But Is He Really Smart?:
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Theory in the World of Harry Potter
To define giftedness in a series of books peopled with innumerable characters
who could reasonably be considered as gifted is at best a difficult proposition.
When this population is one of witches and wizards, people who regularly perform
spells and hexes with the ease most “Muggle” schoolchildren add, subtract, di
vide, and multiply, defining the truly extraordinary becomes increasingly prob
lematic.
The term “gift” is used sparingly throughout the Harry Potter novel series,
and is used only in reference to the abilities of Harry, Lord Voldemort, and Salazar
Slytherin. What, then, sets Harry apart, identifies him as “special” or “gifted,”
particularly when his talents are juxtaposed against those of one of his closest
friends, Hermione Granger, and also in relation to other great—but evil—wizards,
Lord Voldemort and Salazar Slytherin?
An answer to this question can be found by applying Howard Gardner’s theory
of multiple intelligences to characters in the Harry Potter series. Gardner, a Harvard
psychologist, posited that intelligence testing has traditionally been limited to evalu
ating linguistic and logical/mathematical abilities:
_most theories of intelligence...looked only at problem solving and ig
nored the creation of products and they assumed that intelligence would
be evident and appreciated anywhere, regardless of what was (and was
not) valued in particular cultures at particular times. (Gardner 33)
Such a conventional view of intelligence would certainly be of limited value
in the world of Harry Potter. At Hogwarts, Deborah DeRosa notes, “...students
seriously prepare to learn ‘the things worth knowing’” (173). In this magical cul
ture of dragons and potions, excellence in Muggle math and composition seems
far less important than finding a combination of talents to guarantee the success of
a young witch or wizard. In order to expand what Gardner views as “the standard
view of intelligence,” that it is “something you are born with; you have only a
certain amount of it, you cannot do much about how much of that intelligence you
have, and tests exist that can tell you how smart you are” (Checkley 9), Gardner
reworks the definition of intelligence considerably by dividing it into multiple cat-