts help from his friends throughout the series when his mind is in turmoil, believing that he alone must face his attacker - not unlike the behavior of some rape victims. As it happens, the foreign soul within Harry influences him throughout the book series as he grows up, tells him when its master is near - (or if he's happy or angry) - in the form of searing pain to his forehead. For most of the series, in fact, Harry plays host to this alien piece of soul, which often times afflicts his mood and gives him incredible pain - but it is not until Voldemort finally shoots an Avada Kedavra at Harry once again - and makes contact - that the creature finally emerges from Harry's body, its true form revealed.



Harry wakes up naked in King's Cross station at the end of Deathly Hallows completely alone - that is, save for Dumbledore, and the image of the extracted specimen he's been carrying for sixteen years finally separated from him, now struggling a few paces away from him on the white floor:

"It was the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath. He (Harry) was afraid of it. Small and fragile and wounded though it was, he did not want to approach it... He ought to comfort it, but it repulsed him." (DH US edition; page 706-707).

It's kind of fitting: the birthing of the ripped piece of soul parallels that of its originator, and becomes the second baby Tom Riddle to be born into the world and abandoned by its mother.


Tweet



Back to Essays