The mandrake’s lethal cry: Homuncular plants in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets

Abstract

In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1999), a monstrous animal necessitates both the care and the depredation of monstrously humanized plants. With its lethal gaze, the basilisk petrifies animal life, which can be revived only by a potion made from the mandrake plant. On one hand, human characters invest energies to ensure the plants’ well- being, implicitly recognizing the shared vulnerability of all life; on the other hand, they are repulsed by their dependence on a “lesser” species. Tracing these contradictions, this chapter explores the affects and practices arising from the recognition and denial of human-plant co-dependency. Drawing on various sources-from the Bible to medieval herbals and nineteenth-century encyclopedias-this chapter contextualizes the Harry Potter mandrake in centuries of plant lore that regarded the uncannily homuncular mandrake as an evil spirit.