Aaliyah Patel

I’ll have a look inside your mind

And tell where you belong!

— Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

The Sorting Hat plays an influential role in the Harry Potter series. But Rowling’s use of this tool could be considered erroneous – in other words – the Sorting Hat seems to write the characters’ fates before they have lived, learned, and made choices to determine their destiny. 

The Sorting Hat places first-years into one of the four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. And it does so by gauging values that are supposedly ingrained in eleven-year-olds. Each of the houses has members that possess distinct qualities. We have the gold-hearted Gryffindors, who are brave, daring, and stand up for others. The Hufflepuffs are trustworthy and hardworking. Ravenclaw has witches and wizards who are intelligent and witty. And of course, Slytherin – the house with a notorious reputation – witches and wizards known for their cunning, self-serving nature. Slytherin is also the house that has produced the most number of dark wizards. 

Rowling’s construction of these houses can get a bit stereotypical – especially in the case of Gryffindor and Slytherin. The two houses are parallels set up to distinguish good from evil and have an ongoing rivalry throughout the series. The separation of values into four groups can be slightly illogical and make the characters cliches. Most of the wizarding world seems biased toward Gryffindor, which can be mildly infuriating as human nature isn’t as golden as it looks when worn by Gryffindors. On several occasions, a deep rush of sympathy is felt for the Slytherins, mainly because of the character of Severus Snape, who proves that human nature is flawed with values that may seem disagreeable but exist in all of us. 

The Sorting Hat’s method of segregating young wizards based on their value system limits them by setting a restrictive barrier that prevents them from experiencing moral growth. For example, Slytherins (take Draco Malfoy as an example), who have a reputation of being selfish hold on to that label and play their stereotypical part as the antagonists, rather than allow themselves to sacrifice for the good of others. Severus Snape too plays the role of an ill-tempered, untrustworthy wizard – until we learn of his true nature at the end of the series. Despite his redemptive ending, Snape’s character is written following the character sketch of Slytherins. 

Apart from Harry’s case – in which he played an active role in his sorting – none of the other characters had much say in the matter. This seems like Harry’s sorting was merely an outlier to push the plot forward. The Sorting Hat’s mechanism is all very black-and-white. Human nature exists in the grey area. It is possible to be brave and ambitious, intelligent and kind. And we see such qualities coexist in many of the characters – Hermione, Snape, and Neville, to name a few. Then why must the Sorting Hat make the decisions for them – a cruel act of forcing their own hand against them. The use of dividing students into houses works for fostering competition – for example, during Quidditch matches. But the Sorting Hat’s all-knowing power negatively affects the characters as it stunts their moral growth. 

The hat – despite being a non-human entity – still possesses some sort of bias against the Slytherins. It is a conscious being that can sense virtue and therefore is continually seen making an effort to perpetuate Slyhtherin’s dark legacy. Take the example of Draco Malfoy and Sirius Black – both these characters came from pure-blood families that had supremacist views and were inherently immoral. However, in the case of Sirius Black, his moral compass is set right because he is placed in Gryffindor and is therefore separated from supremacist and discriminatory ideologies. Why was the Sorting Hat able to redefine Sirius’ fate as one tethered to goodness, and at the same time thwart Draco’s fate by placing him in Slytherin? Perhaps if Draco were placed in Gryffindor, he too would have broken his family’s legacy. 

All in all, the methodology used by the Sorting Hat is deeply ingrained with prejudice and it doesn’t seem to use any substantial metric for the process of sorting. If it did, it could have eliminated a lifetime of pain and suffering caused by wizards – including Lord Voldemort – who thought they were destined to be evil and follow in their founder’s footsteps, therefore limiting themselves through this misconception. The nature of one’s values is far too important to be decided by any other being and the cultivation of these values – both good and bad – is a responsibility that must be shouldered by the individuals themselves.