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Atlantic Literary Review 11.1 (January – March 2010). 97-111

DURSLEYS vs WEASLEYS: A Cultural Approach to Science, Magic and

Technology in the Harry Potter series

(Vandana Saxena)

One of the important elements of the plot of J K Rowling’s famous Harry Potter

series are the encounters between two worlds – the world of everyday familiar reality and

the secret world of magic. Harry’s life and stay at the Dursely household, his relationship

to his uncle, aunt and cousin are as important as his encounters with the Dark Lord. After

surviving the killer curse from one of the most powerful wizards, one-year old hero of the

magical world, Harry Potter arrives into the household of his unwilling guardians, the

Dursleys. The book traces the adventures of Harry through the first year of his school and

ends with his return to the Dursleys for the summer. The rest of the books follow a

similar pattern. In each novel we first meet Harry in summers, usually on the eve of his

birthday, at the house of his guardians. We leave him either at platform nine-three

quarters returning to the Dursleys or preparing for his return. The situation in the

household too, on the surface, remains similar. Their mutual dislike continues unabated.

The familiar and the logical view of the world continues to circumscribe life in the

Dursley household. But the fear of the unexplainable, which is so evident in the

household from the start, is also reasserted at each closure. With the growth of the

narrative, we return to the repetitive points with greater understanding.

This evolution of the narrative is based on the internal dynamics of the

relationship between Harry and the Dursleys. The reality of the Dursleys is like a
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collective fantasy of urban middle class, constructed and sustained by the processes of

socialization, institutionalization and social interaction through linguistically structured

mediums like newspapers and television. Discourse of science and capitalism are the

hallmarks of this ‘normalcy’; they give a kind of seamlessness to their worldview where

everyone is neatly slotted and classified.

But their precious discursive reality is challenged by the very word ‘magic’ which

literally burst from their door, their windows, even their fireplace, transforming their

world beyond recognition. As Vernon drives relentlessly to the end of his terra firma in

Book 1, he discovers that no place is same anymore. His entire world has always been

under an uncanny, omniscient gaze; his ‘normalcy’ has been at the mercy of an unknown

force. But he cannot return that look; neither can he comprehend the source of this

relentless scrutiny. The windows of his ‘safe’ world are now accessible to owls, flying

cars and speaking letters; where are they coming from? At the outset while the reader

knows nothing, the Dursleys have some idea. Their panic arouses curiosity. The reader

soon leaves the Dursleys behind and moves with Harry into the world of magic. The

growth of narrative, it seems, is powered by this increasing fragility of the familiar world

where the Dursleys are situated.

While the world of the Dursleys becomes fragmented, the world of magic

becomes increasingly lucid. This is the space from where check has been kept over the

Dursleys for eleven years without their knowledge. It fills the ambiguous nooks of the

familiar world and reveals the illusory nature of its security. It appropriates people who

have been discarded as misfits. The two worlds fit together uneasily, like Foucault’s
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heterotopia, constantly clashing and colliding against each other. It is difficult to find a

point of commonality. And the internal divisions and multiplicity of worldviews within

these worlds make the heterotopic universe even more volatile. With each book of the

series, this universe evolves and the narrative becomes increasingly complex.

Along with the characters in the series, the structures of knowledge and culture

too are transworld entities. There are several instances in the series where what we

perceive as magic turns out to have a ‘rational’ explanation in the subsequent books. Its

underlying principles sound close to science. To be conceivable, the world of magic

borrows its properties and structure from the ready-made world. Therefore, the things that

distinguish the two worlds- magic and science- come to share similar rules, laws and

destiny. The differences, the similarities and the exchanges within the heterotopic

universe are an important issue.

Nowhere is it more evident than in the description of the smallest unit of a

social set up – the family. The only two families that Rowling portrays in some detail in

the series –the Dursleys and the Weasleys –exemplify this complex relationship. One is

Harry’s adoptive family that looked after him for the first eleven years of his life,

howsoever badly; the other is his best friend’s family that adopts Harry as soon as he

enters the world of magic. Dursleys are non magical while for Weasleys, magic is a part

of everyday life. Petunia Dursley pushes buttons to cook and clean but Molly Weasley

has other tools. She flicks her wand. In terms of function also, magic is often merely a

source of convenience, much like technology. On the scale of knowledge, it seems, magic

may not be an antithesis of science but only a progression.

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The two parallel cultures are founded on this disparity of knowledge. In the first

few books we see the uneasy cooperation that marks their parallel existence. Their levels

of know-how influence their ways of looking and interacting with each other. But in

subsequent books, the antipathy between the two turns from hilarious to ominous. The

harmless pranks take on a diabolical note as the course of events in the two worlds begins

to converge. Looking at the families, the schools, the peer groups of the children, it is

clear that the series deals with knowledge – whether magical or scientific - as a cultural

institution.

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they
were perfectly normal, thank you very much
(Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone)

The series sets out to make the contrast right from the start. Vernon Dursley is a

Director of a firm that makes drilling machines and ‘normalcy’ is drilled into his

household. Technology has made their life comfortable. The world of the Dursleys is

carefully constructed – the microwave, the refrigerator, the television, Dudley’s new

computer- all have an important place in the aspirations of an urban family. Petunia

Dursley’s kitchen, her empire of electronic gadgetry, is magically spotless, as one of the

characters in Book 5 remarks. The household is an example of current technology and

ensuing consumerism. Dudley’s tantrums for a new computer and videogames indicate

that the advance in science has brought about greater acquisitiveness and callousness.

But Harry’s presence in their household itself is a clue to the subversive

‘abnormality’ that lurks beneath the strongly emphasized 'normality'. He is the orphan

son of Petunia Dursley’s sister Lily Potter, a witch.

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Lily was Petunia’s first encounter with ‘abnormality’ in the world. In the world of

Rowling, certain children are born with an innate talent for magic and they go off to a

special school to get their special education. The context of Hogwarts is similar to that of

Doctor Xavier’s Academy for Specially Talented Children in the popular Hollywood film

series X Men. Seen together the reason behind existence of mutants in the film could well

be the reason behind existence of witches and wizards. Genetic modification has

endowed some children with special powers and abilities, thus explaining the presence of

magic in offspring of muggle parentage. Just as the people react to the mutants in the

film, Petunia thinks her sister was a freak.

Their next encounter apart from Harry, who lives with them, is with Hagrid, the

gamekeeper at Hogwarts. It starts with Vernon Dursley’s unsuccessful attempts to keep

Harry from reading his letter of admission from the school of magic. Hagrid forces his

way, gets Harry and leaves his cousin Dudley with a pig tail.

In subsequent books, Vernon’s sister Marge is blown up and away, Dudley’s

tongue grows 4 feet and finally, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he comes

close to being kissed by a Dementor. Dumbledore’s attitude to them alternates between

amused tolerance and anger. Yet their plight does not invite sympathy. They are cruel,

avaricious and aggressive. Vernon enjoys the stories of his son bullying and bashing

other children. It is not just the presence of magic that tears the veil of ‘normalcy’. It is

their ‘unnatural’ apathy bordering on cruelty to their orphaned nephew that makes the

reader question their definition of ‘normalcy’. It is the greatest factor that turns the scales

in favor of the Weasleys. Molly Weasley embraces Harry as a son. Harry finds warmth
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and acceptance at the Burrow, their household. If the greatest magical power, as

Dumbledore keeps insisting through the series, is the power to love, then the Durselys

can definitely not be magical. Magic lies beyond scientific and economic discourses,

something that their worldview cannot capture.

It is not as if the Dursleys are not aware of the existence of the magic. They are

aware of the incoherence, the ‘abnormality’ but they cannot comprehend it or access it,

therefore they completely deny its existence. They would be infinitely more comfortable

with a remote control with explicit instructions rather than magic wand that comes

without manual. Unlike scientific knowledge, magical knowledge is accessible only to a

select few. Therefore, it is a constant threat to them. All their gadgets, all the

resourcefulness of the muggle world becomes outmoded. The wizard world is clearly

many steps ahead.

Weasleys, for instance, are an out and out wizard family. The first thing that

Harry as well as the reader notice at the Burrow, is the use of magic and the way the

members of the household take it for granted. At the command of Molly Weasley’s wand,

the knives, the ladle and the dishes all start working on their own. In the Weasley

household, magic as a replacement to gadgetry is much more convenient and effective.

Like the obsession of the Dursleys Harry’s ‘abnormality’, Arthur Weasley too is

obsessed with muggle science, in a way another person would be interested in antiques.

He collects plugs and switches like a muggle would collect old coins; a man-made car is

not enough for him, so he bewitches a Ford Anglia into flying; concepts of telephone and
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electric fires fascinate him. He even tries to get his wound healed, the muggle way, by

getting it stitched.

While the Dursleys regard the Weasleys with fear and awe, for Weasleys they are

a source of wonder and amusement. The brief encounter between the families in Book 4

illustrates this. The Weasleys visit the Dursleys to fetch Harry for the Quidditch World

Cup. They arrive by blasting the fireplace. While leaving, the twins, Fred and George

Weasley, who have decided to use Dudley as a guinea pig for their newly invented ton-

tongue toffee, drop the sweet. Dudley swallows it. Understandably, Vernon Dursley

treats the attempts at reconciliation made by their father to set Dudley and the fireplace

right, with suspicion and ensuing threats of retaliation.

For the Dursleys, the magical world exists and yet it is not for them. Their

discourse of science and economics defines their reality and, since any other reality is not

accessible to them, they refuse to see anything beyond. But the real, the heterotopic

universe that houses their world as well as the world of magic, intrudes, forcing them to

acknowledge the limited nature of their reality.

Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic

Profiles of the Future

A search on Harry Potter series on the Internet gives some interesting insights.

1.NASA website cites Harry’s conversation with his friends regarding the moons

of Jupiter in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The website checks the

information given in the book and finds it true, although the children study it in

Astronomy, today a marginal branch of science.

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2. In The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works, Roger Highfield

goes deeply into the technology behind Harry’s enviable fliers, his super broomsticks,

Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt. The book not only ponders on the issue of flying broom, but

also on levitating in magnetic field and traveling through space and time. Effects of

gravity, research in anti-gravity mechanism or gravity shielding effects and so on are

discussed in great details.

3.In ‘Harry Potter and the Recessive Allele’, three experts in genetic disease,

Jeffrey M. Craig, Renee Dow and MaryAnne Aitken feel that Harry Potter would be a

great way to make students aware of the concepts of genetics and heredity, through

concepts like pure blood and mixed parentage.

The above instances show that Rowling has taken trouble to give some

scientifically proven basis to her world of magic. Harry Potter series lies on the

borderline between the two genres - science fiction and magic world fantasy. Magic in

the series is the knowledge that lies outside the privileged scientific discourse, knowledge

that has been sidelined and obliterated with the dominance of science, rationality and

logic. While magic makes things easier, it has laws and theories that are insurmountable.

Everything it can do, all its laws and limits are diligently taught in Hogwarts School for

Witchcraft and Wizardry. Magic is part of the totality of knowledge that science has

excluded. Let us a take a quick look at some popular subjects taught at Hogwarts.

In the hierarchy of subjects, Transfiguration and Potions occupy the topmost

position. Transfiguration or shape shifting has always fascinated scientists. It has also

been the favorite study of the fantasy writers-from earliest fantasy to Stevenson’s 19th
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century proto-science fiction Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the current fascination with

mutants. While the students start with transforming cushions into needles, the ultimate

aim of Transfiguration is an ‘animagus’- transforming oneself into an animal.

In the modern context, Rowling’s Potions class would hardly be different from

students working in a Chemistry Laboratory. Potions Master Severus Snape enunciates

the importance of the subject in Book 1.

As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you would

hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the
beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the
delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the
mind, ensnaring the sense…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew
glory, even stopper death……(102)

He goes on to tell them about the formula to brew sleeping potion and the antidote

for most of the poisons. Though couched in the jargon of magic, it is hardly different

from the experiments conducted in contemporary chemistry.

The issue between magic and science really comes to the fore in this subject.

Potions belong to the area where science and magic are indistinguishable from each

other. It belongs to the field of alchemy, the precursor of modern day chemistry; search

for eternal life, Philosopher’s Stone, potion for good luck are the subjects of study. The

greatest aim of alchemists- to make a Philosopher’s Stone or the Elixir for Life - comes

true in the world of magic. Robert Scholes, renowned writer on fantasy and science

fiction, feels that the change of name of the first book in the American issue did a great

damage to the way the series could be approached.

….. it is worth noting that the British edition of the first Harry
Potter novel was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – which
some American marketing genius changed into Harry Potter and the
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Sorcerer’s Stone, convinced, no doubt that sorcerers would sell a lot more
books than philosophers. But the original title makes the important
connection between the world of Harry Potter and the world of the
alchemists who were the precursors of modern scientific thinkers.

Ron Weasley’s search for the card of Agrippa in Book 1 could be seen in this

context. Agrippa, who was one of the renowned alchemists of ancient science, lost

importance as the scientific study advanced. He belongs to a time where science, magic

and philosophy were not mutually exclusive disciplines; time before James Frazer

segregated them permanently and imposed a hierarchy by calling magic pseudo-science.

‘True’ science moved on following the diktats of rationality and logic and philosophers

like Cornelius Agrippa lost their claim to scholarly achievement. Agrippa has a

marginalized place in philosophic tradition now. But his philosophy and experiments lie

behind creation of one of the first monsters of science fiction- the monster created by

Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Another historical figure mentioned in the book is alchemist Nicholas Flamel who

is said to have accomplished the impossible – turned common metal to gold by the use

own invention- the Philosopher’s Stone. However, no experimental records of his

invention were found after his death in 14th century. Later scholars believed that his

alchemy experiments were a cover for his wealth through disreputable business. Thus,

Flamel was also pushed outside the field of ‘scientific’ studies. But in the Potter series, he

finds a place of honor, as the maker of the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life. The

presence of historical figures that are on the other side of ‘acceptable’ knowledge today

indicates the power structure at work within the so-called ‘a-political’ arena of learning.

Their achievements are the points where Harry’s world overlaps ours. It is on the
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importance of their achievements that the two worlds differ. Mention of Agrippa and

Flamel is symptomatic of the search for a world where the two disciplines could be

unified. Rowling’s school of magic tries to do so.

Astronomy, another subject taught at Hogwarts, is a scientific study of the stars

and universe. But what about the superstition like predictions and prophesies? This

function is given to another subject, that of Divination. When Hermione Granger, by far

the best student in the class, quits Divination, the reader becomes conscious that this

subject has little to do with what the students would actually learn at Hogwarts. We also

come to know that Dumbledore is not very keen on the subject being taught at Hogwarts.

Crystal gazing of Sybil Trelawney is obviously false and reading stars by centaur Firenze

is too vague. He might be genuine but divining the course of future events is too complex

to be effective. Trelawney’s prophecy predicting the fall of Voldemort, rather than

preventing the catastrophe, brings it about. Like the self-fulfilling prophecy of Oedipus,

every effort to push it away ends in bringing it closer. It hints at the diabolical role of

Divination in the history of wizard world.

To an extent then, magic and technology in the series, are related not in terms of

opposition but in terms of gradation, in terms of what they include and exclude. The

muggles, on the one hand, distinguish between them and also attach value judgment to

the two terms. The wizard community, unlike the muggles, has not grown by dividing

magic and science but by trying to integrate them together.

But this synthesis of two diverse streams of knowledge gives rise its own peculiar

problems. For them, though both are forms of knowledge, magic is selective, and
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therefore, greater knowledge. The dynamics of the magic-science relation mirrors the

dynamics of the socio-cultural structures of the two worlds.

‘The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.’
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Though the two paradigms of knowledge differ, as pointed out earlier, science and

magic as technolgies are similar at a basic level. Peter Applebaum points out the way that

magic in the series, though set up as an alternative system, at a closer look, is nearer to

the contemporary technoculture than it seems at first: ‘magical artifacts such as spells and

potions, wands, invisibility cloaks, a map that divines the locations of people unseen, and

so on, play the same role in these books that a prosthetic hand or megaweapon body

suit’(Harry Potter’s World, 29). This technology is an important part of Harry’s heroism.

The forms and commodities of youth technoculture become coincident with the sense of

wonder associated with magical superhero. Nimbus 2000 and later, Firebolt is the most

prominent example. Harry’s broomstick, with its ‘streamlined super-finished handle of

ash, treated with a diamond-hard polish and hand-numbered with its own registration

number...honed to aerodynamic perfection’ with acceleration of ‘0-150 miles an hour in

ten seconds’ (Prisoner of Azkaban 27) epitomizes the technology of magic in Rowling’s

world. It is the source of desire and envy. During his stay at Diagon Alley, after escaping

the Dursleys in Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry returns repeatedly to the

Quality Quidditch Supply to gaze at the Firebolt. When he gets the broomstick

mysteriously, Ron and Harry are too wonderstruck and elated to wonder who sent it. In

the later Quidditch encounters Harry’s Firebolt becomes as strong a symbol of his

heroism as his scar.

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In other words then, Harry is ‘cool’ in the magical world due to his possession of

rare expensive items, to an extent like Dudley with his thirty seven presents at the

beginning of the series. It stands for economic power something that also defines Harry’s

position as the only possessor of the Firebolt, the Marauder’s Map and the invisibility

cloak in the school. Harry’s heroism is inseparable from his material possessions.

Rowling’s wizards, therefore, clearly do not enjoy living spartan lives as

Tolkien’s or even Le Guin’s. Ron Weasley deeply resents being poor. His second hand

wand, hand-me-down robes at the Yule ball- all cause him great embarrassment. The

social, cultural and economic environment of the world of magic is quite similar to the

contemporary globalized cultural and economic order. During the Quidditch World Cup,

in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the broader international context of the Britain’s

magical society becomes evident. The sports event is a sales bonanza for everybody in

wizard world, from bigger enterprises to small time entrepreneurs; ‘Salesmen were

Apparating every few feet, carrying trays and pushing carts full of extraordinary

merchandise’ (Goblet of Fire, 85). Children spend all their summer savings at the world

cup. These little details make Rowling’s text engaging till one realizes how deep its

association with the commerciality of our world is: the model of Viktor Krum bought by

Ron is cute till one is disturbed by similar models of Harry, Ron and Hermione enticing

children to spend in real toy shops. Like the real world, the magical world too seems to

understand the dynamics of child consumer. In a way then, the commercialism of the

magical world in the Potter series reflects the commercialization of the text itself and its

grounding in the capitalist world-view, as underscored by critics like Jack Zipes, Andrew

Blake and John Pennington. When John Pennington succinctly summarizes this idea, “So
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what are Potter books really about, then? Well, monetary success primarily” (‘From

Elfland’ 92).seems to be commenting not just on the success of the Potter phenomenon

but also on the role model presented by Harry himself.

The weapon that we have is love

(Harry and the Potters)

Yet the greatest magic repeatedly emphasized in the series is the magic of love. It

is the love of the mother that saves Harry in his first encounter with the Dark Lord, love

for Sirius that saves Harry from Voldemort’s possession, and finally it is love that

manifests itself in Harry’s last act of sacrifice that brings about the end of Voldemort. In

the series magic emerges as a dynamic mysterious paradigm which operates in unseen

ways; small acts of love, mercy and sacrifice turn up at unexpected moments in future

working in unforeseen ways. For instance Lily’s sacrifice resurfaces repeatedly till the

end saving her son. Harry’s act of mercy shown to Peter Pettigrew saves him years later.

His own act of self-sacrifice has works in a mysterious manner to bring about the end of

the Dark Lord.

Therefore, if love is the great form of magic, then love is also implicated in

discourses of knowledge, power and capitalism that debate on magic and science centers

around.Harry’s fascination with money and what it can buy leads not to a friendship with

Draco Malfoy who is obsessed with his empowered social, economic and racial position.

Harry chooses Ron Weasely, whose family is not only poor, but famous for being poor.

The worldly awareness of Rowling’s adolescents, rather than being an indictment on the

consumer culture of the youth or as something to mourn and worry over, can be seen as

an exploration of the potential of adolescence within the world of consumerism. It is the

presence of the Durselys that seems to be the text’s key to the paradox.
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As a wizard and an outsider in a consumerist technology-dominated environment

at home, Harry is not alone. The motif has been used in texts like Roald Dahl’s Matilda,

where the youngest child in a family, an outsider in a similar household discovers her

hidden magical abilities. Though Harry lacks rich parents (in the Muggle world), the

essential signifiers of power in contemporary children’s culture in the muggle as well as

the magical world, he is a wizard, a wizard who not only possesses the magical skills but

can wield them as a form of power; and this magical prowess is something that slips

beyond the cultural signifiers that structure the muggle as well as the magical world. As a

fantasy focusing on the adolescents with magical abilities, the series problematizes the

Symbolic order represented by commerce, economics and technology. George M O’Har

in ‘Magic in Machine Age’ points out that the conflict between magic and technology is

evolutionary in nature in which magic always loses. In terms of teleology of growth, this

‘marginalized’ or ‘lower’ knowledge of magic becomes the power of the adolescent.

Scholes’ above comment on the change of the name of the first book of the series

highlights the commercial considerations driving the success of the series; it also

highlights the presence of hidden meanings that cannot be comprehended in terms of the

symbols of commercialism. A reflection on the meaning that slipped away during the

change in the name of the book brings one back to the moment of the split instituted by

the entry into the Symbolic signifiers of commercialism, the split between the

commercial considerations that override all the concerns of the narrative and the

‘magical’ content, the persistent forces that resist complete symbolization. Though Harry

and his friends enjoy money and like to spend, Rowling takes pains to show that they are

not like Dudley. Like Dudley, Harry and his friends spend on sweets, but unlike Dudley,
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their possessions are shared. Harry buys omniculours for Ron and Hermione at

Quidditch World Cup. His winnings at Triwizard Tournament are given to the Weasley

twins to start the joke shop. Here the series seems to engage with the charges of its

compliance with rampant consumerism. It seems to emphasize the possibility of

generosity, loyalty and friendship in face of anxieties caused by the threatened erosion of

human relations and values in the current scheme of things.

Philip Nel marks out the central point in Rowling’s depiction of capitalism:

“Capitalism is amoral, but what people do with their capital does not have to be”(Is there

a text, 247) He cites the depiction of Dursleys and Malfoys in the series in relation to

Harry. In the first book, the birthday presents for Dudley include a computer, a television,

a video camera, a racing bike, remote control airplane, new computer games among many

others- the list in a way constitutes symbols of techno-culture defining contemporary

childhood. Since the Dursleys fear to appear different, their desires revolve around

culturally sanctioned possessions for growing boys like computers or videogames.

The ‘worth’ that Dudley wants out of his toys is not the use value, it is a means to

an end: power is what is signified indirectly but clearly. Similar power is associated with

magic as an alternative and more effective technology. As pointed out in the previous

chapter, the series makes a distinction between alternative technology and magic. The

first question that Draco asks on seeing Blast-Ended Skrewts is what do they do, to which

Hagrid has no answer. Hagrid’s fascination with the wild monstrous animals is assigned

to his giant blood, an aberration in a normal scheme of things. He fits in with the

creatures of the forest, he can operate in the liminal capacity of the caretaker living on the

edges of the school ground, but as a teacher is a complete misfit. Similarly, the magic
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taught at Hogwarts has little to do with spirituality or other-worldliness associated with

magical education, for instance, the rules of balance and equilibrium that Ged learns at Le

Guin’s wizard’s academy at Roke Island. At Hogwarts, the educational paradigm is

geared towards honing magic as a skill.

Similar kind of power is manifest in Harry’s inherited ‘gadgets’ like the

invisibility cloak inherited from his father and shared with the friends , the two-way

mirror given by his godfather which sends help at the right time, the marauder’s map

made by James Potter and his friends and gifted to Harry by his own friends. Harry’s

friends and aides include Hagrid, the half-giant, Remus Lupin the werewolf outcaste and

Dobby the house-elf, the slaves of the magical world. Harry’s relationships with them

transgresses the precepts of racism and politics of blood laid down by the magical world

which becomes central ideological issue in the rise of the Dark Lord

Such material awareness of children, rather than an indictment on the present age

and the passing away of the age of ‘innocence’, can be seen as an opening of another

paradigm of childhood, of a child defined in terms of his curiosities, his awareness and

his power. David Rudd contrasts the two conception of childhood – one, as the

‘constructed’ child, a child wrested from the notion of original sin and posited as a tabula

rasa, like Rousseau’s Emile whose malleability defines the infinite possibilities of the

humankind, and its other, the ‘constructive’ child, the child who frequently disrupts our

notion of amenable, obedient angel and also the pattern of growth that is envisaged for

him or her. Often such cunning and curious problem children figure prominently in

Victorian fiction as the ‘other’ of the angelic and pristine children, like the idealistic but

unconventional Maggie Tulliver or Becky Sharp, the unscrupulous picaroon who makes
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way for herself in the upper-class world, or Heathcliff and Catherine who disturb and

invite sympathy in turns. They cause unease not only because their mischief invites social

disapproval, but rather because, unlike their ‘innocent’ counterparts, they show an

awareness and also not a small amount of irreverence towards rules. Rather than

embodying the promise for future, they highlight the frailties and arbitrariness of the

cultural Symbolic that dictates the future. The curious, active and often disobedient

children signal a new form of belonging. Such deviant interpersonal associations have

potential to open new possibilities for the adolescent protagonist to construct multiple

identities and subjectivities, to make possible diverse social, sexual and emotional bonds

with others that transcend individual differences. The resultant actions and behaviours do

not amount to a type of unbounded agency where anything goes. The social sphere

maintains its diversity and fluidity as alternative way of relating to the other and being in

social world flourish.

Works Cited

Peter Applebaum. ‘Harry Potter’s World: Magic, Technoculture and Becoming

Human’ in Critical Perspectives of Harry Potter. London/New York, Routledge, 2003

Clarke, Arthur C. Profiles of the Future. New York : Warner Books, 1985

Colbert, David. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths,

Legends and Fascinating Facts. London : Puffin, 2003

Craig, Jeffrey M. , Dow, Renee and Aitken, MaryAnne. “Harry Potter and the
Recessive Allele”. Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science. August 2005. 7
April, 2006 <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7052/full/436776a.html>
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Rowling, Joanne Kathleen. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone London:
Bloomsbury, 1997

Rowling, Joanne Kathleen. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London:
Bloomsbury, 1998

Rowling, Joanne Kathleen. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London:
Bloomsbury, 1999

Rowling, Joanne Kathleen. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire London:
Bloomsbury, 2000

Rowling, Joanne Kathleen. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. London:
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