I n t e r p r e t a t i o n1 7 1conflict between the powers of light and the forces of darkness –
between the selfless Harry and the malevolent Voldemort – but at
the same time bring this antithesis into constant question.
This is apparent in a number of ways. For one thing, good father
figures like Dumbledore can come to seem malign ones. Rather
like Magwitch in Great Expectations, Dumbledore is at work on a
secret plot for Harry’s salvation; but, as with Magwitch’s plans for
Pip, we wonder at times whether his schemes are entirely well
intentioned. Dumbledore will turn out to be on the side of the
angels yet flawed, and this complicates too easy an antagonism
between good and evil. So does the ambiguous career of Severus
Snape. Besides, Voldemort is not simply Harry’s enemy. He is also
his symbolic father and monstrous alter ego. The combat between
the two recalls that between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in
Starwars, right down to the V of the villain’s name.
It is true that Voldemort is not Harry’s actual begetter, as Darth
Vader is Luke’s; but there is a vital piece of him installed inside
Harry, as there is a genetic piece of our parents inside us all. In
seeking to destroy the dark Lord, then, Harry is also doing battle
with himself. The real enemy is always the enemy within. He is
torn between his hatred for this despot and his reluctant intimacy
with him. ‘I hate the fact that he can get inside me,’ he protests. ‘But
I’m going to use it.’ Harry and Voldemort are at one level identical.
Like so many legendary rivals, they are mirror images of each other.
But Harry can seize advantage of his access to the villain’s mind in
order to lay him low.
Voldemort is an image of the father as obscenely cruel and
oppressive, rather than, as with Harry’s actual parents, life- giving
and affectionate. He represents the father as the forbidding Law or
superego, which for Freud is a force within the self rather than an