“Riddikulus with Elise & Sydney” is a column about the Harry Potter series. A new column is posted every other Wednesday. Columns may contain spoilers.
One of our English teachers once told us that every good novel has a Christ figure. The more we thought about this concept, the more we agreed.
As we mentally sorted through every novel that we had genuinely enjoyed, we realized that each one contained a character that exemplified the character of Christ.
Characters such as Sofya “Sonia” Marmeladov (Crime and Punishment), Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings) and, most relevantly, Harry Potter mirror Christ in that they are almost completely selfless and endure pain for the sake of others.
Don’t get us wrong, we are certainly not suggesting that any of these characters are equal to Christ. However, their selfless actions for the good of others somewhat resemble Christ’s sacrifices for humanity.
In the Harry Potter series, the Christ figure is, not surprisingly, Harry himself. Similar to Christ, prophecies predicted Harry’s life before he was even born. However, rather than sending wise men to verify the information, Voldemort had quickly attempted to murder Harry in order to prevent the prophecy from coming true.
Obviously, Harry survives. If he had not, there would be no books.
The first eleven years of Harry’s life were fairly uneventful. He did not begin to fulfill his “destiny” until his eleventh birthday. That is where the story begins.
There had been a great deal of resistance against Harry’s movement to combat the Death Eaters (Voldemort’s followers), just as Christ encountered opposition to his purpose. However, rather than preaching, Harry was fighting to keep evil forces at bay.
The most obvious parallel is Harry’s sacrifice toward the end of the final battle. Because of the desperate circumstances, he believes that he must die to defeat Voldemort. He therefore allows Voldemort to kill him in order to ultimately defeat him.
While Harry doesn’t exactly die and rise again in three days (that would be way too obvious), he willingly embraces the idea of death. He intentionally walks into a situation where he believes the only way to save the wizarding world is to die without fighting back. Sound familiar?
While some people point fingers and say that this is due to a lack of originality rather than good writing, we disagree. There are practically no original plot lines left. And even if there were, they would probably be way too convoluted to keep up with. Yes, Christ figures have been done before. Does that make using them “copying”? Absolutely not!
These characters are vital to the plot of most successful novels (there are a few exceptions). They show the deepest portrayals of love, which gives the reader a deeper attachment to them.
It is also important to point out that the Christ figure is not always the protagonist. Even though that is the case in Harry Potter, it is not typical of other novels. Most authors portray a side character as a Christ figure, and others simply do not create any to play this role.
Some well-known classics, such as The Great Gatsby, do not have such characters but still manage to draw their readers in. However, Christ figures add a deeper element to a story, for they demonstrate the most selfless act of love: self-sacrifice.
For the previous installment, read the Nov. 17 column, Riddikulus with Elise & Sydney: The premiere.
