1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Archetype Analysis

2. Harry Potter: A Hero’s Journey
The main plot concerns Harry's quandary against the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and oppress non-magical people. (Harry Potter, 2010)

3. A Hero’s Journey: Analysis of Harry Potter
Chris Vogler’s 12 stages of plot patterns. 
He clearly states that the Hero’s Journey is a guide, not a rigid formula. 
Some steps can be out of order. 
Or some steps can be missing entirely.

4. Ordinary World Most Hero’s Journeys start in the Ordinary World.
This setting usually allows us to get to know the Hero and identify with him
Let’s us see the flaws and special attributes
Is important to set up a contrast with the special world.

5. Ordinary World Most Hero’s Journeys start in the Ordinary World.
This setting usually allows us to get to know the Hero and identify with him
Let’s us see the flaws and special attributes
Is important to set up a contrast with the special world.

6. Ordinary World: HP1
Although most Hero’s Journey stories start in the Ordinary World, there is a short prologue where the Special World comes to the Ordinary World.
This is the opening scene where Dumbledore and McGonnagal meet in Privett Drive and await Hagrid’s arrival with baby Harry.  And if we didn’t know there was magic in the air we’ve got Professor McGonnagal changing shape from cat to woman and Dumbledore casting spells to dim the street lights to tell us.
McGonnagal doesn’t think Harry should be left with the Dursleys, but Dumbledore tells her they are the only family he has. And that he will be better off being brought up in ignorance of who he truly is.
And so he is left with the Dursleys.  This becomes his Ordinary World. 
They  don’t want to bring him up. 
His bedroom is a cupboard under the stairs. 
He is treated poorly – the story opens on Dudley’s birthday and Harry is making the breakfast and fetching coffee whilst Dudley counts his presents.

7. Call to Adventure Disrupts the comfort of the Ordinary World
Presents a challenge
Gets the story and excitement going
Delivered by the Herald: letter, riddle weather, arrival of the villain, death, abduction, etc)
Consequences for refusal

8. Call to Adventure Set up by the conversation with the snake
An owl drops a letter, and it  pops through the doorway addressed to Harry. 
That letter is the invitation to come and study at Hogwarts School Of Wizardry And Witchcraft.

9. Refusal of the Call Hero refuses the call or is reluctant
Insecurities and fears of the Hero are outlined
Risks of the journey are outlined

10. Refusal of the Call Letters are torn up and burned
The mail box is sealed, and the Dursleys even leave Privett Drive and to an isolated lighthouse. 
Because Hagrid arrives, and delivers the letter to Harry along with a birthday cake.
Harry is reluctant to accept that he is a wizard, but he is excited to get out of his dreary world.

11. Meeting with the Mentor
Meets a mentor
Gives Hero confidence, knowledge, and insight.
Is a profoundly knowledgeable character
Gives wisdom
Reassures the Hero

12. Meeting with the Mentor
For the first part of HP1, Hagrid is Harry’s mentor. Hagrid starts as the Herald, but must wear the Mentor mask in Dumbledore’s absence.
Introduces him to his destiny and the wizarding word
The primary mentor will become Dumbledore

13. Crossing the First Threshold
Hero commits to the journey
Hero confronts a special event
Commits to entering the new world
No turning back

14. Crossing the First Threshold
Starts with Ollivader’s test at the Wand shop
Ends when he boards the train to Hogwarts
Harry has to board the Hogwarts Express by himself.   His ticket is for platform 9 ¾ .  Harry asks a ticket inspector, who thinks Harry is playing a joke on him.
Harry meets the Weasley Family about to make the transition to platform  9 ¾ .

15. Tests, Allies And Enemies
Hero faces tests and throughout the process figures out allies and enemies
Learns the rules of the Special World
Each test prepares Hero for the Ordeal
Allies can help guide the Hero
Enemies reflect the Hero’s dark side

16. Tests, Allies And Enemies
Starts on the train, meets Ron and Hermione
First test is to shake Draco’s hand (potential enemy)
Sorting hat (not slytherin)
Classes: Draco and Harry feud on brooms
Fluffy (3-headed dog)
Troll
Quiddich Game
Wraith of Voldemort
Philosopher’s Stone

17. Approach the Inmost Cave
Hero makes preparations
Leads to the Ordeal
Often involves planning: maps, reconnaissance, picking off the enemy
Hero faces biggest fear
Consists of reorganization and the rekindling of morale

18. Approach the Inmost Cave
Fluffy’s guarding, but is asleep. 
Fluffy wakes up.  They are forced to jump down the trapdoor as Fluffy tries to attack them.
They must now find the Philosopher’s Stone.
Before reaching the Inmost Cave and the Supreme Ordeal – there are 3 more tests.  And each of the trio take the lead in one test.
Hermione uses her spell and herbology knowledge to rescue them from the Devil’s Snare, Harry puts his ‘seeker’ skills to good use to find the flying key with the broken wing to open the door, and Ron leads the game of Wizard’s chess to get them through this obstacle.
Ron falls at this obstacle, and Harry leaves Hermione to look after Ron as he descends to the Inmost Cave to confront Snape and The Supreme Ordeal.  Only it’s not Snape, it’s Quirrell.

19. Supreme Ordeal Central life-or-death crisis
Confronts his greatest fear, most difficult challenge, “death”
On the brink of failure
Climax
Can witness the death of an ally
Often faces the villain

20. Supreme Ordeal
Quirrell is revealed as the adversary, with a creepy Voldemort under his turban.
The Supreme Ordeal is about the hero facing his biggest fear – and also facing death.  And Voldemort is always Harry’s biggest fear – the wizard who killed his parents when he was a baby and left him with a permanent scar.
And Harry faces down both of these – even though he ends the Supreme Ordeal unconscious, and wakes up in the hospital.

21. The Reward Hero survives death Overcomes greatest fear
Earns the reward:
A magical or special item
Greater insight
Knowledge
Their life
A moment of celebration

22. The Reward Delivered in the End Of Term banquet.
Gryfindor is transformed from 4th place for the Hogwarts Cup into first place by the extra points that Dumbledore awards for Ron, Hermione’s and Harry’s actions in stopping Voldemort gaining the Philosopher’s Stone.

23. The Road Back
Hero completes the journey and heads back to the ordinary world
Often needs a push to get the Hero going in the right direction
Changes the direction of the story

24. The Road Back
The stage of ‘The Road Back’ is symbolized by the Hogwarts Express getting ready to depart. 

25. Harry wakes up in the hospital
The Resurrection
Harry wakes up in the hospital

26. Earned the right to return to the Ordinary World
Return with the Elixir
The final reward
Earned the right to return to the Ordinary World
Can be love, acceptance, survival

27. Return with the Elixir
And there are two things that signal the ‘Elixir’ that Harry takes away from his first year at Hogwarts.
The first is the picture that Hagrid gives to Harry of his parents and Baby Harry. 
The second is a line of dialogue.  “I’m not going home.  Not really.”

28. The Hero: The Chosen One… Or most worthy
Archetype characteristics:
Unusual circumstances of birth; sometimes in danger
Reluctant, or uncomfortable with role
Leaves family or land and lives with others
An event, sometimes traumatic, leads to adventure or quest
Hero is special in some way, but not all ways
Hero has supernatural help
Hero must prove himself many times while on an adventure
At the end of the journey: hero has an unhealable wound, must change in some way

29. The Hero: Harry Potter
What kind of hero is Harry Potter according to Carol Pearson, PhD?
The Warrior
Gift/Virtue: Courage, discipline
Examples: flying, explores threats, fights a troll, defeating Professor Quirrell
Orphaned.
Special: survives Lord Voldemort’s attack

30. The Mentor Archetype characteristics Usually a profound philosopher
Distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment
Characters usually have beards
Kind and wise
Offers guidance that in a mystical way may impress upon someone a sense of who they are, thereby acting as a mentor
May appear as an absent-minded professor

31. The Mentor: Albus Dumbledore
Widely known as being wise, yet odd.
Chocolate frog card describes him as being “the greatest wizard of modern times” and indicates that he “enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.”
Does not fear death, and claims that choosing money and life are precisely the things that are worse for humans.
Cautions Harry to always use the proper name for Lord Voldemort, as “fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself”.

32. The Threshold Guardian
Archetype characteristics
Protects the special world
Beyond the guardian lay danger
May be a character, locked door, secret vault, animal, weather, etc.
Provides a test of some sort
Hero must pass the test by:
Ignoring
Outwitting
Overcoming
Appeasing
Befriending

33. The Threshold Guardian: Ollivander
Possesses the last of Harry’s supplies
Makes Harry test the wands
Gives Harry information about Voldemort:
Danger ahead
Twin cores/wands
Harry might be the “chosen one”

34. The Herald: An Agent of Change
To warn and challenge
Can be a person or a thing, but must call the Hero to adventure.
Can be combined with other characters. Even the Hero (in the form of dreams, etc).

35. The Herald: Hagrid and the letters
In Harry Potter, the letters herald him to come to Hogwarts.
As the carrier of the final letter, Hagrid, is also a herald.
Gives the call to adventure: “Harry yer a wizard!”

36. The Shapeshifter Archetype characteristics Misleads the Hero
Ambiguous intentions and loyalties
Can put doubts into the hero’s mind
The audience is usually left asking, “Whose side is this character on?”

37. The Shapeshifter: Professor Severus Snape
Head of Slytherin (a word we associate with snakes, an allegorical symbol of evil); name SNAPE almost SNAKE
He makes Harry’s scar hurt
Seems to pick on Harry
Stares at Harry intensely during the Quiddich game, and Harry is almost killed
Even when Quirrel is revealed, he states “Severus does seem the type, doesn’t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat…”

38. The Shadow Archetype characteristics
Forces within and outside of us of war against the power of positive life and change
Enormous resistance to the very experiences or insights that would lead to healing
Embodies all that is dark in ourselves

39. The Shadow: Lord Voldemort
Main antagonist and archenemy of Harry Potter.
He is so feared that no one dares to say his name, known as “He Who Must Not Be Named” (Rowling, 1997).
Killed Harry’s parents, and many other wizards and muggles (non-magical people)
Video: Voldemort’s purpose is to murder

40. The Tricksters: Fred and George
Disrupt, cause chaos, or provide comic relief
Funny, witty, or titillating dialogue
Physicality is meant to entertain
They may not change, but may cause change in their world

41. Loyal Companion Archetype characteristics
Driven by loyalty and a need for harmony
Can always be counted on
Usually provides comic relief (trickster)
Ready to lend a hand, yet may fail to realize that he or she needs to take the lead
Stable, supportive, tolerant
Chief flaw: being too compliant or unassertive

42. Loyal Companions: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger
Harry’s first friend when they meet on the Hogwarts Express.
Ron and Hermione are selected to be Gryffindor (like Harry) because they are all brave at heart, with daring, nerve and loyalty.
Hermione is also the Guardian of Knowledge and Mother Figure
Ron also acts as a trickster, providing some comic relief