1. Introduction 1.1 Research background J. K. Rowling, also named Joanne Rowling, is the author of Harry Potter series. The books are highly praised for the contents of magic and have been sold more than 450 million copies in over 200 countries, leading a magic trend in the world. Rowling was awarded National Book Awards Children's Book of the Year in 1999 and listed the most highly paid author in the world by Forbes in 2017. Born in England, where Harry#8217;s story is set in, Rowling incorporates many of her familiar things in the works, and most of the things in Harry#8217;s magical world can be traced back to or correspond to real life. Based on such real life, Rowling has created a fantastic second world that is rooted in daily life. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, the second volume in Harry Potter series, was first published in 1998, focusing on Harry#8217;s second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry and his best friends find some words on the walls of the school's corridors. The series of messages warn that someone has opened the "Chamber of Secrets" and that those students of non-magical parentage would be killed by the "Heir of Slytherin". Subsequently, rumors fly around the school regarding the Chamber of Secrets' history. When Ginny is taken by the monster into the Chamber, they find the entrance of the chamber and Harry discovers Tom Riddle is the true Heir of Slytherin who is in fact Voldemort and finally defeats him through fierce struggle. In 2002, the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released, which was nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film. Harry Potter, as the hero of Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, has encouraged countless readers by his legendary experience. Harry grows up in a world of muggles without magic, however, one day he is informed that he is actually a wizard and should have come back to the world of magic. As the savior of the magical world, Harry is driven by fate to fulfill the sacred task of punishing the evil and protecting the weak. Together with his witch and wizard friends, Harry goes through a perilous journey and finally beats Lord Voldemort, becoming the hero of the wizarding world. This coincides with the hero archetype summarized by C. G. Jung. It is one of the archetypes Carl Jung identifies and describes. In 1919, Jung first proposed the concept of "archetype" in Instinct and Unconsciousness. He thinks instinct and archetype are all from the collective unconscious. Hero archetype, one of important mythological motifs, has been recurring in literary works and plays an irreplaceable role in satisfying the longing of human. Rowling incorporated this ancient archetype into her fantasy works, recreating a fairy-tale hero and unleashing a latent sense of heroism. 1.2 Need for the study During the past years, most researches on Harry Potter in academia were done in Harry Potter series. Actually, since every book in the series has an independent plot which represents the growth of every character at certain stage, every single work in the series deserves study carefully. Thus, this study focuses on one of those seven#8212; Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. Additionally, through the analysis, readers can have a more comprehensive understanding of the book. Among the researches on Harry Potter series, quite a lot of studies focused on children#8217;s literature, fantasy manifestation, symbolism in the novel, readers#8217; acceptance of the novel as well as translation. However, based on hero archetype, the study will discuss the literary origin of the story. Though there were studies on Harry Potter series related to the archetype, they did not mainly apply the archetype to analyze those main characters. Theoretically speaking, the archetype can give people more hints at studying Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets from new research perspectives. 2. Literature review 2.1 Archetype When discussing archetypes one may be first tempted to consider a dictionary definition. "Archetype" is derived from the Greek words "archos" meaning "first"， and "typos” meaning "a mark." Thus in a very literal sense, an archetype is the "first mark", and therefore most dictionaries define it to mean "an original pattern or model; a prototype." But in a deeper sense, archetypes are more than just original patterns or prototypes to be copied. Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung also believed that ”myths are first and foremost psychic phenomena that reveal the nature of the soul.” (Jung, 1981:6) Given his demonstrations of the archetype in myth and fairy tale, there is no doubt that some of the figures he identifies are recurrent characters in mythology, folklore and literature. Hero, as one of the archetypes identified by Jung, roots in the culture of all human races. Archetypes have been examined in a number of areas, including architecture (Thiis Evensen, 1987), film (Barrett, 1989) and marketing (Mark Pearson, 2001). Archetype has been explored in the realm of literary theory and analysis (Frye, 1951; Werker, 1998). More specifically, the role of archetype has been explored in children's and young adult literature. Archetypal criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in a literary work. As a form of literary criticism, it dates back to 1934 when Maud Bodkin published Archetypal Patterns in Poetry. Certain commonalities are seen in the major characters in the series. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Lord Voldemort, can all be identified as exemplars of hero archetype. This study will move into discussion of these exemplars. 2.2 Hero Archetype A society needs a hero who is half-god-half-man, acting between god and human. According to Jung, ”The god is by nature wholly supernatural; the hero#8217;s nature is human but raised to the limit of the supernatural#8212;he is ”semi-divine#8217;”. The god personifies the collective unconscious which is not integrated into human being, while the hero#8217;s supernaturalness includes human nature and thus represents an integration of the unconscious and human consciousness. Therefore, the hero signifies a latent anticipation of an individuation which is approaching perfection. (Jung, 1999: 166) In some way, hero is considered as the symbol of accomplishment and reputation, and death is his consecration. Meanwhile, mortality is another factor makes him different from god. God is an eternal existence in most cultures, but hero, however powerful he is, is destined to die ultimately. But more than often, a hero would revive and eventually become a god. Heroes are expressed mainly in dreams and in myth. Myth is highly related to fantasy literature in general. Contemporary stories of heroes and conquerors follow the same archetypal pattern as that in ancient stories. Considered as a universal human necessity, the archetype is necessary in such stories. In Harry Potter series, the figures of hero followed the archetypal styles as Jung established. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), a seminal work of mythology by Campbell, he summarized the monomyth as follows: ”A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” Hero represents the identity of a particular culture, the survival and development of which is closely related to the hero#8217;s action. On the one hand, the transmutation of heroic archetype in various works implies the transformation of national psychology; on the other hand, the recurrence of heroic archetype reflects writers#8217; expectation for national savior and promotion of love and redemption. 2.3 Previous studies on Harry Potter series Harry Potter series consist of seven books from first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Since the works were published, they have made great success to attract people#8217;s attention, including reviewers, literary critics and general readers of all ages. Most of the previous studies by researchers on Harry Potter and the Harry Potter series are from multi-angles and aspects. Quite a few scholars show great interest in the analysis of the fantasy manifestation of Harry Potter series. Comparing Harry Potter with classical fantasy fiction Lord of the Rings, some scholars further proposed different opinions on their fantasy manifestation. Saric (2001) thought the magic world in Harry Potter series was different from the pure virtual world ”Middle Earth” created by Tolkien in Lord of the Rings. It was a magic world that originates from the reality and blends with it, making familiar things magic. Saric also defined the fantasy manifestation of Harry Potter series as a kind of new literary style and highly appraised it. Some writers put their focuses on the culture in Harry Potter series. Yang Huilin (2012) analyzed the characterization in Harry Potter in combination with Hebrew culture and Hellenism. She concluded that Harry Potter series evoke people#8217;s attention on the traditional literature and culture. Emphasized on ”human” itself, the works try to create an ideal world that takes human as the core and in which the modern people can liberate their constrained mind and complete the return of spirit. There are some domestic researches on Harry Potter series from the perspective of narratology. Since 2004, Wang Hengxia published a series of papers on narrative art of Harry Potter from the perspective of narratology, including Study on Narrative Disclosure of ”Harry Potter” (2004.6), Study on Narrative Structure of ”Harry Potter” (2004.12) and Study on The Construction and Maintenance of ”Magic World#8217; in ”Harry Potter” (2005.7). He comprehensively and systemically analyzed the narrative art of ”Harry Potter” in narrative disclosure, narrative events, narrative structure and narrative mode. In some researches in China, Harry Potter was also defined as children#8217;s literature. Journal articles included Discussion on Text Presentation of Game Spirit written by Huang Jinjuan(2003), ”Harry Potter”: Constructed Postmodern ”Magic Utopia#8217; from the Perspective of ”Reversion#8217; and ”Participation#8217; written by Mo Xuan (2005), as well as Perfect Combination of Fantasy and Reality written by Liu Xuhua (2007). In all these papers, Harry Potter was defined as children#8217;s literature for research, or the relationship between Harry Potter and the psychology of children, or the comparison between Harry Potter and other children#8217;s literatures. 2.4 Previous studies on Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets The hot”Harry Potter” phenomena attracted concentrations from many scholars and researchers abroad for a long time, and it certainly included Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. Since the work was published, the relevant studies have been prosperous abroad. Some scholars studied the female images in Harry Potter from the perspective of feminism. Michelle Yeo (2004) in the thesis of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Feminist Interpretation explored the symbol system of gender issues. Female gender are often ignored by people, so from a feminist and psychoanalytic standpoint, Yeo pointed to a collective mythology which responds to an oppressive view of the feminine. It contains four characters in the book: the smart and outspoken Hermione who is Harry's close companion and deduces the information in the emergency; the other female is a strong character #8212; Professor McGonagall; girls are described an active role in sports match; Mrs. Norris who is also a female cat. The previous researches can broaden the scope and it shed light on my relevant research. Additionally, their search methods are various, including comparative analysis, qualitative analysis and quantity analysis. Though the object of the researches is fruitful, they have more or less limitations. However, their studies work as a basis for further study and the source for the inspiration for future researches. 2.5 Deficiency in previous studies Harry Potter series are still in its young age compared with those masterpieces, the analyses of the series are not as numerous as those classics. Though the most studies frequently found being psychological studies, thematic studies, archetypal images studies and feminist studies in Harry Potter series, but the analyses of hero archetype are in their younger age. This study attempts to apply the method of close reading to fill the gap.