The following is the fifth in a series of 7 articles focusing on a moment of rhetorical significance in each of the Harry Potter novels. This series evolved out of a paper presented at the 2018 Harry Potter Academic Conference.
The most powerful characters in the Harry Potter series gain their power, not through physical violence, but through cunning, rabblerousing and charisma. Sure, the books contain strongmen like the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid and the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. But these are hardly the series’ most influential characters. It is “Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity” 1 that makes him the most dangerous man in wizarding society. And it is Professor Dumbledore’s vast knowledge and influence that make him “the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared.” 2
And the same is generally true in the muggle world. For the most part, you don’t become a head of state by beating up the previous guy. Leaders become leaders through speeches, debate and persuasion. People gain power through words and rhetoric.
Though both the muggle and wizarding worlds share a reverence for rhetoric, wizards have a particularly interesting relationship with physicality. In the muggle world, we pick things up and put them down. We stir batter in a bowl, and we lug recycling bins out to the curb. We hug those we love, and sometimes when we lose control, we punch those we hate.
But wizards generally don’t. They perform nearly every task in their lives by saying a few words in Latin. And that relationship with words creates a detachment that maybe we in the muggle world can learn from.
Draco’s Fighting Words
One of the few physical activities wizards do perform is the sport of Quidditch. And at the end of the highlight match of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry and his friends engage in another notable bit of physicality. After abusive taunts and below-the-belt insults from their long-time rival, Draco Malfoy, Harry and George Weasley (amped up on adrenaline), fly into a rage that can only be quenched through punching:
“He had completely forgotten the fact that all the teachers were watching: All he wanted to do was cause Malfoy as much pain as possible. With no time to draw out his wand, he merely drew back the fist clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoy’s stomach”. 3
Draco uses words to manipulate the emotions of Harry and George, and they respond with physical violence. Of course, a teacher quickly restrains Harry and George using the Impediment Curse, which leaves Harry “knocked over backward by the force of the spell”. And soon after, they are shouted at, scolded, and severely punished. But it is implied during their harsh reprimanding that their behavior was particularly reproachful, not just because it was petty retaliation, but because it was physical retaliation.
Gorgias’s “Encomium of Helen”
Gorgias, the ancient sophist philosopher, might find a tinge of hypocrisy in the disciplining of Harry and George. In his “Encomium of Helen”, Gorgias defended the honor of the mythic Helen of Troy. An encomium is a rhetorical exercise in praising those not often praised. And Gorgias’s famous encomium relied upon the power words have over the minds and bodies of others.
As the myth goes, Helen was charmed by Paris of Troy and fled Sparta sparking the Trojan War. Many Greeks considered this traitorous. But Gorgias argued that Helen deserves just as much sympathy for being ensnared by sweet words as she would deserve had she been kidnapped from Sparta by force:
“If she was raped by violence and illegally assaulted and unjustly insulted, it is clear that the raper, as the insulter, did the wronging, and the raped, as the insulted, did the suffering…But if it was speech which persuaded her and deceived her heart, not even to this is it difficult to make an answer and to banish blame as follows. Speech is a powerful lord”. 4
Gorgias’s argument concludes that there is little difference between physical force and spoken force. Both persuasion over the body and persuasion over the mind are equally powerful:
“The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies…some distress, others delight…and some drug and bewitch the soul with a kind of evil persuasion.”
To Gorgias, words are powerful tools. Through words, a speaker can start wars and also end them. They can rouse rebellion or sow chaos. And in the world of Harry Potter, words have even greater power. Through a simple incantation words can dominate (the Imperius Curse), torture (the Cruciatus Curse) or even kill (the Killing Curse).
Disgraceful Muggle Dueling
After Harry, George and Malfoy’s little tussle, the Quidditch coach, Madam Hooch screams, “What do you think you’re doing? … I’ve never seen behavior like it”. And later Professor McGonagall, “looking livid” says to them, “I have never seen such a disgraceful exhibition… Instead of leaving it to Madam Hooch to sort out,” she bellows, “you two decided to give an exhibition of Muggle dueling, did you?”
To McGonagall, Harry and George’s physical outburst is not only unsportsmanlike but beneath wizarding kind. “Muggle dueling” is a savage activity below civilized wizards. But still, a teacher can knock the wind out of child as long as they do it through spellcasting rather than brute force.
Throughout the series we see this hypocrisy pop up over and over again. Magic is a dangerous subject to learn, and a spell gone wrong can have disastrous effect. But frequently it is the Care of Magical Creatures course (taught by big but lovable Hagrid) that receives scrutiny from wizards. Creatures are dangerous because they do not speak the same way we do. They speak a very physical language that may erupt in violence. Some wizards are more attuned to this physical language, but others can only communicate in words.
When Words Lead to Violence
As children we are taught, ‘sticks and stones may brake my bones, but words will never hurt me’. But words hurt all the time. They can start wars and end them. In the United States, we are currently struggling over questions like ‘Is persuading someone to kill themselves a crime?’5 and “Is is OK to punch a Nazi?’6 These questions are not easy to answer because what happens when words lead to violence? Are those words responsible or only the actions? Gorgias would argue, “Speech is a powerful lord”.
Certainly, hitting is no way to solve your problems. But what about other forms of abuse? What about emotional abuse or persuasion? What about abuse delivered through spellcasting? In the wizarding world, words have immediate physical consequences. Words can knock you off your feet. They can make you feel shame at your callous actions. And as in the real world, sometimes a sharp tongue can cause more damage than a right hook.
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 37: “The Beginning” | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 2000
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 35: “Veritaserum” | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 2000
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 19: “The Lion and the Serpent” | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 2003
- Gorgias | “Encomium of Helen” | ~300 BC
- Schwartz, Matthew S | “Woman Who Provoked Suicidal Boyfriend Via Text Message Begins Prison Sentence” | NPR | Feb 12, 2019
- Stack, Liam | “Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?” | The New York Times | Jan 21, 2017