Lycanthropy Analysis
Lycanthropy as an Allegory for Racism in Fantastic Works The word “fantasy” conjures images of free-spirited pixies, magical creatures, new worlds, and ideas of magic that do not exist in the world as we know it. Our association with fantasy lumps it together with escapism, the idea that we can leave our world for a fantastic one. But as literary theorist Rosemary Jackson points out in her work, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion, the realm of the fantastic is often a mirror of our own, dealing with the social and political issues that we are faced with today. However, she argues that many works of popular fantasy literature often fail to highlight the social and political issues within them because they provide an ending that does not
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unsettle the reader, so they are less important when considering the implications of fantastic literature (Jackson, 9). Two prominent examples of this idea are the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the short story The Wife’s Story, which both provide satisfying conclusions for the reader by retreating back to the status quo. But taking a deeper look at these texts shows that they raise unique questions about racial discrimination through the allegory of lycanthropy and also subtly show the shallow nature of racism through their depictions. Each of the works portray lycanthropy in a different way, complicating our perception of racism by taking two drastically different approaches to the same issue: one story describes human prejudice against a half-wolf while the other wolf prejudice against a half-human. At the same time, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban depicts racism as a learned behavior, while the Wife’s Story shows racism as more of an instinctive prejudice. Though they deal with racism in different ways, both works ultimately suggest to the audience that racism is defined by arbitrary characteristics and is a shallow construct that is detrimental to society.
Jackson’s definition of fantastic literature hinges on the idea of “desire,” which can be understood as the desire for a reality that we do not have, one where the social and political constructs are different. She goes on to say that this desire can “manifested,” which means that this desire is mentioned and shown to the audience, but it can also be “expelled” when this desire is removed from the work because it has elements that undermine the current cultural order (Jackson 3). As Jackson writes, works that expel desire “defuse potentially disturbing, anti-social drives and retreat from any profound confrontation with existential dis-ease” (Jackson 8). In this framework, both Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story manifest and expel desire. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, desire is manifested throughout the film by following Remus Lupin and hearing and seeing the discrimination that he has had to face as a werewolf. This is done subtly, but instances such as Professor Snape’s taunting of Lupin’s condition (Cuarón, 76:41) and Lupin’s own confession about the difficulties he has faced in his childhood (Cuarón, 46:42) show how werewolves are treated poorly in society. However, at the end of the film, the disturbing element is quite literally expelled, when Remus Lupin resigns as a Hogwarts professor because word has spread that he is a werewolf. In The Wife’s Story, werewolves are not only stigmatized, but are downright hated. When the wife sees her husband’s transformation, she is “trembling and shaking with a growl that burst out into a crazy, awful howling,” (LeGuin, 332) a visceral reaction that shows the depth of her hatred and the pain of seeing a loved one turn into something she despises. Similarly to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the disturbing element is removed when the werewolf is removed from society, in this case he is killed by his wife’s sister (LeGuin, 333). Based on Jackson’s framework of the fantastic, neither of these sources are effective at challenging the dominant cultural order because of this expulsion of desire.
Throughout her work, Jackson clearly articulates the idea that more focus should be and is given to works that better fit her idea of the fantastic, literature that does not expel desire at the end of the story. She defines texts that expel desire as being part of the “faery” or “romance literature” rather than being part of the “fantastic” (Jackson, 9). However, works that expel desire and remove elements that threaten cultural order can create new disturbing elements through the aforementioned expulsion. Rather than being unsettled by the ambiguous ending, or the continual manifestation of desire, the audience can become unsettled by the expulsion itself. This is particularly important to note in The Wife’s Story, where the means of preserving social order unsettles the reader. LeGuin begins the story by stating that the husband was a good one and spends much of the subsequent text developing the idea that he is a loving, caring husband. One of the first images the reader gets of the husband is “A hard-worker and never lazy, and so big and fine-looking. Everybody looked up to him,” (LeGuin 328). This suggests that he was a fine, respectable member of society as well. This provides a stark contrast to how he is described at the end of the story, where “He was white all over, like a worm’s skin” (LeGuin, 331). The disgust present in the wife’s voice suggests complete and utter hatred, something the audience could not imagine just a few pages ago. This hatred of humans culminates at the end of the novel, when the husband’s sister in law kills him by ripping his throat out (LeGuin332). This disconnect unsettles the reader, because not only is it extremely violent, but it also shows that even a good citizen can be exterminated if they are part of a hated group. This demonstrates the arbitrary nature of racial divides, as the husband was not persecuted for being a bad person, rather he was persecuted for simply being a part of the human race. This disturbs the reader and causes them to consider the racial implications of the text.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban expels disturbing elements, but its manifestation of desire provides a compelling analogy for modern day racism, one that is familiar to the audience. When thinking about the idea of racism, often we think about the racism that we see in society today, a culturally inherited dislike of people belonging to outside groups. This is the racism that appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The prejudice against werewolves is a belief that wizarding children have grown up with, but it is not necessarily a natural prejudice. This is apparent with Hermione’s treatment of Professor Lupin. When it is revealed that Lupin is a werewolf during the confrontation in the shrieking shack, Hermione says “I trusted you! And all this time you’ve been his friend. He’s a werewolf” (Cuarón, 91:49). Hermione initially did not believe in the prejudices against werewolves. She figured out long ago that Professor Lupin was a werewolf, but she trusted him anyway because wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. In the scene, Cuarón actively portrays Lupin as a villain to suggest his betrayal of Hermione’s trust. The ominous music playing in the background suggests a sinister conspiracy. Lupin’s friendly exchange with the supposed mass murder Sirius Black and the wry smile present on both their faces only add to this effect (Cuarón, 91:41). This supposed breach in Hermione’s trust is important because Hermione is a muggleborn witch, meaning that she grew up in the non-magic world. Since she was not introduced to the wizarding world until she was 12, Hermione was able to escape the deep-rooted prejudices against werewolves that other wizarding children grew up with. Only with a betrayal of trust, does she lash out against Lupin for being a werewolf, giving into the social norms of believing that werewolves are sinister, dangerous creatures. This suggests that in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, racism is learned rather than inherited, which provides evidence for the argument that race is arbitrarily constructed.
LeGuin’s story takes a different rout and shows racism as a natural, ingrained belief that we gain as soon as we are born. In The Wife’s Story, one of the distinguishing features of the werewolf is an odd smell. The wife notices that after a full moon, the husband had an awful smell lingering about him. This scent was naturally repulsive to her, but because it was coming from her husband, she did not say anything about it. What really illustrates that racism is deeply ingrained is their child’s reaction. When the child saw her father, “she begun to cry and try to hide behind me [the wife]. She didn’t yet talk plain, but she was saying over and over, ‘Make it go away! Make it go away!’” (LeGuinn 330). This is perhaps one of the strongest scenes in the story, in fact it is one of the most difficult scenes for the wife to talk about. She says, “I don’t find it easy to tell about this. I want to cry when I have to bring it to my mind” (LeGuin 330). While she can recount her husband’s transformation as well as his subsequent death, she finds it most difficult to talk about her daughter turning away from her father. This strong reaction from the wife suggests that the love between a parent and child is one of the most important, being even more important than the love between a wife and husband, as her daughter’s reaction disturbs her more than her own. In LeGuin’s world, racism is a strong enough force for make a child turn away from her father, to negate this love because of some difference present in the father. The fact coupled with the fact that the difference can be detected by a mere child, one who has not yet been indoctrinated into society and made to believe it’s cultural norms, shows a form of racism that is entirely based off of instinct. While this does suggest that racism is natural to some degree, it also shows the audience the negative consequences of it, namely the fact that it has destroyed their family and caused the wife grief.
The different views of racism described in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story can be reconciled to some degree by the ideas of anthropologist, Michael Blakey.
In his paper, Scientific Racism and the Biological Concept of Race, he writes “Race is a biological category, yet it is social constructed” (Blakey, 29). He acknowledges the fact that there are biological differences between races, which is discussed through The Wife’s Story, when biological differences cause the wolves to naturally dislike the husband. However, throughout his work he continually states that despite the biological origins of race, race was a social construction to begin with. This falls in line with the society presented in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which depicts a society with persistent culture of learned racism. Blakey also introduces the idea that perhaps our categories of race are more arbitrary than we are led to believe. He writes that the first concept of race was introduced in 18th Century Europe, when Enlightenment thinkers Carl von Linne and Johann Friedreich Blumenbach attempted to define biological races corresponding to the known continents (Blakey, 31). But this begs the question, why do we accept these definitions of race when they were created in an era where biological differences were not well understood by men who made sweeping generalizations of entire continents? Blakey’s argues that race is an arbitrary constructed social limitation, but this argument can be extended to suggest that racism is also a shallow concept that should not exist. If race itself does not exist, how can one justify discriminating against others because of
it?
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban include elements that support the idea that racism is shallow and has no basis for existing. The idea that wolves can transform into men and that men can transform into wolves suggests the two groups may not be as separated as they believe and this is an idea highlighted in the movie. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin is a well-loved professor for most of the month. This is most evident in the scene of the Boggart lesson, when Lupin helps the students learn to face their biggest fear. One aspect to note here is how Lupin puts music on right before the start of lesson (Cuarón, 43:43). Cuarón uses this to set a lighthearted mood for the scene. By making this choice, Cuarón adds to Lupin’s persona of the well-liked professor. This is continued later in the scene, where Lupin is seen strongly encouraging the students, Neville in particular. He speaks calmly and also exhibits enthusiasm whenever a student succeeds. It is also shown that he cares greatly about the students. He leapt in front of Harry to spare the rest of the class from having to see the specter of Lord Voldemort, even though this revealed that his own greatest fear was a full moon. In this instance, protecting the students was more important to him than protecting his secret. Through these actions and the framing of the scene, Cuarón sets Lupin up as a kind, well-liked person. When he is later forced to resign as a professor, the audience is reminded how unfair the situation is, as he resigns only because it became known that he was a werewolf. His likability suggests that the discrimination he faces is unwarranted, providing evidence for the argument that racism is shallow.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story, depict the complex issues of race by creating parallels between racism and the discrimination against werewolves. By looking at Blakey’s theory of race, we see that Cuarón and LeGuin address different aspects of racism and together they lead to the idea that race can often be arbitrarily defined. With these ideas suggesting that racial discrimination is unjustified, we must ask the question: why does it still exist? Though these works, we have seen the harm that racism can do. Hogwarts has lost a great professor and the wife has lost a great husband. And for what? Just because these members of society happened to be part of a different group? By looking at this discourse about race in the fantastic worlds of the sources, we see a mirror of our own society and our own problems. While we no longer live in a society where someone can be killed for being different, a disproportionate amount of minorities live below the poverty line and many face daily challenges due to the racial discrimination that they face. By understanding how this discrimination operates in these fictional worlds, perhaps we can come to better understand how it operates in our world and be able to come to a satisfying solution.
unsettle the reader, so they are less important when considering the implications of fantastic literature (Jackson, 9). Two prominent examples of this idea are the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the short story The Wife’s Story, which both provide satisfying conclusions for the reader by retreating back to the status quo. But taking a deeper look at these texts shows that they raise unique questions about racial discrimination through the allegory of lycanthropy and also subtly show the shallow nature of racism through their depictions. Each of the works portray lycanthropy in a different way, complicating our perception of racism by taking two drastically different approaches to the same issue: one story describes human prejudice against a half-wolf while the other wolf prejudice against a half-human. At the same time, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban depicts racism as a learned behavior, while the Wife’s Story shows racism as more of an instinctive prejudice. Though they deal with racism in different ways, both works ultimately suggest to the audience that racism is defined by arbitrary characteristics and is a shallow construct that is detrimental to society.
Jackson’s definition of fantastic literature hinges on the idea of “desire,” which can be understood as the desire for a reality that we do not have, one where the social and political constructs are different. She goes on to say that this desire can “manifested,” which means that this desire is mentioned and shown to the audience, but it can also be “expelled” when this desire is removed from the work because it has elements that undermine the current cultural order (Jackson 3). As Jackson writes, works that expel desire “defuse potentially disturbing, anti-social drives and retreat from any profound confrontation with existential dis-ease” (Jackson 8). In this framework, both Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story manifest and expel desire. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, desire is manifested throughout the film by following Remus Lupin and hearing and seeing the discrimination that he has had to face as a werewolf. This is done subtly, but instances such as Professor Snape’s taunting of Lupin’s condition (Cuarón, 76:41) and Lupin’s own confession about the difficulties he has faced in his childhood (Cuarón, 46:42) show how werewolves are treated poorly in society. However, at the end of the film, the disturbing element is quite literally expelled, when Remus Lupin resigns as a Hogwarts professor because word has spread that he is a werewolf. In The Wife’s Story, werewolves are not only stigmatized, but are downright hated. When the wife sees her husband’s transformation, she is “trembling and shaking with a growl that burst out into a crazy, awful howling,” (LeGuin, 332) a visceral reaction that shows the depth of her hatred and the pain of seeing a loved one turn into something she despises. Similarly to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the disturbing element is removed when the werewolf is removed from society, in this case he is killed by his wife’s sister (LeGuin, 333). Based on Jackson’s framework of the fantastic, neither of these sources are effective at challenging the dominant cultural order because of this expulsion of desire.
Throughout her work, Jackson clearly articulates the idea that more focus should be and is given to works that better fit her idea of the fantastic, literature that does not expel desire at the end of the story. She defines texts that expel desire as being part of the “faery” or “romance literature” rather than being part of the “fantastic” (Jackson, 9). However, works that expel desire and remove elements that threaten cultural order can create new disturbing elements through the aforementioned expulsion. Rather than being unsettled by the ambiguous ending, or the continual manifestation of desire, the audience can become unsettled by the expulsion itself. This is particularly important to note in The Wife’s Story, where the means of preserving social order unsettles the reader. LeGuin begins the story by stating that the husband was a good one and spends much of the subsequent text developing the idea that he is a loving, caring husband. One of the first images the reader gets of the husband is “A hard-worker and never lazy, and so big and fine-looking. Everybody looked up to him,” (LeGuin 328). This suggests that he was a fine, respectable member of society as well. This provides a stark contrast to how he is described at the end of the story, where “He was white all over, like a worm’s skin” (LeGuin, 331). The disgust present in the wife’s voice suggests complete and utter hatred, something the audience could not imagine just a few pages ago. This hatred of humans culminates at the end of the novel, when the husband’s sister in law kills him by ripping his throat out (LeGuin332). This disconnect unsettles the reader, because not only is it extremely violent, but it also shows that even a good citizen can be exterminated if they are part of a hated group. This demonstrates the arbitrary nature of racial divides, as the husband was not persecuted for being a bad person, rather he was persecuted for simply being a part of the human race. This disturbs the reader and causes them to consider the racial implications of the text.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban expels disturbing elements, but its manifestation of desire provides a compelling analogy for modern day racism, one that is familiar to the audience. When thinking about the idea of racism, often we think about the racism that we see in society today, a culturally inherited dislike of people belonging to outside groups. This is the racism that appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The prejudice against werewolves is a belief that wizarding children have grown up with, but it is not necessarily a natural prejudice. This is apparent with Hermione’s treatment of Professor Lupin. When it is revealed that Lupin is a werewolf during the confrontation in the shrieking shack, Hermione says “I trusted you! And all this time you’ve been his friend. He’s a werewolf” (Cuarón, 91:49). Hermione initially did not believe in the prejudices against werewolves. She figured out long ago that Professor Lupin was a werewolf, but she trusted him anyway because wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. In the scene, Cuarón actively portrays Lupin as a villain to suggest his betrayal of Hermione’s trust. The ominous music playing in the background suggests a sinister conspiracy. Lupin’s friendly exchange with the supposed mass murder Sirius Black and the wry smile present on both their faces only add to this effect (Cuarón, 91:41). This supposed breach in Hermione’s trust is important because Hermione is a muggleborn witch, meaning that she grew up in the non-magic world. Since she was not introduced to the wizarding world until she was 12, Hermione was able to escape the deep-rooted prejudices against werewolves that other wizarding children grew up with. Only with a betrayal of trust, does she lash out against Lupin for being a werewolf, giving into the social norms of believing that werewolves are sinister, dangerous creatures. This suggests that in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, racism is learned rather than inherited, which provides evidence for the argument that race is arbitrarily constructed.
LeGuin’s story takes a different rout and shows racism as a natural, ingrained belief that we gain as soon as we are born. In The Wife’s Story, one of the distinguishing features of the werewolf is an odd smell. The wife notices that after a full moon, the husband had an awful smell lingering about him. This scent was naturally repulsive to her, but because it was coming from her husband, she did not say anything about it. What really illustrates that racism is deeply ingrained is their child’s reaction. When the child saw her father, “she begun to cry and try to hide behind me [the wife]. She didn’t yet talk plain, but she was saying over and over, ‘Make it go away! Make it go away!’” (LeGuinn 330). This is perhaps one of the strongest scenes in the story, in fact it is one of the most difficult scenes for the wife to talk about. She says, “I don’t find it easy to tell about this. I want to cry when I have to bring it to my mind” (LeGuin 330). While she can recount her husband’s transformation as well as his subsequent death, she finds it most difficult to talk about her daughter turning away from her father. This strong reaction from the wife suggests that the love between a parent and child is one of the most important, being even more important than the love between a wife and husband, as her daughter’s reaction disturbs her more than her own. In LeGuin’s world, racism is a strong enough force for make a child turn away from her father, to negate this love because of some difference present in the father. The fact coupled with the fact that the difference can be detected by a mere child, one who has not yet been indoctrinated into society and made to believe it’s cultural norms, shows a form of racism that is entirely based off of instinct. While this does suggest that racism is natural to some degree, it also shows the audience the negative consequences of it, namely the fact that it has destroyed their family and caused the wife grief.
The different views of racism described in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story can be reconciled to some degree by the ideas of anthropologist, Michael Blakey.
In his paper, Scientific Racism and the Biological Concept of Race, he writes “Race is a biological category, yet it is social constructed” (Blakey, 29). He acknowledges the fact that there are biological differences between races, which is discussed through The Wife’s Story, when biological differences cause the wolves to naturally dislike the husband. However, throughout his work he continually states that despite the biological origins of race, race was a social construction to begin with. This falls in line with the society presented in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which depicts a society with persistent culture of learned racism. Blakey also introduces the idea that perhaps our categories of race are more arbitrary than we are led to believe. He writes that the first concept of race was introduced in 18th Century Europe, when Enlightenment thinkers Carl von Linne and Johann Friedreich Blumenbach attempted to define biological races corresponding to the known continents (Blakey, 31). But this begs the question, why do we accept these definitions of race when they were created in an era where biological differences were not well understood by men who made sweeping generalizations of entire continents? Blakey’s argues that race is an arbitrary constructed social limitation, but this argument can be extended to suggest that racism is also a shallow concept that should not exist. If race itself does not exist, how can one justify discriminating against others because of
it?
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban include elements that support the idea that racism is shallow and has no basis for existing. The idea that wolves can transform into men and that men can transform into wolves suggests the two groups may not be as separated as they believe and this is an idea highlighted in the movie. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin is a well-loved professor for most of the month. This is most evident in the scene of the Boggart lesson, when Lupin helps the students learn to face their biggest fear. One aspect to note here is how Lupin puts music on right before the start of lesson (Cuarón, 43:43). Cuarón uses this to set a lighthearted mood for the scene. By making this choice, Cuarón adds to Lupin’s persona of the well-liked professor. This is continued later in the scene, where Lupin is seen strongly encouraging the students, Neville in particular. He speaks calmly and also exhibits enthusiasm whenever a student succeeds. It is also shown that he cares greatly about the students. He leapt in front of Harry to spare the rest of the class from having to see the specter of Lord Voldemort, even though this revealed that his own greatest fear was a full moon. In this instance, protecting the students was more important to him than protecting his secret. Through these actions and the framing of the scene, Cuarón sets Lupin up as a kind, well-liked person. When he is later forced to resign as a professor, the audience is reminded how unfair the situation is, as he resigns only because it became known that he was a werewolf. His likability suggests that the discrimination he faces is unwarranted, providing evidence for the argument that racism is shallow.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Wife’s Story, depict the complex issues of race by creating parallels between racism and the discrimination against werewolves. By looking at Blakey’s theory of race, we see that Cuarón and LeGuin address different aspects of racism and together they lead to the idea that race can often be arbitrarily defined. With these ideas suggesting that racial discrimination is unjustified, we must ask the question: why does it still exist? Though these works, we have seen the harm that racism can do. Hogwarts has lost a great professor and the wife has lost a great husband. And for what? Just because these members of society happened to be part of a different group? By looking at this discourse about race in the fantastic worlds of the sources, we see a mirror of our own society and our own problems. While we no longer live in a society where someone can be killed for being different, a disproportionate amount of minorities live below the poverty line and many face daily challenges due to the racial discrimination that they face. By understanding how this discrimination operates in these fictional worlds, perhaps we can come to better understand how it operates in our world and be able to come to a satisfying solution.