Many critics have compared the Harry Potter books to Victorian School Stories, but Rowlings’s work also strongly resembles earlier school stories published by now-forgotten authors like William Mackenzie, Elizabeth Sandham and Dorothy Kilner from 1749-1840. The resemblance is especially apparent in their depiction of bullying; whereas the Victorian tales presented bullies as dangerous deviants whose future lives would be depraved and destitute; earlier texts assumed bullying was a natural activity for children and an important way for children to learn “real world” lessons. Children handled bullies without adult support, and the victims of bullying were encouraged to control their emotional responses and await karmic revenge—often through saving their tormentors from drowning or a wild beast attack. Similar tropes are present in a number of bullying situations in Rowling’s texts. Harry and his friends “handle” Malfoy on their own and Malfoy’s attacks frequently take the form of race and class-based verbal abuse. Ultimately, Malfoy is shown to be a pathetic product of his upbringing, and he suffers the ignominy of having Harry save his life. Snape’s bullying of Harry is directly connected to his traumatic childhood; in turn, Snape’s abuse forces Harry to gain more self-control, a trait which helps him to survive in his new environment. James Potter and Sirius’s bullying of Snape (a “passionate” misfit child) challenges the Victorian dichotomy of evil bully/virtuous victim. James’ preventing Snape from being torn apart by Lupin’s werewolf incarnation is an interesting twist on the earlier savior trope, with repercussions that are felt a generation later. Rowling uses bullying to reveal aspects of her characters and to explore the long-term effects of cruelty and resistance. This shows that the older perceptions of school, children, and social maturation persist in spite of the ensuing waves of Victorian nostalgia and post-modern political correctness which followed.
About the presentersKatharine Kittredge
Katharine Kittredge is Professor of English at Ithaca College where she teaches courses in Science Fiction, Children’s Literature and Women’s Studies. She is the founder of the bi-annual conference “Pippi to Ripley: Sex and Gender in Imaginative Fiction” and is co-coordinator of ITHACON, one of the North East’s longest-running comic book conventions. She has published articles on 18th century juvenilia, Kick-Ass and Gunslinger Girl, South Park, and the Anglo-Irish diarist Melesina Trench.