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Harry Potter and Marxism

“One day every child in the world will know his name”. This one sentence describes the

Harry Potter series, perfectly. This series has been such a huge part of many childhoods,

including my own. “Potterheads” are a product of the series. Many people are proud to be a part

of this group. As a part of this group, I love and revere J.K. Rowling as an author. She created a

magical world in which anything is possible.

There have been so many conjectures about the series through the years. Tumblr,

Pinterest, and Facebook are platforms for many people to come and talk about these different

theories. So many people have looked at almost all the different aspects of the series. I want to

look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows through the literary lens of Marxism.

In Harry Potter, there are some examples of the Marxist theory. Some of these are the

Ministry of Magic’s new policies and decorations, the different classes of wizards, and the

serving classes of the magical community. According to Merriam-Webster.com the Marxist

theory is “a theory and practice of socialism including...the class struggle, and dictatorship of the

proletariat until the establishment of a classless society.” Generally, this theory looks at the

comparisons and differences between two different groups. Usually this is between a lower class

and an upper class. It explores the “clash of the classes.” There are so many examples of this in

Harry Potter.

The first example in The Deathly Hallows is how the Ministry of Magic changes under

the terror of Voldemort. At one point in the book, the golden trio has to break into the Ministry

of Magic to recover a Horcrux from Dolores Umbridge. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione walk

into the Ministry, there is a statue in the atrium of the building. There are a couple of wizards

sitting on a throne being held up. Harry explains it in this quote:

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“Harry looked more closely and realised...were actually mounds of carved humans:

hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies...pressed together to support the weight of the

handsomely robed wizards.

‘Muggles,’ whispered Hermione, ‘In their rightful place’” (Deathly Hallows 199).

This is a representation of what is happening in the magical government and what happens when

one class tries to triumph over another. The new Ministry policy is that all muggles and

muggleborns are beneath wizards and the only reason for them is to help wizards become more

powerful. This type of thinking has been around as long as civilization. There always has to be a

bourgeois and a proletariat. In this example, the power struggle between the two groups is shown

through the oppression of the muggleborns and muggles.

Another example of the Marxist theory in action is the different classes of the wizards. In

all of the books, there are three divisions of wizards and witches: pureblood, half-blood, and

muggleborns. In the last book, all of the muggleborns are being accused of “stealing” magic

from purebloods. At one point of the book, Dolores Umbridge starts to question a muggleborn

woman. Umbridge asks her about her family and parents. She asks her: “Could you please tell us

from which witch or wizard you took that wand?” (The Deathly Hallows 214). The victim said

that she did not steal it. No matter what the victim answered, he or she would be subjected to

torture and pain just because their parents were not magical. This kind of genocide always brings

to mind World War II. In this comparison, the Ministry of Magic are the Nazis and the

muggleborns are the Jews. There was no sense to any of the killings in the Holocaust. And in

Harry Potter, there is no real sense to the torturing of the muggleborns. One group tried to

dominate another and both situations led to a war. I am not at all equating the two events. But

just using World War II and Harry Potter to help people understand the Marxist theory. Fictional
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worlds should not detract from the tragedy of real events. Harry Potter is a beloved series and it

can help people understand world events through comparison.

Marxism is shown in more than just the “bad” characters. It can even be shown in a

beloved character of the series. Sirius Black, gave Harry this insight to him at one point. “If you

want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals”

(The Goblet of Fire). One of the “inferiors” that Sirius was talking about were the house elves.

They are slaves of the wizarding community. In the whole series, the only two wizards to really

treat the elves as equals are Harry and Hermione because most other witches and wizards grew

up knowing about house elves. The class system they embody is the servant/slave class. They

have no rights to society or their bodies. There are many instances in the series that a house elf

has to punish themselves for something they did wrong. Usually the infraction does not meet the

punishment and they have to inflict bodily pain. In the very last battle, the house elves of

Hogwarts help out and work with the wizards to defeat the Death Eaters and Voldemort. This

shows that even the lowest of the low can help out for what they think is right. The series

showcases many instances of the proletariat overcoming the bourgeois. Every time Harry beats

Voldemort or any of his followers, it is an example of this. Marxism helps readers interpret the

story of Harry Potter in a very unique way.

The Harry Potter series is such an interesting series. There are so many subtleties and

undercurrents to the whole series. Using literary theories yields even more insight into many

stories. Marxism allows a reader to view Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a whole new

way. There are so many undercurrents to the series that one would not usually pick up on the

first time reading it. Literary theories help a reader understand these things in a whole different

way.