Marvolo-Lockhart-Color Symbolism

[Leanne Daharja Veitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 44394

Eloise wrote:

<< And that red, green, blue and yellow are intended to stand forth
as simple primary colors (although green isn't really a primary) that
are distinctive  (snip) So it's not true period heraldry, but more
symbolic, >>

I think, apart from the elemental symbolism, these colours are also used for the simple fact that they are traditional 'house' colours at public schools. Every school I went to (with the exception of one) used the four colours as house sports colours for the different houses. So it makes sense from the traditional 'school story' point of view.

Catlady responded to Eloise's post with:

<<Fire - Gryffindor - passion and courage
Earth - Hufflepuff - work and patience
Air - Ravenclaw - thought and communication
Water - Slytherin - deviousness (water can sneak out of even the
smallest crack in a vessel).>>

Actually, water is more commonly associated with emotion, rather than outright deviousness. But certainly our emotions are a leading *cause* of deviousness. Slytherins are seen as unreliable (or devious) because they do 'anything to achieve their ends' - in other words, their emotions (what they want)  are what drives them.

However, where the colour sysmbolism gets really interesting is when you look at the *subsidiary* colours for the two houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin (I'm leaving Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw out of this for a second). Gryffindor are red and *gold*, Slytherin are green and *silver*. Interestingly, not only is Slytherin associated with emotion and unreliability, but with
*silver*, which is the colour traditionally representative of the female aspect in Pagan symbolism (and in the symbolism of several other religions). Gryffindor, however, is associated clearly with *chivalry* and the colour *gold*, which represents the male aspect in Paganism.

For me, at least, this is clearly associating Gryffindor with maleness, and Slytherin with femaleness. Even the two symbolic animals - the Lion and Snake - are representative of male and female. The Snake is associated throughout Western (esp Greek and old testament/Hebrew) mythology with femaleness.

So does this mean that, psychologically speaking, the battle between Gryffindor and Slytherin is little more than a battle of the sexes? And why has JKR portrayed Slytherin as so evil when she herself is female?

Furthermore, why have the houses founded by women (Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw) taken a very secondary role throughout the books? Up until Cedric Diggory, very few students from either house (if any, arguably) were portrayed with any level of detail. Even Harry's would-be love interest, Cho Chang, is little more than a caricature.

Finally, is JKR aware of the sexual bias in her books and is it intentional? Personally, she striked me as a very intelligent writer, and I've no doubt she is fully aware of the sexism inherent in HP. But (to be totally cynical) she's also aware that you don't make money outside the status quo.

Daharja XXX