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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Information, Rumors, and Fear
Prejudice vs. Respect
Friendship, Loyalty, and Bravery
Fate, Choice, and Identity
Rules, Rebellion, and Doing the Right Thing
Summary
Analysis
Filch bursts through the crowd, stunned when he sees Mrs. Norris. He immediately turns on Harry, saying that he murdered Mrs. Norris. Dumbledore and other teachers arrive and escort Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Filch over to Lockhart’s office, along with Mrs. Norris. Dumbledore concludes that Mrs. Norris is petrified, not dead, and that the magic is too advanced for Harry to have done it.
This incident begins the fear and the rumors that permeate the rest of the book. Filch, lacking any other information, turns immediately on Harry and his friends because of the circumstances, despite Dumbledore’s reassurance that it would have been impossible for Harry to commit the crime.
Themes
Filch, who has been sobbing, again accuses Harry, saying that Harry knows that he is a Squib. Harry argues that he didn’t touch Mrs. Norris and doesn’t even know what a Squib is. Snape then steps forward and asks why he, Ron, and Hermione weren’t at the feast and why they went up to that corridor. They explain that they went to Nick’s deathday party, but when Harry begins to explain why he went up to the corridor, he worries that explaining the bodiless voice no one else can hear will sound far-fetched. He says that they were too tired to go the feast, but Snape doesn’t believe him.
Filch also turns on Harry because he assumes that Harry has the prejudice Filch has experienced from many others because he is a Squib (a person of wizarding parentage but who does not have magical powers). But Harry does not dislike Filch because of his lack of magical powers, but rather because he treats the students terribly.
Themes
Dumbledore says that the kids are innocent until proven guilty, and adds that the Mandrakes that Professor Sprout is growing will be able to cure Mrs. Norris. When the teachers leave, Harry asks Ron and Hermione if he should have told them about the voice. Ron immediately says no: hearing voices isn’t good even in the wizarding world. Harry asks if Ron believes him and Ron immediately says yes, but he adds that what Harry described is admittedly strange.
This is one of the rare instances in which Harry feels a lack of support from his friends. As they are unsure of what Harry is hearing, Harry himself becomes uncertain whether he should confide in the teachers, even though it would help for the teachers to have as much information as possible about the incident.
Themes
Harry asks Ron what a Squib is, and Ron chuckles. He explains that it’s someone who is born into a wizarding family but who doesn’t have any magical powers, like the opposite of a Muggle-born. He explains that it’s very rare, and it’s probably why Filch hates the students so much.
Ron explains another type of prejudice that people can experience because of their heritage or magical abilities. But Harry, Ron, and Hermione have a hard time treating Filch with respect not because he cannot do magic (which they didn’t previously know) but because he is mean to students.
Themes
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For a few days, the entire school talks about the attack on Mrs. Norris. Ginny in particular seems very disturbed by what happened, though Ron tries to assure her that they’ll “catch the maniac who did it.” Hermione, for her own part, does nothing but read, trying to find out information about what the Chamber of Secrets might be. Additionally, when Harry is walking to meet Ron in the library, he sees Justin Finch-Fletchley, who sees him and immediately turns in the opposite direction.
As rumors start to fly throughout the castle, the lack of information instills fear. For Ginny, it later becomes clear that she is afraid because she worries that she might have been part of the attack. For Harry, he sees that the rumors have started to make people afraid of him. But Hermione, on the other hand, tries to combat this lack of information by finding out all she can about the Chamber of Secrets.
Themes
Hermione is unable to find information on the Chamber of Secrets, and so one day in their History of Magic class, she asks Professor Binns (who is a ghost) about the Chamber of Secrets. Binns is hesitant at first, but then he reveals some of the backstory of Hogwarts’s founders. There were four founders, for whom the four Houses are named. They built the school at a time when “magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution.”
Hermione continues her quest of trying to find out information in the face of fear. Professor Binns sheds some light on the Chamber of Secrets, demonstrating how the prejudice against wizards had been the original source of Slytherin’s own prejudice. It is also notable that Binns states that magic was feared—Muggles presumably didn’t understand how magic worked, and therefore they feared what they did not know. This is also true in the present, as the Dursleys fear Harry’s magical ability.
Themes
Binns explains that at first, the founders worked together to seek out young wizards and witches, but then a rift grew between Salazar Slytherin and the other founders. He believed that magical learning should be kept only in all-magic families, believing Muggle-born students to be “untrustworthy.” This rift led Slytherin to leave the school, but legend has it that Slytherin had built a Chamber within the school that could only be opened by his heir.
The story reinforces the fact that had the Muggles not been prejudiced against wizards and vice versa—had they simply treated each other with respect and kindness—the prejudice might not exist in the present, and the hatred and attacks could have been avoided altogether. But instead, each group made generalizations about the other and caused harm as a result.
Themes
Binns states, however, that no one has ever been able to find the Chamber. Hermione asks what is in it, and Binns says that it is said to hold some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control, and which can be used to “purge the school of all who [are] unworthy to study magic.” However, he begins to get angry at the students’ questions, repeating that the Chamber is a myth.
Despite all of Binns’ information, he is still unable to tell the students what might have attacked Mrs. Norris, which is the mystery that sparks the most fear. Additionally, because Binns refuses to acknowledge that the Chamber might actually be real, it only leads the students to create more rumors about it—like the idea that Harry might be the heir of Slytherin.
Themes
After class, Ron says that he never knew the “pure-blood stuff” started with Slytherin, and that if the Sorting Hat had tried to put him in Slytherin, he would have taken the train straight home. Harry remains silent, because the Hat did consider putting him in Slytherin. He asked the Hat not to, knowing Slytherin’s bad reputation, and so the Hat put him in Gryffindor instead. Harry realizes that people are starting to believe that he is Slytherin’s heir, thinking of Justin that afternoon.
Harry reveals an insecurity about his identity here, as he worries that he might actually belong in Slytherin because the Sorting Hat believed that he might belong there. This is the first hint of Harry’s worry there are aspects of his identity that are out of his control, and that might actually reveal a darker part of himself. As Hermione notes later, he does not actually know whether he is or is not the Heir of Slytherin.
Themes
Harry, Ron, and Hermione walk back to their dorm through the corridor where the attack happened. They look for clues, noticing scorch marks on the ground, and at the window near the message, about twenty spiders are scurrying to get outside. Ron mentions that he’s terrified of spiders. Harry remembers the water on the floor during the attack and wonders where it came from. Hermione says that it’s coming from the bathroom nearby, which is the one that Moaning Myrtle haunts.
Again, in order to combat their fear and lack of knowledge, the three friends try and search for clues in order to gain more information about the attacks. The spiders ultimately lead Harry and Ron to more information about the Chamber of Secrets later in the book, and the water on the floor is key to solving the mystery of why Mrs. Norris was petrified there.
Themes
That night, Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to speculate who the Heir of Slytherin might be. Hermione asks who would want to “frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts.” Ron immediately jumps to Draco, who hates Muggle-borns and who comes from an old family that has always been in Slytherin. Harry suggests that the Malfoys could have handed down a key from generation to generation.
Despite the fact that Harry is experiencing some of the negative effects of students’ speculation, he and his friends also fall into the trap of not having information. Therefore they fill in the gaps with rumors of their own, assuming that because of Draco’s prejudice, he would be the one causing the attacks.
Themes
Hermione proposes a plan to find out if it is Draco: take Polyjuice Potion, which transforms a person into the appearance of someone else. She, Ron, and Harry can then sneak into the Slytherin common room and ask Draco about the Chamber. They’d be “breaking about fifty school rules,” she says, and they’d need to get a note from a teacher in order to take the book with the recipe out of the Restricted Section of the library.
Again, Hermione’s strategy is always to find out more information about what is happening, rather than jump to conclusions. And in suggesting Polyjuice Potion, she demonstrates that she (like Harry and Ron) is willing to break the rules in order to help those in danger of being attacked.
Themes
