Prisoner of Azkaban Essay

The Harry Potter Series, while written for an aging younger crowd, fleshes out symbolic elements seemingly meant for adults, not children, starting with The Prisoner of Azkaban. Social status looms over the heads of all the characters—especially the two males Ron Wheasley and Harry Potter. Characters struggle to fit in, even Hermione. Ron pursues material wealth; Harry pursues family wealth. Each of them lacks what the other boasts. The competitive world in Harry Potter, and the natural world are at ends with each other. Hogwart’s school children do not fit into an evil world of judgment, class barriers and anti-wizard hullabaloo. The muggles condemn wizardry, whereas, for Potter, Ron and Hermione, wizardry provides a sense of connection with family. For the most part, those in Hogwarts are negligent toward muggles, and muggles deny the existence of magic, creating a world full of controversy and hate–one where any boy, man, girl or woman would have trouble molding his or her identity while shaking the oppressive nature of life.

Social status permeates the novel helping to shape the way characters are portrayed in their dealings with other characters. From the outset, the Dursely family creates a division between the muggle and wizards class. The muggle ideology of the Dursley family does not mesh with the dark magic ideology of Potter. Potter never receives a warm welcome home from the Dursleys after his first semester at Hogwarts, “The Dursley family of number four, Privet Drive, was the reason that Harry never enjoyed his summer holidays.” (Rowling p. 2) Instantly, the awareness of the Dursley’s harsh treatment toward Potter suggests ordinary life outside of Hogwarts will never embrace him. He belongs in Hogwarts where an innovative class exists–practicing all sorts of wizardry that only Rowling could muster. The muggles were all together afraid of magic, and did everything in their power to control it, hence their oppressive, unfair confrontations with Potter. When Potter receives a phone call from Ron Wheasley, the Dursley family proceeded in a tumultuous uproar as if something terrible happened. Vernon Dursely, Potter’s uncle, answers a phone call from Ron, and after hearing Ron’s request to speak with Potter, and finding out he is a fellow Hogwarts mate of Potter, he denies knowing Potter and Hogwarts by explaining to Ron that Potter “is not there” when, in actuality, Potter, at the moment, stands by Vernon. If Potter continued living with the Dursleys, in no time they would drive him to insanity, perhaps depression. Before he leaves for Hogwarts in this particular instance, he comes across a pompous, bourgeoisie sort-of lady, otherwise known as Vernon’s sister.

Though Potter has no bloodline relationship to Marge, still, she requires him to call her Aunt, not in seeking respect, but rather, to spite the poor little fellow of all his dignity. Too Marge feels threatened by his ability to perform magic, and, like all other muggles, she tries to control him. To please the Dursleys, Potter must lie about his schooling to Marge. Vernon demands he tells her he is from St. Brutus’s Secure Center of Incurably Criminal Boys, a place where perhaps Dudley Dursley would benefit from doing time there than Harry, but Dudley Dursley is spoiled even though his character flaws are as numerous as Potters. The Dursley families’ egotistic mindset would not allow criticism of their boy. By the end of chapter two, no family wealth exists for Potter. He must go to Hogwarts to gain a sense of family and connectedness. Even when he gets there, however, his ability to participate in events such as Hogsmeade is hindered because Vernon refused to sign his waiver, another perfect example of the muggles oppressing wizardry every chance they get.
Potter willingly goes every semester to Hogwarts thanks to his aunt and uncle. When he arrives everyone accepts him, aside from a few scuffles he encounters with the guys from Slytherin. Not only do the majority accept him, but he is also protected from the soul-draining Dementor. As part of a community for the first time, and accepted by most, Potter can now set goals and achieve them. Like an oppressed child whose parents beat him, limiting his confidence, so too was Potter’s confidence limited by the weight of oppression the muggles placed on him. A significant shift occurs when he enters Hogwarts. Potter now has growing power and undeveloped control over the magic arts, but control, nevertheless, unlike the lack thereof at the Dursleys. As the novel continues, Potter’s wealth allows him to set the bar of competition above the rest, other than Hermione, who academically out-strides everyone. Harry has an edge on the Quidditch field due to his new broom, the Firebolt, which happens to be far quicker than his Nimbus Two Thousand. Clearly, the divide between family outside of Hogwarts and inside is vastly different than Ron’s situation. Not only does Potter have money, but items such as the Firebolt land in his lap, and Ron wishes he possessed the same wealth.

In contrast to the muggles philosophy of denial and hatred towards wizards, the wizard community demands identification, they want no confusion between muggle and wizard. All of the children are asked not to display wizard-craft in public outside of Hogwarts, which places a restriction on their natural capability to perform their everyday functions. The walls of Hogwarts are only penetrable by those with wizardry capabilities. No outsiders, especially muggles, are allowed in. Thus, a situation is rendered where the semi permeable gates of Hogwarts allow for exclusive access in and unlimited access out, thereby defining everyone within Hogwarts as possessing wizard abilities and noting everyone outside as a muggle. As if the muggles would infect the dark magic playground in Hogwarts the wizards close their doors to outsiders. They want to keep the muggles ignorant of their practices, hence the restrictions placed on the Hogwarts attendees’ wizard-practice outside of the Ministry of Magic.

Ron, while garnering family intricacies Potter dreamt of, comes from a family with little or no money. The Wheasleys, in general, strive to live among the bourgeoisie, but fail to do so on many levels. First, the Wheasleys spend their entire winnings on a trip to Egypt. They could not have been more foolish than going on this trip. Money does not grow on trees, and though a trip may make them feel important, or as if they were utilizing the same luxuries readily available to the upper class, but it will never infinitely satisfy their monetary wants and needs. Happiness may exude for a week, but when reality once again hits, they are left in the same position—poor. Much like the consumers of today, they did not invest, and desperate Ron, who absolutely needed a new wand, barely managed to wedge enough money out of his parents’ pockets to pay for one. Not only do Ron’s parents fall victim to consumerism, spending and strong desire for upper-class approval, Ron himself conforms to the same ideology. Again, Rowling sets forth a division between upper class and lower class, wizards and muggles, and Ron and Harry.

Ron constantly buys Harry new things even though he cannot afford them. First he buys him a skinetascope, which detects the lies of people. Rowling carefully construed this so as not to make Ron appear as though he gives out of 100% genuineness. She wanted his spending to lend homage to his character, one that continuously seeks to bludgeon his way into the upper class. He partly spends fruitlessly because he wants upper class approval, and also because he is genuine, but never completely altruistic. Not only does he fruitlessly spend money on Potter, he over glamorizes material goods at Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks such as butter beer, lollipops, brooms and wands. Ron thinks that spending and buying gifts will make him as monetarily happy as Potter. He takes desperate measures to appear as a member of the upper class but miserably fails. One only has to watch one of the films to realize his disheveled nature would never pass for upper class.

Harry and Ron are finally conjoined, equally, when Potter goes to Hogsmeade and uses his invisibility cloak. Ron has to work side by side with Potter in order for him to go undetected. However, this instant of uniform collaboration only results out of Harry’s lack of diverse capability, and ultimately, his inability to travel outside the gates of Hogwarts. Once again, a stark difference between Ron’s family wealth and Potter’s lack thereof is blatantly apparent. Hogsmeade, a place that every wizard dreams to go is still accessible to Potter via the use of an invisibility Cloak and the Marauder’s Map, which speaks volumes to his power over the muggles when he resides in Hogwarts.
Harry’s power in Hogwarts, virtually infinite, elicits a situation far more favorable than his bleak, desolate summer visits to the Dursleys. It did not take him too long to realize he had it made in Hogwarts as he willingly foregoes his summer visit to his lackluster aunt and uncle’s home. To add to the tight-niche, family-like feel of Hogwarts, his friends Ron and Hermione stay with him. One again, Rowling set forth a drastic gap between Potters monetary wealth and family wealth.

Hermione, on the other hand, walks a neutral line throughout the novel. Her neutral character offers a central line above and below witch Harry and Ron lay. Rowling never describes Hermione’s family in Azkaban, which encourages the reader to believe she has no complaints about life at home. She also never appears to lack monetary wealth because she can afford to take an overload of classes, pay for the books and still go on all of the trips to Hogsmeade. These three characters, alone, display Rowling’s reliance on class differences, identification issues and family problems.

Hogwarts provides a place for Potter, Ron and Hermione to succeed. Potter enjoys the most advantages of the three by gaining a sense of family. Ron loses in the end, as his family will never have the monetary success that Potter’s family had. Hermione comes from a muggle family, but Rowling never suggests that she has wealth or family issues, therefore making the division between Ron and Potter even more apparent. Each character must deal with his or her own problems, and with their encounters with the ignorant muggles. Harry the homeless, Ron—the poor, ostentatious boy, trying to seek approval and Hermione—the neutral, know-it-all. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling sets up many class issues concerning muggles and wizards that are surely touched up further by the end of the series.