Fate vs. Will in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Essay Example

Fate is a major theme throughout the Harry Potter series, in which a boy wizard struggles to win an unequal battle against the lord of darkness. In the novels, author J.K Rowling leaves it unclear if it was the boy’s destiny to defeat Lord Voldemort, or it was mere chance that his path crossed with that of the Dark wizard. Whereas fate clearly has a major role in Harry Potter’s life, it is nevertheless inferior to free will. While Harry may have the potential of turning into a dark wizard, he also has the liberty of making a free choice, and his own will is much stronger than inclination – evilness is a possibility, not a certainty in this story. The Sorting Hat event to which all new Hogwarts students participate has the role of revealing this possibility for the readers, and for Harry himself. As it will be argued throughout this paper, the Sorting Hat episode suggests that Harry’s will is more important than the fate to which his past has subjected him and that by making the right choices, he may manage to turn his fate and have a different destiny than the one that was intended for him.

The fact that fate has great importance in this story is revealed at the beginning of the first book, when the new students are brought in front of the Sorting Hat, a magical device which is able to foretell the child’s future development as a wizard, and to place him in the group (House) where he has most chances of reaching his potential. Thus, there are the Hufflepuff, the Gryffindor, the Ravenclaw and the Slytherin, each with their own gifts and inclinations. According to Julia Pond, the ceremony has the specific role of revealing the role of fate in a wizard’s life. According to the author, the hat rarely gives students the opportunity to choose whom they want to become, and takes these decisions in their place. Moreover, “this magical object exposes the lack of free will in the wizard community (Pond 188). However, as the author also points out, in Harry’s case, it did take his choice into account, which would make him a special case, but if it is a special case, or if the hat works this way for other students as well, remains a mystery (189). It is clear however that, despite the hat being an instrument of fate, when Harry’s turn came, it at had to ponder where to place him. Its audible debate may have been expressly intended to make Harry express his choice. Harry may have been at a crossroad, and his own choice could have been decisive particularly because there was an equal potential for evilness and goodness in him.

The fact that Harry’s inclination was dual- he had both goodness and evilness in him, is revealed throughout the series, as he and Lord Voldemort prove to have many things in common: the both speak parseltongue, they ignore rules and they have many similar personality traits. However, as Catherine Deveal and David Deveal show, Harry’s choice is what makes him ultimately different than his enemy (51). Thus, his strong will, his determination that he shall not be wicked and opportunistic as most of those in the Slytherin house, and that he does not want to belong to the same house as Lord Voldemort, allowed him to change his fate, first symbolically, during the ceremony, and then practically, throughout the series. This is also Deveal and Deveal’s opinion, according to whom, “[if used properly] freedom manifests itself in good choices, and good choices lead to more freedom. It is in freedom that human dignity and human identity are found” (52). Harry therefore had the freedom to choose his fate, and other students too, may have had I, but only for him the choice was so important, and it was only him that expressed his choice so ardently as to convince the Hat that his place is indeed with the Gryffindors, rather than the Slytherin.

Even though it seems that the Sorting Hat is able to recognize and to lay a clear path for the young wizard, his choices in life greatly affect the wizard’s destiny and thus, predisposition is not necessarily decisive. This is shown by other characters of the Slytherin House as well. For example, Severus Snape, although appears to lean towards evil, actually is revealed in the end as a positive character who secretly protected Harry Potter and loved his mother from childhood. His strong love helped him to make the right decisions. Hoever, for Harry, things are harder because, even though he tries to stay away from evil, and always make the right choice, he will constantly be afraid not to cross the line and become evil himself. As Nicholas Sheltrown shows, “Harry wins his struggle with the Sorting Hat and finds his way to the Gryffindor House for his years at Hogwarts; yet, he wonders in his coming adventures if the Sorting Hat’s first inclination was not the correct one”(51). Perhaps, the Hat’s purpose was that of making his aware of the danger that lies ahead and of constantly reminding him that it only takes a wrong decision to turn to evilness.

As it was shown throughout the paper, although fate does have an crucial role in the story, as being inexorably tied to a wizard’s destiny, the novel ultimately reveals the importance of free will, and choice making in changing one’s fate. In Harry’s case, making a choice was necessarily, because his qualities, and his past both had an influence upon him and he was equally inclined towards good and evil. The Sorting Hat’s purpose, in Harry’s case, may have been that of helping him to choose his destiny, and making him aware that his choices do make a difference.

Works Cited

Deavel, Catherine and Paul Deavel. “Character, Choice and Harry Potter”. A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 5.4 (2002):49-64. Web.

Pond, Julia. “A Story of the Exceptional: Fate and free Will in the Harry Potter Series”. Children’s Literature, 38. (2010):181-206.Web.

Sheltrown, Nicholas. “Harry Potter’s World as a Morality Tale of Technology and Media”. Ed. Elizabeth Heilman. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge. 2003. 47-65.Web.