12 Harry Potter and the Legacy of the Bard: How Shakespeare Influenced the World’s Most – Zachary Williams-Henninger
Zachary Williams-Henninger is a third-year student majoring in Secondary Education with a concentration in English. This paper is an essay he completed for his “Shakespearean Literature” class during the Fall 2020 semester. It’s a mythic criticism of Harry Potter that shows hidden threads between it and the writings of Shakespeare. Ultimately, the essay shows how, under mythic criticism, works of literature, even those written hundreds of years apart, are connected and similar in some or many ways, regardless of if the author was intentionally referencing other works. Through these connections, literature is ultimately timeless. Zachary’s professor, Alisa Clapp-Itnyre said, “I loved the fact that Zach took a casual comment I made in class about Richard III being like Voldemort, built on his own impressive knowledge of Harry Potter, and wrote a brilliant paper on connections between, from prophecies to male-female bickering. What a fun paper to read!”
Harry Potter and the Legacy of the Bard: How Shakespeare Influenced the World’s Most Popular Book Series
William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous English writer of all time, though interestingly, he was a playwright, not a novelist. Despite that, Shakespeare is often credited as being responsible for modern literature as it is known and written today. Many tropes, narrative arcs, plot devices, and other writing elements, like character webs, are popular in modern literature because of Shakespeare’s success and popularity. On top of that, Shakespeare had a huge impact on the English language as a whole, and helped shape what it is today. While Shakespeare’s influence, in some way, can be spotted in many modern stories, one of the places his influence is greatly pronounced is in the most famous book series of all time, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. This essay will reference dialogue from Rowling herself about the influence of Shakespeare on Harry Potter, and will also use mythic criticism to show connections between the book series and the works of Shakespeare to show how Shakespeare’s legacy and influence are still being reborn in modern literature today, even bearing influence on the most famous book series of all time, despite hundred of years being between the two.
Before talking about how mythic criticism can show the connections between the works of Shakespeare and Harry Potter, a discussion about what mythic criticism actually is is necessary. Mythic criticism, or archetypal criticism, focuses on how texts across different periods of time and cultures are similar. In Anatomy of Criticism, Northrup Frye, who proposed the idea of archetypal criticism, suggests that in all of literature, there is only one main narrative, which he calls the “monomyth.” All other literature then falls into one of the four stages of this monomyth: comedy, tragedy, romance, and satire. The idea here is that, because there is only one monomyth, and four stages of it that subsequent literature can fall under, then the various different genres and series that are seen today are just different ways of telling what is ultimately the same story. In her essay “The Mother Archetype and Hands on Hip Motif”, Damala Fatman Oran applies Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious to literature and mythology, saying that “Collective contents are experienced by every person and common for all humans and therefore are defined in this way [collective unconscious]” (Oran 341). Essentially, Oran is explaining that according to Jung’s theory of collective unconscious, all humans to some degree go through the same experiences, and because of that, all literature, regardless of time or location, is similar on some level. Simply put, mythic criticism can be used to show that all literature is connected, because there are only so many kinds of myths, genres, basic plots, plot patterns, and kinds of characters and also because all humans essentially go through the same experiences. The purpose of this criticism isn’t to limit creativity in literature, but rather to understand literature as a whole, how it works, and how literature is then timeless because of the way all literature is connected. In this essay, mythic criticism will show how conventions that were invented or popularized by Shakespeare still exist in literature today, hundreds of years later, in the form of Harry Potter, which is now the most popular book series of all time.
One of the easiest ways to establish a connection between Potter and Shakespeare is in the villains; in this case, Voldemort and Richard III. The two are similar as villains not just in character, but in appearance. For both of these characters, physical deformity is a crucial element to their characters as villains. In Richard III, Richard himself is deformed; he has a shriveled arm and a hunched back. This deformity distinguishes Richard as a villain among not-so-evil people, who themselves are markedly not deformed. Jessica Walker, a Graduate Assistant at the University of Georgia, wrote in an essay titled “As Crooked in Thy Manners as Thy Shape: Reshaping Deformity in Loncraine’s Richard III” that “The play suggests both that deformity is an external sign of evil and that his deformity has caused him to become evil…” (Walker 1). The evil of Voldemort and his subsequent deformed appearance works for the character in a similar manner. After being resurrected, Voldemort is described as being “Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils” (Goblet of Fire 643). The reader learns that Voldemort’s appearance is in fact a direct result of his evil nature and actions. Dumbledore reveals that Voldemort’s appearance has become so inhuman because of his making of horcruxes, a dark magic that allows the caster to store a piece of their soul in another object so long as they kill another person in exchange. Dumbledore explains that “Lord Voldemort had seemed to grow less human with the passing years, and the transformation he had undergone seemed to me to be only explicable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call usual evil” (Half-Blood Prince 534).
The similarities between Voldemort and Richard III as villains are almost uncanny, and these similarities are a potent example of mythic criticism drawing lines between literature written hundreds of years apart but having extreme similarities. While comparing Voldemort and Richard III is a great way to show Shakespeare’s influence on the Potter series, there are even more connections to be seen. One such connection is between two main characters: Harry Potter and Prince Hamlet. In Hamlet, the Prince of the same name is a tragic hero. He loses his father to the villain, and his ultimate goal becomes killing the person who killed his father. Through the play, the death of his father and the actions of the villain, his uncle Claudius, have a huge impact on his mental state. A common theme of the play is madness, and though Hamlet seems to think the madness he displays is acting, much of it is likely genuine. Sometimes he acted manic, other times he was violently angry, and sometimes he was depressed. This wild mental state is seen many times in the play. When the ghost of the king appears and Hamlet chooses to follow it, Horatio comments that Hamlet “waxes desperate with imagination” (I.iv. 64). This is noteworthy because Hamlet is seen this way by Horatio and Marcellus before he tells them that, in the upcoming future, he will “put an antic disposition on” (I.v. 173). In the duel with Laertes, Hamlet speaks oddly and in the third person, saying, “Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet./… Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so,/ Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged./ His madness is Poor Hamlet’s enemy” (V.ii. 178-184). Adappatu Antony reinforces this notion of Hamlet’s madness, saying that “There are several different motifs that are relayed within Hamlet’s story. These motifs include death, obsession and betrayal, all of which contribute to reassure Hamlet’s madness” (Antony 2).
In Order of the Phoenix, Harry similarly is seen as “mad” by the people around him. In this novel, Harry learns that after Voldemort’s attempt to kill him, and the spell that used Harry’s blood to revive Voldemort, a distinct connection was made between the two, where they can have visions from the perspective of one another and feel each other’s emotions. When Voldemort realizes this connection exists, he takes advantage of it first to manipulate Harry’s emotions, which causes him to be quick to anger, frustration, outright rage, and to make odd calls of judgment. In some exchanges with his peers, they are noticeably frightened by his behavior. Harry’s perceived madness in Order is on full display when a fight between him and Seamus Finnigan breaks out over whether or not Voldemort has actually returned. After Harry insults Seamus’ mother, Rowling writes, “‘You know what?” said Seamus heatedly, casting Harry a venomous look. “He’s right, I don’t want to share a dormitory with him anymore, he’s a madman.’” (OotP 218). Rita Singer, writing in Chapter 2 of Heroism in the Harry Potter Series notes that “In… Order of the Phoenix, Harry’s teenage angst has him descending into the depths of vice” (Singer 28). It is fascinating how similar the predicaments of both Hamlet and Harry are, despite Rowling never confessing any intentional reference. They are both tragic heroes, both called on to avenge the deaths of their murdered parent(s), and in the aftermath of their respective traumas, both are seen at some points as madmen. This connection between Hamlet and Harry is a prominent example in how archetypal criticism and perhaps the collective link Shakespeare’s most famous work, Hamlet, and Harry Potter, which is now the most popular book series ever.
Looking now at a play from Shakespeare that is much lighter in tone, connections from Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” can be seen in Harry Potter through the similarities between the relationships of Beatrice and Benedick and Hermione and Ron respectively. In “Much Ado”, Beatrice and Benedick have a relationship that is largely grounded in their constant bickering. This bickering is usually never heated though, but rather witty, clever, and comedic. Though the two deny it for quite some time, this is kind of their love language, and by the end of the play, they reveal their feelings for each other and end up getting married. In the article “‘You Learn Me Noble Thankfulness’: Restoring a Graceful Cycle of Giving and Receiving in Much Ado About Nothing”, Patricia Davis Patrick notes that, despite their bickering and seeming disdain for one another, “the “halting” words of Beatrice and Benedick’s love poetry reach towards an imperfectly realized but imaginable harmony” (Davis 62). Davis notes both how Beatrice and Benedick’s “halting words” are actually their love language, or “love poetry” as she calls it, and comments on how their relationship is “imperfectly realized”. They aren’t just the standard happy-go-lucky lovebirds, but because of how similar their dynamics are, their love is an “imaginable harmony”. In Harry Potter, the characters of Ron and Hermione are extremely similar and almost seem like the characters of Beatrice and Benedick reborn. The two are constantly bickering with each other. In Order of the Phoenix, Harry, not understanding that this is their dynamic or their love language, angrily tells them to “shut up” before storming off. This is the first time Harry has reacted to them in this way, five books in, and Ron and Hermione both “froze, looking angry and offended”. When Harry storms off, he notices that they look “shocked”. (OotP 235-236). At this point in the series, Ron and Hermione have realized that this is essentially how their relationship operates, and are shocked and offended that after all this time, Harry has gotten angry about it, thinking he probably understood what their bickering was to them by this point. Beatrice Groves, author of “Literary Allusion in Harry Potter” comments that “Hermione and Ron’s habitually caustic exchanges… make it unlikely that readers will spot the more serious applications” (Groves 96). In this, Groves is saying that it’s hard to detect the subtle notions of love that are in the habitual exchanges between Ron and Hermione, as they are often “caustic”. Despite that, the love language in these exchanges is very evident, as shown in their reaction to Harry’s outburst. Around the time of the sixth book, the two privately realize that they love each other, and much of that is built on the dynamic of their relationship. They like the bickering and witty banter. Like Beatrice and Benedick, it’s essentially their love language, and at the end of both respective stories, the two pairs finally admit their love for each other and eventually marry.
The connections between Shakespeare and Harry Potter are distinct and many. Some examples are so similar that it’s almost uncanny. In this way, Shakespeare’s works have a noteworthy influence on the writing of J.K. Rowling. Sometimes, Rowling is conscious of this, like in the case of Macbeth. Other times, however, the influence and similarities of Shakespeare’s works flow into the writings naturally, likely without Rowling having even thought of it. In this way, mythic criticism proves the connections between the literature of Shakespeare and J.K. Rowling regardless of intention. Their works are hundreds of years apart, and yet share many similarities. Studying the modern literature of Rowling and observing how Shakespeare influenced it by utilizing mythic criticism as the tool to do so is a practice that can deepen the understanding of literature as a whole, and ultimately shows how timeless and universal literature is.
Works Cited
Antony, Adappatu Ancy, and Siddharth R. “Feigned Madness – Treatment of Theatre Imagery in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” Language in India, vol. 17, no. 3, Mar. 2017, pp. 1–6.
Gorves, Beatrice. “Literary Allusion in Harry Potter”. Routledge, 2017.
Oran, Damla Fatma. “THE MOTHER ARCHETYPE and HANDS ON HIPS MOTIF.” Journal of World of Turks / Zeitschrift Für Die Welt Der Türken, vol. 13, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 335–355.
Patrick, Patricia Davis. “‘You Learn Me Noble Thankfulness’: Restoring a Graceful Cycle of Giving and Receiving in Much Ado about Nothing.” Religion & Literature, vol. 52, no. 2, Summer 2020, pp. 45–66.
Rowling, J.K.
–Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 1st ed., Scholastic, 2002.
–Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 2nd ed., Scholastic Press, 2003.
–Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 1st ed., Arthur A. Levine Books, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2005.
Rowling, J.K. “What Is the Significance of Neville Being the Other Boy to Whom the Prophecy Might Have Referred?” J.K.Rowling Official Site, 5 Feb. 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20120205110922/http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=84.
Sarkar, Debapriya et al. “‘To crown my thoughts with acts’: Prophecy and Prescription in Macbeth”. Macbeth: The State of Play. The Arden Shakespeare, 2014.
Shakespeare, William.
–Much Ado About Nothing. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. Stanley Wells et al. Clarence Press, 2005.
–The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. Stanley Wells et al. Clarence Press, 2005.
–The Tragedy of Macbeth. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. Stanley Wells et al. Clarence Press, 2005.
–The Tragedy of King Richard III. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. Stanley Wells et al. Clarence Press, 2005.
Singer, Rita. “Harry Potter and the Battle of the Soul: The Revival of the Psychomachia in Secular Fiction”. Heroism in the Harry Potter Series. Ed. Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker. Ashgate, 2011.
Walker, Jessica. “‘As Crooked in Thy Manners as Thy Shape’: Reshaping Deformity in Loncraine’s Richard III.” The Journal of the Wooden O, vol. 11, 2011, pp. 155–171.