In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone women play different types of roles, but very few are shown as truly powerful and independent. This is due to the beliefs that powerful jobs are mostly held by men, since they are considered superior to women. The way women are portrayed is often an interpretation of how they are viewed by society. If women are portrayed as being less capable than men, either intellectually or physically, it reflects how they are truly viewed in society. In the novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling assigns women stereotypical roles which can be seen through the positions she assigns to the female characters such as being a housewife, mother, nerd, and professor.
As we read the first few chapters from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the author immediately depicts the stereotypical roles of being a housewife and a mother through Harry's aunt Mrs. Petunia Dursely and Ron Weasly's mother. Mrs. Petunia is described as being “thin and blonde and having nearly twice the usual amount of neck” (page 1). The only thing she does is take care of her son, a spoiled 11-year-old boy named Dudley, her husband, Mr. Dursley, and of the house. The author narrates how during Mrs. Petunia's spare time, she gossips and spies on the neighbors. We can clearly see that J.K. Rowling portrayed Mrs. Petunia as the stereotypical image that society has assigned to women, which is gossiping nonstop. In the novel, Harry doesn’t have a mother, but he does have a mother figure. This role is taken by Mrs. Weasly, the mother of his best friend, Ron Weasley. She is like a mother to Harry, and this is depicted by how she is always looking out for him and trying to guard him from all the unwanted attention that Harry receives by others due to his past. Mrs. Weasly cares very much about Harry and even considers him part of her family. This