One of the hallmarks of the Fourth Generation of ‘Rowling Studies’ is taking a larger view of Rowling’s work than her most recent work, the series in progress, or the fun but necessarily speculative guesswork about the book-to-come. Murray-Rowling-Galbraith has written enough books and screenplays and collaborated on a play that those of us who study or just read her work attentively are obliged at this point to pull back to see what ‘common denominators’ can be found in the opera omnia.
A lot of that work, of course, has already been done and has a lot to do with the other signature elements of the ‘new’ Rowling Studies. Pulling the ‘Golden Threads’ of the Complete Works is one, as mentioned, but it draws inevitably from the work done on another, namely, Explaining the Shed Artistry and its Effect on readers. [The last of the three elements, Identifying or Speculating about the Lake origins of the Threads in Rowling’s Biography, Bibliography, and Core Beliefs, links to the Threads less obviously.]
The first five of seven Golden Threads threads I hope are familiar to HogwartsProfessor readers: the ‘Shed Artistry’ points of Literary Alchemy, Ring Composition, Psychomachia, Christian content, and Mythological templates.
The sixth Golden Thread is Pregnancy Traps, a plot point I’ve mentioned here more than once, even asking for readers to review the texts to compile a create list of them, but which subject I have not explored in depth. This post is the beginning of my addressing that failing; it is the first of a series of ten or more posts laying out the textual sources of the major attempts by women characters in Rowling’s work to win a husband by becoming pregnant or by a fictional man to secure a bride by making his partner pregnant.
I’m starting with Merope Gaunt Riddle, the mother of Thomas Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, both because her pregnancy trap is at the root of the Harry Potter novels’ core conflict and because it is best to begin at the beginning. We’ll move in future posts from this launching point to work our way through the Pregnancy Traps in Casual Vacancy, the Strike-Ellacott mysteries, the Fantastic Beast screenplays, The Ickabog, and The Christmas Pig.
Each post will discuss the textual appearance of the Trap, its importance in the story or series in which it appears, and its unique and commonplace characteristics in relation to other Rowling Pregnancy Traps. I am writing a HogwartsProfessor Substack post for subscribers in which I will summarize the many appearances of this plot point in almost everything Rowling writes, discuss the effect of this story trope on readers, and speculate about its possible origins in Rowling’s Lake.
But first, Merope Gaunt Riddle, the witch whose pregnancy trap is the point of origin for the Dark Lord and all of Harry’s adventures — all that, after the jump! [Read more…]
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