Throughout the first two books of the Harry Potter Series,
Rowling uses the literary concept of the red herring that makes the audience
have expectations of the who the culprit is in the first two novels. The first
novel presents itself with the Sorcerer’s Stone in danger of being stolen. All throughout
the novel Rowling sets up Snape as being the “bad guy” that will eventually
steal the stone. He progresses through the novel as fitting the description of
the normal “bad guy”. He wears dark clothing, never smile, and looks dirty. He isn’t
portrayed as a good character. Finally when the novel is about to come to the
end, when Harry believes that he is going to confront Snape about stealing the
stone, and Quirrell is actual person who is trying to steal the stone. I remember
the first time that I read the first book, I was just as shocked, if not more
than Harry was when he found out that Quirrell was behind trying to steal the
Sorcerer’s Stone.
In Chamber of Secrets, the character who is deemed the red
herring for majority of the novel is Draco Malfoy. Harry, as well as, other
characters thought that Draco was going to be the Heir of Slytherin, and
Rowling portrays Draco in that fashion. He was the first to comment when Mrs.
Norris was Petrified saying “you’ll be next Mudbloods”. He has shown his
disgust for Mudbloods and approves only of pure-bloods, a staple in being a
true Slytherin. When we finally find out that Malfoy isn’t the true Heir of
Slytherin, when Harry and Ron use the Polyjuice Potion, we are kept in the dark
for the remainder of the novel who the real Heir of Slytherin is.
These are just two instances in which Rowling creates
expectations by use of the red herring in the first two novels of the series.
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