Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Information, Rumors, and Fear
Prejudice vs. Respect
Friendship, Loyalty, and Bravery
Fate, Choice, and Identity
Rules, Rebellion, and Doing the Right Thing
Summary
Analysis
McGonagall leaves Harry alone in Dumbledore’s office and tells him to wait. He looks around and sees the Sorting Hat on a shelf. Hesitantly, he puts it on his head and asks the Hat if it put him in the right house. The Hat says that Harry was difficult to place, but that he would have done well in Slytherin. Harry feels sick, takes the Hat off, and says, “You’re wrong.”
To Harry, the Sorting Hat becomes a symbol of the idea that his identity has been predetermined, and that he has no way of directing his life. But in asserting himself and saying that the Hat is wrong, he proves that he can make choices and control his identity.
Themes
Harry then notices a “decrepit-looking” bird on a golden perch. Suddenly, the bird bursts into flames and becomes a pile of ash, and Harry cries out in shock. Dumbledore enters; Harry tries to explain that the bird just caught fire and he couldn’t do anything, but Dumbledore smiles. He explains that Fawkes is a phoenix, and Harry watches as a newborn bird pokes its head out of the ashes. Dumbledore explains that phoenixes can carry heavy loads, that their tears have healing powers, and that they are very loyal.
Fawkes, for his own part, is a symbol of loyalty, as Dumbledore hints. Later in the novel, all of the attributes that Dumbledore describes become key to rescuing Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. But the most important one by far is loyalty, because Harry must prove his loyalty to Dumbledore in order to be supported by Fawkes.
Themes
At that moment, Hagrid bursts into Dumbledore’s office and says that Harry did not petrify Justin, as he was speaking with Hagrid moments before the attack. Dumbledore assures Hagrid that he does not think Harry attacked Justin and Nick. Slightly embarrassed, Hagrid leaves. Dumbledore then asks if Harry has anything that he needs to tell him. Harry thinks with dread about Draco’s statement about Mudbloods being next, the Polyjuice Potion, the voices Harry had been hearing, and the rumors about his connection with Slytherin. He simply says no.
Hagrid’s loyalty and friendship toward Harry resurface here, as he defends Harry from the rumors that have been circulating. But the fear that those rumors have instilled in Harry becomes very evident when he is so afraid of being judged for the rumors about him, so afraid of feeling like he doesn’t know who he is, and so afraid of getting in trouble for breaking the rules that he feels unable to confide in Dumbledore.
Themes
After the attack on Justin and Nick, panic erupts in the castle. At the holidays, students are eager to return home, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione plan to stay, having heard that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle are also staying. On Christmas morning, Hermione announces that the Polyjuice Potion is ready.
Despite the fact that the attacks continue, with each new attack there is no more information about the monster or about who might be controlling it. This sense of mystery only increases the fear of the student body, as Rowling’s escalating descriptions demonstrate.
Themes
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At Christmas dinner, Hermione tells Harry and Ron her plan, which they carry out seamlessly. She fills two cakes with a sleeping draught and leaves them for Crabbe and Goyle. When they eat the cakes and pass out, Ron and Harry hide them in a broom closet and pull out a few of their hairs, then return to Myrtle’s bathroom. Hermione has a hair from Millicent Bulstrode, a Slytherin girl who has gone home for Christmas.
The recurrence of attacks only increases the urgency of using the Polyjuice Potion in order to get information from Draco, even though they have broken many school rules along the way and continue to do so over the course of this episode. Their priority is simply to find information that can be used to prevent the attacks.
Themes
Hermione finishes brewing the potion. She pours a glass for each of them and they add their individual’s hairs. Harry transforms into Goyle, while Ron becomes Crabbe. Hermione refuses to come out of the bathroom stall, however, and tells Harry and Ron to go without her: they only have an hour before the potion wears off.
It is also notable that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are only able to carry out this plan together—Hermione crafts the plan and Harry and Ron carry it out as a pair (which is particularly necessary because Crabbe and Goyle are always together). Thus, without their bond of friendship, the trio would not have been successful.
Themes
Harry and Ron head off, but they don’t know where the Slytherin common room is. Fortunately, they run into Draco, who leads them down to the dungeons (the Slytherin password, Harry notes, is “pure-blood”). In the common room, Draco says he wants to show them something funny. He retrieves an article from the Daily Prophet, detailing how Mr. Weasley has been fined for bewitching the car. Lucius has called for his resignation, arguing that he is unfit to draw up laws and that the Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped.
Harry and Ron’s interactions with Draco only help to confirm his horrible prejudice—and the prejudice of Slytherin House as a whole. The password is “pure-blood,” and Draco’s father continues to mount attacks against the Weasleys. Lucius’s criticism of Mr. Weasley is not really because he is unfit to draw up the laws, but because Lucius doesn’t like the Muggle Protection Act and is working to manipulate the rules to his advantage.
Themes
Draco then comments on how surprised he is that the Daily Prophet hasn’t reported on the attacks, and that Dumbledore will be fired if they continue. He then complains about Dumbledore letting in “Mudbloods,” and about people who hang around with “Mudbloods” —like Harry. Draco scoffs at the fact that people think that Harry is Slytherin’s Heir, commenting that he wishes he knew who the Heir really was so he could help them.
This is a particularly horrid statement from Draco, whose prejudice continues to extend to people who even remotely tolerate Muggle-born students, despite the fact that Muggle-born students are exactly like everyone else. The attacks on the students are akin to hate crimes, and the fact that Draco says he wants to help the person committing them puts him firmly on the side of evil.
Themes
Draco then says that Lucius won’t tell him anything about the last time the Chamber was opened, which was fifty years ago (and thus before Lucius’s time at Hogwarts). But Draco does say that he knows that last time, “a Mudblood died.” He says that Lucius told him to let the Heir of Slytherin rid the school of “all the Mudblood filth,” but not to get involved.
Even though Draco confirms that he is not the Heir of Slytherin, he still provides Harry and Ron with key information that will later help them solve the mystery of the Chamber: that a student died fifty years ago when it was opened. Draco’s words also foreshadow the revelation that Lucius is involved in the attacks, even if he is not the direct cause of them.
Themes
Harry and Ron realize that they’ve slowly started to turn back into themselves—their hour is up. Ron makes an excuse about getting medicine for an upset stomach, and they sprint back to Myrtle’s bathroom. In the bathroom, they discover that Hermione’s face is covered in black fur and she has yellow eyes. She says that the hair she pulled from Millicent’s robe must have been a cat hair, and the potion isn’t meant for animal transformation. Harry and Ron take Hermione to the hospital wing.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione successfully carry out their plan together, but their rule-breaking is not without its hiccups. But even though Hermione was unable to accompany them on their interrogation, they still could not have carried out their plan without her. This demonstrates how only through their combined friendship are they able to succeed in their adventures.
Themes
