Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by J. K. Rowling

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What is the setting in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

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The primary setting in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a magically constructed castle with vast grounds and an interior featuring impossible architecture. Another crucial location is the Chamber of Secrets, an underground cave accessible only by speaking Parseltongue, housing a basilisk and Voldemort's diary. The novel also includes brief scenes in the Muggle World, reflecting Harry's hero's journey.

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Although there are a number of locations in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the most important setting is the one that is shared by most of the novels: Hogwarts University, the school where young children with magical ability are taught to control and utilize their gifts.

Hogwarts is a massive complex, designed superficially like an English castle but with enormous grounds and an interior that is magically larger on the inside. Hogwarts is typified by its interior, which uses magic to create impossible structures, staircases, and passages. Author J.K. Rowling mentions that Hogwarts could not have been built using conventional construction methods, because the impossible architecture requires magic to exist (Wikipedia). The school has been around for a long time, so many rooms become significant to the plot of the story.

The other most important location is the Chamber of Secrets itself. This is an underground cave...

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that has been sealed off and forgotten for years; only a person who speaks the language of snakes can open it up. The Chamber hides two major secrets: a basilisk, which starts to kill people during the second book, and the diary of Voldemort, which is shown later to house a Horcrux. The characters return to the Chamber years later to retrieve basilisk fangs.

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What are the main settings in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

In each book in the series, Harry travels along the hero's journey.  The journey begins in the real world, the hero's world.  This is why Harry always has to return to the Muggle World setting in every book.  The Magical World serves as the "other" world that the hero enters.  When Hagrid first appears for Harry in the first book, he gives Harry a call to adventure.  Harry first rejects, then accepts it.  In each book after that, the call to adventure is a little different.  In the second book it is Ron and his brother appearing in the car that offer the call.  Other settings in the book also mirror the hero's journey, including the presence of water in a pivotal scene.

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I can't help but think of some comparisons between the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter and the forest in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." In both, the forest represents an uncivilized and wild primordial place where morality is, at best, ambiguous, and at worst evil - often sinister things skulk about in the darkness. The Forbidden Forest and the Chamber of Secrets parallel each other in several ways: both are forbidden, populated with monster(s), and holds secrets, as well, if you will recall, encounters between Harry and Voldemort - Voldermort drinking the blood of a unicorn in the Forest and as Tom Riddle in the Chamber.

Otherwise, another setting mentioned in the eNotes for the novel (see link below) I think deserve mention: the "Corridors serve as passages not only to classrooms but also as transitions in story lines." The corridors and moving stair cases are instrumental in helping, if not at times guiding, the young wizards in their journeys.

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Although the previous answer is excellent, I wanted to focus on the main settings for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because they play such a vital part in the plot and outcome of the book.  The main settings are primarily Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where Harry, Ron and Hermione brew the Polyjuice potion and eventually find the secret opening to the Chamber of Secrets, in which the main portion of the climactic action happens, in my opinion, perhaps the most important setting in the entire story.  The Forbidden Forest, where Harry and Ron gain important information leading them to solve the mystery of the Chamber is of great importance as well. While all the other settings are important, Myrtle's bathroom and the Chamber are the most significant. Hope this helps. Brenda

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There are several settings in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Broadly speaking, there are two: the Muggle world of ordinary humanity (where you and I live), and the world of magic. Within the magical world there are several settings. There is the Weasley house, the various magical shops, and, of course, Hogwarts itself. Within the magical academy there are several major settings: the dungeon, the hospital, the Quidditch field, the classrooms, and the common rooms of the various houses, as well, of course, as the Chamber of Secrets, and the bathroom through which the characters access it.

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What is the setting of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

The main setting for the novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogwarts for short. It is a magical school for young witches and wizards located somewhere in Scotland, hidden from the world of muggles by powerful spells and therefore impossible to locate precisely.

On a larger scale, the setting of the second novel in the Harry Potter series is the whole magical realm itself. The readers see more of Diagon Alley and other locations that exist beyond the knowledge of muggles.

Setting plays a large role in the novel. Hogwarts Castle is a supernatural place in the sense that it is constantly changing and shifting, meaning that it's very hard to know all its secrets. Throughout the novel series, the people named most likely to know the most about it are Dumbledore, the caretaker Mr. Filch, and the Weasley twins. It's hard to say whether even all of them combined have a total understanding of Hogwarts.

As the events of the novel start to unfold and the mysterious Chamber of Secrets comes to play, setting becomes the main issue of the story. The big question is whether the rumored Chamber is even real—and if it is, where is it? It's said in the novel that since the time of the founders of the school, the castle has been searched numerous times and the Chamber has not been found.

It turns out in the end that the Chamber does exist, and the reason why it's been so impossible to locate is that the people who would be able to find it are very rare. The passage to the Chamber requires a parselmouth (someone who can talk to snakes) to open it. The Chamber eventually turns out to be several miles under the school, possibly even under the school lake. As with a lot of Hogwarts locations, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly.

Concerning the main story, the Chamber of Secrets is one of the first locations introduced that requires particular people or circumstances to be found. It serves to familiarize the readers with the concept, paving the way for other spaces like it—such as the Room of Requirement—later in the series.

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