hello, this has come to my attention recently, as I am reading Macbeth by Shakespeare in my English class. I've only started reading it, so I do not know the general plot, but I have found a few bits of it that are completely Harry Potter. First, there are three witches, and they all have "familiars" or animal spirits. In another thread on the OotP book club, someone talked about familiars, and how the hogwarts pets (owls,toads, cats) could be sort of like familiars in the sense that they protect their owners. (Crookshanks tried to expel Scabbers because he was actually Pettigrew, for instance) Is this a stray connection, or is it a nod to Shakespeare?
Additionally, the three witches are referred to as "The Weird Sisters," which, as we know, is also the name of the wizarding rock band in the series.

just wanted to know what you all thought!

mods--I dont know if this thread is in the right category, please move it if it isn't. merci!

That's a very interesting point
I haven't read any Shakespeare so i can't really specifically say but i imagine if there is somebody as influential as shakespeare anybody who has studied english would relate to him in some way while writing a book

Like most writers, Rowling would be an avid reader. There are some books that I have read where the similarities between these books and the Harry Potter series that are just too close for coincidence.

The Canterbury Tales is one example. In the same paragraph the words Dumbledores and Hagrid appear. The same book has a town called Casterbridge that has a pub called the Three Mariners (three broomsticks in H. P.) and Peter's Finger (Hogs Head/ plus the obvious connection about Peter Pettigrew).

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canturbury Tales is another example. The Pardoner's Tale is about three young men who try to cheat and kill Death. It reminded me of the three Peverell brothers in Deathly Hallows.

None of this takes away from her writing.

Shakespeare wrote Henry the Fifth, Troilus and Crysiede (hope I spelled that right) based on other authors writings. But it is the way that he wrote the stories that makes his stand out from the rest. Nobody could ever come close to telling it as well as he could.

J. K. Rowling never outright took another authors story and wrote it in her own style. She just combined lots of things she had read over her lifetime into one of the greatest literary successes ever written. That just makes me a grateful reader that she was such a great reader.

Actually, Jo acknowledges a huge nod to Shakespeare:

JKR has also mentioned that she took the name Hermione from Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale." I think she, like other great writers, incorporates a lot of collective cultural unconscious when writing -- i love when i recognize a detail (i remember this when i read about the Weird Sisters in HP) from another source...

I think many writers draw reference from Shakespeare as his work is so influential in the western world, I would like to think of these little details such as "The weird sisters" as being a kind of salutary nod to his work. Incidentally one of Terry Pratchetts discworld novels is named "wyrd sisters", this book is an actual parody of Macbeth but of course I immediately associated it with Harry


Romeo and Juliet, one Shakespeare's best known plays, was also developed from the work of another writer, it reportedly stems from Arthur Brooke's poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet", first published in 1562.

Shakespeare's plays, Henry the Fifth, King Lear, Cymbeline and the plot line from Macbeth were all based or borrowed from a man by the name of Raphael Holinshed who wrote The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland in the 1580's.

Shakespeare also wrote parts of Henry the Fifth from Hall's- The Union of The Noble and Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York (1542?).

My oldest nephew often complains about learning Shakespeare in high school. He always asks the same question. "What's the point? The plays have nothing to do with now."

After all the excellent novels being published lately (especially H. P.) I hope that he can see the point that Shakespeare is very relevant in relation to a lot of the literature that we read today.

We had this discussion in my english class! we actually started with which we should be reading. So we were asked which we'd prefure and almost everyone said harry potter.

I(surprisingly enough ) wouldn't like to see HP used for exam purposes or in the education system. I think literary analysis in a school environment often destroys whatever story you're reading. Many teachers tell you what to think, tell you how the story should be interpreted, tell you what's the right opinion to have. I would hate to see HP dissected in this manner. I studied "To Kill a Mockingbird" for my Junior Certificate, I had read it a few years prior and really enjoyed it but all the over-analysis that came with studying it for an exam ruined the story for me, I wouldn't like to see that happen to HP too.

In my homecountry (Norway), there's this book full of theories of the names in HP, that Rowling has gotten inspiration from the Bible, and so on. Well, if the authors of that book can connect HP to the Holy Grale, I don't see why it can't have a connection to Shakespeare.

Hence DD's long spiel to Harry in HBP at the end of the Horcruxes chapter (one of my favorite speeches by DD).


Well, I think Jo got her inspiration from a myriad of sources and different pieces of literature. The Bible is an obvious one (Harry being the murdered as a Messiah and then resurrected), Shakespeare is another (everyone steals from Bill though).


I haven't really studied and analyzed many works of literature except plays and short stories, and while those were never ruined for me, I can't say what over-studying a book might do to my feeling about it. But, if that's what happened to you, then it's probably safe to say that it might not be a good thing for HP to be used in a literature analysis type class (and think how hard it would be for "serious" students to accept a "children's" book). Each to his own, though. People never seem to tire of analyzing the books on Leaky. XD


That's very cool. I never knew that.....now I might have to read Chaucer....I've been avoiding it for a while, now.

I have to correct my post. The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy and Not The Canterbury Tales should be the book mentioned at the start of the second paragraph. My apologies. I never noticed the mistake until now. Ah well, that's why I'm a Hufflepuff and not a Ravenclaw.

That's a very well observed comparison Twillick, Jo actually acknowledges this in the Bloomsbury.com live chat on July 30, 2007:

I really want to read Chaucer's work now, and no longer just because of Paul Bettany's character in that Heath Ledger movie: "A Knights Tale"

I do recall reading in a book where JKR came up with the name Hermione.

It was from A Winter's Tale, as previously mentioned in this thread. Though I haven't actually read it, apparently the Hermione character in that story is turned into stone, which draws a parallel with Hermione Granger's petrification in CoS. You never know, there might be more references scattered throughout the stories.

This is just my own connection. Not anything Jo has said, acknowledged, or referred to either directly or indirectly. OK?

There is a line in The Tempest which goes, "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows". (Charles Dudley Warner reworked it as, "Politics makes strange bedfellows".) This speaks, in my mind, directly to the relationship between Severus Snape and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix; speaks to his even being a member of the Order and working for it and for its leader, Albus Dumbledore.

It also sort of relates to Narcissa Malfoy helping Harry Potter in the Forest in DH.

(Will S. recognized that human beings can be complex and their motives varied. So does Jo. (big thumbs up) )




Laura