Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Muggles
The world of the Muggles, or ordinary, nonmagical human
beings, is an obvious contrast to the realm of the wizards in a
variety of ways. Wizards appear grand and colorful, but Muggles
are bland and conventional. The story’s main representatives of
the Muggle world are the Dursleys, who are cruel, closed-minded,
selfish, and self-deluded. When we first encounter wizards in the
story, we do so through the strongly disapproving eyes of Mr. Dursley,
who is contemptuous of the wizards’ emerald-green capes and purple
robes. Our reaction is most likely to object to Mr. Dursley’s lack
of imagination, as the wizard world seems a refreshing contrast
to the constraining boredom of Muggle life.
But in going off to Hogwarts, Harry does not leave behind
his Muggle existence forever. The same qualities that make the Muggles objectionable
are present among wizards as well. Mrs. Dursley’s snobbery is fully
apparent in Malfoy’s snooty name-dropping, as Harry is soon disappointed
to observe. Dudley’s self-centered and uncaring greed is present
in a more grandiose and powerful way in the evil Voldemort’s greed.
And Hogwarts itself is composed of students from wizard and Muggle
backgrounds alike. The point of the story is not that Muggles are
bad and wizards are good, or even that Muggles are boring while
wizards are exciting. It is rather that the world is made up of
different types of people with different aptitudes and different
desires who should be able to coexist. Muggles must be free to develop
into wizards if they have the gift and the calling. If they do,
they can liberate themselves and find their true selves.
Points
One of the central aspects of life at Hogwarts is the
ongoing competition for the house championship, which is determined
by the greatest accumulation of points. Students accumulate points
for their houses by performing particularly good actions and by
winning at Quidditch, and they lose points for performing particularly
bad actions. The points system thus symbolizes the need for a careful accounting
of one’s actions, as a careless penalty could result in a defeat
for one’s peers. It also shows an interesting twist on morality, as
points can be earned not only for good or righteous behavior, but also
for athletic excellence. Moral and spiritual achievement is rewarded
but so is physical achievement. This fact brings the world of Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone out of a Christian ethical system
(in which pure intentions of the spirit matter most) and brings
it closer to an ancient notion of human excellence. The word “virtue”
derives from the Latin word virtus, which referred
in ancient times to manly successes in martial and physical exploits. This
quality saw the body and the soul as one entity and recognized excellence
as a mixture of different kinds of achievement. Harry, with his
mental and physical prowess, embodies this ancient quality.
Authority
Both admirable and bogus versions of authority pop up
throughout the story. Bogus authority first appears in the figures
of Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, who order Harry around with no sense of
appropriateness. Their authority is based solely on power: they
are the adults, with financial and physical superiority over children,
and in their minds they feel entitled to treat Harry like a slave.
But we see the emptiness and limits of Mr. Dursley’s authority as
soon as the wizard world makes its appearance. Mr. Dursley is suddenly
unable to control even the mail that arrives at his house. His power
vanishes completely and with it so does his authority. By the time
he flees to the shack on the island with his family, he has become
a ridiculous figure, desperately clinging on to an idea of control
that he lacks utterly. Even the uncouth and oafish Hagrid, who appears
on the island, has more authority than Mr. Dursley. By the end of
the story, Dumbledore emerges as the true authority figure. Dumbledore
has immense power but does not use it. When he wants Harry to stop visiting
the Mirror of Erised, he recommends that Harry stop going instead
of ordering him to stop. Based on wisdom and kindness rather than
raw power, Dumbledore’s model of authority becomes Harry’s own.
