Dickensian Types in the World of Harry Potter

Abstract

British novelist J.K Rowling uses many Dickensian types in her most famous saga: Harry Potter. This paper aims to compare some of the characters found in that saga with other characters taken from some novels by Dickens, specifically Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak House (1852) and David Copperfield (1849).Dickens and Rowling share many connections, but maybe the most interesting one is how they portray those characters as living in the outskirts of the worlds they have created, specially servants, orphans and women. The orphans are the strongest bond between the authors as each one of them bases their stories on an orphan. Those orphans also have a very close relationship with death, which fosters the precarious conditions of their lives, with no parents to take care of them. The servants take a crucial role in affecting the protagonist’s fate and also the plot itself. Some of them even show a great love and care towards the heroes. These servants can also be self-sacrificing when the heroes need saving, like Dobby, Nancy and Jo show. To finish with, both authors seem to have contradictory portrayals of their women. They give a great deal of power to women that at first are passive and seem to be waiting for the protagonists to be in love with them.