Harry Potter Vs. Neverwhere

Richard Mayhew is simple man who may barely show up as even a small blip on the radar. This, at least, holds true for London Above and, until very recently, London Below. Contrary to common knowledge, there is a part of London in which very few people know: London Below. Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere follows Richard as he discovers and enters London Below. Throughout the novel, a tremendous amount of comparisons can be made to J.K. Rowling’s work in the Harry Potter series, and it can be seen that Neverwhere could definitely be considered a predecessor to the Harry Potter novels.

The similarities between Neverwhere and the Harry Potter series abound in each page of the novel. In Neverwhere, there are two totally different worlds. There is London Above and London Below. In Harry Potter, there are also two different worlds. There is the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. A major theme in the Harry Potter novels is the relation between the two worlds. The way they interact is taken into account and becomes a major part of some of the plotlines. The Muggle world is not aware of the existence of the Wizarding world, yet the Wizarding world is more than aware of the Muggle world. The same holds to Neverwhere. A major theme is the relation between London Above and London Below. A comparison is made between London Above and the Muggle world in that this is the “normal” life where it is not common to believe much goes on outside of this normality. On the other hand, London Below compares with the Wizarding world in that it is different from that normality, and they still have the overwhelming knowledge of the existence of London Above.

Like in the Harry Potter novels, the two different worlds interact every day in Neverwhere. There are both similarities and differences that can be seen when comparing the interaction between London Above and London Below with the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. In the Harry Potter novels, there is quite a distinction made between the two worlds, yet, they seem to be intertwined. It is not that muggles cannot enter the Wizarding world and wizards cannot enter the Muggle world. This is seen in so many areas ranging from the obvious fact that wizards live in the Muggle world to the simple scenes of wizards walking down the street dressed weird. The Muggle world also holds the entrances into the Wizarding world. Hogwarts students have to go to King’s Cross Station to enter the Wizarding world and get on their train. Wizard families have to go through Purge and Dowse, a closed down clothing shop, to get to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to see sick or injured friends and family. Ministry employees have to go through the phone booth to get to the Ministry of Magic to do their job. One would go through the Leaky Cauldron to enter Diagon Alley. This shows the locality of the two worlds being intertwined with each other.

This compares greatly with London Above and London Below in Neverwhere. These two worlds are just as distinct as the Muggle world and the Wizarding world, yet, there are still gaps that seem to be held by both worlds at the same time. Like in Harry Potter, some of the people from London Below live in London Above. They consist mostly of homeless bums that beg for money and sleep on the streets. The novel begins with an extreme in that, Door, from London Below, enters London Above and Richard sees her and helps her. All of the entrances to London Below are simple doors that are walked through. The difference in these entrances to the other world is that, unlike in the Harry Potter novels, it may not be as easy for one from London Above to go through these entrances. However, this is how the ones from London Below enter and exit London Above. There are also things that take place in London Above that are not actually for the people of London Above. Some of the biggest happenings for London Below are the Markets. These take place from time to time and merchants from all over set up their tables and tents to trade, not sell, everything they can from food to pottery to single shoes found in the sewer to even corpses of dogs or humans. These Markets take place in London Above, bringing the two worlds into one for a time being. This is a major comparison to the Harry Potter novels in a scene such as the Quidditch World Cup. This takes place in the Muggle world and is a huge event.

Differences can be seen between Neverwhere and Harry Potter, when it comes to the interaction between two worlds. The people of London Below are more discrete to London Above than wizard are to the Muggle world. Those from London Above can see people from London Below, but it takes much effort for both parties. Under usual circumstances, one from London Below would have to make quite an obvious ruckus and one from London Above would have to look for a few seconds before noticing the person. In the Muggle world, however, wizards appear to be normal people, only they are usually dressed different and more towards the peculiar side of normal people. As was mentioned earlier, it is also not as easy for one from London Above to enter London Below.

There is a major comparison of certain characters in Neverwhere with characters in the Harry Potter novels. The one that seems to be key to both stories, however, is the comparison of Richard in Neverwhere and Harry in Harry Potter Harry has grown up in the Muggle world, without the knowledge of the existence of the Wizarding world. Upon entering the Wizarding world, Harry is not used to the surroundings and the activities that go on. Magic is something new to him; therefore he has quite a lot of questions about its whole existence. His experience is hard simply because he is surrounded by people who have grown up within the Wizarding world. Harry does not know whether to be scared of something or to treat it lightly. He says the name Voldemort while only a select few in the entire Wizarding world would be heard mentioning the name. He is ignorant about many things from the significance of being able to speak Parseltongue to the violence of Giants. Harry slowly has to become a part of the Wizarding world by learning things and accepting abnormalities.

Richard, on the other hand, has been a part of London Above his entire life. He grew up, went to school, and to a further extent than Harry got, he has a stable life with a good job, a place to live, and a fiancÐ"©. He has had no knowledge that such a world as London Below existed. Richard becomes aware of London Below only when he has entered it, not being able to return to London Above as one who is of London Above. At the beginning of Richard’s existence in London Below, he does not know a lot of what is going on. He asks many questions that don’t get answered, he wonders about things that he has no