The Great Literary Texts behind Harry Potter

This paper is concerned with the study of specific patterns which have been developed in classic literary works and can be found in Rowling’s contemporary writing, Harry Potter. Is is focused on Campbell’s monomyth and the Hero’s journey to establish a connection among the shared elements, which become an essential part of the stages proposed by Campbell. The main aim is to explore the similarities between Rowling’s work and the other books, which will allow the readers to get a better view of Harry’s heroic journey, and to identify certain conventions that have been inherited from the distinct texts this essay deals with.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction................................................................................4
2. Genre .......................................................................................... 10
3. The Hero’s Journey .................................................................. 16
4. Dark Identity and Duality ....................................................... 26

4.1. Otherness.............................................................................32

5. ArchetypalFigures...................................................................39

6. Power and Knowledge.............................................................. 42

7. Conclusion.................................................................................48

Bibliography ................................................................................... 54

1. Introduction

Harry Potter narrates the story of development during seven years of a young wizard Harry and his wizard friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. All of them are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and their main concern is to protect Harry and defeat the killer of Harry’s parents, Lord Voldemort. Voldemort’s intention involved, apart from killing Harry, ruling the magical word by destroying anyone who would go against his ideals; he brought plenty of problems to the wizarding world (Wikipedia, 2018). The entire Saga is composed by seven books which are: The Philosopher's Stone (1997), The Chamber of Secrets (1998), The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), The Goblet of Fire(2000), The Order of the Phoenix (2003), The Half-Blood Prince (2005) and The Deathly Hallows (2007). The first book was published just over twenty years ago, and the book which ended the series appeared in 2007, so approximately in a span of ten years this Saga was already considered as one of the most popular ones in the entire globe. It has become a huge success and it has had certainly a great impact on culture because of the creation of many screen adaptations, museums -entirely focused on this magical world- and other recreations or extended stories of this series, for instance Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is a “reproduction of a textbook owned by Harry Potter and written by magizoologist Newt Scamander, a character in the fictional Harry Potter series” (Wikipedia, 2018); and we believe that it would be worthy to discover whether Harry Potter’s popularity is the result of an incidental set of characteristics or whether it follows a careful set of traditions which have been taken from other well-known literary pieces. ‘Traditions’ is a word that comes from the Latin tradere, which literally means to transmit, to hand over or to give for safekeeping. Generally speaking ‘tradition’ refers to “beliefs, objects or customs performed or believed in the past, originating in it, transmitted through time by being taught by one generation to the next, and are performed or believed in the present.” (Thomas, 1997). However, what is relevant for our study is the significance of literary traditions, which can be understood as certain literary conventions that have become a pattern in narrative. ‘Convention’ then, meaning “a widely used and accepted device or technique, as in drama, literature, or painting” which reappears constantly in every work and allow us to classify them into the different kinds of literary genres (American Heritage Dictionary, 2016).

This paper will uncover, through an extensive comparison between the Harry Potter Saga and other literary works, a series of patterns that J.K. Rowling’s novels inherit. This is to say that Harry Potter works in the shadow of other literary pieces and follows a series of conventions. The works relevant for the study of this hypothesis are A Wizard of Earthseaby Ursula K. Le Guin (1968), Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890) & The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1616).

Before moving any further, we will provide a brief summary of each work in order to understand the background of the selected writings: Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel which was published in 1968 and it narrates a story about a boy, named Ged or Sparrowhawk, capable of doing magic who is sent to a special school for wizards. Once there, he makes loyal friends, such as Vetch, and also makes dangerous mistakes, as summoning a dark shadow. Eventually, he tries to correct his mistake and during this journey encounters dangerous creatures, such as dragons, and faces complicated obstacles; this story resembles in many ways the plot of Rowling’s Harry Potter Saga. Our next work is Frankenstein, which is about a scientist who brings life to dead body parts stitched together and thus gives birth to a creature through an experiment; later, he abandons his creature which leads to severe consequences in Victor Frankenstein’s life since his experiment takes revenge on his master’s recklessness when he was created by killing Victor’s loved ones; in order to stop this, Frankenstein finds himself pursuing his creation a generous part of the story line. Stevenson’s character, Dr. Jekyll, thanks to a potion, is capable to transform himself into a completely different being: Mr. Hyde, who takes certain pleasure in performing wicked acts and is an entirely evil version of Jekyll. Eventually Dr. Jekyll, unable to control his other side, decides to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Mr. Hyde. The Picture of Dorian Gray plays a significant role in our study by placing emphasis on the themes of power, immorality and irresponsibility since it is a tale about a man who, benefited from a painting that maintained his youth and beauty, tries to live a guiltfree life of pleasure that led him to commit several crimes; Dorian’s immoral actions have no effect on him, instead it is the portrait that undergoes the changes. To finish with, Doctor Faustus is a tragic play about an excellent scholar who greatly valued learning yet his ambition to know more did not end there and he brought his interest to dark magic by involving himself into a deal with Satan. After the pact, he misuses his power and he is unable to repent, so he is constantly seen battling to pick one side, either the path to repentance or continuing with the pact. And because he has been given a limited period of time in exchange for power, he dies and is damned in Hell forever.

The selection of these works is essential to understand the patterns in Rowling’s Saga; it is worth noting that Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dorian Gray were published during the 19th century, a period of transition from Gothic horror to Victorian horror, therefore they do contain certain features or themes typical of these genres and sometimes they blend the two, such being the case of Frankenstein; hence, these works tend to follow a similar thematic structure. Victorian horror deals with ghost stories but what is peculiar about them is the fact that the dark entity has an attachment to a human being and not a place, unlike Gothic horror, where the haunted element is the castle and not the protagonist; this dark entity is also understood as the counterpart or double of the main character. And this is interesting, since many of the conventions appearing in these Victorian horror fictions are re-established in the contemporary story developed by Rowling. The play by Marlowe was published in the 17th century and it has been selected because despite the striking temporal gap between the two works there are some topics which parallel not only Harry Potter but also the other works we will be analysing. And finally, we have incorporated A Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin to our study due to the remarkable resemblance in the storyline to Harry Potter. This fantasy book was published in 1968, which means that there was already a story similar to Rowling’s thirty years before the publication of Harry Potter, and it is crucial to study both in depth to discover valuable aspects which characterize all the works and create a set of patterns in the Harry Potter series.

Many critics and scholars in the past have studied the close correspondence between Harry Potter and A Wizard of Earthsea and there are numberless comparative studies of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein due to their similar plot structure or because identical themes appear within them; however, this set of six works has not been studied before in combination. What distinguishes our paper from other previous studies is that we will try to find certain elements that are shared in each of our texts by focusing on Campbell’s theory of the monomyth. Joseph Campbell in his book A Hero with a Thousand Faces formulates the idea of the monomyth, a theory based on the important myths around the world. He notices that there is a central structure in every narrative which involves a number of stages, and those stages are followed by the hero, who is on a quest to achieve something. In other words, he created a model of the archetypal hero’s journey that involved certain rules, which reappear in most stories. These rules are, in fact, called stages and he suggests that there are seventeen different phases/stages which are part of a larger plot design, which can be summed up in: departure, initiation and return. Later, we will explain in detail those seventeen stages, however Campbell explained briefly his monomyth by stating:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. (Campbell, A Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 28)

This is the reason why we can notice similarities between many well-known narratives even if they belong to different periods and genres. Our paper is concerned with the identification of some of the elements that are part of these stages by focusing on the Hero’s journey first and then studying those elements or motifs that not only appear in the writings we have selected but also in Harry Potter. We will see how those elements in the literary works become a universal pattern. This paper will also prove that Harry Potter works within the framework of the monomyth and the common element in all of our texts is concerned with the structure and the conventions appearing at different stages in Campbell’s hero’s journey. Thus, we will be explaining how the themes appearing in works previous to Harry Potter become a tradition and reappear in Rowling’s writing.

Regarding the methodology, the first part of our essay will allow the reader to further contextualize these writings, thus it will be focused on a discussion about the genre of the texts at the centre of this study. Then, we will provide an extensive analysis of the journey of the hero and how the theme of transgression predominates in all of our works. After that, another common convention concerning the dark entity or evil being will be explained, which will lead to an important theme shared in each writing: duality. Next, we will proceed to analyse the otherness depicted in the writings through the figure of the villain. Further, the essay will continue with an analysis on the usage of archetypal figures among these texts and we will finish with the study of the theme of power and knowledge in each work. We hope these patterns will help the reader to make new connections which were not noticed before. And the essay will conclude by summarizing the main points of the paper which explore the similarities between Rowling’s work and the above-mentioned books and classifying them as common elements in Campbell’s monomyth.

The identification of certain patterns in this paper will allow the readers to get a panoramic view of the Harry Potter series, following Harry’s journey through Campbell’s model and understanding some of the layers appearing within Rowling’s novels that have been influenced by previous works. Moreover, we will prove that this set of patterns is not only applicable to Harry Potter, but to other works as well. In this case, we will briefly comment on The Name of the Wind in order to prove that the conventions, which will be analysed throughout this essay, reappear in Rothfuss’ work.

2. Genre

Before immersing ourselves into the comparative study of the selected writings it would be reasonable to situate Harry Potter within a broader literary genre and not directly classifying it as a fantasy, in order to identify its influences and discover the many elements it deals with. There is no doubt that Harry Potter belongs within the fantasy genre, as it is set in a world of magic, wizards and extraordinary creatures. However, we are aware that Rowling’s series borrows or blends together certain literary genres, such as a Bildungsroman, a school story, epic story, fantasy and even a horror story. This is why we can sense connections with many of the chosen books published before Harry Potter. We will then discuss, in the following sections, similar themes appearing in all of our works and we will try to create a set of specific elements which will allow us to understand how Rowling mixes features from many genres and incorporates them into Harry Potter.

For instance, if we discuss the importance of the function of magic in our works we would understand that it is a crucial aspect which gives uniqueness to our stories. What we mean by this is that if it were not for the presence of a superior force, which can be either magic or science, our stories could have belonged to any other genre; thus, magic is what provides a difference concerning the nature of our tales. For instance, we could support the idea that each book in the Harry Potter series can be understood as a detective novel, since Harry Potter’s quest begins when he is told about his parents’ murder; this beginning somehow resembles to detective novels, by recognizing a murder and then revealing the murderer. This crime triggers a series of events after which, Harry and his friends try to figure out the moves of the opponent or wrongdoer (in this case, Voldemort) by finding clues, passing tests and obstacles, which eventually leads to his discovery and they manage to defeat him, which is a typical plot structure in detective stories. Therefore, we can perceive certain elements that commonly appear in detective novels; and magic is the indispensable element, the reason why this entire work turns into a fantasy. And if we remove the fantasy elements, the novels turn into a work of mystery that offers a resolution at the end of each book.

This typical introduction to a mystery and its eventual revelation is a convention which is not only visible in Harry Potter, but is also evident in other works, as we will analyse below. In The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde we are provided with two important characters: Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, and Inspector Newcomen. Both try to solve the case of Mr. Hyde and they learn about the secret through a confession letter by Dr. Jekyll and Lanyon’s final letter. Frankenstein gives slight hints of this puzzlement when it comes to figuring out who has committed the murders. Also, most of the plot in A Wizard of Earthsea is concerned with confronting the shadow and learning its name. So the mystery-resolution pattern seems to reappear through the works. And, although Harry Potter’s plot involves a fantastic setting and is largely regarded as a fantasy novel, underneath the story is about characters who are constantly gathering clues, investigating and finding out Voldemort’s next conspiracy.

Le Guin’s writing can also be approached more as a psychological journey and inner struggle if we do not attend to its magical features. It could be about a teenager struggling to understand his inner self and understanding it subsequently. A similar theme can be recognized in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, which could be interpreted as an exploration of the indecisive nature of human beings when it comes to morality. The hesitation between choosing good or evil is the most predominant topic in the play, which shows the duality of the Doctor’s internal struggle; therefore, Marlowe gives rise to an issue related to human psychology through Faustus, in the same manner that Le Guin achieves it through the character of Ged.

The works we have selected have very much in common with mythological writings, which at the same time can be treated as a reproduction of the hero’s journey proposed by Campbell. Thus, it would be reasonable to suggest that many of the aspects that appear in Rowling’s novel were already present in the narratives by Marlowe, Le Guin, Mary Shelley, Stevenson and Oscar Wilde, which at the same time feature aspects that are present in Greek and Roman mythology that follow the patterns established in the monomyth. One of the most common elements is that the characters overstep a limit, that is they cross a boundary which leads to destruction, inner or physical. This parallels many myths, such as Arachne’s, Prometheus and Icarus & Daedalus, who trespass limits even when they are told not to do so and they get punished once they are on the other side of that boundary. We will expand this in the following section of our paper. And in Harry Potterwe can appreciate through a conversation between Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore a violation of an interdiction, done by using dark spells to cause harm:

‘You call it “greatness”, what you have been doing, do you?’ asked Dumbledore delicately.

‘Certainly,’ said Voldemort, and his eyes seemed to burn red. ‘I have experimented; I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed—' (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p. 369) 12

In this line from the sixth book we can see that Voldemort admits that he has “pushed the boundaries of magic”, however we could argue that he actually crosses certain limits by making an inappropriate use of magic, these limits are created by the society and must not be transgressed for moral reasons. The difference between the two -crossing and pushing- lies in that, when someone crosses to the other side, in this case to the side where those magical actions become a criminal act, an infraction is being committed, the laws of that world are being violated, whereas when someone pushes the boundaries beyond, it means that he has not crossed the limits, rather he has done something which has not been done before but he still stands on the side where those actions are not considered something inappropriate. This, of course, is Voldemort’s own view about his own actions but he is clearly mistaken in the eyes of other wizards of that world, except for Death Eaters who support Voldemort’s actions. However, we can prove that he has actually crossed the limits that the community of wizards allows and not merely pushed the limits of magic, as he violates the rules that wizards have to bear in mind when performing this art. He has used several times the three unforgivable curses which by law in the fantasy world are forbidden and if somebody infringes this law and uses these spells, he will be directly sent with a life sentence to Azkaban, a dreadful prison in the wizarding world. Not only the practise of these spells but also the fact that he created horcruxes, which allowed him to divide his soul into other items in order to be immortal, places emphasis on Voldemort’s selfish personality. Plus, he shows no regret at any point of the seven books, his actions are justified according to his views and he does not mind causing harm to innocent people in order to pursue his own goals. These qualities is what make Voldemort stand on the other side of the boundary where his actions become a crime; thus, he has certainly crossed the limit and not ‘pushed’.

Another example of crossing established limits would be Ged, Le Guin’s main character in A Wizard of Earthsea, whose arrogance and desire for power fuelled by jealousy and rivalry with Jasper made him perform a spell which was far from his ability to control and freed an evil shadow into the world of Earthsea, even when Ogion told him once to never cast that spell. We can also appreciate direct allusions to the above mentioned graeco-roman myths, for example at the beginning of Marlowe’s play, when the chorus informs about the setting and introduces Faustus to the spectator; to do so they sing “Till, swoll’n with cunning, of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And, melting, heavens conspired his overthrow." (Prologue. 19-21.), which refers to Icarus’ waxed wings. When the chorus says that “his waxen wings did mount above his reach”, it is a comparison between the two since Icarus, who did not obey his father, suffered the deadly consequences of it, and similarly Faustus, who signed a pact with the Devil in order to gain more knowledge, ended up damned in Hell.

The Harry Potter series is commonly classified as fantasy, as Peter Nicholls stated not only magic and supernaturalism but many motifs such as science, monsters, gods and demons, mythology and gothic elements “commonly collide” in fantasy. (Nicholls, “Fantasy”, 2015). Fantasy thus, is understood when a hero moves from a real world to an imaginary one and Clute uses the term ‘otherworld’ when talking about the imaginary world. This genre combines many elements and it is so diverse that it seems rather complex to define, although what is clear is the fact that often magic and supernatural powers play an important role in this genre and they involve situations which go beyond the reasonable and tangible reality. As Clute further states a fantasy text is self-coherent narrative. When set in this world, it tells a story which is impossible in the world as we perceive it; when set in an otherworld, that otherworld will be impossible, though stories set there may be possible in its terms. (Clute, “Fantasy”, 1997).

And this can be perceived in Rowling’s series, who builds another dimension that coexists with our world. However, this fictional world works within a set of physical and societal rules, for instance, in our world the law of Gravity exists and so it does in the magical world, but in the second, it can be defeated by saying Wingardium leviosa or by riding a broomstick; though in our world that can be achieved differently, without the usage of magic. Even death works differently in that dimension: spells can be used as weapons and there is evidence of afterlife, as there are spirits that wander and interact with the students around the school of Hogwarts and there are magic spells which can allow a wizard to split his/her soul into many pieces and save it into horcruxes. But they have ordinary world elements as well: maps, languages, a history of their culture and traditions which allows the reader to connect with the imaginary world and comprehend better our world, thus they serve as a mirror to our society. And, although Harry Potter’s plot is most of the time set in the magical world, we cannot forget that Harry’s magical world is a part of the real world, with all the real and ordinary problems. Not only does he have to deal with a great dark wizard or with his attempts to learn magic, but he also faces problems that are very well known to his readers.

To sum up, this section has briefly discussed the variety of motifs and themes that Rowling includes in her Saga, which certainly parallel with the other works we have selected. As Anne Hiebert Alton explained, one of the most attractive aspects about Harry Potter books “lies in Rowling’s incorporation of a vast number of genres”. And we can see this variety throughout the seven books forming the series, for instance, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone suggests fantasy, a magical dimension and a coming of age, while elements of mystery or even horror are present in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has elements that remind us of a thriller, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix considered important topics related to the promise of hope and rebirth, while the mystery contained in Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince not only focused on questions of identity but also dealt with one of the troubling topics of the series by suggesting the contrasts between the muggle and wizard worlds. Finally, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows not only mixes elements from gothic tales but also creates a sense of extreme mystery (Alton, 2009). Therefore, as has been said, it is rather difficult to classify Harry Potter into a suitable literary genre; even if it is treated as fantasy it combines certain elements belonging to other genres, which is the main reason why we can draw connections with other well-known literary pieces.

3. The Hero’s Journey

What have Harry Potter, Ged, Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Dorian Gray in common? As Joseph Campbell well explained in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, every story that has been written features a character going through similar plots or through some stages which seem to reappear consecutively in each work, in other words every story follows a set of stages which reappear in literature with infinite variations and as its title indicates, the person who goes through this journey is known as the Hero. Our selected works share some common elements to a great extent because of the protagonist; thus, we will proceed with the analysis of the characters according to Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ and study the shared elements which have been later applied to Rowling’s Saga (Campbell, 1949).

But first we will briefly explain the Hero’s Journey according to Campbell. He first divided this journey into three main parts: departure, initiation and return. Then, he subdivided these three parts into a total of seventeen steps. In the departure, we can find five phases: The Call to Adventure, The Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, The Crossing of the First Threshold and The Belly of the Whale. In the initiation, there are six different stages: The Road of Trials, The Meeting with the Goddess, Woman as the Temptress, Atonement with the Father, Apotheosis, and The Ultimate Boon. In the return, there are another six steps: Refusal of the Return, The Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, The Crossing of the Return Threshold, The Master of Two Worlds and Freedom to Live.

It is important to bear in mind that not all of these steps are present in every hero’s tale, nor is it important that they appear in this exact order, this is why we will explain only the main concepts and stages that are relevant for our study. Firstly, the hero might be introduced in his ordinary life where he normally feels trapped or as if he does not belong, an outsider. Then the first phase of the myth takes place, the call to adventure, which is a moment where the hero realizes that he has to get into the unknown and start an adventure in order to accomplish something; right after, there may be a refusal of this call, where the hero rejects the change in his life, and this is where supernatural aid is introduced, that is helpers, such as wizards or wise mentors that provide the hero with gifts that will be useful in their future quest. After the hero is somehow more prepared he crosses the first threshold, which means that now he has to complete the task to return back to his ordinary life. Thresholds, then, “may be physical, marking a gradient between two places or states of being, or metaphorical, marking some perception of change. In both instances, they may contain and be focused by portals, but, while a portal always signals a threshold of some sort, a threshold does not require a focus.” (Clute, “Thresholds”, 1997). And once the hero has crossed and entered into the other unknown world, that symbolic space is known as the belly of the whale, where he will face many obstacles and go through certain tests that will make the hero wiser or stronger; this period is known as the road of trials. After which the ultimate boon is obtained, which is the main goal of the hero’s quest. In the end, the hero may refuse to go back to his ordinary life (refusal of the return) but ends up crossing the return threshold, and when he accomplishes that he realizes that things have changed, he becomes more powerful in some way. If the hero can cross the threshold anytime and move between the two worlds, these worlds may be a physical place or a symbolic internal state, he becomes the master of the two worlds and has freedom to live, which is a consequence of becoming the master; as the hero after achieving the ultimate boon or elixir becomes powerful and loses any kind of fear. There are certain intermediate stages such as meeting with a Goddess or falling into a temptation and the hero may be rescued from without, but these steps are not so obvious in our selection of texts.

It is essential to bear in mind that this monomyth needs to be adapted to each story’s spatio-temporal setting, for instance, one of the most iconic figures is that of the mentor or the wise old man, which can be seen in Harry Potter through the figure of Dumbledore; and mentors do not necessarily have to be wizards, they can appear as a teacher, a friend, a father, etc. Sometimes the obstacles and suffering they face might not be related to physical action, but to something to do with their inner battles. Therefore, the myth can be told in endless ways, it is very flexible as we will prove it by analysing the structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and pointing out the similarities it holds with A Wizard of Earthsea, as these two follow a strikingly similar structure and it would be clearer to show how both work within the framework of this monomyth.

In the first place, the hero (or Harry Potter) is introduced in the ordinary world and we are given essential information such as the idea of a magical world, his poor relationship with the Dursleys and Harry’s weak and vulnerable condition. This set up can be applied to Ged’s story too, who is an ordinary boy who lives with his aunt and also has a complicatedrelation with his father. Apparently, his aunt is a witch and teaches him some of the tricks and, once again, the idea of a magical world is introduced. Both of them have lost some of their family members: in the case of Harry, both his parents, whereas Ged lost his mother before he reached the age of one. Thus, both characters have been raised as orphans or semi-orphans, have experienced hatred and rejection from society. Then our heroes experience something that breaks the ordinariness they were introduced with in the story and that shows the readers how special and extraordinary they are in fact.

The hero’s call to adventure can be perfectly seen when Harry starts to receive the letters from Hogwarts and eventually Hagrid personally comes and decides to take Harry with him to the world of magic (supernatural aid). Similarly, in Earthsea Ged is offered to become the apprentice of a powerful magician, Ogion the Silent, and eventually he decides to go to Roke, a school for wizards. This is a point where they leave their ordinary and uninteresting world and join a new unknown world.

Once having crossed the threshold, inside the belly of the whale the Hero encounters tests and helpers, for example when a troll breaks into the school and Harry and his friends defeat it. Or when Ged summons a powerful shadow and Archmage Nemmerle helps Ged by sending that shadow away. After being more aware of the dangers they can encounter and finding loyal friends, like Vetch, Ron and Hermione, the Hero’s quest begins, he either has to solve a mystery or fight a dragon, this varies in each story: In Earthsea, they try to find the shadow and end with it and in Hogwarts, they try to discover who is responsible for the dangerous events occurring around the school which are most of the times connected with Voldemort.

The next phase is when the hero is empowered and ready to attack and he has learned everything he needs to eventually obtain the boon. Thus, on the one hand, Harry gets an invisibility cloak and with Hermione’s knowledge he makes important connections, he also goes through difficulties and faces dangers in the forest, enigmas, etc. On the other hand, Ged defeats Yevaud the dragon, and he is offered to ask just one question and, instead of asking for his shadow’s name, he asks the dragon to stop attacking people from the islands, and later he is introduced to a stone which is very powerful and could help him defeat the shadow, but he recognizes the stone and learns that it is evil. During this period not only do the heroes face physical problems but also their mental health seems to be affected, they have doubts, they live in fear but by learning from their experiences they become more skilled and decide that they must fight. The road of trials continues until Harry discovers that Voldemort was on the back of Professor Quirrell’s head, while in Earthsea, after a long pursuit, when Ged realizes that the shadow’s true name is Ged and by screaming his name he defeats it.

After fighting the antagonist and receiving the boon, power and knowledge, the final stage of the story is returning home, Harry goes back to his ordinary muggle world for the summer, but he is now more mature and powerful, and the same can be applied to Ged’s ending who sails back to Vetch’s house, his only loyal friend, who helped him during the pursuit of the shadow. Since both books belong to a larger set of novels making them sagas, the hero keeps crossing the threshold back and forth in each book to solve a new problem each time, to start a new adventure and, once he has lost his fears in the quest, more precisely, after the actual final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry in the seventh book, where the evil is truly defeated, Harry becomes master of the two worlds and he can either live in the magical dimension or the muggle word.

Furthermore, Harry Potter, apart from following a similar journey to that of the hero, holds a series of features and elements regarding his character, which identically appear in Le Guin’s novel. For instance, both protagonists have a father or father-like figure who is opposed to magic. And both of them accidentally use magic when they are small and realize that they are special. Harry and Ged are socially maladjusted and perfectly fit into the other world. Their main goal is to find where they belong: Ged and Harry initially look for a physical space where they feel accepted and loved, which is the magical dimension. But later, they are more concerned with their identity and finding their inner self; and identifying that becomes part of their mission. And once we have compared the main stages of the monomyth of two of the works in detail we will proceed with the analysis of the other heroes of the books but in a more concise way and show how they cross the threshold.

From the previous analysis, we can deduce that among the stages established in Campbell’s narrative, there are certain conventions that are being followed -that is motifs, characters, settings or themes- which repeatedly appear in the set of narratives which have been selected for our study. For instance, there are certain qualities assigned to a hero, such as being virtuous, honest but also flawed or being strong, wise and admired, these being only some of the attributes among many others. There are many types of heroes, not all heroes are of equal standing; one of them being a tragic hero; we will then decide what is a tragic hero. Generally, tragic heroes are admired and are highly respected because of their position in society, they belong to a privileged class. They have a tragic flaw, which leads to their own destruction and they are responsible for the mistakes they have made (Feagin ,1998). To begin with, the figure of Frankenstein does not have evil qualities, in fact he is a progressive human being who wants to do major developments in the scientific field, by creating life from death, in which he succeeds but he is unaware of its dangerous consequences. Thus, he is a flawed hero who unwillingly unleashes destruction although he has some of the qualities appreciated in a hero: his intentions were good, he is ambitious, passionate about his studies, and has an incredible intelligence. Being flawed is a significant quality in a hero. On the one hand, it makes the character more relatable for readers -his human qualities, a combination of virtues and defects show the complex personalities of our world- and on the other hand, mistakes let the character grow in the story intellectually. His actions are a consequence of what he had gone through, he lost his mother at an early age and that loss is what triggered in him the idea to bring life back to something dead. He used science to solve one of the most unavoidable tragedies, death; so, this can be understood as if he was making a progress towards the benefit of society.

According to Stableford & Clute, scientists were treated as heroes at the beginning of the twentieth century; they were recognized as “models for heroic action in Scientists (or, perhaps more accurately, creators of Inventions) who often used their genius to save or attempt to save the world, as did Prometheus.” (Stableford & Clute, “Heroes”, 2018). And bearing in mind that his intentions were never evil but he committed several mistakes because of his own ambitions and pride, Victor can be considered a tragic hero and he is flawed for failing to take care of the monster he created.

Unlike Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll’s actions were not for the benefit and interest of society, his motive was entirely personal. But according to the definition provided earlier, Jekyll would fit this criterion if we consider that he received an excellent education and his profession brought him good reputation and admiration; and being admired and intelligent are valuable qualities among heroes. His tragic flaw was his ambition to split human nature through an experiment. Finally, he decided to end his evil version by sacrificing his own life. Likewise, Harry, after realizing that he would have to die in order to defeat Voldemort, was ready to sacrifice his own life in the final confrontation with the dark lord as he was one of the horcruxes.

Dorian Gray, too, was highly admired by those who surrounded him. The most predominant characteristic in Dorian was perhaps his good looks and his belonging to the upper class of Victorian London but his inner self was corrupted. Despite the negative qualities this character has, he still may be considered a tragic hero, since he does occasionally repent and regret his actions and his character flaw is partly a result of the immoral influences of his friend Lord Henry.

Dr. Faustus was an extraordinary character for having a great amount of knowledge and still wanting to increase it, yet he too had a tragic flaw, which was his desire to learn about black magic and his ambition for becoming powerful. And to obtain that power and learning, this hero signed a pact with Lucifer and for twenty-four years he unwisely used his power by not doing anything useful for the world but satisfying his own insignificant desires and pleasures. This is what led him to his own tragedy.

This set of qualities shows a type of parallelism between all of our heroes and overall what we can deduce from this analysis is that these contemporary literary creations by Rowling belong to a much older tradition. All of them follow an established pattern with regard to structure and Harry Potter has incorporated some of its elements through its maincharacter who certainly follows the hero’s journey and, even though he differs from other heroes to some extent, he does possess qualities which can be considered typical of heroes.

As we have seen in the previous sections, the hero goes on a quest and, most of the times, has to end with evil, which might or might not be his mission from the beginning. But there is another common element in the plot of our stories: the act of transgression, either moral or physical. But what does transgression mean? It consists in ‘an act that goes against a law, rule, or code of conduct; an offence.’ (Oxford Dictionaries, 2018). In other words, characters cross an initial boundary, which can be understood as a mistake, a crime or a villainous act to motivate the plot, leading to a final journey where the hero needs to put an end to the one who has caused the violation. This transgression is an indispensable common theme in connection with the hero’s journey appearing in all of our literary pieces, for instance, Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s transgressive act was creating life from dead body parts and not making himself responsible for it. Dr. Jekyll believed in moral duality in each individual and decided to separate it by making a potion that let him transform into his completely evil version with a different identity and, in the end, he lost control over his own body; he crossed the limits by the alteration of human nature through his scientific experiment. Dr. Faustus’ request for knowledge, power and magic and selling his soul to Lucifer is another example of transgression. A clear example of a transgressive act can be seen in Ged’s story, where a selfish and irresponsible act of casting a spell to bring a shadow from the dead has major consequences on Ged’s life and he ends up pursuing the Gebbeth he has summoned and confronting it, in the same way that Victor Frankenstein pursues his creation. Dorian Gray is a literary figure that desired to be young and beautiful eternally. After the success of his wish becoming true, he adopts a hedonistic philosophy of life and, as a result of this, he becomes arrogant, selfish and totally indifferent to the harm he causes to others and even commits great crimes, such as killing his friends.

What we have observed is the fact that there is some crossing of the limits; these mistakes made by Frankenstein, Faustus, Ged, Dr. Jekyll and Dorian have a major significance as they assist in the development of the novel by triggering a set of problems and events that the hero deals with. This convention of writing the plot involving a transgressive act has been adopted by Rowling with the same purpose, where one of the protagonists, either the hero or the villain, commits a misdeed at the beginning and has to deal with it throughout the rest of the story, sometimes he is able to solve it and sometimes he has to sacrifice his own life. Whereas in other cases the misdeed is done by the hero, in Harry Potter, it is done by the villain instead, whose mistake was transforming Harry into a horcrux and Voldemort tries to destroy the hero throughout the entire series, which involves Harry in the forthcoming actions in his later life.

4. Dark Identity and Duality

Some of the fundamental stages in Campbell’s monomyth are, as mentioned earlier, the road of trials and the ultimate boon. The road of trials is generally understood as obstacles and problems imposed on the hero by someone or something and, in the case of our selected works, that someone or something is the dark entity, which must be defeated in order to achieve the ultimate boon -the main goal of the hero- and return to the initial space after crossing the threshold. So an important element in our works is the presence of a dark entity which directly opposes the protagonist. These roles can be performed by wicked wizards, monsters, demons or by more complex entities, such as the evil counterpart of a being, or less tangible, like a shadow or a non-human force that lies inside a portrait. Antagonists have always been complex characters and they play an important role in the development of the story, without their presence we would not have a conflict in the plot and the story would lack a climax. These characters opposing our heroes, then, become one of the main elements within a story as they serve to emphasize the role of the hero and his great actions and struggles.

If we analyse the figure of Voldemort we could observe how he becomes the person who triggers the entire plot in the Harry Potter books, and the actions that follow afterwards, which involve Harry, are a result of Voldemort’s transgression; what we mean to say is that Voldemort without realizing it made Harry Potter one of the horcruxes, and the process to do so is to kill someone as a sacrifice and split half of the soul of the wizard who casts the spell by pouring it into any item, whether lifeless or alive. After killing Harry’s parents, which somehow turned out to be an act of sacrifice, he unintentionally put a part of his soul into Harry Potter in an attempt to kill him as well, and this is the main reason for the connection between the two. Therefore, it is reasonable to discuss the topic of duality and connection between the hero and the villain, not only in Harry Potter but in our other selected works, since it is a motif that predominates in this contemporary Saga and could be a pattern taken from the previous writings. This brings us to the concept of duality or, more precisely, to the concept of Doppelg?nger, a term that Clute defines as:

Literally, double-walker. While a protagonist and his/her double may have no "blood" relationship, a doppelg?nger is always intimately connected to the person in whose footprints he walks. A doppelg?nger may therefore be a Ghost double, or an Astral Body tied to its flesh mirror; [...] The doppelg?nger is more common in Supernatural Fiction than in Fantasy. Robert Louis Stevenson, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [...] dramatizes the polarities between these two aspects. (Clute, “Doppelg?nger”, 1997)

The works which are at the centre of our study emphasize this concept in various ways: so, moving to the study of this shared theme of duality within our writings, we will first begin with Stevenson’s novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to explore this concept since this story is an excellent example of duality, as Clute has already mentioned. The theme of Doppelg?nger is portrayed through the main characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The latter is not only the shadow of the well-respected Dr. Jekyll but also becomes his antagonist. Doctor Jekyll creates Hyde by potions and scientific experiments in order to prove his idea: “That man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p.64).

His desire was to show that human beings are a mixture composed by a self and a shadow, which is part of the self; he wanted to explore the complex nature of humanity. This suggests that each man’s enemy exists within himself, an idea not only reflected in Le Guin’s story but also in Poe’s short story “The Imp of the Perverse”, which explains that people might feel the urge of doing something that should not be done and do it anyway, and this impulse is caused, in a symbolical way, by the imp of the perverse that exists within ourselves. This duality may carry moral connotations, for instance, Hyde is a manifestation of the evil self in Dr. Jekyll, who has a separate identity in the story and through this he becomes free from the limitations imposed by society, as he says, “my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring” while referring to Mr. Hyde (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p.74). Dr. Jekyll created his own destruction, like Frankenstein did.

This dualism is also obvious in Dorian Gray where the portrait becomes a mirror to the soul of the protagonist. Like Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray also oppresses his inner wild nature and criminal desires to maintain his highly respected personality, thus, there is a separation of the shadow and the self, the portrait in this case does not function exactly as a shadow, but as a mirror of the self, in this case, Dorian’s. And after the division of the two he is able to freely do immoral acts without putting a stain on his reputation. And we can see that in the end, when Dorian stabs the painting, he, in fact, kills himself, which shows the connection between the two. Although Wilde, unlike Stevenson, does not create a separate character to show this division, he uses a portrait that shows the consequences of Dorian’s actions.

We can find a strong connection between Victor Frankenstein and the monster, as the monster becomes the shadow of his creator. The shadow being the part of the self, that is Frankenstein’s, that he himself rejects; and the creature’s nature is a consequence of this rejection, as he became evil because of the consequences of what he went through. He was innocent when he was created, however the treatment he received from his creator made of him a monster who looked for revenge. If Victor had acknowledged his shadow from the very beginning, the murders done by the monster could have been avoided. The two characters suggest the idea that they are parts of a single figure, understanding them as the duality in humanity and revealing the complexity of human nature, with its flaws and virtues.

The theme of duality in Doctor Faustus is represented through the Doctor’s inner turmoil, thus his shadow is his incapability to resolve his dilemma. As we can perceive, good is portrayed through the ideals of Heaven -good angels and God-, whereas the opposite is reflected through the figures of Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Hell and the evil angel; this duality plays a big role in the play. Through the play we can observe how sometimes he struggles to choose one of the sides, repentance or eternal damnation, as can be seen when he says "My heart is hardened, I cannot repent" and then right after he says "I am resolved, Faustus shall not repent. " (2.3.18-30). Here we can observe that what he says matches his inner struggle and shows his ambivalent nature. But he is tempted by the knowledge and power offered by the devil in exchange of his soul. This reminds us of the figure of Lucifer, since he shares the same quest. Faustus’ personality and fate parallel Lucifer’s as both of them stand out from the common because of their knowledge; and Lucifer, who once was the most preferred angel of God, decided to create his own kingdom and fell from Heaven; in the same manner that Faustus wanted to achieve power and knowledge at any cost and, to do so, he renounced Heaven and God as well.

Clute stated “in 20th-century fiction, and in fantasy as a whole, many of the functions of the doppelg?nger have been taken over by theShadow” (Clute, “Doppelg?nger”, 1997). In A Wizard of Earthsea we can see an obvious connection between Ged and the shadow. Clute further explains that “when it refers to a dark hidden side of the self, the term "shadow" is a close cousin to the term Double.” Stories like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde suggest that the “marriage” between the “two halves of the self is likely to be fatal”, however in Fantasy there may be a “union between protagonists and shadows” to prove that “the Shadow represents those aspects of the whole self which have been denied, and which must be re-integrated into the conscious personality if one wishes to become a mature and chivalrous adult.” (Langford, David & Clute, “Shadows”, 1997). Thus, one of the main points of Le Guin was to make her readers understand how there are portions in human nature that we do not really comprehend, at least not completely and Le Guin built this idea through Ged and his shadow, which as it concludes in the end, was Ged himself, and naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark. (Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, p. 196).

Through this quote we can see that the shadow is a part of Ged and now he is complete. As explained above, the shadow is the part that Ged could not recognize, and once he names it and accepts it, the issue comes to an end. Ged’s shadow and Ged himself have managed to coexist together as two parts of the same entity.

Up to here we have seen that protagonists consciously or unconsciously create a double and they are either unable to reverse the situation or are aware of their double and they accept this dual entity as a part of themselves. In order to end with this dualism shared with the dark entity, present in Frankenstein and A Wizard of Earthsea, the hero must die as well, the hero has to sacrifice his own life in order to destroy the double as occurs in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dorian Gray.

So now let us see how this theme of duality is portrayed in Harry Potter. A common and relevant topic in our writings is the battle with the self. As Cockrell suggests in her article “Voldemort is Harry’s shadow side, his dark twin, and Harry must meet and defeat him as Le Guin’s Ged must meet and acknowledge his shadow” (Cockrell, 2004). Evidently, in Le Guin’s fantasy, Ged is battling against his own shadow, whereas Harry’s fight with his evil shadow is more metaphorical, however both novels defend the point that our heroes are combating a piece of themselves. In Rowling’s story, the maincharacter has a scar on the face which is given by the evil entity he must fight. This mark suggests a deep connection with his enemy, Harry fears that he might become like Voldemort because of this link: the lightning scar, which starts to hurt whenever Voldemort is around, also Harry Potter has a wand which has a phoenix feather and it has come from the same phoenix which “gave another feather” which is present in the core of another wand, the one that “gave” him “that scar”, that is Voldemort’s wand (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, pp. 91-92). It is also suggested that the sorting hat might have placed Harry in Slytherin, which was Voldemort’s house. Plus, Harry can speak Parseltongue, the language of serpents and Dumbledore explains to Harry that “unless I’m much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, p. 351). As we can observe, the connection between the hero and the villain is clear and it is more evident in Le Guin’s novel, where the protagonist (the self) and the antagonist (the shadow) are just two faces of in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Faustus and his struggling self and Dorian Gray and his portrait, as studied above.

This section has explained the function of the dark entity within the plot and the connection shared between the antagonist and the hero by means of the concept of duality. This theme appears in each of our selected narratives and we can observe how Rowling has reincorporated this motif to create a connection between Harry and Voldemort. Thus, we can say that the use of the double as a dark force becomes one of the conventions that this saga inherits from previous works in order to explain the character’s inner self. This duality then, is a common element in the hero’s journey, to be more precise, in the building of the road of trials and the achievement of the ultimate boon.

4.1. Otherness

Once we have commented on the importance of the dark force and its relationship with the hero in the previous section, we will proceed with the study of a convention focusing on the figure of the antagonist. This convention consists in portraying said figures in terms of otherness. The way they are depicted throughout the narrative is striking; we could say that dark entities or antagonists have a particular form and face. In other words, there are certain qualities applied to the dark entity, qualities that are mostly concerned with the physical the same coin; this type of connection can be found between Frankenstein and his monster, description, which follow similar patterns, such as having animal features, gross attributes or having a deformity, among many others; and thus, we will treat them as a convention that reappears in all of our selected narratives. But what exactly means to be ‘the other’? It suggests “being or feeling different in appearance or character from what is familiar, expected, or generally accepted” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2018), and departing from this definition we can say that these figures, because of their distinct characteristics, do not fit into the established general social conventions. This otherness not only has an impact on these figures but also on the readers that perceive through these depictions a sense of danger and detachment with the antagonist who does not belong into the society, which allow us, as readers, to support the hero instead.

An excellent example of this would be the monster created by Victor Frankenstein, whose appearance has been portrayed in such a hideous way that his creator himself is shocked when his experiment turns out to be a success and the creature wakes up:

His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, p.45)

As we can see in the description above, the creature’s skin is yellow and so thin that Victor could see through it the ‘muscles and arteries beneath’. And his complexion contrasts with his ‘straight black lips’, which suggests that the creature is either cold or in a state of putrefaction. Shelley depicts the monster as a ‘horrid’ and grotesque figure, as she offers an unpleasant image of the creature, which is at the same time frightening, which leads to his social marginalization. From the moment the monster comes to life, he possesses physical differences that mark him as the ‘other’ according to the canons of beauty. And even after trying to fit in society he is unable to because of his hideous looks. The monster is not given importance, not by society nor by his creator, who does not provide his creation with a name, and simply refers to him as monster or creature. His physical deformities do not allow him to show his innocent and kind part. In addition, the way in which people abuse him, either because he is perceived as an inferior being or because he tends to cause a sense of terror in others, produces great negative consequences on the creature and makes of him a figure who is constantly struggling psychologically in the entire novel. Thus, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a perfect example of alienation, since the creature feels not only isolated physically from the others because of his characterization, but also entirely alone because he is excluded every time he tries to socialize.

This idea similarly appears in Stevenson’s story, in which Mr. Enfield finds Hyde very hard to describe because he has beastly features. In fact, he says “It wasn't like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut”, note that he uses it to describe Mr. Hyde further emphasizing his non-human appearance. He also claims that he is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point.

He's an extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, pp.10- 11)

And afterwards the readers are given a clearer picture of this dark figure through a set of characteristics, which helps us understand his personality:

Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him... something troglodytic, shall we say? (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p. 18)

As we can observe in this description, Mr. Hyde is a deformed and unconventional figure. His image is associated with dwarfs and this sense of disfiguration is something that parallels Frankenstein’s creature and Voldemort, as we will later see. Hyde’s pale skin tone, ‘displeasing smile’ and the ‘murderous’ qualities that shape his appearance suggest that he is not a common human being, he stands outside the beauty conventions established by society. Another common tool is to associate the image of these characters to the devil, as occurs in Stevenson’s novel, where Hyde is being linked to “Satan”; a characterization that parallels Harry Potter, where Voldemort too, is implicitly connected to Satan, as we will later see. Also, writers play with the complexion of these characters to show their distinct nature, thus, Shelley’s monster’s skin is ‘yellow’ as if it is putrefied or dead and similarly, Mr. Hyde’s skin is pale, which has a ghostly connotation. This depiction has an impact on the readers, who associate the exterior image to the inner nature of the character. (Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p.8).

This characterization is not just applied to characters, for instance, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the portrait of the main character becomes the mirror of his soul and undergoes the consequences of his mistakes and immoral actions. In this sense, the appearance of the character does not change, but his misdeeds appear on the painting, which bears the qualities discussed earlier in the paper, such as being deformed, rotten and gross. Once again, human beauty represents virtue while otherness is depicted in terms of ugliness:

In the dim arrested light that struggled through the cream-colored silk blinds, the face seemed to him to be a little changed. The expression looked different. One would have said that there was a touch of cruelty in the mouth. It was certainly curious. [...] But the strange expression that he had noticed in the face of the portrait seemed to linger there, to be more intensified even. The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing. (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 99)

And Dorian further describes the painting and mentions that:

Looking now at the evil and aging face on the canvas, and now at the fair young face that laughed back at him from the polished glass. The very sharpness of the contrast used to quicken his sense of pleasure. He grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul. He would examine with minute care, and often with a monstrous and terrible delight, the hideous lines that seared the wrinkling forehead or crawled around the heavy sensual mouth, wondering sometimes which were the more horrible, the signs of sin or the signs of age. He would place his white hands beside the coarse bloated hands of the picture, and smile. He mocked the misshapen body and the failing limbs (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 160)

Wilde creates a direct link between evil and the horrendous appearance of the picture. In the novel, at a given point Basil describes the picture comparing it with Satan, when he says “this has the eyes of a devil” or displays attributes which are associated to animals when he further mentions “this is the face of a satyr” (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 205), which is a legendary creature in Greek mythology and they “usually have horse-like ears and tails, as well as permanent, exaggerated erections.” (Wikipedia, 2018). Further, the “misshapen body and failing limbs” suggest the deformity of the Dorian appearing in the painting.

Likewise, in A Wizard of Earthsea, when Ged summons the shadow he describes it as “a black beast, the size of a young child, though it seemed to swell and shrink; and it had no head or face, only the four taloned paws with which it gripped and tore” (Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, p. 67). Thus again, the description of the evil involves something beastly and deformed. We get a clear description at the end of the book when it says the thing that faced him changed utterly, spreading out to either side as if it opened enormous thin wings, and it writhed, and swelled, and shrank again. Ged saw in it for an instant Skiorh’s white face, and then a pair of clouded, staring eyes, and then suddenly a fearful face he did not know, man or monster, with writhing lips and eyes that were like pits going back into black emptiness (Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, pp.193-194).

This description resembles Mr. Hyde’s since it is difficult in both to clearly state whether the creatures are human or monstrous. Moving on to Doctor Faustus, we can observe that, because of the play-writing conventions of the 16th century, extremely detailed physical descriptions are not provided; however Marlowe does put an emphasis onMephistopheles’ appearance; when he is first introduced in the play, Faustus horrified by his appearance asks the devil’s slave to change his shape:

I charge thee to return and change thy shape. Thou art too ugly to attend on me. Go, and return an old Franciscan friar; That holy shape becomes a devil best. (1.3.23-26)

From this we can get an idea about the ugliness of the creature and in the same manner of our other previously mentioned narratives, Marlowe too, depicts Mephistopheles as a grotesque figure following the convention of characterization that shows the otherness the character carries within. And this tradition has been developed in Rowling’s saga, where the ultimate dark figure (Voldemort) is depicted with animalistic features as happens with Mr. Hyde, the Monster, the Shadow and Dorian’s image in the painting. The main goal of the usage of this convention is to detach readers from the evil being in order to avoid the identification with them, but also to create a sense of horror. Voldemort is portrayed as “tall and skeletally thin", 

with a face whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils and his hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness. (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, pp.541-542).

Voldemort shares physical characteristics with a snake, which is an animal often linked to Satan, as Olson said in his commentary on the Bible that “the serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld” (Numbers, p.136). Moreover, his hands are like “pale spiders” and has red eyes and slit pupils like cats. And again, the paleness of the character suggests that he is dead, cold or a ghost. This convention of describing the enemy with a certain style is commonly achieved by associating their image to beasts, Satan or by suggesting that they are ugly, deformed or grotesque; and they do not only serve to enhance the otherness of their appearance, but by doing so the physical description also becomes a window to their evil nature. In this section of the paper we have regarded to the importance of characterizing dark figures and classifying them as the other in the hero’s journey.

5. Archetypal Figures

So far, we have seen that the hero needs to confront a villain, which can appear in various forms; the battle becomes one the most crucial stages in the hero’s journey. In the same way that the figure of the dark entity or enemy becomes a must in these stories, there are other figures in the journey of the hero that are equally significant. What we have noticed is that these figures, the mentor, the loyal friend, the innocent supporting character, a troubling family member or a foil, share similar qualities and have been introduced in the story with a similar purpose. This section is concerned with the analysis of such roles and how they are essential in the hero’s quest and how they work within the parameters of the monomyth.

To start with, the character of the old wise man or mentor seems to be a recurrent figure in our works. This figure may appear through a variety of characters performing a completely different role, but the goal remains the same: to aid the hero during his journey with his gaining of experience, power or knowledge. In this sense, in Harry Potter, there are many helpers (Snape, McGonagall, Hagrid, etc.), although the one who best fits would be Dumbledore, who provides Harry with life lessons, protection and magical objects through his quest to defeat Voldemort. Similarly, in A Wizard of Earthsea it was Ogion The Silent who gave important lessons and advise to Ged. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the role of mentor is not so obvious, but we can perceive certain qualities in Lord Henry; although he is a person who induced Dorian into an immoral way of living and has a strong malicious influence on him, Henry could be considered a mentor, as he aids Dorian in the gaining of knowledge regarding the hedonistic way of life, since before meeting him, Dorian was totally pure and innocent and he was the one who transformed Dorian into a greedy and unethical human being by imposing his philosophy on him. This role of a mentor reappears in Marlowe’s play through the figures of Good and Bad Angels, who talk to Faustus throughout the play to convince him to either repent or continue with the deal.

Despite being metaphorical figures, their intention is to guide Faustus on his path to damnation by advising him against or in favour of his pact with the devil. And, the symbolic character of the Old Man, who appears almost at the end who advises Faustus to repent, could also be understood as the figure of the mentor. In Frankenstein, although the role of the mentor is not as relevant as in other works, there is a figure who could be understood as a mentor for the hero: M. Waldman, who was one of his professors and fits this role since he influenced Victor and his interest in the study of chemistry and was very much admired by Victor.

We can also encounter supportive characters whose main function is to portray goodness and innocence; and when they die or are killed in the story, they allow the readers to understand the horrors and the power of the dark entity or the consequences of a mistake. Thus, the death of Lanyon in Stevenson’s novella parallels the death of Basil in Dorian Gray right after they discover the truth about their friends. Shelley’s tale also features characters who die because of Frankenstein’s irresponsible creation, such as his wife and cousin Elizabeth or his little brother William. Similarly, on many occasions the helper or supportive character is killed to reveal the dangers and to represent the end of goodness; inthis sense in Le Guin’s story, an essential figure, Archmage Nemmerle died saving Ged from the shadow he summoned and in Harry Potter when Dobby, Snape or Sirius Black gave their lives in order to protect Harry.

Another common figure is that of the loyal friend. In A Wizard of Earthsea, Vetch helps to fight Ged’s shadow and in Rowling’s Saga, Ron and Hermione have a major role in Harry’s quest to defeat Voldemort. In addition, a minor parallel role is that of a family member -in this case, Ged’s father and Harry’s uncle-, who follow an established pattern which consists in treating the main protagonist poorly and becoming a barrier during the journey of our heroes, to be more precise, these figures represent an obstacle in the crossing of the threshold. And some of our works also employ the figure of the foil, which serves to highlight the virtues present in the hero by contrasting those of the heroes with those present in the foil, in this case, Jasper and Draco Malfoy, who show an annoying behaviour towards the protagonist and somehow both of them trouble and interfere in the hero’s main aim, thus we recognize certain resemblance between these characters.

To sum up, we have observed that the stories involve archetypal figures, such as the mentor, a loyal friend, the innocent helper, foil or troubling family member, -which are later introduced identically in Harry Potter-; and these characters follow certain patterns and appear in the story for specific purposes, which have been addressed above. Together, these figures become crucial elements in the journey of the hero and, as they have reappeared in Rowling’s novels, their involvement in the narrative has become a literary convention.

6. Power and Knowledge

The theme of education and gaining more knowledge seems to be one of the most significant ones in some of these works. Knowledge is what the hero seeks in order to succeed – it is the ultimate boon- and he achieves it through his adventures and experiences during the road of trials. Thus, we will proceed with the study of how knowledge and education are important to the story and to the journey of the hero and how this theme has been reflected in Rowling’s novels as well. In addition, we will later deal with the issue of power in relation to the theme of knowledge.

Unquestionably, there is a major emphasis not only on education but on knowledge as well. In the works we have selected for our study every main character’s major concern is based on learning more, either it has to do with knowledge related to science and experiments or with magical spells and enchantments. In this sense, Faustus felt the need to know more than he already knew; the chorus mentions at the beginning of the play that Faustus “For, falling to a devilish exercise, And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts, He surfeits upon cursed necromancy; nothing so sweet as magic is to him” (Prologue.22- 24), suggesting Faustus’ intellectual curiosity. Later in the play he mentions his desire to learn and practice the art of magic. Frankenstein wanted to achieve through his knowledge something beyond human abilities, he wanted to create life, plus his monster reads Milton's Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Goethe'sSorrows of Werther, which become extremely important for the creature, they are essential for the development of his understanding of human nature; through these texts he gets a first general idea of the world which is necessary for his acceptance in society. As the creature mentions “the possession of these treasures gave me extreme delight; I now continually studied and exercised my mind upon these histories” (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 98). Apart from learning about emotions and deep feelings, he tries to figure out his identity through these literary classics:

As I read, however, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition. I found myself similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read. (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 99).

Dr. Jekyll, because of the excellent education he receives and the knowledge he possesses, is able to make an important progress in the scientific field by creating a potion which could separate the evil side from the virtuous one in a human being. Ged goes to Roke Academy to learn everything about magic, and his knowledge eventually helps him to battle dragons and to defeat his Gebbeth; the shadow was liberated at first because of the insufficiency of knowledge, he was unaware of its consequences. Similarly, Harry Potter needs to learn the spells to fight his enemy and avenge his parents’ death, and conversely, Voldemort needed power and knowledge to confront Harry. Thus, learning seems to be an important topic in the mentioned works and becomes an essential element in Harry Potter.

So, two important elements are central to our works, magic and science. Dorian Gray in this sense is unique because of the strange and mysterious element present in the novel: a changing painting, which cannot be explained by science nor magic so it would classify as supernatural. However, science, magic and the supernatural do not work very differently in the works we are dealing with. In other words, the difference among the two is not clear-cut, both portray ideas beyond the ordinary abilities of human beings; for instance, in Frankenstein’s fictional world it is possible to create life from death, however, we know that in real life this has not been achieved yet; but, as the British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke stated, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” (Wikipedia Contributors, 2018). Undeniably the distinction between magic and science is not always clear, for instance Le Guin, in her novel, treats magic “as if it were a science” (Nicholls, “Fantasy”, 2015).

Such is the importance of education that the entire setting is focused on the learning system of the protagonists. Thus, Hogwarts and Roke academy where young wizards are sent in order to improve their magical skills become a crucial element in the plot and they share a good number of similarities, such as both of them being protected by enchantments and also being considered as the safest place in their world. The parallelism between the two is striking since they cannot be seen or reached by non-magical people. Le Guin’s magical school follows rules and traditions, needless to say that the same occurs with Hogwarts. These are just a few of the qualities that both schools have in common, but evidently there are many more, which give rise to a particular set of characteristics that are applied to a certain type of school, in this case, magical. Thus, the ideas developed in Le Guin’s creation of the wizardry school do not only reappear in the Harry Potter series with minor variations, but also allow us to recognize them as a convention.

Ged, Faustus, Jekyll, Frankenstein and Harry, all of them seek to know more; knowledge is what gives them power to commit mistakes, to correct them or to confront the obstacles they encounter throughout the journey. In connection with exploring the power of knowledge, in A Wizard of Earthsea the characters need to know something’s or someone’s name to have power over him/her or it. In fact, their magical education is based on learning the true names of things; in this way, characters have two different names and the true one is kept in secret, otherwise they face the risk of someone casting a spell on them by using the power of naming. Harry needs to be powerful in order to save wizards from the dark intentions of Voldemort whereas Faustus is interested in power for its own sake, he uses his power to satisfy his own pleasures. As to Dr. Jekyll and Victor Frankenstein, both use their powers to go beyond the limits, their experiments allow them to create something that has never been done before. They become powerful protagonists because of their intelligence although they use their knowledge in an irresponsible way, which only brings to them catastrophic consequences. Dorian abuses his power, after acknowledging the immortality of his youth and beauty, to commit crimes and live a life of pleasures, which also has a tragic ending. Therefore, on the one hand power and learning serve as a tool for the hero’s success in obtaining his ultimate boon and on the other hand, power, wrongly used, can be the trigger or reason behind the hero’s destruction.

On the one hand, the ability to perform magic makes the character powerful but magic can also be dangerous; we can see through Ged how a single mistake brings serious consequences with it and damages the character’s mental health. This suggests that magic, apart from being complicated and mysterious, has rules and conditions, which our heroes must bear in mind, because if they cross these lines and limitations and deal with this art with irresponsibility or without the proper knowledge, which sometimes lead to situations that can be hard to solve. Likewise, Dr. Faustus, interested in having magical powers, sells his soul to Lucifer and dooms himself; his ambition for knowledge of magic leads him to his own destruction, since he is blinded by the power he receives. This idea reappears in Harry Potter through Voldemort’s dark actions and how he abuses his powers by causing harm to other characters in the wizarding world; his magic becomes a danger, not only for others, but also for himself, as he eventually has to face the consequences of his wrongdoing. On the other hand, if there is no magic, similar ideas are expressed through science, which is the case of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, where scientific methods and experiments are the cause of their future destruction, they are seen as acts that go against human nature since one of them creates life by joining dead people’s body parts and the other one tries to separate the two parts, good and evil, which coexist in ourselves.

So, whether science or magic, one thing in common is that these powers become uncontrollable, that is the reason why, even in the fictional world, characters have rules and laws on how to use magic with responsibility. We can find this in Earthsea, where everything needs to be in “balance” and the more powerful the magic is, the less power/energy the wizard is left with; and when Ogion the Silent explains that to Ged he makes him aware of the possible negative consequences of the most insignificant change:

But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world.... To light a candle is to cast a shadow. (Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, p.51)

To sum up this point, this section has focused on two important themes, which are interrelated: power and knowledge. Through both we understand how learning means power and sometimes the misuse of power leads to destruction. On the one hand, we have seen that some sort of force is present in our writings: magic or science play a significant role in our works and it is a topic that has reappeared in Rowling’s Harry Potter. On the other hand, an emphasis on learning and education can be perceived, which has led to a particular convention of magical schools for the special ones. A convention that is certainly present nowadays; for instance in the fantasy novel by Riordan The Lightning Thief from the Percy Jackson series, which was published in 2005, there is a camp where teenagers- who are the children of mythological Greek gods and that makes them special and unique from others as they are demigods- learn to use their powers and improve their skills- a place very similar to Hogwarts.

7. Conclusion

This paper has shown the typical conventions -which appear at different stages in Campbell’s journey of the hero- that are present in previous literary texts and have reappeared into Rowling’s series. In other words, in this paper, we have not only proved that Harry Potter works in the shadow of other literary pieces, but also explained that it strongly follows a set of themes and common elements that appear within the framework of the monomyth. The study of this set of patterns, through an extensive comparison between the Harry Potter series and other literary texts, has been carried out by focusing on the complexity of the fantasy genre, the hero’s journey and transgression, the evil entity, duality, the theme of otherness, the presence of similar figures and also by focusing on power and education. Altogether it has allowed us to establish a connection among some of the best-known works in literature -such as Shelley’s Frankenstein, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and Wilde’s Dorian Gray; and it has improved our comprehension of Campbell’s monomyth not only through Rowling’s influential set of novels but also through the other works which have been at the centre of this study. To conclude and to further prove our thesis we will identify the same traditions -studied earlier through the Harry Potter series- in another fantasy novel: The Name of the Wind. This novel is a recent work by Patrick Rothfuss, published in 2007 and we will be able to see the identical patterns mentioned above. Thus, the combination of patterns is not arbitrary and we will justify it and see how certain elements from the story repeat themselves.

The Name of the Wind is part of a trilogy, known as The Kingkiller Chronicle, where the main protagonist, Kvothe, tells his life in a span of three days, so each book narrates a day where he recalls his childhood and past adventures. Using the technique of a story within a story the protagonist recounts to Chronicler, a traveling scribe and his assistant, Bast, how he met Abenthy, the one who introduced him to the world of magic, how his parents were killed by the Chandrian when he was eleven years old and how heentered the University in order to gain more knowledge on his parents’ killers. He survived three years after his parents’ death in the slums of Tarbean. He fell in love with a girl named Denna and made good friends at the University. He also fought with a giant lizard known as Draccus. And he eventually found out some information on the Chandrian but that is not the end of his adventures, since the rest of his life is told in the remaining two books, one of them yet to be published. Through the first novel we learn that in the present Kvothe is an innkeeper in the small town of Newarre. The Name of the Wind is full of myths and stories which are hard to believe for the inhabitants of this fictitious world but Kvothe knows they are true and personally experiences certain situations involving incredible creatures and mythical figures.

Rothfuss’ novel evidently belongs to the genre of fantasy since it is set in an imaginary world where magic and dragons exist, but much like Harry Potter, it blends together elements from other genres, such as a school story, epic novel, coming of age and a detective mystery-resolution pattern as Kvothe’s desire is to find out about those who killed his parents. Kvothe clearly goes through most of the stages involved in Campbell’s hero’s journey. Thanks to Abenthy he learns the unknown powers of his world which can be understood as supernatural aid. The call to adventure takes place when his entire family is killed, he needs to find out the truth behind the Chandrian and their attacks, which becomes Kvothe’s obsession and his primary purpose in his life. Subsequently, when he moves to Tarbean he leaves behind the protective environment he was used to, meaning that he has crossed the threshold and he is now in the belly of the whale. He faces money related problems before entering the University, goes through an interview in order to be admitted and also battles with the Draccus, which can be seen as the road of trials. As we are unaware of what happens with Kvothe in the second and third book, we could consider as the ultimate boon the clues and information he gathers about the Chandrian; that is, the discovery of the reason why the Chandrian commit massacres, but evidently his quest has not ended yet. Regarding the return, we do not know how he escapes from Campbell’s belly of the whale and the only thing we are certain of is that in the present time he is the innkeeper of Waystone Inn. Therefore, it certainly follows the stages of Campbell’s monomyth of departure and initiation, however his return does not take place in the first book of the trilogy.

The theme of transgression reappears in this story. Rothfuss, too, has adopted this convention of writing the plot involving a transgressive act, in this case, performed by the villain: the murder of Kvothe’s parents by the Chandrian, which triggers the later events in the hero’s journey. And once again the idea of ‘the other’ is illustrated through the dark entity. The Chandrian, in this sense, are portrayed as powerful supernatural figures who were cursed because “they were the first six people to refuse Tehlu’s choice of the path” (Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, p.32); this parallels Lucifer’s story, and indeed, the Chandrian are perceived as demons in the novel. Inhabitants of this fantasy world have made songs to describe these entities, and in those lyrics we find that one of them is depicted as a “man without a face” (Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, p.107) or with “black eyes and a nightmare smile” (p. 767) which shows their deformity and their evil nature.

Attributes like ‘cold’, ‘pale’ and “eyes like ice” (p.192) are associated to them, suggesting that they are dead, not human. Moreover, when describing one of the Chandrian, Kvothe says that he was “a creature of winter’s pale. Everything about him was cold and sharp and white. Except his eyes. They were black like a goat’s but with no iris. His eyes were like hissword, and neither reflected the light of the fire or the setting sun” (p. 406), a description that shows how dark entities are most of the time pictured through animalistic qualities.

The theme of duality in the novel is present through the main character, Kvothe, as he possesses a dual identity, which slightly resembles to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Readers are told at the beginning of the book that Kvothe is being pursued and is hiding because he has killed a king, the hero has committed a misdeed. Afterwards, his life story is narrated and we learn about his real personality. Therefore, Kvothe has two identities, the normal one, which is mainly to hide from the outer world while working at the Inn and the extraordinary one, which is discovered through his life experiences and turn him into a hero. Rothfuss’ main protagonist apart from being a musician, is an archanist, which is similar to a sorcerer, he has power that makes him superior to the average beings in the story. From the beginning we know that he is extraordinary, as exactly happens with the main character in Harry Potter.

Moving on to the archetypal figures present in the narratives which have been addressed in our paper, we find once again the role of the mentor, performed by Abenthy, who prepares and introduces Kvothe to sympathy, a type of magic, and in the same way that Harry Potter has the support of many other teachers apart from Dumbledore, Kvothe encounters many wise sorcerers who help him and teach him during his time at the University, such as Elodin, Master Namer. Also, the figure of loyal friends is essential; just like Ron and Hermione, Kvothe’s friends are Simmon and Wilem. But there is also the figure of the foil who troubles and interferes in the hero’s main aim, which is Ambrose.

In this fantasy novel there is an emphasis on magic and power as well. Through it we learn the dangers that abusing the power can bring to the characters, since Kvothe, as Le Guin’s Ged summoned a shadow, calls the wind without being prepared. Throughout the novel the theme of learning is consistent. Kvothe wants knowledge to become powerful and to know more about the Chandrian, those who killed his parents and his entire troupe. The University becomes a fundamental place in the novel, because it is the only place where Kvothe can learn about magic and the Chandrian, getting knowledge and increasing power are the goal, the ultimate boon, of the journey of the hero. So, in Rothfuss’ novel, there is an emphasis on the importance of education and a good part of the novel’s setting is focused on the learning system of the protagonist. Thus, the convention of magical schools for the extraordinary ones reappears in this text.

As we can see, the plot structure in The Name of the Wind is very similar to other books that have been dealt with in this paper – A Wizard of Earthsea and Harry Potter mainly- but it also gathers the elements and themes appearing in the rest of the writings that have been studied in this paper. The structure of Campbell’s monomyth is clear too, the hero is introduced to a problem, deals with tests and obstacles of every kind, fights and tries to solve a mystery or the complicated situation and eventually succeeds, as seen through Harry, Ged and Kvothe, or at least the situation is resolved and the dark force is destroyed even if the death of the hero is required to achieve it, as occurs with Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Faustus and Dorian. Through this brief commentary we have explained how the conventions appearing in previous writings are identifiable not only in Rowling’s work but also in Rothfuss’ contemporary novel, The Name of the Wind.

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