Harry Potter Retrospective - Sorcerer's Stone Begins
Sept 3, 2016 15:42:31 GMT -5
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Post by Shinko on Sept 3, 2016 15:42:31 GMT -5
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Characters
So one of the first things I noticed is that in this book the characters are all… pretty shallow. The story hits plot points mostly with narration, and little moments for the characters to interact and build off of one another such as we see in later books just aren’t there. The more forgiving part of me wants to attribute this to the fact that our focus character- Harry- is eleven, so like a child he takes things at face value and doesn’t look for deeper meaning. Similarly, the children around him are still figuring themselves out and are in that sort of vague stage of their lives where they are that generic “child shape” which will later mold into proper personalities as they age… But realistically this is probably just JK’s inexperience as a writer showing through.
That said, let’s get cracking, shall we?
Harry Potter
So, our fearless lead. One of the first things we learn about Harry is that he’s kind of a snarker, given it’s explained that his reactions to his cousin Dudley’s bullying are not fear but making smart-mouthed comments. Right away this tells us two things- one, Harry is brave, and two, he’s not one to just take a situation lying down. Faced with adversity he doesn’t fold, he adapts. He isn’t stupid mind- he runs away when he needs to- but he makes it clear first he’s in no way really afraid.
Unfortunately Harry then gets picked up by Hagrid, and any development of his character is derailed so he can play audience surrogate and ask all of our questions about the wizard world in order to prompt Hagrid into exposition dumps. At this point in the story one could be forgiven for forgetting that Harry is indeed a character and not a prop. He kind of just… goes along with everything, not really questioning it much. Stranger shows up, tells him they’re going shopping, and he’s like “okay that sounds reasonable.”
He starts showing flashes of personality again on the train to Hogwarts, where he befriends Ron Weasley and defends him from Draco Malfoy. Here we see Harry’s bravery on display once again as he stands up to Malfoy. I already talked a bit about the sorting ceremony in my previous section so I’ll skip it for now, since it’s importance to Harry’s character really only becomes obvious in Chamber of Secrets. For now Harry is relegated to being our largely blank canvased “brave hero” archetype. We see flashes of things to come in scenes like his chasing down Malfoy to get Neville Longbottom’s stolen rememberal, but they stay just that- glimpses. Mrrrg. I suppose it is a book for kids.
Ron Weasley
He’s good at chess… I guess? Mostly Ron, like Hagrid, exists to spout off worldbuildy exposition dumps.
Hermione Granger
M’kay, here we actually get a character that has like… some actual character, ahaha. Hermione is presented as your fairly typical know-it-all teacher’s pet. We all knew a kid like this in school- the one who thought they knew better than everybody else because their grades were higher and the teachers reinforced it by stroking their ego. Hermione isn’t bad or mean spirited necessarily, just socially awkward and a bit full of herself. It makes her feel like a very real sort of kid, and while she isn’t at first portrayed with much sympathy- at the outset Ron and Harry don’t like her- she’s easily one of the most interesting characters if for no other reason than she has actual traits for us to latch to.
What’s more, she has something nobody else really has in this book- an arc. After a near-death experience when the troll gets into the castle, Hermione’s snootiness gets taken down a peg and she becomes a lot more likable. Still smart and bossy, but not lording her intelligence over people and legitimately helping Harry and Ron study instead of just huffing about how they’re “doing it wrong.”
Rubeus Hagrid
Hagrid gets to be our gatekeeper into the world of wizards, providing heaps and heaps of exposition to explain the world that we are about to enter to us. Unlike Ron, however, Hagrid actually shows some personality. He’s cheery, pleasant, and friendly almost to a fault. None too bright though, he has a bad habit of making short-sighted decisions and doesn’t seem to know how to turn off the tap on the expository faucet because he keeps leaking hints that help the kids discover the big conspiracy to hide the Sorcerer’s Stone at the school.
Hagrid also has a bit of a temper, especially when people upset or threaten those he cares about. He gives Dudley a pig’s tail when the kid’s father insults Dumbledore, and also seems very protective of Harry. It’s also implied he is a bit of a drunk- the barkeeper in the Leaky Couldron knows Hagrid by name as well as his “usual” and Hagrid apparently frequents a pub near Hogwards called the Hog’s Head. Overall he’s a fun character, if a bit blatantly expository.
Severus Snape
Ahahaha, okay, we all know that Snape is a breakout character later on, but let’s remember that for now we’re playing the “I don’t know what happens in the later books” make-believe game. We’re discussing Snape in Sorcerer’s Stone, not in his wider character context.
That said, Snape is thoroughly unpleasant, ahaha. He deliberately targets Harry for tormenting, exacts punishments for situations he set up in the first place, and just is unfriendly in general. It is revealed a bit of the way into the book that Snape and James went to school together and loathed one another. This however, is a bit of a poor excuse for Snape’s treatment of Harry (who had nothing to do with it) so Harry can perhaps be forgiven for holding a grudge against Snape for being a douchewagon.
That said, we do find out later Snape’s not all bad. It’s revealed that he tries to save Harry’s life at least twice, and that he was also the only teacher to realize Quirrell was up to something and make an effort to head him off. So Snape was a hero all along!
Or was he? Harry’s still skeptical.
Albus Dumbledore
Dumbledore is a pretty minor character in this book, but he warrants at least a mention. He is set up as a very wise, very powerful wizard, and a surprisingly sympathetic adult figure. He doesn’t seem to view Harry as incapable despite his age, and indeed Harry theorizes that perhaps Dumbledore set things up for the kids to try and protect the stone. He’s a friendly, but aloof figure, mysterious but seemingly trustworthy.
Draco Malfoy
Mostly around to be a jerkish foil to Harry. *Pets Draco* Don’t worry baby, we’ll get back to you later.
Neville Longbottom
Like Dumbledore, Neville is a mostly minor character here, but he does warrant at least bringing up. He’s kind of an odd duck in Gryffindor house, timid and prone to being bullied. He’s forgetful, and frequently loses his pet toad, Trevor. However, he is still a sweet kid, and we see flashes of a deeper well of courage in him on the occasions he tries to stop his friends from getting into trouble. Neville is a better person than he or anybody else around him expects, something that Dumbledore acknowledges at the end of the book… and foreshadows greater things to come.
The Dursleys
So I’ve lumped the Dursleys together because while yes, they are all unique and distinct characters, they haven’t really gotten to do much yet. Later books would develop the Dursleys better as individuals- Petunia in particular- but for now they exist largely to be a source of unhappiness for Harry outside of school and toemphasize his parallel with orphanage raised Voldemort by not giving him loving parental figures- I mean er… be comedic relief characters for the wizards in the story to abuse. Yeah.
Okay so we got three Dursleys; Vernon, Harry’s uncle, Petunia, Harry’s aunt (sister to his mother), and Dudley, Harry’s cousin. Vernon is an aggressive, foul tempered man who is determined to stay comfortably in his quaint little suburban life with his quaint little suburban neighbors, to the point that he goes just a little bit crazy trying to prevent Harry from getting his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. He tremendously resents Harry’s presence in his life, because Harry is the antithesis of everything Vernon stands for. Petunia is less extreme and demonstrative than Vernon, but no less passionate in her desire for ordinariness. When confronted about how the Dursleys had spent years lying to Harry about how his parents died, Petunian openly calls her own sister a freak and speaks with scorn about how Lily got herself “blown up” and saddled them with Harry. Both his aunt and uncle regularly verbally and emotionally abuse their nephew, making him sleep in a cubard and do menial household tasks.
Thoroughly unpleasant as Vernon and Petunia are, they do display a softer side in their treatment of their son, Dudley. It’s no exaggeration to say Dudley is spoiled rotten, an overweight bully who has tantrums better befitting a child of three than one of eleven. Taking cues from his parents Dudley abuses his cousin to no end, though Harry is occasionally able to outwit Dudley by nature of the fact that the kid is not very bright.
The Dursleys, like most of the characters, are fairly shallow at this point. They are mean and nasty to nearly parodyish extremes, making no bones about how much they resent Harry’s presence in their lives. And yet, that small nugget is our vital clue to their deeper characters… much as they hate him, they did take Harry in. Makes ya wonder…
Quirinus Quirrell
Oh boy. I. Can’t really put this off anymore can I?
Yeeeah. So. About that main antagonist. He’s uh. Remarkably absent from the book he’s the final boss of, ain’t he?
Okay so if there is one major thing I have to take issue with in this book, it’s the handling of the “Quirrell was the real villain all along!” twist. This is a perfect example of how not to do a twist. Was it unexpected? Oh yes, but for all the wrong reasons. Quirrell really only shows up in scenes that directly foreshadow this twist, and his character barely gets developed in them. So it’s a surprise yes, but only because the character is barely on the reader’s radar when they get to the end of the story. It’s like if the poke’mon games had revealed in Viridian Gym that Professor Oak was secretly the leader of Team Rocket the whole time. The evidence is there yes, but you barely register it because your brain does not lodge this character as important, nor is there any emotional reaction elicited when it is revealed he is the bad guy.
Rowling would do an almost identical twist in book four, but that one was carried off much better. The villain gets a lot of setup, he’s sympathetic, and when we discover he was actually the villain the whole time it’s a huge moment with a lot of emotional weight because the reader- and Harry- have come to like and respect this character. I’ll discuss him more when we get to him, but his story arc was and remains one of my favorite plotlines in the series, which is probably part of why the resounding thud with which Quirrell’s plot falls so very flat exasperates me so much.
That said, let’s get cracking, shall we?
Harry Potter
So, our fearless lead. One of the first things we learn about Harry is that he’s kind of a snarker, given it’s explained that his reactions to his cousin Dudley’s bullying are not fear but making smart-mouthed comments. Right away this tells us two things- one, Harry is brave, and two, he’s not one to just take a situation lying down. Faced with adversity he doesn’t fold, he adapts. He isn’t stupid mind- he runs away when he needs to- but he makes it clear first he’s in no way really afraid.
Unfortunately Harry then gets picked up by Hagrid, and any development of his character is derailed so he can play audience surrogate and ask all of our questions about the wizard world in order to prompt Hagrid into exposition dumps. At this point in the story one could be forgiven for forgetting that Harry is indeed a character and not a prop. He kind of just… goes along with everything, not really questioning it much. Stranger shows up, tells him they’re going shopping, and he’s like “okay that sounds reasonable.”
He starts showing flashes of personality again on the train to Hogwarts, where he befriends Ron Weasley and defends him from Draco Malfoy. Here we see Harry’s bravery on display once again as he stands up to Malfoy. I already talked a bit about the sorting ceremony in my previous section so I’ll skip it for now, since it’s importance to Harry’s character really only becomes obvious in Chamber of Secrets. For now Harry is relegated to being our largely blank canvased “brave hero” archetype. We see flashes of things to come in scenes like his chasing down Malfoy to get Neville Longbottom’s stolen rememberal, but they stay just that- glimpses. Mrrrg. I suppose it is a book for kids.
Ron Weasley
He’s good at chess… I guess? Mostly Ron, like Hagrid, exists to spout off worldbuildy exposition dumps.
Hermione Granger
M’kay, here we actually get a character that has like… some actual character, ahaha. Hermione is presented as your fairly typical know-it-all teacher’s pet. We all knew a kid like this in school- the one who thought they knew better than everybody else because their grades were higher and the teachers reinforced it by stroking their ego. Hermione isn’t bad or mean spirited necessarily, just socially awkward and a bit full of herself. It makes her feel like a very real sort of kid, and while she isn’t at first portrayed with much sympathy- at the outset Ron and Harry don’t like her- she’s easily one of the most interesting characters if for no other reason than she has actual traits for us to latch to.
What’s more, she has something nobody else really has in this book- an arc. After a near-death experience when the troll gets into the castle, Hermione’s snootiness gets taken down a peg and she becomes a lot more likable. Still smart and bossy, but not lording her intelligence over people and legitimately helping Harry and Ron study instead of just huffing about how they’re “doing it wrong.”
Rubeus Hagrid
Hagrid gets to be our gatekeeper into the world of wizards, providing heaps and heaps of exposition to explain the world that we are about to enter to us. Unlike Ron, however, Hagrid actually shows some personality. He’s cheery, pleasant, and friendly almost to a fault. None too bright though, he has a bad habit of making short-sighted decisions and doesn’t seem to know how to turn off the tap on the expository faucet because he keeps leaking hints that help the kids discover the big conspiracy to hide the Sorcerer’s Stone at the school.
Hagrid also has a bit of a temper, especially when people upset or threaten those he cares about. He gives Dudley a pig’s tail when the kid’s father insults Dumbledore, and also seems very protective of Harry. It’s also implied he is a bit of a drunk- the barkeeper in the Leaky Couldron knows Hagrid by name as well as his “usual” and Hagrid apparently frequents a pub near Hogwards called the Hog’s Head. Overall he’s a fun character, if a bit blatantly expository.
Severus Snape
Ahahaha, okay, we all know that Snape is a breakout character later on, but let’s remember that for now we’re playing the “I don’t know what happens in the later books” make-believe game. We’re discussing Snape in Sorcerer’s Stone, not in his wider character context.
That said, Snape is thoroughly unpleasant, ahaha. He deliberately targets Harry for tormenting, exacts punishments for situations he set up in the first place, and just is unfriendly in general. It is revealed a bit of the way into the book that Snape and James went to school together and loathed one another. This however, is a bit of a poor excuse for Snape’s treatment of Harry (who had nothing to do with it) so Harry can perhaps be forgiven for holding a grudge against Snape for being a douchewagon.
That said, we do find out later Snape’s not all bad. It’s revealed that he tries to save Harry’s life at least twice, and that he was also the only teacher to realize Quirrell was up to something and make an effort to head him off. So Snape was a hero all along!
Or was he? Harry’s still skeptical.
Albus Dumbledore
Dumbledore is a pretty minor character in this book, but he warrants at least a mention. He is set up as a very wise, very powerful wizard, and a surprisingly sympathetic adult figure. He doesn’t seem to view Harry as incapable despite his age, and indeed Harry theorizes that perhaps Dumbledore set things up for the kids to try and protect the stone. He’s a friendly, but aloof figure, mysterious but seemingly trustworthy.
Draco Malfoy
Mostly around to be a jerkish foil to Harry. *Pets Draco* Don’t worry baby, we’ll get back to you later.
Neville Longbottom
Like Dumbledore, Neville is a mostly minor character here, but he does warrant at least bringing up. He’s kind of an odd duck in Gryffindor house, timid and prone to being bullied. He’s forgetful, and frequently loses his pet toad, Trevor. However, he is still a sweet kid, and we see flashes of a deeper well of courage in him on the occasions he tries to stop his friends from getting into trouble. Neville is a better person than he or anybody else around him expects, something that Dumbledore acknowledges at the end of the book… and foreshadows greater things to come.
The Dursleys
So I’ve lumped the Dursleys together because while yes, they are all unique and distinct characters, they haven’t really gotten to do much yet. Later books would develop the Dursleys better as individuals- Petunia in particular- but for now they exist largely to be a source of unhappiness for Harry outside of school and to
Okay so we got three Dursleys; Vernon, Harry’s uncle, Petunia, Harry’s aunt (sister to his mother), and Dudley, Harry’s cousin. Vernon is an aggressive, foul tempered man who is determined to stay comfortably in his quaint little suburban life with his quaint little suburban neighbors, to the point that he goes just a little bit crazy trying to prevent Harry from getting his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. He tremendously resents Harry’s presence in his life, because Harry is the antithesis of everything Vernon stands for. Petunia is less extreme and demonstrative than Vernon, but no less passionate in her desire for ordinariness. When confronted about how the Dursleys had spent years lying to Harry about how his parents died, Petunian openly calls her own sister a freak and speaks with scorn about how Lily got herself “blown up” and saddled them with Harry. Both his aunt and uncle regularly verbally and emotionally abuse their nephew, making him sleep in a cubard and do menial household tasks.
Thoroughly unpleasant as Vernon and Petunia are, they do display a softer side in their treatment of their son, Dudley. It’s no exaggeration to say Dudley is spoiled rotten, an overweight bully who has tantrums better befitting a child of three than one of eleven. Taking cues from his parents Dudley abuses his cousin to no end, though Harry is occasionally able to outwit Dudley by nature of the fact that the kid is not very bright.
The Dursleys, like most of the characters, are fairly shallow at this point. They are mean and nasty to nearly parodyish extremes, making no bones about how much they resent Harry’s presence in their lives. And yet, that small nugget is our vital clue to their deeper characters… much as they hate him, they did take Harry in. Makes ya wonder…
Quirinus Quirrell
Oh boy. I. Can’t really put this off anymore can I?
Yeeeah. So. About that main antagonist. He’s uh. Remarkably absent from the book he’s the final boss of, ain’t he?
Okay so if there is one major thing I have to take issue with in this book, it’s the handling of the “Quirrell was the real villain all along!” twist. This is a perfect example of how not to do a twist. Was it unexpected? Oh yes, but for all the wrong reasons. Quirrell really only shows up in scenes that directly foreshadow this twist, and his character barely gets developed in them. So it’s a surprise yes, but only because the character is barely on the reader’s radar when they get to the end of the story. It’s like if the poke’mon games had revealed in Viridian Gym that Professor Oak was secretly the leader of Team Rocket the whole time. The evidence is there yes, but you barely register it because your brain does not lodge this character as important, nor is there any emotional reaction elicited when it is revealed he is the bad guy.
Rowling would do an almost identical twist in book four, but that one was carried off much better. The villain gets a lot of setup, he’s sympathetic, and when we discover he was actually the villain the whole time it’s a huge moment with a lot of emotional weight because the reader- and Harry- have come to like and respect this character. I’ll discuss him more when we get to him, but his story arc was and remains one of my favorite plotlines in the series, which is probably part of why the resounding thud with which Quirrell’s plot falls so very flat exasperates me so much.