论文总字数：26770字

摘 要

由英国著名女作家J.K.罗琳的编写的《哈利波特》系列小说已经是现代最流行的魔幻小说之一。西方很多的文学作品都和神话或者宗教原型相联系。罗琳本人也深受基督教的影响。因此，本文尝试从荣格的原型理论入手，深入挖掘小说的主要人物包括哈利波特，邓布利多教授以及伏地魔的圣经原型和情节原型包括爱，怀疑和乐园等的圣经原型。在原型分析的基础上初步探索罗琳的宗教观,分析罗琳对爱，正义，诱惑的理解以及对宗教信仰回归的期待,帮助人们理解生活意义。

关键词：《哈利波特》 ；圣经原型；宗教观

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Research Done in China 2

2.2 Research Done Abroad 2

3. Archetypes in Main Characters 3

3.1 Lord Voldemort: The Archetypal Shadow 3

3.2 Harry Potter: An Archetypal A Hero 4

3.3 Albus Dumbledore: The Archetypal A Father And A Wise Old Man 5

4. Archetypes in Plots 6

4.1 Suspect and Believe 6

4.2 Love 7

4.3 Temptation and Test 8

4.4 Paradise 8

5. Tentative Study on J.K.Rowling’s Religious View 9

6. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 11

1. Introduction

J.K.Rowing is a famous English writer who created Harry Potter series novels. When the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher"s Stone was published in 1997, it became bestseller and attracted a large number of people to study throughout the world. And there are over 70 kinds of version all over the world. The writer followed the first novel with several sequels: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which mainly describe the protagonist, a child hero, Harry Potter"s whole life in the magical school “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”.

As Liang Gong said in his book, The Holy Bible has become the endless source of western writers to borrow and quote. And Jeffrey David Lyle also thinks that without The Holy Bible, it was impossible for western literature works to be so famous. As a Christian, Joann Kathleen Rowling is such a famous writer with a strong sense of bible. As what she said, she went to church alone. She found it very interesting what was being said there, and she believed in it. Though she never claimed that her novels were affected by The Holy Bible, we can find there is the closest connection between Harry Potter series and The Holy Bible according to its details plots and so on. All of these can reflect Rowling’s religious view. This essay will analyze this religious view from the perspective of main character and plot archetypes.

Edward Burnett Tylor first put forward the archetypal. In 1890, J.G.Frazer published The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, which was regarded as the basic work of archetypal theory. And this theory was explained more intensively in Jung’s collective unconsciousness theory. In Jung"s view, the essence of literature is to reflect collective unconscious. The process of writing is the process of activating certain archetype. Writers transform the collective unconscious imagination to be accepted and understood by modern people. He thinks there are a lot of archetypes. Among these, the self, the shadow, the anima, and the animus are four major archetypes. The self is God"s image, the regulation center of the psyche and facilitator of individuation. The shadow is the personification of dark side of human"s personality, which we deny in ourselves and project onto others. The anima is the feminine image in a man"s psyche, and the animus is the masculine image in a woman"s psyche(Zhu Wenqiong,2011: 63). This paper will study on J.K.Rowling’s religious view from some of these archetypes.

2. Literature Review

Since Harry Potter Series was published on 30 June 1997, they have attracted many scholars to study it with many angles of art and literary theories. As to the comments of literature, period can be divided mainly into two parts: one is research done in China, the other is research done abroad.

2.1 Research Done in China

In China, most people study Harry Potter from about two aspects includes children literature, religious story. Ye Shuxian is the first one who studied Harry Potter in China. He analyzes it from the perspective of literary anthropology which reveals us a revival of Celtic culture throughout the world. There are no some new points till recent years. People analyze it from perspective of children literature and religious works. But all of these points have no relation to archetypal theory.

Till 2010, Chinese scholars began to study Harry Potter with archetypal theory. In 2011, Liubo published an essay to analyze the Bible archetypes in Harry Potter.

2.2 Research Done Abroad

Studies on Harry Potter series in western can be divided into 4 periods. The first period is from 1997 to 1999. In 1997, Lindsey Fraser said in his passage issued by Scotsman that J.K.Rowling’s creative use of classical narration tells us a thrilling complex story which is thought provoking. After publishing in the United States, it is also well received .The second period is from 1999 to 2000. In 1999, Charles Taylor pointed that Harry Potter and the Philosopher"s Stone is one of the adults-reading children"s literatures, because of its realistic thinking and ingenious complexity of characterization. In this period, Rowling"s novels attracted the attention of the feminist literary criticism “In its extreme form feminist literary theory regards literature solely as a political expression of the relationship between sexes. The author"s context and intentions are completely irrelevant and are considered only to the extent to which they confirm the negative position of women within the patriarchal structure of power. Instead of the author"s context, it is the reader"s context that is examined from the feminist perspective(Zhang Ying, 2002: 9). The third period is from 2000 when the forth book published. Scholars start to study Harry Potter with Serious academic thinking and diverse academic perspective and the study of Harry Potter begin to return to the text and to a diverse academic research. And the fourth period is from 2002 to the present. In 2002, the first book of research papers The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter : Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon edited by Lana A. White was published in which the author said that the literary value of J.K.Rowling"s Potter books should be studied in a comprehensive multi-level.

To sum up, western research on J. K. Rowling becomes diverse and it is difficult to master the concrete direction. And research in China still stays in the superficial paraphrasing and book review on the relationships of names between series of the Potter books and The Holy Bible without any further study. This thesis paper will concentrate on archetypal analysis. And it shows us Rowling’s religious view which neither a Chinese nor a western scholar has studied.

3. Archetypes in Main Characters

Many fantasy novels are full of character archetypes. In Harry Potter, we can easily find that there are lots of character archetypes. Besides above four main archetypes, there are some other archetypes, such as the father, a family archetype, which stands for stern powerful and controlling; the hero, a story archetype, represents the rescuer and champion; the wise old man, who is knowledgeable; and the shadow, which means dark sides of human nature.

3.1 Lord Voldemort: The Archetypal Shadow

Shadow is one of the most basic archetypes in Jung"s theory. And the shadow is not only an archetype but also a part of the personality.

As a part of personality, the shadow is the dark side of personality that contains the animal instincts. It is the opposite of the persona and is the part of personality that is repressed from the ego ideal (Zhu Wenqiong, 2011: 63). As a literary archetype, the Shadow is the “bad guy” of the story, the presentation of the “dark side” of things. It comprise everything the conscious personality experiences as negative. In literature works, the shadow is always represented by devils, demons, and evil spirits and so on.

In Harry Potter series, Harry, of course, is the representative of human nature. And Voldemort is clearly the opposite of it. The name Voldemort derived from the French words vo de mort, which means “fly from death”. He is the number one enemy of decent wizards and the murderer of Potter"s parents: Lily and William. He is a successor of S1ytherin, a famous wizard family, so he has outstanding magic talent. But he hate Muggles, he aims to kill all Muggles and to contribute pure wizard world. He organized a dark team called “Death Eater” Voldemort is known as the “Dark Lord” by his follower. ‘Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes, and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s, with slits for nostrils ... (Rowling 2004: 558). All of these can reflect how dark he is. Even when he is disappeared, people dare not call his name. Voldemort is the archetypal evil—Satan.

Satan, Fallen Angel in Bible, was one of the angels who followed God. But he hate human. Gradually, he betrayed God and became a devil. He is the ruler of dark world and the leader of transnatural power. He is an evil spirits and has extraordinary super power as God. Like Satan, Voldemort, a powerful enemy of Dumbledore, is a dark wizard and the leader of Death Eaters. He has great ambition, which helped him get to the top of the right. He adheres to the theory of pure blood. He hates Muggles so aims to wrap out all none-pure blood wizards. With his control, wizard world engaged in the terrorist.

Besides, Voldemort has close connection to snake. Or we can even recognize him as a snake. In the Bible, snake is representative of Satan.

All of these are pertinent to what Jung"s theory mentioned about the shadow. Even the writer Rowling herself admitted that when developing such a character, she described Voldemort as a “raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people"s suffering” (Zhu Wenqiong,2011: 66 ).

3.2 Harry Potter: An Archetypal A Hero

According to Jung"s theory of archetype, the hero archetype is very board. It doesn"t like some typical heroes such as Spiderman, Superman or Batman. In fact, all heroes have something in common.

First, heroes usually were born in dangerous circumstances. So does Harry Potter. When he was just a little baby, he lost his parents and survived from the murder. He is the boy who lived. His survival also weakened Voldemort"s power. Second, heroes always have difficult childhoods. They often leave their family and live with others. Young Harry is obviously corresponding to this point. After his parents dead, he should be adopted by his non-magical relatives to keep him from Voldemort. But in fact, he was never treated as a normal child. His bedroom is the cupboard under the stairs and his toys are his bullying cousin"s. He didn"t know what he really is until he got the certificate of admission to Hogwalts. Thirdly, there must be a large amount of difficulties in the process of heroes" growth. When Harry comes to school, he got the chance to prove himself. But here, he faced more difficulties. He didn"t know why all teachers like him except Snap. Every year in Hogwalts, the young boy faced with the test of life. To accomplish his mission, he had to solve many tough problems even at the cost of his life. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, though he knew he must die, to save others, he still appeared and fought against Voldemort, that"s what a hero really should do.

What will be will be, what is gone is gone. Both Potter and Jesus doom to live an unpeaceful life. Both of them were expected to save the life. They have the similar mission and experience. They were born in a wicked and dark social. When Harry was a child, he was expected by some people and was hostile by other people so as Messiah, that is Christ. In Harry Potter, the protagonist Harry was born as an infant in swaddling clothes for greatness and salvation. With a scar on his head, the boy who lived began his adventure life in magic world. At the same time, the little boy undertook a hard task, to beat Voldemort and protect magic world. In fact, as a child without any experience, it’s impossibility for Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort. He had to face all kinds of difficulties. The same as Harry Potter, Jesus was born with an important heavy responsibility, which is to save human. Neither Jesus nor Potter chose to live away from the suffering. Both of them were back from the death, as the chosen heroes, both of them eventually beat the evil spirit. They accomplished their mission.

3.3 Albus Dumbledore: The Archetypal A Father And A Wise Old Man

As I said before, a father and a wise old man are two archetypes according to Jung. And a wise old man often appears in many literature works. Usually, a wise old man, is represented by a wise, kind, old father who offers guidance. He may be like a teacher and help his students to know who they are and who they should be. He just likes the God in the Bible. Albus Dumbledore is a headmaster of magical school “Hogwarts”. He is a “tall, thin and old man” with “light, bright, blue eyes, sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it has been broken at least twice”(Rowling 2004: 12). He is always wearing “long robes, a purple cloak the swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled hoots” (Rowling 2004: 12). These descriptions give readers an impression of a wise old man or we can say God. He knows what happened before and what will happen later. He predicted Lord Voldemort would be back several years later. So he protected Harry all the time. Besides, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, he guided Harry personally and found deathly hollows together with Harry. This time, he lost his life. To accomplish his mission, Harry sticked to leave Hogwarts and to find deathly hallows alone, which proved that as a wise old man, Albus plays a great important role in Harry"s life.

God is father of all living creature. In Harry Potter, Dumbledore acts as Harry’s father. Harry lost his parent when he was born. As his guardian, Uncle Vernon never treated him as his own son. And he was bullied by his cousin Dudley every day. At this time, Albus Dumbledore came. He loves Harry and helped Harry like a father. In Hogwarts, Harry got love from Albus which he never got. “I care about you too much,” said Dumbledore simply. “I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan be failed.”(Rowling 2004: 739). In this point, Albus represented as Harry"s father. In fact, as the headmaster of Hogwarts, he looks every student as his own child.

Dumbledore guards Hogwarts like God protects his children. He is the most important person in Hogwarts. Even when he died, he still helped Harry Potter with his picture protect magic world, which means that though Dumbledore"s body is dead, he still had a great effect on all of wizards.

4. Archetypes in Plots

4.1 Suspect and Believe

In the Bible, suspect can be seen everywhere. When Jesus said he was the son of God, there are a few people trust him. Even his brother Peter, who determined to followed him firmly, ever suspected him in a stormy night. And when he was crucified, Peter denied him three times. With the same narrative framework, in Harry Potter, Harry’s followers were suspect him when he said Voldemort was back. Ron Wesley, one of the best friends of Harry Potter. He even gave himself up to help Harry several times. But not everyone can always keep the faith. Ron once suspected Harry when they looked for the deathly hallows. “It’s not like I’m not having the time of my life here. You know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. We thought you knew what you were doing. We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do. We thought you had a real plan” (Rowling 2004: 252). Like Peter, Ron left his friends and back home alone. Jesus is philanthropic. He can foresee Peter’s behavior and forgive him. When Ron realized what he did, he was so guilty. With the help of Dumbledore, he returned to follow and help Harry.

4.2 Love

One of the best illustrations of Rowling’s religious view is love. Love is an important theme of The Holy Bible. It is the basement of Christian. Just as what the Holy Bible says ‘Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Charity never faileth(James 1991: 1023).’ In Harry Potter series, love has been a leading thread throughout the story, from Harry’s birth to Voldemort’s death. Love is spiritual pillar of Harry. With the protection of Lily’s love, Harry, the boy who lived, survived from Avada Kedavra, one of the unforgivable curses that no one can escape. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, Quirrell could not touch Harry’s bare skin. As what Dumbledore said,’ if there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leave its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign...to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever (Rowling 2004: 216). It is true, love is great. And this was proved when he fighted with Voldemort later. When Harry was almost killed by Voldemort, his parents always appeared in time. Except for parents love, Harry’s success also depended on love of his friends and his teachers. In Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, though everyone thought Harry was dead, his friend Neville Longbottom still resisted Voldemort and killed Nagini regardless of the danger. Just about Neville’s action, Harry could kill Voldemort absolutely. In addition, Dumbledore loved Harry more than himself. He always tried his best to keep Harry from the danger. To protect Harry, he was willing to sacrifice his own life. Rowling showed different kinds of love in her novel. The author thinks that Rowling wants to prove the importance of love.

4.3 Temptation and Test

Life is full of temptation and test. In the Bible, ‘temptation’ has its special meaning. In the beginning, the snake told Eve to eat the apple form the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So they were expelled from the Garden Eden. Before Jesus was crucified, he was tempted by Satan three times and he resisted. First, Satan tempted Jesus to suspect the relationship to God. And then the devil told him to tempt God. Again, the devil take Jesus up into an exceeding high mountain, and show him all the kingdoms of the world, and glory of them, and said to him, all these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Harry Potter is full of temptation, too. The first temptation when Harry faced is in the Sorting Ceremony. The Sorting Hat wanted to assign Harry to Slytherin because of his talent. Harry knew that in Slytherin, he could be great and there he could get what he wanted, he resisted. He chose friends and kindness. Besides, as an orphan, what Harry desired most was to keep his parents company. When he found the function of the mirror of Erised, which shows us the deepest thought of our mind, most desperate desire of our hearts, he thought nothing but to stay with it. After reading the Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, he shook his head. Some inner certainty has crashed down inside him. But no matter how much test did he faced, he still proceeded with confidence at last and defeated Voldemort.

4.4 Paradise

Eden in the Holy Bible is a perfect place. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden and put the man Adam who he had formed. A river went out of Eden to water the garden; every tree is pleasant to the sight; and the food is good. It is paradise for Adam and Eva. In Harry Potter, J.K.Rowling also creates Eden, that is an ideal magic world Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Any wizard can use the magic there. It is a free world with love, especially for Harry Potter. Before Harry was 11 he lived with his aunt in the Muggle world where he could not do any strange things and no one cared about him. He was regarded as a freak. His cousin often made fun of him. He was locked in the cabinet frequently and he spent his childhood in maltreat. But in the Hogwarts, people liked him and he had many good friends. Even in the holiday, Harry didn’t want to go home. In Harry’s view, Hogwarts was his home. It was paradise for him forever. Though in this magical world, there are the forces of evil, the fight with Voldemort was the process of purification. In this novel, Muggle world is a utilitarianism world. Everyone in this word is addicted to the material like the Dursley. They pursue the profit of the market and comfortable life. Gradually, they lose the sense of respect and mystique to the nature. Rowling expresses her expectation of religious spirit by contrasting the Muggle and the magic world. She wants to awaken people to the sense of religion.

5. Tentative Study on J.K.Rowling’s Religious View

As a Christian, the writer J.K.Rowling was greatly affected by Christianity. In this thesis, biblical archetypes in Harry Potter are studied according to C.G Jung"s theory of archetypes. From these archetypes, we can get a general knowledge of the writer’s religious view. The Bible emphasizes the importance of righteousness. In the end of the Holy Bible, Satan was thrown into a lake of the fire burning with brimstone. As Satan in the Bible, Voldemort was defeated by Potter at last. According to this archetype, J.K.Rowling expressed her view of righteousness: good triumphing over evil. In addition, love is an important theme of The Holy Bible. It is the basement of Christian. Many archetypes in plot can indicate Rowling’s view of love. From the archetype in plot, we can easily find that it is love of parents, friends and teachers that helped Harry to win. In Rowling’s novel, love is great. No love, no life. Besides, the Bible is full of temptation. As what I said before, temptation and test are everywhere in Rowling’ novel, too. Harry was tempted by power and some other things. Only the one who can resist it and keep the faith can get through difficulties what he face. The 20^th century is a boom period of economy and technology. More and more people were left spiritually barren. Even Rowling herself threw doubt on religion. The comparison between the magic world and the real world in Harry Potter series just reflect Rowling’s expectation of religious belief regression.

6. Conclusion

Rowling reproduced people and society in her works. Though the novels were defined as child literature, they were not just created according to writer"s imagination. Harry Potter series inherits more traditional archetypes from The Holy Bible both in characters and in plots. The usage of biblical archetypes can not only help readers enjoy the magic atmosphere but also help them understand the beauty, the good and the true meaning of the life. What’s more, these archetypes provide us a theory to try to do a tentative exploration in J.K.Rowling’s religious view, including the view of righteousness, love, temptation and so on. Good triumphing evil, in this world, we should believe the power of love and resist temptation. It is precisely because these eternal archetypes that promotes the success of Harry Potter.

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