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Bills
Anna Bills
Dr. Mallory-Kani
EN 3414
April 18th, 2017
The Cost of Power and What It Means to be Human
J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series expresses the traits and values that have
traditionally been considered masculine or feminine by society in a unique way—not simply
through the expected division of male and female, but through the dichotomy of good versus
evil, and light versus dark. Throughout the Harry Potter series, feminine and masculine
characteristics symbolize the warring sides of light and dark, and emphasize the stark contrasts
between the two sides. Those who align themselves with the Light often possess characteristics
that society would normally associate with females, such as feelings of love, empathy, and
selflessness, whereas their enemy possesses more masculine traits and values, such as a desire
for power and an outright denial of anything that could be perceived as a weakness. An
unexpected result of this unique characterization is that there is a wide assortment of female and
male characters who possess traditionally feminine traits and values, and vice versa.
Some critics accuse Rowling of emphasizing and perpetuating the stereotypical gender
roles within society, as evidenced in the greater number of important male characters to
important female characters and their characterization. The boys are typically described as fun-
loving and independent, and the girls are simply viewed as helpers or “silly.” In Anne Collins
Smith’s “Harry Potter, Radical Feminism, and the Power of Love,” critic Heilman claims that
this, along with her “tendency to depict girl students in groups” rather than as individuals,
reinforces perceived stereotypes of girls as communal and noncompetitive (Smith, 84).
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However, others argue that it is the opposite, and that Rowling actually subverts expected gender
roles, emphasizing the importance of both genders in society through the appearance of equally
powerful female characters, a notable example being Hermione Granger. This is especially true
with her female villains, such as Bellatrix Lestrange, who command equal if not greater respect
than their male counterparts and adhere to the same masculine ideals as their leader, Lord
Voldemort.
Although I agree with the arguments above, I wish to take the discussion a step further.
As well as associating the sides of good and evil with feminine and masculine values, I argue
that this characterization represents a vital component of what it means to be human. The
characters who lack these feminine traits or value only masculine values begin to lose sight of
what truly makes them human, and those who deny these traits will lose their humanity
altogether. I argue that through this idea, Rowling illustrates the importance of valuing both
feminine and masculine traits in modern society; if one is valued more than the other, society
becomes weaker as a result, and we lose a part of us that is vital to humanity: our capacity to
love and to feel remorse. Those who lack these crucial feelings become something less, morally
and physically devolving into a being that can no longer be considered human. Through a close
examination of the opposing characters Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter, and then the powerful
female figures Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange, I will show how the presence or lack of
these feminine traits, like love and remorse, sets them apart as human and nonhuman.
Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter are characters that have a shocking amount of
similarities: both were orphaned as boys, both grew up in environments devoid of love, and both
act as figureheads for their respective sides. Yet despite these similarities, there is one key
difference that separates them. Voldemort views his magical heritage as a tool through which to
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gain power and control over himself and over others, Harry views his magical heritage as a
connection to his lost family. Whereas Voldemort seeks power and control above all else, a goal
that would be considered masculine in nature, young Harry Potter yearns for love and acceptance
and opens his heart to his newfound friends. Ultimately, Harry chooses love over power, and in
doing so he chooses to embrace feminine values over masculine ideals.
Critics have noted that when given a choice between two actions, with one being the
more “masculine” choice and the other feminine, Harry often acts in a way that would typically
be perceived as feminine. Choosing mercy over vengeance, selflessness over selfishness, and
seeking love instead of power—all would be viewed as the “softer” choice. The more masculine
decision would be the action that would give Harry more control or power, such as seeking
revenge. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, during a confrontation with the man believed to be
responsible for his parents’ deaths, instead of seeking vengeance Harry “stood frozen” with his
“wand poised,” yet unable to kill him (PA, 342-43). When it came down to a choice between
enacting vengeance or granting mercy, Harry chooses mercy, unable to kill Sirius Black in cold
blood; shortly after, Harry chooses mercy yet again when he stops Remus Lupin and Sirius Black
from killing Peter Pettigrew so that his dad’s best friends would not “become killers—just for
[Pettigrew]” (376). In both cases, Harry had every reason to choose vengeance, yet he did not.
His hatred of the man responsible for his parents’ deaths did not disappear, but Harry did not
want to take a life, perhaps recognizing that giving in to the desire for revenge would forever
change him. In Irene Visser’s study investigating consciously and subconsciously held
conceptions of gender, dominance and a desire for power both ranked high as traits commonly
associated with masculinity. As such men in society today are expected, even encouraged, to act
in ways that would help them demonstrate their power and supremacy. Many of the decisions
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that Harry makes go against these expectations, from offering mercy to his parents’ killer to
offering redemption to Lord Voldemort during their final duel. Despite everything that had
occurred in his life due to Lord Voldemort’s thirst for power, Harry Potter still gives him one last
chance for redemption, if Voldemort would only feel some kind of remorse for the suffering he
had caused.
In sharp contrast to Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort fully embraces masculine values and
traits to the point that he has become a “hypermasculine” figure, obsessed with acquiring power,
cementing his place in the world and denying anything that in his eyes would make him weak—
feelings of love, compassion, and true sorrow (Smith, 90). However, with such a heavy focus on
masculine power, Voldemort has begun to lose touch with his humanity and inadvertently
weakened himself to those same weak values. Love is a weakness to Voldemort, and anyone
who believes in its supposed power and worth is a fool. Yet it is apparent that up until his
resurrection in The Goblet of Fire Voldemort suffers from a dire weakness to love and feelings
similar to it—he is unable to even touch Harry during their first confrontation because he is “so
full of the force he detests” left over from his mother’s selfless sacrifice (OP, 844). Even after
his resurrection, Voldemort is unable to comprehend love’s worth or why one would ever risk
his/her life for it, and so he is unable to overcome the Light. Although Voldemort’s weakness to
feminine values has been discussed before with a primary focus on love as “the power [he]
knows not,” there has been little attention given to another feminine trait that has contributed to
his loss of humanity: remorse (841).
As with love, the concept of remorse is completely foreign to Lord Voldemort because it
is related in part to the idea of forgiveness and sorrow. To feel remorse, it is necessary to feel
truly sorry for whatever it is that you have done, as well as have a desire to be forgiven for your
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mistakes. Lord Voldemort feels neither of these things. Even in his younger years, Voldemort
was a strangely apathetic child, reserved and polite during his first meeting with Albus
Dumbledore, but showing little surprise when Dumbledore reveals his magical heritage.
Voldemort already knows that he can “do things” that the other boys can not—he can control
animals and people, and he can “make them hurt, if [he] wants” (HBP, 125). All of this is stated
emotionlessly, a fact that greatly disturbs Dumbledore. Voldemort, even as a child, saw nothing
wrong with his actions for he believed he was justified in them. The other children had bullied
him, so he hurt them back. Offering forgiveness is unthinkable, and feeling remorse is
unimaginable; Voldemort “[does] not forgive” and he “[does] not forget,” for in doing so he
would essentially be yielding control to another person, and above all else, Voldemort abhors
losing control (GF, 649). Even his loyal followers are not safe from Voldemort’s lack of
forgiveness for the slightest mistake is punished remorselessly with a torture curse at the very
least, and death at the very worse.
This complete lack of remorse is even more obvious after his resurrection as his actions
become more reckless, fueled by a desire for the power he believes can only be gained with the
defeat of Harry Potter. As long as Voldemort is able to gain power, it did not matter who
suffered in the process. “‘I regret it,’” Voldemort had claimed at the death of Severus Snape,
however “there [is] no sadness in him, no remorse” at Snape’s passing—a death he himself had
orchestrated (DH, 656). Snape’s death is but a necessary loss so that Voldemort may finally gain
mastery over the Elder Wand, a wand rumored to grant unimaginable power to its wielder,
symbolizing the ultimate masculine objective. In contrast to Harry’s actions, Voldemort acts in
the way that will allow him to gain the most power, indifferent to the suffering he causes those
around him. It did not matter to Voldemort that up until that point, Severus Snape had acted as
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one of his most loyal Death Eaters. In the end, he was simply a tool, a means to an end, and as
soon as Snape became an obstacle between Voldemort and his power, Voldemort killed him. As
his thirst for power grows at a rapid rate, his moral devolution becomes even more apparent and
he undergoes drastic physical changes.
At the height of his power, Lord Voldemort is described as extremely handsome and
charismatic enough to charm Helena Ravenclaw into giving him her mother’s diadem. After his
resurrection, the radical physical change gives tangible evidence of his decreasing connection to
humanity as his inhumanness is now emphasized by “livid scarlet eyes” and a nose as “flat as a
snake’s with slits for nostrils” (GF, 643). Voldemort’s single minded focus the acquisition of
power drives out whatever capacity he might have had to comprehend love, to offer forgiveness,
or to feel remorse, and as this capacity is lost, so is whatever remains of his humanity. This
comes to a head during the Final Battle in The Deathly Hallows. When Harry Potter is hit with
the killing curse, he is sent to a kind of limbo where he is able to speak to the late Albus
Dumbledore; yet, Harry is distracted by strange noises coming from what appeared to be “a
small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking […] shuddering
[…] where it had been left, unwanted” and “struggling for breath” (DH, 706-07). It is implied
that this disturbing creature is the fragment of Voldemort’s soul that had latched onto Harry on
that fateful Halloween night, the embodiment of all those crucial feminine feelings like love and
compassion—everything that Voldemort believed to be weak—given a physical form, “stuffed
out of sight” and left to die (707). In his quest to demonstrate his power, Lord Voldemort
succeeds in becoming the embodiment of a hypermasculine figure, yet at what cost? In doing
this, he has lost what remained of his humanity and has become something less than human—a
being obsessed with power.
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This emotional and physical deterioration is not just limited to Rowling’s male
characters; a major component in the argument that Rowling actually subverts common gender
stereotypes instead of perpetuating them, is the presence of several female characters who
possess decidedly masculine characteristics and goals, most clearly seen in Voldemort’s
followers. In actuality, there are several infamous women within the ranks of the Ministry of
Magic and the Death Eaters who are just as ambitious and power-hungry as Lord Voldemort, yet
none are more feared than Bellatrix Lestrange. Darkly beautiful and feared by both enemies and
heroes alike, Bellatrix’s magical prowess is matched only by the sadistic delight she takes in
inflicting pain on others. During Voldemort’s early reign, she ranked high amongst the Death
Eaters and was given orders that only one of his “most loyal” and “most faithful” followers could
complete, such as the destruction of the Longbottom family—a mission she carried out eagerly
(HBP, 29). Contrary to expected feminine values, Bellatrix finds tremendous pleasure in torture
and causing pain, relishing in the control it gives her over others, both male and female alike.
She possesses a vast amount of power and control that her comrades can only dream of, and this
power has allowed her to rise up to an essential position within the Death Eater’s ranks, granting
her superiority that is seldom acquired by women.
Yet unlike Voldemort, Bellatrix does seem to possess some concept of love—she claims
to be in love with Lord Voldemort, and he with her. It is because of this love that she is willing
to do whatever it takes to aid Voldemort’s quest. However, this “love” is not the pure power
celebrated by the Light, but a love that has become corrupted by Bellatrix’s masculine desires to
the point that it has transformed into an obsession. Though she claims to love him, it is evident
that Bellatrix’s understanding of love is skewed by her obsession with power and cruelty, and
more specifically with the monstrous power demonstrated by Voldemort. As a result, she
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struggles to understand the misgivings of others also in the service of Lord Voldemort, primarily
in her sister Narcissa Malfoy. In The Half-Blood Prince, Bellatrix’s nephew, Draco Malfoy, is
given the vital task of killing Albus Dumbledore, a mission that would almost certainly lead to
his death. Terrified and desperate to save her son, Narcissa Malfoy seeks the help of Severus
Snape; however, Bellatrix is unable to understand her sister’s fears. “‘Draco should be proud,’”
Bellatrix had claimed “indifferently” for “‘the Dark Lord is granting him [the] great honor’” of
seeking vengeance for his father’s past failures (33). He is granting Draco a great mercy, and it
would be foolish for Draco to not accept it. Even more than Draco, Bellatrix believes that
Narcissa should also be proud for her son now has a chance to be of service to Voldemort.
Bellatrix is unable to see why Narcissa is so fearful of the chance of Draco dying, because
Bellatrix is unable to understand the love a mother feels for her children, or any kind of love at
all. To her, if she had children and if it would help Lord Voldemort, then she “‘would be glad to
give [her children] up to the service of the Dark Lord!’” (33-35). In devoting herself to Lord
Voldemort and the promised power that comes with him, Bellatrix has lost a vital aspect of what
it means to be human, the ability to feel empathy or real love for another being.
Perhaps in the beginning, Bellatrix truly did understand what it meant to love someone,
and she may have sincerely loved Voldemort. But the years spent in his service and then
imprisoned in Azkaban have forever changed her, and her perception of love has become
clouded, overpowered by a masculine desire for power and twisted into something it is not. It is
not the same feminine love that is cherished by those aligned with the Light, but a corrupt,
perverse thing she obsesses over with fanatical fervor. Like Voldemort, she thirsts for violence
and control, and she is more than willing to do whatever it takes to acquire that power even at the
cost of her own life. As such, Bellatrix can not begin to understand the anguish that Narcissa
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feels for her son’s likely death. If Draco dies, then he would die in service to Lord Voldemort,
so why does Narcissa despair? His death would be an honor to her name, and to Lord
Voldemort. Bellatrix’s obsession with power, and her devotion to Voldemort outweighs
everything else; not even her own family matter as much as her so-called “love” for Lord
Voldemort.
As a result of Rowling’s unique characterization, the Harry Potter series contains many
powerful women who have overcome expectations typically associated with female characters,
attaining positions of power in both political and social spheres within the magical world.
However, with women such as Minerva McGonagall and Bellatrix Lestrange who are notable for
their success in attaining positions high in power, it is unsurprising that critics have neglected a
key female character whose presence is a little closer to home. Yet her presence is also crucial to
Harry Potter’s triumph over Lord Voldemort. When scholars do mention Molly Weasley, it is
only to claim that she is a textbook example of a housewife: she is homebound and spends her
time cooking and caring for her children and husband. While I agree with the assertion that
Molly Weasley is the epitome of a perfect housewife, I do not believe that this makes her any
weaker as a character. In fact, it is because Molly embraces feminine traits and values that she is
able to finally defeat Bellatrix Lestrange during the Final Battle.
From her very first introduction, Molly Weasley is the perfect example of a housewife.
She is “short, plump, and kind-faced,” struggling to keep control of her six rowdy boys amidst
the chaos of King’s Cross Station, yet she does not hesitate to stop what she is doing to help
Harry when he needs it (CS, 32). For a boy who, up until this point, has grown up without any
positive adult role-model in his life, Molly Weasley easily takes over the role of a maternal
figure. She offers him guidance and comfort, and she even sends him a hand-knit sweater for
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Christmas—a gift she sends to all of her children—despite the fact that she had only met him
earlier that year. The same level of care that she gives her own children, Molly extends to Harry,
regardless of his fame in the magical world. It does not matter that Harry Potter is “the boy who
lived,” the great hero who saved the Wizarding World. To Molly, he is first and foremost a
young boy in desperate need of mothering, and she is more than willing to provide. This type of
love and acceptance is a complete mystery to Lord Voldemort and his followers. As I have
mentioned earlier, Bellatrix Lestrange is incapable of truly understanding the love a mother feels
for her child, evidenced by her inability to empathize with her sister; The only love she
understands is one founded upon obsession, control, and power. The unconditional love that
Molly expresses to Harry is something that Bellatrix can never even begin to understand, and this
is her greatest weakness.
While Bellatrix has managed to gain the prestige entitled to men through her aggression
and ambition, Molly has fully embraced feminine values, completely turning away from most
masculine ideals altogether. Yet in the end, it is Molly Weasley who is finally able to defeat
Bellatrix Lestrange. Throughout the series, Molly is adamantly against the constant fighting and
violence, and she is especially insistent when it comes to involving the children. When Harry
demands to be included in all of the meetings and decisions of the Order of the Phoenix—a
resistance group against Voldemort—Molly is the only one to protest. Harry is “only fifteen,”
not even legally an adult, and definitely much too young to be involved in the war; it would be
much safer if he would only let the adults take responsibility (OP, 88). Even though she is
overruled, Molly refuses to back down, determined to do whatever she can to protect Harry. In
every other battle, Molly Weasley is absent. Presumably she is back at her home, anxiously
awaiting the return of her family. However, in The Deathly Hallows, she finally enters the battle.
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Fueled by anguish over her son’s death and fearful of losing anyone else, Molly Weasley
launches herself into a duel against Bellatrix Lestrange. Initially, it seems like Molly will be
overpowered, yet as Harry watches, her wand “[slashes] and [twirls], and Bellatrix Lestrange’s
smile [falters]” as Molly’s true power is revealed (DH, 736). Bellatrix may possess an immense
magical power, but Molly possess something much more formidable: a mother’s desire to protect
her loved ones—something Bellatrix will never be able to understand. “Both women [are]
fighting to kill,” but Molly’s power, empowered by her desire to protect those she loves, is too
much for Bellatrix. She dies with a “gloating smile” frozen on her face, struck “directly over her
heart” by Molly’s curse (736).
There is no doubt that Bellatrix Lestrange is a powerful female figure. She is able to
garner fear and respect from men and women alike—on the sides of both good and evil—and
become one of Voldemort’s most trusted followers. But Molly Weasley possesses a different
kind of power. Bellatrix’s power is founded on purely masculine ideals, primarily her desire for
power, and as a result she has lost the connection she might have had to her humanity. Molly’s
power on the other hand, comes from an inherent desire to protect her family, and in the end,
Bellatrix is unable to stand against her. To embrace feminine values or choices does not make
one weak, and Molly Weasley clearly exemplifies that a woman does not need to emulate
masculine ideals and values to be considered a powerful female figure. In the end, Bellatrix’s
sheer power is no match against a mother’s love.
In the Harry Potter series, it is said time and time again that only the one with the
“power the Dark Lord knows not” will be able to defeat Voldemort and bring peace back to the
magical world. It is not till later on that Professor Dumbledore gives this power a name: love.
However, there is more to it than that. Due to J. K. Rowling’s unusual depiction, the warring
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sides of Light and Dark are characterized by feminine and masculine values—those aligned with
the Light value principles such as love and compassion, while the Dark values power above all
else, no matter the cost. This dichotomy also emphasizes just how severe the cost of power truly
is. While they have been able to gain unimaginable power, Voldemort and his followers have
developed an innate weakness to these feminine characteristics; they have gained power, but they
have lost the ability to love, or to feel remorse or empathy. As a result, they are never able to
defeat Harry Potter and the Light, who have always valued love and compassion. In seeking the
power so often associated with masculine values, Voldemort and his followers have lost
something even more precious: their connection to humanity, relinquishing the right to even be
considered human.
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