Mirror Of The Erised

What if I told you that you look at a mirror and see what you crave to see, see how you want yourself to be, and see whatever that your heart wishes for. Most of you would have guessed what I mean. You guys must be potter heads and to those who haven’t watched Harry Potter, this article is worth a read for you too.

I would like to combine this with a theory in psychology. For my non potter heads friend, let me break down this scene.

This is all time favourite part of the movie and sinks my heart every time I watch it. This scene leaves a piece of it in every harry potter fan. In Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, Harry eventually bumps into a room and sees a mirror. In the mirror Harry gets shocked to see himself with his parents who passed away when he was a small baby. Harry never got to be with his parents and lost them at a very young age. Harry immediately runs up to his room to bring his friend Ron to show his parents in the mirror. But Ron sees himself in the mirror as the Head Boy in the School Hogwarts and like Winning the Quidditch cup (Which is a sport played at Hogwarts the magical school).

So Later Harry’s professor Dumbledore sees Harry staring at the mirror and reveals that this mirror is the mirror of the erised. This mirror shows the deepest desire of a man and shows what the heart craves for.Hence, Little Harry who lost his parents in a very young age and who never got to be pampered or loved by them, sees himself being with his parents and Ron who wants to be respected and noted as his brothers see himself as being successful in the school.

Dumbledore later adds on that a lot of men have wasted away their time looking at the mirror.
He also adds that ‘It does not do to dwell on the dreams and forget to live’.He subtly advises Harry to not repeat the same mistake as the other men.

I would like to combine this with a theory by psychologist Carl Rogers on The real self and the ideal self.

The real self is how we actually are. It is the way we think, behave and look currently. The ideal self is how we aspire ourselves to be. It is an idealized image of how we want to be. The lesser the difference between the real self and ideal self the more a man is at peace. The more the discrepancies between the real self and ideal self the more a man feels distressed.

As the mirror of the erised depicts what our heart desires and how we crave to be, as Dumbledore said if we waste away our life dreaming about what we want and forget to live in the present, it is not going to reap us any good. That is a common mistake all of us do. We think that we will be happy when we become what we aspire to be or get what we desire for. But little do we know that true happiness comes from self acceptance. If only we accept ourselves as we are we can move to become the best of us. Most of the time when we starting accepting ourselves as we are in the present, we move on to achieve greater things gradually. Sometimes it is possible for us to get what we crave for but sometimes it’s sadly impossible like Harry craving to be with his dead parents.

In such cases is it rightful of us to waste away our time dreaming about it?

Of course, the Sky is the Limit and we can dream about what we want to be but may we be careful of what we want for. May we be careful to act upon our wants and dreams and not to waste away the time dreaming of it.