Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Spirituality Analysis

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a lesson for children on family, fear, death, and standing up for your morals. The Deathly Hallows has both direct similarities to Christian teachings and general spiritual principles that can touch its nonreligious readers. The Harry Potter series seems to either inspire spiritual strength or cause people to dust off their pitchforks and accuse it of being Satanic. Many varieties of Christians have fought to have the book banned from schools on a technicality since it promotes witchcraft, which is a government-recognized religion, and so violates the separation between church and state. But more interestingly are the people who find that the series supports their Christian religion and that it works in harmony with their beliefs and teachings.

Harry is, plain and simple, a Christ figure, and in this last book his role as savior and conqueror of death comes to a climax. He is described as the “true master of Death” (720) and has ever held the moniker of The Boy Who Lived. The circumstance and purpose of his death is unique to anyone else’s as he realizes that “this cold-blooded walk to his own destruction would require a different kind of bravery” (692). Harry isn’t a martyr or a sacrifice, dying for jumping in front of a curse meant for someone else. His death is completely on his own agency, and therefore holds more power, just as Christ’s own choice. Harry’s death would “not be a calamity, but another blow against Voldemort” (692), who is a stand in for evil and Satan. Even though he is scared, Harry endures to the end in the name of those he loves, which is the true lesson of his story. Harry’s spiritual strength despite his knowledge that he had a horcrux, a piece of the devil, inside him inspires children who have a desire to do good but know that they are capable of bad. Even after his resurrection, Harry invisibly casts Shield Charms to protect his unknowing friends from curses shot their way, solidifying his role as a savior and protector that largely goes unrecognized.

 

There are other parallels to Christian theology that stand out starkly if you search for them. For example, after Harry dies he appears naked and physically perfect in a white landscape that eventually becomes King’s Cross. It’s only after he sees the shameful manifestation of Voldemort’s/Satan’s soul that he becomes aware of his nakedness and “for the first time, he wish[es] he were clothed” (706). Rowling’s language and imagery evoke the Garden of Eden and its role in knowledge of evil and creation of agency. In their final battle, Voldemort shouts that Harry has only survived by accident, but Harry replies that he didn’t decide to fight back (in book 4) by accident, or that his mother died for him by accident, or that he returned from the dead that night by accident. Harry’s belief in agency and a greater force driven by love encourages a spiritual outlook on life, rather than Voldemort’s cold, calculations of only the facts.  

Harry’s struggle against Voldemort is a struggle of light against dark, moral against immoral, and love against hate. Rowling isn’t a capital “C” Christian writer and doesn’t set out to convert others to her faith, but she is a moralistic writer who hopes to get her “kidult” audience to think about the hard questions and establish tolerance as a core moral in their lives. Rowling claims that her books preach that “love is the most important force” against “bigotry, violence, [and] struggles for power” (Gibbs) and take a spiritual approach to bravery and love. The magic spells, curses, and powers of The Deathly Hallows make the spiritual tangible and the Christian morals more accessible. In a philosophic time where if something can’t be proven on paper, it doesn’t exist, the magic and imagination of Rowling’s books assure children of the legitimacy of their intangible feelings and beliefs, just as Dumbledore reassured Harry: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (723)

 

Works Cited

Gibbs, Nancy. “Person of the Year 2007: Runners-Up J.K. Rowling.” Time 19 Dec. 2007. Web.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scholastic Inc., 2007. Print.