Comparison Of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

The main protagonist in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets is, obviously Harry Potter. Harry is no ordinary boy; he is a wizard living in the real world full of muggles, or people who have no magical abilities whatsoever. Only a small, single family knew of his magic skills, the Durselys. The Durselys were the only relatives Harry had left in the world and housed Harry during his summer break from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hate isn’t a strong enough word for how Harry felt about living with the Durselys. Harry however handles his relatives carefully by picking his battles, defending himself at times laughing at them when they are absurd, and trying not to offend them. He messes up big time when he accidentally mentions
magic at the dinner table. "You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably. The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs.
Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples.” (2). The Durselys treated Harry with upmost disgust, but all out of fear. “All Harry’s spellbooks, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-the-line Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in a cupboard underneath the stairs by Uncle Vernon the second Harry had come home.” (3). Due to Harry being a wizard, The Durselys treated Harry like a prisoner. All this hate generated toward Harry shows how much he missed Hogwarts. To Harry, it was heaven; his escape. “He missed Hogwarts so much it was giving him a constant stomachache. He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes, the mail arriving by owl, sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds, and especially, Quidditch, the
most popular sport in the wizarding world.” (3). Harry was alone and verbally abused when he stayed with the Durselys. At Hogwarts, Harry was famous, the biggest wizarding prodigy the world ever knew, and had friends from all corners of the castle. It was day and night how Harry acted and was treated. Once the Summer was over, he was back at Hogwarts, but was faced with solving a 50 year old mystery at the castle, but it was a challenge Harry was up to. Because Harry was famous before he even knew he was a wizard, so most of his personality is shaped by the pressure he feels to live up to his fame. He tries to avoid flattery and praise because he feels he doesn’t deserve it. He attempts to live a normal wizard's life by having close friendships, enemies, dilemmas, and triumphs throughout the story, but Harry’s character builds as his conflict gets worse.

When the major conflict starts to build so too does Harry’s character. When Harry hears the random voice in the castle say that it is “time to kill” (137), his first instinct is to follow the voice in order of preventing it from doing anyone any harm and is a characteristic Harry shows more frequently. His instinct is to always do good things and prevent evil from occurring in a place he loves most. However Harry does not understand the meaning of the voice as nothing happened. This lack of understanding becomes the source of frustration and Harry starts second guessing himself. Later on, he resolves these emotions by being more open to his friends, but actually turns down help from experienced headmasters and adults, such as Dumbledore. The fact that he does indeed accept help from his friends shows some signs of maturity in Harry, but because he doesn’t seek help from people he needs, it is easy to see that he had some growing up to do.

Throughout the book Harry starts to build more character. For example, Harry doesn’t look down on Filch for being a squib (a person born from a wizard family with no magical capabilities), he throws a firecracker into a cauldron during potions class to distract Snape, so that Hermione can steal the ingredients needed for the polyjuice potion, and finally his brave and noble acts during the Quidditch game versus Slytherin. These all show that Harry treats all beings equal, that he’ll break the rules only to make things better, and the Quidditch match dictates his bravery, determination, and teamwork with all of his teammates. The Quidditch match is an excellent example for characterizing Harry because of how important the moment is. Oliver literally tells Harry, “get to that snitch…or die trying” (167) and that is exactly what Harry does. In addition, he tells George and Fred to leave him alone, so that he can find and track down the snitch while in the meantime making himself vulnerable to the rogue bludger. This shows that Harry will even risk taking physical and mental damage if that means his friends benefit from his actions.

There is even more development of Harry’s character when the Riddle’s diary goes missing.
Harry decides that he and Ron must speak to Hagrid about the Chamber of Secrets and the events that unfolded 50 years ago even though he “can’t believe it’s him this time” (259). Harry is willing to break the school rules because his number one priority is protecting Hogwarts and making everybody and everything safe from harm. This is an important scene in the novel because Harry does not generally do bad things. Harry never really has a problem realizing what’s right from what’s wrong. However, there are rare occurrences when he must break rules in order to achieve the greater good, which is yet another trait which Harry is building upon. Its obvious that Harry does not accept status quo and will do whatever it takes to always do the right thing. There are examples of this when Harry and ron venture out into the Forbidden Forest. Even though he encountered Voldemort the last time he went in the forbidden forest, Harry seems unphased about the decision to go and even when he stands in front of Aragog he keeps his cool. Harry’s bravery is also enhanced by the fact that he has to rely on his own instincts and himself for help; Hermione has been petrified and Ron’s wand is snapped in two, making him unable to make an impact. Another example of how Harry’s character develops is shown in how he handles being blamed for petrifying Hermione. Even when so many terrible events are taking place
around him, he doesn’t panic and remains calm. In fact, when Ernie apologizes for suspecting him of being the heir of Slytherin, Harry accepts his apology and swiftly moves on.