Comparison Of Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone: Myth or Not?
Mythology is all around us. Myths can be found in the books, magazines, billboards, advertisements and probably even in that movie everyone’s talking about and you are dying to watch. Myths shaped the world we live in today and affect all sorts of media in ways we can’t imagine. If you’re wondering how a bunch of stories ancient civilizations made up to make sense of the world could be connected to anything in the modern world, you’re probably not the only one. But to understand how all these modern day things are connected to myths we must know about archetypes first.
Archetypes are very special symbols. Arch means original and type stands for stand or model. An archetype …show more content…
He compared the myths to some of the modern day stories as well and he found that all the heroes go through the same process over and over. He called this the monomyth. In ‘a hero with a thousand faces’, Joseph Campbell’s pointed out the seventeen stages an archetypal hero must go through. Famous examples of movies based upon these stages are ‘the Matrix and ‘Star Wars’. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is also a monomyth since is utilises many if not most of the stages of monomyth that a lot of myths also used.
There are three major phases to the stories in mythology, based on Joseph Campbell’s work and documented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. These phases are Separation, Initiation and Return. Campbell also noted that there were some key story elements that went into these phases. Harry, as the Hero, goes through these elements in ‘Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone’ as many heroes of past myths did, starting with his call to …show more content…
The magical flight is the return train back to the muggle world. Although in mythology the magical flight is often violent and full of conflict, in Harry’s case it was a peaceful ride on the hogwards express. The elements of Master of the Two Worlds and Freedom to Live was not achieved by our hero in the first book and will not be until book seven of the series.
J.K. Rowling also used various archetypes in not only ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, but throughout the entire series. Some of easy ones to spot are the use of situational archetypes of ‘battle between the good and evil’ and the ‘unhealable wound’(Harry’s Scar). She also used the character archetypes of ‘the mentor’ in form of Dumbledore, Hagrid as ‘the friendly beast’, and ‘the shadow’ (Dementors) and ‘the devil figure’ (Voldemort) ,and symbolic archetypes of the owl (Hedgewig) and the snake (Nagini).
One of the harder archetypes to spot would be the shape of Harry’s scar, the thunderbolt, which being the symbol Zeus symbolizes great power but great destruction and tragedy. The star-crossed lovers would be Lupin and Tonks, another of the harder to find archetypes hiding in
Mythology is all around us. Myths can be found in the books, magazines, billboards, advertisements and probably even in that movie everyone’s talking about and you are dying to watch. Myths shaped the world we live in today and affect all sorts of media in ways we can’t imagine. If you’re wondering how a bunch of stories ancient civilizations made up to make sense of the world could be connected to anything in the modern world, you’re probably not the only one. But to understand how all these modern day things are connected to myths we must know about archetypes first.
Archetypes are very special symbols. Arch means original and type stands for stand or model. An archetype …show more content…
He compared the myths to some of the modern day stories as well and he found that all the heroes go through the same process over and over. He called this the monomyth. In ‘a hero with a thousand faces’, Joseph Campbell’s pointed out the seventeen stages an archetypal hero must go through. Famous examples of movies based upon these stages are ‘the Matrix and ‘Star Wars’. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is also a monomyth since is utilises many if not most of the stages of monomyth that a lot of myths also used.
There are three major phases to the stories in mythology, based on Joseph Campbell’s work and documented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. These phases are Separation, Initiation and Return. Campbell also noted that there were some key story elements that went into these phases. Harry, as the Hero, goes through these elements in ‘Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone’ as many heroes of past myths did, starting with his call to …show more content…
The magical flight is the return train back to the muggle world. Although in mythology the magical flight is often violent and full of conflict, in Harry’s case it was a peaceful ride on the hogwards express. The elements of Master of the Two Worlds and Freedom to Live was not achieved by our hero in the first book and will not be until book seven of the series.
J.K. Rowling also used various archetypes in not only ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, but throughout the entire series. Some of easy ones to spot are the use of situational archetypes of ‘battle between the good and evil’ and the ‘unhealable wound’(Harry’s Scar). She also used the character archetypes of ‘the mentor’ in form of Dumbledore, Hagrid as ‘the friendly beast’, and ‘the shadow’ (Dementors) and ‘the devil figure’ (Voldemort) ,and symbolic archetypes of the owl (Hedgewig) and the snake (Nagini).
One of the harder archetypes to spot would be the shape of Harry’s scar, the thunderbolt, which being the symbol Zeus symbolizes great power but great destruction and tragedy. The star-crossed lovers would be Lupin and Tonks, another of the harder to find archetypes hiding in