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Saturday, September 15, 2007

Marriage and divorce at Hogwarts

In an earlier post, I commented briefly that no one at Hogwarts, the school where Harry Potter was trained as a wizard, seemed to be married. All the professors, or teachers, were single. Can anyone think of an exception? True, Hagrid had a courtship with a giantess, but didn't marry her. Also, Remus Lupin married after he was a professor. But no professor was professor while married, as far as I can recall.

It's not that Hogwarts is immune to physical attraction. There is plenty of that among the students.

It's not that J. K. Rowling didn't include married couples in the Harry Potter books. She did. The Dursleys, and Harry Potter's parents, both seemed not only married, but in love. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are important characters, and they are married, and in love.

One thing that Rowling doesn't seem to have included is divorce. There is no mention of divorce among wizards, nor even among muggles (non-wizards). That's remarkable! Probably Rowling's own status as a single mother influenced this aspect of the book, but I'm not at all sure that it was the determining factor. The Dursleys, and the Weasleys, have some disagreements, but that's realistic. Would that wizardly influence, or good choices, would stamp out divorce in our real society.

On an unrelated topic, why do Rowling's wizards travel over much of the Old World, but they are not mentioned as being in the Western Hemisphere?

Thanks for reading.

I re-analyzed the Harry Potter series, in a post in early 2015, here.

4 comments:

Immanuel said...

the only thing that I have seen is the interacton with people from others countries. For example in the "goblet of fire" when they are on the Quidditch Rowling describes wizards and witches from US and also wizards from Peru. By the way your post are very interesting.

Martin LaBar said...

Thanks. I missed, or had forgotten, about wizards from the New World.

Banshee said...

Traditionally, English boarding schools didn't believe in married teachers. They wanted you living at the school, and at the disposal of the school all the time.

Martin LaBar said...

OK. Thanks. That makes sense.