I'm not only talking about the fantastic world she created in the books, or the characters that come to feel like best friends. There is so much going on in the Harry Potter books right beneath the surface that you may not realize your first, second, or maybe even fifth read! She uses theories of psychoanalysis and feminism, and even bases all the spells on latin words.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Rowling uses Lacan's Mirror Stage and describes it through the Mirror of Erised (but you probably already know that if you have looked at my previous blog posts). That, in itself, is an incredibly smart thing to do. However, J.K. Rowling also added a whole new dimension to Lacan's theory; she took it and made it her own. Jacques Lacan theorized that only infants go through the Mirror Stage. J.K. Rowling uses the Mirror of Erised in her book to show that we never leave the mirror stage. We never feel absolutely content. Society is always pressing new expectations and beliefs on us. Both Ron and Harry, whose experiences in the mirror are explicitly explained, are not infants.
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