The Search for the Deathly Hallows: An ARCHETYPAL QUEST by H. Granger

Prologue

The Deathly Hallows are the three magical objects that are the focus of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The form, function, and purpose of each of the Hallows are revealed as the plot of the novel progresses. In the course of their investigation into Voldemort's Horcruxes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione speak with Xenophilius Lovegood who explains that the search for the legendary Hallows is referred to as the Quest. According to Rowling, the story about how these objects came into existence is based upon Geoffrey Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale.

The Pardoner's Tale is one of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This Middle English tale is based on a folk-tale of Oriental origin. The tale goes: 

"Three drunken and debauched men set out from a pub to find and kill Death, whom they blame for the death of their friend, and all other people that previously have died, which they were told by the Landlord. An old man they brusquely query tells them that he has asked Death to take him but has failed. He then says they can find death at the foot of a tree. When the men arrive at the tree, they find a large amount of gold coins and forget about their quest to kill Death. They decide that they cannot just take the coins in broad daylight, but rather wait until night and steal the money then. The three men draw straws to see who among them should fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. The youngest of the three men drew the shortest straw. The two plot to overpower and stab the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town plots to lace the wine with rat poison. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine, and die slow and painful deaths. All three have found death."

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So goes the search. This archetypal quest for the Horcruxes is reminiscent of The Quest for the Holy Grail, Jason and the Argonauts, the Odyssey, and the above-told Pardoner's Tale.

But whatever quest we're dealing with, we are confronted by the "collective psyche," or the "collective unconscious" postulated by the Jungian/Archetypal critics. We deal with "archetypes."

"Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols, or patterns which may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, recognizable character types such as the trickster or the hero, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion (as in King Kong, or Bride of Frankenstein)--all laden with meaning already when employed in a particular work. " (Walker, 2002)

This Achetypal Approach "gets its impetus from psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that humankind has a 'collective unconscious,' a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes and images that we all inherit. Literature, therefore, imitates not the world but rather the 'total dream of humankind."' (Walker, p. 17)

Archetypal critics search for archetypal patterns in literary works (e.g.,character types, story lines, settings, symbols). According to Jung, these patterns are embedded deep in the "collective unconscious" and involve "racial memories" of situations, events, relationships from time immemorial. (Murfin and Ray, p.23)

If you come to think of it, Harry, Hermione, and Ron's quest for the Horcruxes is "just another quest" in history and literature's kilometric list of "quest archetypes." But, the beauty and uniqueness of Harry's quest lies in the fact that in his search for the dark objects, he found the hero in him. He found his true worth. He learned that, more than having "brains and brawn," he needs a heart, a sense of selflessness, and the wisdom to understand that there are things far worse than death and things bigger even than himself, the "Chosen One." More importantly, this is not a quest for glory and immortality, as depicted in Greek epics, but a quest to end the most evil force in the wizarding world.

The quest for the Horcruxes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows brings to fore not only the young heroes' and heroine's noble quest, but it also represents the quest of my generation.

Generation X, as we are tagged, is a "confusing and confused" generation, primarily because we lived through four decades (70's - 21st century) of transitions. We badly need to establish our identity, to find ourselves and the heroes in us. We need to find "our horcruxes" and destroy them. We need to prove to the world that our generation is not lost nor scarred by the life-changing transitions of the last four decades we lived through.

And until this quest is completed, we will never rest.

***** for Silver Doe, a fellow Gen X-er *****