The Boy Who Was Loved: The Process of Accepting the Jungian Shadow in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series

Purpose of the Study: There are two main purposes to this study: The first is to bring academic attention to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series specifically using Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic methods. I use Jung’s language, paying special attention to his ideas regarding the Shadow and the Persona, to help explain why the series itself has become so popular as well as why current scholars and critics should treat this series with respect and seriousness. The second main purpose of this study is to shine a current light on a seemingly outdated literary technique (Jungian psychoanalysis). Psychoanalysis needs to be brought back into the literary conversation because its theories not only help readers better understand characters and literature, but can help readers make the connection between what they are reading and themselves. Using psychoanalysis on literary characters can allow the reader to engage and learn from a text or a series of texts like Rowling’s. Procedure: I use Psychoanalytic Carl Jung’s theories regarding the Shadow and Persona to analyze three distinct characters from Rowling’s series. Specifically, I look at the process in which one must go through in order to accept the shadow: 1) acknowledge, 2) confront, and 3) accept the Self’s shadow figure. Findings: Of the three characters that I analyze using Jungian ideas—Remus Lupin, Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort, and Harry Potter—only Harry Potter is able to accept his shadow self. Lupin cannot because of the collective society’s rejection of him and Tom Riddle can’t accept his shadow because he had never experienced acceptance himself. Only Harry can ultimately accept his shadow because of the love and acceptance he himself had experienced, allowing him to be free of his shadow self and ultimately defeat Voldemort. Because of this, I argue, readers and non-reads of this series alike should learn not only what the shadow is and what they need to accept it, but how painful the process itself is and what is at stake in both the inability and ability of the Persona to accept the Shadow. Conclusions: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter text teaches its readers of the importance of concepts like love and acceptance, exemplifying the terrible repercussions that not accepting the shadow can have both on the individual and on the collective society. And while it proves vital to accept the personal shadow, this is a difficult process that can only occur when the individual experiences love and acceptance first hand and believe the self to be worthy of such constructs. Love, which can be defined as acceptance of the self and others in their entireties, has powerful and unlimited effects, which Rowling demonstrates throughout her series and why her series should be taken so seriously by readers, viewers, critics, and scholars alike.