The Stuff of Villains

For every damsel in distress and every brave knightly prince, there has been an evil queen or dark sorcerer. For it goes in all fairytales, that the more valiant the hero, the more venomous the villain. We admire the goodness of light compared to the depths of the darkness. The hero and villain are inseparable and in many cases no one knows either character better than his or her opposing counterpart.

The magical link between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort ranks the famous pair up on the list with Snow White and the Evil Queen and Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Lord Voldemort is the perfect villain for the modern generation of readers.

The similiarities to tyrants of the past has been evident since the first book hit the shelves. The racist views and genocide goal raised in readers terrible memories of our more modern and true villian. Adolf Hitler�s legacy of pain and hatred still hangs in our minds as strong real-life example of ultimate villainy. The fuel for the fear and anger we are meant to feel for Voldemort was already spread and with our readings of his actions the flame was ignited. Truly, the perfection of the character of Voldemort is that he acts as a reminder that while Hitler may be long dead, his message still exists in the world as a dark shadow of fear.

One website (http://www.remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.html) about Hitler states that:

�In 1906, Adolf was permitted to visit Vienna, but he was unable to gain admission to a prestigious art school. His mother developed terminal breast cancer and was treated by Dr. Edward Bloch, a Jewish doctor who served the poor. After an operation and excruciatingly painful and expensive treatments with a dangerous drug, she died on December 21, 1907.

Hitler spent six years in Vienna, living on a small legacy from his father and an orphan's pension. Virtually penniless by 1909, he wandered Vienna as a transient, sleeping in bars, flophouses, and shelters for the homeless, including, ironically, those financed by Jewish philanthropists. It was during this period that he developed his prejudices about Jews, his interest in politics, and debating skills. According to John Toland's biography, Adolf Hitler, two of his closest friends at this time were Jewish, and he admired Jewish art dealers and Jewish operatic performers and producers. However, Vienna was a center of anti-Semitism, and the media's portrayal of Jews as scapegoats with stereotyped attributes did not escape Hitler's fascination.�

Of course, it is scary to think that we the readers can sympathize with Lord Voldemort. But Voldemort, born Tom Riddle, had his life torn apart by a father who just happened to be muggle. Hitler�s hatred certainly did not come out of thin air but through his own life experience. In a way, Tom and Hitler�s anger is something felt by many readers. We can remember hating the cheerleaders and jocks because one mocked us in school or disliking people of academics because we can a bad confrontation with one person who just had to be the smartest, no matter what. It is easy to turn on a group of people because of the horrible actions on an individual.

Many people, however, are not quick to accept their own faults. If asked if one was more like Mother Theresa or a murderer, nearly everyone would prefer to think that we would be the saint. We say, �if I worked hard I could be like Prince Diane.� But we�re horrified by the idea that we could might have anything in common with a ruthless murder, cruel dictator, or mentally-ill cannibal. However, the potential for other resides in all of us. We could be a Dumbledore or a Voldemort for the nature of both reside within ourselves.

In analytical psychology, the part of ourselves that we cannot accept is known as the Shadow. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine your worst enemy. The person who makes your blood boil and who haunts your nightmares. This is your Shadow. But your Shadow is part of yourself. It is the piece of yourself that you won�t admit exists. The psychologist Carl Gustav Jung writes: �The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly- for instance, inferior traits of character and other incompatible tendencies.� Because we hate what makes up our personal Shadow we unconsciously seek to destroy it. Projection occurs when we relate the traits of the Shadow with a person who resembles it. This is why some of us hate the gossiper or the hypocrite. We hate these people because we don�t want to admit that part of us gossips or acts like a hypocrite.

If you often see dark, cloaked figures in your dreams this is your Shadow. Along with this figure, the Shadow may also appear as a serpent. Jung writes: �The snake, like the devil of Christian theology, represents the shadow, and one which goes far beyond anything personal and could therefore best be compared with a principle, such as the principle of evil. It is the colossal shadow thrown by man.� Both darkness and snakes are used to describe the villainous Voldemort. Using this psychological theory, one can reason that Voldemort is Harry�s Shadow.

As noted at the beginning, the connection between the villain and hero is strong and evidently does not rest the basic good versus evil scenario. Because the villain is the hero�s Shadow, the darkness of Voldemort comes from within Harry. This is most evident in book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry Potter, now older, is acting less and less like a glorious child-hero. He is now easily consumed by jealousy and egotism. He reacts terribly to being left at Privet Drive, Ron and Hermione�s prefect promotion, and laments on all his previous heroic acts. Just as Voldemort�s obsession with personal injury grew into a widespread muggle genocide, Harry is dangerously focused on the abuses down to him by others. The temptation to be consumed by darkness already claimed the villain and tugs now at our hero, even as he denounces Voldemort for his fall.

It is not simply a scar or certain magical gifts that bind Harry and Voldemort. At the center of this magical conflict is an internal psychological battle. Therapists following Jung�s theories often encourage Shadow work. This can be done by having a dialogue with the Shadow figure in a dream. The Shadow becomes more prevalent in dreams as the individual represses it. This dialogue is very similar to the conversations shared by Harry and Voldemort/Tom Riddle during their confrontations. Based on this psychology, the power of the Shadow is dispersed when it is accept by the individual. Harry then, must recognize his own flaws and temptations if he hopes to gain the power to defeat Voldemort.

Since the �dream is the personalized myth, myth the personalized dream� (Joseph Campbell), the stories of Harry Potter reflect our own dreams and psyche. These books are simply beautifully told tales of what is happening within ourselves. We are the heroes within our own dreams who must confront and embrace our own villainous Shadows.