Deconstructing Harry, or The Struggle for Agency

[violetbaudelaire2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 39920

I will admit off of the bat that I am a late-comer and have neither 
the time nor the particular energy to pick apart the MAGIC 
DISHWASHER theory, but the snippets I hzve made sense of 
have got me thinking (though I have a "1000 monkies with 1000 
typewriters" idea that it has been proposed already), but as I'm a 
school teacher with three long months before I can lecture on 
Romeo and Juliet's battle against fate, I'll go for it anyway.

Temporarily ignoring any notions of authorial intent, I'll be basing 
my theory on what is actually in the books, and like any good 
deconstructionist, I'll twist each incident so that it assumes a 
completely nihlistic shape.

Within the confines of the books, there are several characters 
vying for agency, or any kind of power or demonstration of free 
will. All of these characters, coincidently are adults (I'll come 
back to this). The case can, and has, been made that 
Dumbledore is orchestrating events so that Voldemort can rise 
again, but on Dumbledore's terms. The relative ease in which 
Harry, Ron and Hermione are able to get through the dungeon to 
the Sorceror's Stone seems to confirm this-- that thing isn't that 
well protected, really. And Harry even gets the feeling that 
Dumbledore made it easy for him (SS pg. 302- "...he knows 
more or less everything that goes on here...I don't think it was an 
accident he let me find out how the mirror worked"- aah, Harry, 
alas, there are *no* accidents!). The Invisibility Cloak is not only 
given to Harry, but returned at a crucial moment; Hagrid (loyal to 
Dumbledore) gives Harry a *flute* for Christmas, etc, etc, ad 
nauseum. If Voldemort is truely to rise again, Dumbledore wants 
to be able to defeat him on his own terms, not Voldemort's. 
Dumbledore is chosing his battles, allowing himself the 
freedom/power to demonstrate his own agency, and he does a 
darn good job of controling Harry.

Snape, as well, is struggling for agency. Whether for or against 
Dumbledore I will not even begin to speculate here.  Notice in 
CoS, he has Malfoy set a serpant on Harry, and then has "a 
shrewd and calculating look" (CoS 195) when Harry has 
demonstrated Parselmouth. Snape has set events in motion to 
ensure that Harry is able to figure out  the Riddle (excuse the 
pun). Snape, like Dumbledore, is exhibiting his own power of 
agency by manipulating Harry. I'm sure one could find  plentiful 
evidence of Snape's agency throughout the series (saving Harry 
in SS, covering for him in PoA, etc...). Snape wants things on his 
own terms as well; his actions succeed in making Malfoy Sr look 
bad, and in GoF he makes Krarkoff look suspicious. A good way 
to get back at your ex DE pals.

In order not to make this longer than necessary, I will briefly give 
an example of one other character's agency and then proceed to 
my point- Voldemort. The whole series, thus far, has revolved 
around his struggle to regain a body, a life, etc... He is little more 
then spirit, but he does have *will*, and  after all, where there's a 
will, there's a way, right? In much the same way that 
Dumbledore, Snape, whoever else, is orchestrating events to 
serve their own purposes, Voldemort uses whatever means are 
available to further his cause (he is even  willing to live a half life, 
or cursed life for this- which makes him a doppelganger of sorts 
for Dumbledore, who, it is noted, is too noble to do things like 
this).

Now, about this agency.... The world of Harry Potter is an *adult* 
world; the adults are, effectively, battling each other at every 
movement for control/power (even in minor incidents- think 
Malfoy Sr/Arthur Weasly; Madame Pompfrey/anyone interfering in 
the hospital ward; Filch/Peeves, Dursleys/entire WW, etc...). Each 
adult is looking for ways to serve their own ends, and Harry (all 
children) are merely pawns in this. If the adults are constantly 
struggling for power amongst themselves, no one is really in 
control; there are only semblances of control. There is no stable 
power because each adult is working against each other 
(though they may be working *against* the same people, each 
person does not have the same MO- can Snape's MO and 
Dumbledore's MO really be the same? are they even 
compatible? will there not be a moment when one is working in 
a way that can harm the other?). 

Free will, agency, is on shakey ground here because what each 
character does is, in effect, what the other character has wanted 
them to do, even planned for them to do. Most notably it is the 
children in the series who have no free will, or so it would seem. 
In the first few books it would seem that Harry is easily led (or at 
least the case can be made as such), but remember- he can 
easily throw off the Imperious Curse (which, oddly enough, is a 
rarity- further proof for my "no agency" argument). I'm not sure 
what to make of that. Maybe children are where the hope lies; 
they must be the ones to work together to overcome duplicity 
(diversity is a common theme in the book- in order to overcome 
all of this duplicity, one must overcome prejudices). It will be 
interesting to watch Percy, as he is the only character we have 
seen to date that moves from childhood (or pupildom at least) 
into the adult world. 

So, does free will exist in Potterverse? Other excellent 
discussions points would be the Centaurs, Trewallany, and 
Harry's frequent dreams. 

-VioletBaudelaire, struggling with her own issues of agency.