| The Characters |
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| Within the world of Harry Potter, most characters can be divided into one of two camps; the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys". The "Good Guys" consist of those who are loyal to Harry in the fight against Lord Voldemort and act to promote the greater good, not just personal gains and power. The "Bad Guys", on the other hand, are against Harry, are often, but not always, allied with Voldemort, and act only for their own benefit. Yet, just as in real life, the characters in the Harry Potter series are very complex entities, which results in occasions where good characters act badly and vice versa. Because of this, good or evil associations cannot always be absolute. The ultimate factor that differentiates good from bad characters is morality, which is possessed by the good characters and lacked by the bad. Characters, such as Harry, Hermonie and Ron, are ruled by morality and, because of this, even when they behave badly they never do so intentionally to harm someone else, but usually do so in efforts to help. Quite the opposite are characters such as Draco, Crabe, and Goyle, who are not ruled by morality and therefore only act, for better or worse, if doing so will benefit themselves or hurt someone else. An example of this would be from the Philosopher's Stone when Harry and Draco both get into trouble for being out of bed and roaming the castle at night. Although this is not model behaviour, Harry was doing so to help Hagrid free Norbert, the dragon, while Draco was doing so in an attempt to get Harry into trouble. Although most characters fit rather clearly into the good side or bad side, there are characters, most importantly Severus Snape, that fall more into a "gray area", where their actions and motives contradict each other. Characters that fall into this category often behave horribly toward others, usually Harry, but when it comes time to face the real evil, usually Voldemort, they act for the side of good. This issue of the "gray area" has caused some controversy, as a number of Christian parents and authors have come to believe that the lack of clarity regarding some characters' good or evil associations will confuse children and cloud their morality. |
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| The Good Guys |
| The three most important "good" characters within the series are Harry Potter, Hermonie Granger and Ron Weasley. It is with these good characters that the importance of morality in the struggle between good vs. evil can really be seen. Each of these three, most importantly Harry, have had the chance to do something evil for their own benefit, yet they chose otherwise, even if it harmed them, because their sense of morality would not allow them to act. Like all children, Harry, Hermonie and Ron have broken rules that they have not agreed with, but by no means does this make them evil. Other good characters include; Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagalll, Hagrid, the Weasley's, Professor Lupin, Sirius Black, and Neville Longbottom. |
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| The Bad Guys |
| As opposites to Harry, Hermonie, and Ron, Draco Malfoy and his minions, Crabbe and Goyle, show the importance of morality from the side of evil. These three take every opportunity that is available to hurt others and increase their own power without an ounce of moral integrity. Like Harry, Hermonie, and Ron, they are only children, and for the most part their bad behaviour has no ultimately evil consequences, though their behaviour does still make them evil because, as they lack morals, there is no limit to what they would do for their own benefit. The Ultimate evil in the Harry Potter series is Lord Voldemort, whose only motive is to kill Harry and come back to power at any cost. He has hurt and killed countless people for this cause, clearly placing him in the ranks of evil. Other evil characters include; Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Professor Quirrell, and Peter Pettigrew. |
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| The Gray Area |
| The most prominent character that falls into the Gray area is Professor Severus Snape, as he is neither completely good nor completely evil. Within the series Snape is cruel and ruthless towards Harry and virtually all students who are not from Slytherin house, and he is also known to have been one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, which paints him as an evil character. Despite this, Snape also acts to save Harry's life on numerous occasions and he also appeared to be loyal to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Snape's true loyalty is debatable, which has caused controversy within the Christian community because it is argued that children will be confused by his contradictory actions, and they will therefore confuse what actions are really good or evil. |