Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Tom Marvolo Riddle is the childhood name of the wizard who would become Lord Voldemort. Charming, intelligent, and cunning, Riddle relishes his mother’s ancestry as a descendant of Salazar Slytherin while implicitly renouncing the lineage of his father, a Muggle, by taking on a different name. Riddle is a gifted wizard and a keen manipulator of human emotion, evident in his ability to imprint his memories in a diary and then pose as Ginny’s friend to gain control of her. As a student, his status as Head Boy suggests that most of Hogwarts’s staff trusted him, with the notable exception of Dumbledore. Even Harry is taken in by Riddle’s demeanor, not recognizing him as a threat until he refuses to help Ginny.

Thematically, Riddle is the most significant exponent of the philosophy that magical persons are inherently superior to non-magical ones. Since Riddle’s father is a Muggle, Riddle seems to experience some degree of self-hatred: when Professor Dippet asks about the Muggle orphanage where Riddle lives during the summers, Harry notices Riddle “reddening slightly” with embarrassment. Riddle’s bitterness about his origins demonstrates the futility of attaching such importance to birth, which is beyond a person’s control.

Riddle’s defeat in the Chamber of Secrets at Harry’s hands takes on an ironic light and foreshadows Voldemort’s ultimate defeat at the end of the series since Riddle inadvertently gives Harry what he needs to defeat him—in this case, a basilisk fang. The implication is that Riddle’s pride, his belief that he is the greatest wizard in the world, leads him to underestimate his opponents, paving the way for his defeat.

Gilderoy Lockhart is a handsome celebrity author who teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. His introductory scene, a book signing full of pomp and circumstance, is a fitting preview of his presence throughout the novel. Lockhart serves as an unwelcome would-be mentor to Harry, whom he seeks to guide down the path to fame. Lockhart proves to be a busybody, offering unsolicited advice on matters he knows little about, as when he tells Hagrid how to deal with a magical creature occupying a well or offers to give Harry Quidditch advice.

Over time, Lockhart’s façade gradually slips away. At first, his fans, including Hermione, try to explain away his apparent deficiencies as a teacher. Eventually, however, teachers and students alike recognize him as a fraud. The revelation that Lockhart took credit for things others did, then wiped their memories serves as a warning that public figures are not always as they appear. Stripped of his memories and the ego they upheld, Lockhart becomes surprisingly pleasant company: “He was starting to grow on me,” Ron comments (340).

Noted for her bushy brown hair, Hermione Granger is one of Harry’s two best friends. Studious, assertive, and opinionated, Hermione is a living contradiction to the belief that Muggle-born students are somehow inferior to those with long family histories of magic. Hermione is generally more concerned about following rules than Harry and Ron are, but she takes the lead in preparing the Polyjuice Potion in the hopes of identifying Draco as Slytherin’s heir. She is also the first to determine the nature of Slytherin’s monster and its mode of transportation through the school, though she is Petrified before passing along her discovery. Hermione’s inclusion among those who are attacked raises the stakes of the novel’s climax and gives Harry a personal reason to be invested in the success or failure of the heir of Slytherin’s attempt to rid the school of Muggle-borns.

Tall, lanky, red-haired Ron Weasley is Harry’s best friend. Ron and Harry share several interests, including Quidditch, and both are similarly unmotivated in their studies. As one of the younger siblings in a large, poor magical family, Ron sometimes struggles to define himself in relation to his other siblings, such as Percy, whose authority Ron resents with sarcastic zeal. Ron is also somewhat impulsive, as evident in his decisions to rescue Harry and fly the car to Hogwarts. Ron’s eventual romantic involvement with Hermione is foreshadowed in his quick response when Draco insults her and his jealousy whenever Hermione displays a fondness for Lockhart. Throughout the novel, particularly during the plot's climax, Ron provides moral support to Harry, demonstrating the value of friendship when facing challenges.

Dobby is a house-elf, a type of elf bound to unpaid slavery in certain wizarding households. Small, dressed in rags, but surprisingly adept magically, Dobby exhibits conflicting tendencies toward independence and obedience, ingrained through a lifetime of servitude. Whenever he gathers the courage to contradict his owners, the Malfoys, he punishes himself physically. Thus, Dobby represents how those who are oppressed subtly adapt to their circumstances, even becoming accustomed to them until it is difficult to break free. The fact that Dobby can only gain freedom if and when he receives clothes from the Malfoys emphasizes just how much they deprive him of even simple dignities and pleasures.

Ginny is Ron’s younger sister, just starting her first year at Hogwarts. Ginny serves as a would-be love interest to Harry, though he does not return her affections until later in the series. At Hogwarts, Ginny remains mainly in the background, though there are signs that she is under even greater stress than everyone else as she tries to resist the pull of Riddle and the diary. Once her role in the attacks is revealed, Ginny fears expulsion, but Dumbledore and her parents recognize that Riddle, not Ginny, is responsible for what happened. Her arc thus emphasizes the significance of choice and intention in determining and revealing character.

An unusually large man, Hagrid serves as a friend and confidant to Harry, Ron, and Hermione; they instinctively turn to him when Ron begins vomiting slugs rather than going to the hospital wing. As gamekeeper, Hagrid has a fondness for magical creatures that sometimes gets him in trouble, as it did when he was (wrongly) accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets. As Hagrid’s past becomes clear, he becomes an increasingly sympathetic character, a victim and scapegoat of Voldemort’s schemes.

As headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore is both feared as an authority figure and respected for his wisdom and kindness. With a long beard, a crooked nose, and eccentric clothing, Dumbledore’s unusual appearance signifies his tolerance and acceptance of marginalized groups. Dumbledore thus serves as a moral authority and an academic one, and Harry feels “warm, sweeping, glorious relief” when Dumbledore accepts his recounting of events (329). Considering Dumbledore to embody the values he seeks to uphold, Harry craves Dumbledore’s approval and relishes his insight.

Though they now pretend to regret their actions, the Malfoys supported Voldemort when he was in power. As wealthy, pureblood wizards, they consider themselves superior to Muggles, Muggle-born witches and wizards, and those with less money, such as the Weasleys. Harry, Ron, and Hermione center their suspicions on Draco when his father, Lucius, is the one responsible for setting in motion the plot to open the Chamber of Secrets as a ploy to remove Dumbledore from the school. The Malfoys are static characters since they do not change during the novel, indicating the stubbornness and inflexibility of the views and positions they hold.

Myrtle is a ghost who inhabits an out-of-order girl’s bathroom. Sensitive to a fault, she is easily offended, perhaps due to the bullying she endured as a student at Hogwarts before she was killed by the basilisk. For much of the novel, Harry, Ron, and Hermione essentially ignore Myrtle, putting up with her to use her bathroom. They thus overlook her, only realizing much later that she knew all along about the basilisk and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, even if she didn’t know them as such. Myrtle thus represents the harmful effects of bullying and the potential for those who are victimized to aid in the overthrow of their oppressors.