Harry Potter Unlocked - Chapter 1 Scene 1

The Dursleys’ World: A Prelude to Magic

Welcome back to the Harry Potter Unlocked series where I dissect one of the most popular books of all time, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you haven’t read the introduction to this series, you can find it here: Harry Potter Unlocked - Introduction. The introduction post also contains the project schedule if you would like to read along with me.

If you’re ready to move on to Scene 2, click here: Chapter 1 Scene 2.

Today, we’re looking at the first scene of the book from Chapter 1, The Boy Who Lived. It runs just over 2,000 words from the beginning until the line “How very wrong he was.” This scene takes barely five minutes to read silently, but it perfectly sets the stage for the story to come; and obviously it has compelled millions of readers to keep turning the page.

Three of my copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The top copy is the one my grandparents purchased for me way back in 2000.

A Day with Mr. Dursley

From the first line, we are introduced to the Dursleys. We spend a day in the life of Mr. Dursley as he tries to go through his normal routine “on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts.” It turns out however, that this isn’t a normal day.

Mr. Dursley encounters strange things on his way to and from work. Things like: a cat reading a map, people dressed in brightly colored cloaks, and a mention of “the Potters” and “their son Harry.” These names alarm Mr. Dursley as they match the names of Mrs. Dursley’s strange sister.

Scared to directly confront his wife with this information, when Mr. Dursley returns home he instead casually mentions some of the day’s strange events. He confirms with Mrs. Dursley that her sister’s last name is indeed Potter and the Potter’s son is indeed called Harry. Ultimately, Mr. Dursley goes to sleep that night reassured. Even if the strange events of the day involve those Potters, there’s no reason for it to impact him or his wife and son.

“How very wrong he was.”

That All Important First Line

The first line of any novel is absolutely critical. Right from the beginning, a novel has to begin working its magic on readers or risk being placed back on the shelf and ignored. The opening line is also a reader’s first lesson in how to approach the novel and what to expect. Let’s look at an infamous example:

“Call me Ishmael.” - the first line from Melville’s Moby-Dick

This line is immediately engaging. It’s short and direct, creating a sense of intimacy with readers. By introducing himself this way, Ishmael (if that even is his real name) establishes himself as the narrator which sets a personal and reflective tone for the rest of the book. This line also contains a Biblical allusion, the name Ishmael referencing the son of Abraham and Hagar who is cast out and becomes a wanderer. This hints at the themes of isolation and wandering that are central to Moby-Dick.

All that (and more) from three little words. Five syllables.

How does Harry Potter’s first line compare?

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

While perhaps not as impressive as Melville’s opening, this line does quite a bit of work in its own right. The opening establishes a third-person narration and sets a somewhat detached, observational tone. It sets the scene in a rather mundane suburban area. Further, it gives us a glimpse into the Dursley’s personalities and their desire for normalcy. Their pomposity is also on display with the rather snooty “thank you very much” tagged on at the end.

For those of us that have read the story before, irony is also evident. We know that the Dursley’s “perfectly normal” life is about to be upended.

Even though this opening line might not be as masterful as some of the great works of literature, it isn’t bad. There’s a lot we can take from it, but alas we must read further!

Eight Characters That Will Remain With Us for the Rest of the Series

Rowling’s first line introduces two characters. By the end of the first three paragraphs, we know of four more. A total of six characters emerge almost immediately in this opening scene.

1. Mr. Dursley - big, beefy, hardly any neck, large mustache.

2. Mrs. Dursley - thin, blonde, twice the usual amount of neck. One who spies on neighbors and gossips.

3. Dudley Dursley - “no finer boy anywhere” according to the adult Dursleys. Very young, we ultimately find out he’s a screamer and tantrum thrower.

4. Mr. Potter - “good-for-nothing” according to the Dursleys.

5. Mrs. Potter - Mrs. Dursley’s sister. One to be ignored. Mrs. Dursley pretends that she doesn’t have this sister.

6. A small boy Potter - later in the scene we find out that this is Harry Potter, the title character! The Dursleys do not want Dudley “mixing” with this boy.

Three paragraphs, six characters. Whew. By the end of the scene some 1,700 words later, we are introduced to two other important characters.

7. The strange, map-reading cat - we’ll learn later in the chapter that this is Professor McGonagall. For this scene however, she is just a cat reading a map and staring at (judging?) Mr. Dursley.

8. ‘You-Know-Who’ - we don’t learn much about this character right away. For now he is someone that the squeaky, smiling stranger that Mr. Dursley runs into is ecstatic to say has “gone at last!”

Mr. Dursley is by far the most fleshed out character in this scene. Even though the book is called Harry Potter and the chapter is called The Boy Who Lived, we’re spending this time with Mr. Dursley. He is someone that is almost obsessed with normalcy… so much so that he is often described as fearful and angered by the “strange and mysterious.” His ability to compartmentalize, to push things to the back of his mind, is on full display. For example, he purposefully sits in his ninth floor office with his back to the window so that he doesn’t see anything too exciting.

I’ve worked an office job with a desk near the window. My back was not often turned towards that window.

I found it interesting how the words and phrases that described Mr. Dursley progressed through the scene. Here’s a sampling: big and beefy; boring; thought of nothing; enraged; yelled and shouted; upset; worried; rattled; doesn’t approve of imagination; nervous; shocked; angry; heart sinking; turning; and finally… wrong.

That’s a Dursley! And yet, we find out that he is terrified of confronting his wife with any of the strange and mysterious events of the day. Given this, we understand that his wife is somehow even more Dursleyish than he is.

Magical Vocabulary

This first scene does not introduce us to many unfamiliar words or phrases. Rowling eases us in to her magical world. You can tell that she understood her audience as middle-grade readers. Even though she introduces quite a few major characters, she does so in a very accessible way.

For example, we only learn two first names by the end of this scene: (1) Dudley and (2) Harry. Everyone else is Mr. This and Mrs. That. This is exactly how middle-grade readers see the world. For kids, unrelated adults are typically known by their honorifics and last names.

The main unfamiliar word that we’re introduced to in this scene is ‘Muggle.’ We’re not told what it means exactly, so we have to make some inferences.

We know that it is said by a brightly-cloaked stranger that Mr. Dursley bumps into while leaving work. In fact, this stranger calls Mr. Dursley a Muggle. Thus, we can infer that a Muggle is something like Mr. Dursley and a non-Muggle is something like the strange cloaked man.

We’ll learn much more about the language of the Wizarding World in later chapters.

Other Interesting Tidbits

• There are very few scenes in the entire Harry Potter series that follow a character other than Harry. It is necessary here as Harry is barely a year old and his viewpoint is obviously limited.

• Telling this part of the story from Mr. Dursley’s perspective helps us understand later why he and his wife dislike Harry so much. Although I find his dislike far too intense to actually sympathize with.

• I found the use of phrases like ‘unDursleyish’ and ‘Mrs. Next-Door’ to be charming. They get the point across immediately without being overly descriptive; something all of us writers struggle with!

• I enjoyed Rowling’s verb choices throughout this scene. For example, Mrs. Dursley is portrayed as using her long neck to crane over the neighbor’s fence evoking an image of a tall, thin bird which is particularly apt.

My Favorite Excerpt

It’s sometimes tough to find truly beautiful prose in middle-grade fantasy like this. However, my favorite bit of prose from this scene comes just after Mr. Dursley hears the cloaked strangers say the name Potter. I really like the use of the noun ‘whisperers’ in the first paragraph and “Fear flooded him” is such a great sentence. Notice also the rhythm and pacing of the second paragraph. It is like running down a steep hill, momentum uncontrollable, until relief comes after getting back to level ground. The emphasis added is mine.

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking … no, he was being stupid.

Great stuff.

Conclusion

Two thousand words. Five Minutes. Eight characters. One great scene!

I really enjoyed reading this scene (many times) while preparing to write this analysis. Let me know what you thought about it. Is there anything you think I should have mentioned that I didn’t? If someone asked you to improve this scene, how would you do so?

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Chapter 1 Scene 2 is out now, click below:

Until then… Happy Reading!