The Four Houses of Hogwarts

"'Know what house you'll be in yet?'

'No,' said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.

'Well, no one really knows what until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been -- imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?'" (Rowling, 60). 

During our last class period, we discussed the otherness in Harry Potter in regards to the 'Muggle' and wizard communities. The character of Harry Potter seems to be always moving to and away from otherness in the series -- toward otherness in the eyes of Muggles and away from it in the wizarding world. With the idea of otherness already complicated, the matter becomes even more interesting when the four houses of Hogwarts are introduced. 

As seen in the above excerpt from the novel, distinctions among the houses are made almost immediately. In fact, they are made before Harry even arrives at Hogwarts. Interestingly, the houses are first introduced with bias – from the perspective of Draco Malfoy. According to this character, the Slytherin house is desirable and the Hufflepuff house is shameful. Because Harry does not like Draco from the start, however, he calls this opinion into question. Later, he asks Hagrid what the houses mean:

"'Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o’ duffers, but—'

'I bet I’m in Hufflepuff' said Harry gloomily.

'Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,' said Hagrid darkly. 'There’s not a single which or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.” (61)

Hagrid helps Harry redefine these two houses, and Harry seems much more willing to trust his opinion than Draco Malfoy’s. He believes his opinions of the houses so well, in fact, that he never allows Hagrid to continue his assessment of Hufflepuff’s past the 'but—'.

Hermione and Ron also offer their opinions of the Hogwarts houses. During their journey to the wizarding school, Hermione meets Ron and Harry and rapidly states her apparently needed views: “I’ve been asking around and I hope I’m in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best… but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn’t be too bad” (79-80).

Ron, who is recognized by Harry as a good character and unlike Malfoy, tells Harry that his brothers and parents were accepted into Gryffindor. “I don’t know what they’ll say if I’m not” he says, “I don’t suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin” (80). This quote by Ron Weasley is in direct contrast to Draco Malfoy’s at the beginning of the story, when the houses are first introduced to Harry.

Harry is therefore given two biased opinions of the houses before he arrives and choses which one to believe long before the Sorting Ceremony. He choses the view of Ron and Hermione because he feels that it is best – seemingly because he judges them to have better characters than Draco. When meeting Draco, Harry almost immediately assigns character traits of Dudley, the hated cousin, to him and consequently likes him “less and less” (60). Ron’s views of the houses, on the other hand, are not called into question at all.

Here, as in other places in this text, the reader encounters strong bias that is not called into reason by the main character. Interestingly, Hermione, Ron, and Draco all base their assumptions on what they have heard from others (Ron and Draco from their families and Hermione from her peers) and not on logical deductions. Instead of reserving judgment of the houses until he arrives, Harry allows his opinions to be shaped by other’s intuition as well his own intuition, and not on reason. 

Right away, readers are given the same choice that Harry is. Do readers follow Harry's path of intuition? Or should they abandon logic and embrace bias with Harry so that they can continue on with him? Is it good that Harry choices to believe in the goodness of character rather than in reasoning judgment or does it discredit his eventually battle with evil? In the end, isn't it Harry's intuition that saves the day?

The Hogwarts houses play an important part in this novel, as well as in the rest of the series. There is much more that can be said about their place, especially the dichotomy between Gryffindor and Slytherin and the members within them. Perhaps most interesting are the cases of Severus Snape being sorted in Slytherin despite his qualities of bravery, and Harry Potter being placed into Gryffindor after specifically requesting it from the sorting hat. As the first introduction of the houses in the novel will show, the houses are essential to this story and should therefore be considered carefully to gain a better understanding of the story.