I've read all the books and have seen all the movies (at least 3 times), but I've been wondering: Is there ever a time when Harry wears contacts instead of glasses? My memory is pretty good, but it's not that good ;) I'm so used to seeing him in glasses that I've never really thought about alternatives.
-
3Welcome to SciFi.se, personally I like this question, but others are VTC based on (apparently) its localization. (This means that it is not likely to help future visitors to the site.) Feel free to take a look at the faq for what type of questions to ask in the future. As I said I like this question, as it leads to some interesting thoughts such as why couldn't Harry use magic to repair his vision, or why when his glasses seemingly got in the way on several occasions he wouldn't change to contacts and/or get LASIK or something.– NominSimCommented Nov 7, 2012 at 2:11
-
3Note that the story plays in the past: between 1991 and 1998. Contacts weren't as good at that time as they are now.– b_jonasCommented Nov 7, 2012 at 20:06
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
There is nothing in the books to suggest Harry wore contact lenses at any point during the series.
However, in both the movie and the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2 in terms of the movies), during the King's Cross scene (where Harry is "killed" by Voldemort) he becomes conscious of not wearing or needing glasses while in that state of stasis.
He sat up. His body appeared unscathed. He touched his face. He was not wearing glasses any more.
Deathly Hallows - page 565 - Bloomsbury - chapter 35, King's Cross
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 - Warner Bros.
Moving on, I don't think J.K. Rowling would have wanted Harry to wear contact lenses; the fact that her hero wore glasses had personal significance to J.K. Rowling:
Eun Ji An for Raincoast.com, Canada: I was wondering why Harry had glasses?
J.K. Rowling: Because I had glasses all through my childhood and I was sick and tired of the person in the books who wore the glasses was always the brainy one and it really irritated me and I wanted to read about a hero wearing glasses. It also has a symbolic function, Harry is the eyes on to the books in the sense that it is always Harry's point of view, so there was also that, you know, facet of him wearing glasses.
CBBC Newsround -- Interview with J.K. Rowling -- 07.18.05
As late in the series as Deathly Hallows, Harry is still wearing glasses, as evidenced in the chapter The Seven Potters:
‘Harry, your eyesight really is awful,’ said Hermione, as she put on glasses.
Deathly Hallows - page 49 - Bloomsbury - chapter 4, The Seven Potters
As well, in the wizarding world, some physical ailments seem to be unable to be fixed by magic. One could make a case for utilizing Muggle treatments (which contact lenses would be), as Arthur Weasley accepted Muggle stitches for Nagini's bite when the wizarding treatments the St. Mungo's staff was giving him didn't work as well as they should have. Molly Weasley had a fit over this; however, Harry himself was raised in the Muggle world and might have been more amenable to contact lenses than purebloods or half-bloods who grew up in the wizarding world. This is just one point of view to consider.
To reiterate, there is no canon evidence that Harry Potter ever wore contact lenses or had Lasik surgery or fixed his eyesight magically or anything like that.
answered Nov 8, 2012 at 5:05
-
Obviously, he or McGonagall enchanted his glasses to stay on during Quidditch. Also, repairing a pair of glasses with magic would be very simple. Finding them to repair them, also. So there's much less need of contacts in the wizarding world. Commented May 21, 2014 at 16:36
-
@methuseus - It was actually Hermione who charmed Harry's glasses to repel the rain during Quidditch (Impervius, I think?). I agree with everything else you've said. My answer above is more subjective than I like. :) Commented May 24, 2014 at 4:24
Harry is never mentioned as wearing contacts, including where he would be the most likely to do so (playing Quidditch). To the contrary, the book stresses that he wore regular glasses, since Hermione needed to magick his eyeglasses to be rainproof when playing in the rain..
The "never" comes from my search of all the relevant sources:
"electronically searched softcopy text of all 7 books and didn't find a single instance of 'contact' or 'contacts' associated with eyewear"
Googling for "Harry Potter" + contacts/"contact lenses"
Search of accio quotes for JKR tidbits (same search strings).
answered Nov 8, 2012 at 3:31
