Chapter 2 of The Deathly Hallows Read-Through is brought to you by Red Rocker!
As Chapter 2 starts, Harry is sorting through the debris at the bottom of his school trunk. His hand is bleeding, because he just cut it on a shard of broken mirror – the mirror Sirius Black gave him, the wizarding equivalent of a walkie talkie. He rereads the obituary of Dumbledore written by an old friend, Elphias Doge. The article makes him regret not having learned more about Dumbledore when he had the chance. He then sees an interview of Rita Skeeter talking about her latest book. It’s an expose of the life of Dumbledore. What she has to say revolts and enrages him. He shouts out “Lies!” and crumples the paper. A flash of blue from the mirror catches his attention. He thinks it’s Dumbledore’s eye, but when he looks again, he sees only himself.
The chapter formally introduces one of the central dilemmas of DH, and indeed of all of the Harry Potter series: what is the true nature of Albus Dumbledore? The question vexes Harry for much of the book, and with good reason. If everything he believed to be true about Dumbledore is false, if he never truly knew Dumbledore, then should he continue with the mission the latter has entrusted him with? Is it a worthwhile mission?
The same question vexes the reader of the books. But whereas Harry eventually makes his peace with the shade of Dumbledore, the reader is not as fortunate. The debate about the nature of Dumbledore continues to this day, more than two years after the release of DH. Some continue to sing his praises. Others are critical of his motives and methods. Some view him as a redeemed sinner. Others are fascinated by his complexity as a character.
Take a minute to examine the claims of Rita Skeeter, and the contrasting certainties of Elphias Doge. Skeeter, of course, is engaging in hit-and-run journalism. She makes a lot of claims and stays to support none of them. He is not blameless. He dabbled in the Dark Arts. He was intolerant as a youth. His brother “fiddled about” with goats; his father maimed Muggles. His magical achievements were exaggerated. There was no spectacular duel with Grindelwald – but it was a “very dirty” business. His relationship with Harry was unhealthy; his interest in him “unnatural”. She also slimes Harry in the passing, suggesting he may have been involved in Dumbledore’s death and may have falsely implicated Snape. But her malice is mainly directed at Dumbledore.
And on the opposite side, we have the panegyric of Doge. Dumbledore supported Muggle rights. He was a brilliant student. He was generous towards others. He advanced wizarding knowledge. He was a wise leader of the Wizengamot. His triumph over Grindelwald was unmatched in magical history. He was humane, able to find something of value in anyone. He always worked for the greater good.
A great man, Dumbledore.
I actually find that Doge indirectly dishes a great deal more dirt than Skeeter by bringing up – and then denying – the rumours. Dumbledore was not a Muggle-hater. He did not have problems getting along with his brother. And what was really happening during the frustratingly dull time when he was alone at home, taking care of his brother and sister?
A mainstream review of DH described it as a tale about growing up and realizing that one’s adults are not perfect. In Memoriam is Harry’s first indicator that Dumbledore may not have been exactly as he had imagined him
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{ 78 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, as I have written in posts elsewhere, Deathly Hallows is not the book where I questioned Dumbledore’s handling of Harry and other elements of his character–that came for me earlier, in Order of the Phoenix. Just as Harry had to learn that his father James was not perfect in OOTP, here he learns that Dumbledore is also less than perfect as well. I think that these realizations, coupled with the death of Sirius Black, mean that Harry has to grow up and become a man here; he doesn’t have a father figure to guide him. As far as what he reads in the news, while the revelations of both Doge and Skeeter give wildly different accounts of Dumbledore’s youth and background, are confusing and upsetting to Harry, I think we need to remember how the press dealt with Harry in Book Five. Clearly, the accounts of the two writers in this chapter are dealing with a much younger, idealistic Dumbledore. The reference to his family problems indicates a Dumbledore who came smack up against hard reality quickly with the death of his sister. That Albus is miles away from the one Harry knew much later. Unlike Tom Riddle, who has become more and more power hungry, Albus learned his lesson–that he could not handle power properly. Now we know that is why he turned down the job of Minister of Magic. It seems to me that Harry is less bothered by the revelations per se than that Dumbledore never confided much information about his background to Harry, including the startling fact that Dumbledore’s family lived in Godric’s Hollow, the same place as Harry’s parents.
I think this chapter helps prepare us for the spiritual and mental upheaval that Harry is going to go through as he searches for the Horcri with which to defeat Voldemort. It’s going to be a slog for Harry, his going through the wilderness experience, both metaphorically and literally.
I agree that this chapter prepares us for what is coming–including the rather ‘adult’ nature of what happened to Dumbledore’s sister. This chapter was unsettling–though I agree with Fricka that D. came off as more than a little ‘dodgy’ in the previous books. I was unsettled because I realized at this point that there really was something incredibly disturbing that happened to the family.
Just commenting so I can get the followups for right now.
No great thoughts to share on Dumbledore, but some thoughts on Harry and others. There seems to be a theme of this chapter of blindness. Not literal blindness, but figurative blindness caused by lack of knowledge, pride, and prejudice. The chapter opens with Harry bleeding from a cut caused by a fragment of Sirius’ mirror. He then walks into the hall to run his finger under the bathroom tap and steps on a teacup, breaking it. We have here two broken objects, the mirror and the teacup. In both cases Harry was unaware of their being given to him out of friendship until it was too late. In the case of Sirius’ mirror, Sirius hands it to him wrapped up at the end of Christmas vacation in OOTP and Harry sticks it in his pocket then in his trunk and forgets all about it, never even bothering to unwrap it, so certain is he that he would never want to use whatever it is in case it caused Sirius to leave his hiding place. What poor Sirius must have thought all those months alone when Harry never used the mirror just to say hello or find out how he was doing. If Harry had bothered to unwrap it he never would have needed to use Umbridge’s fireplace and he could have verified Sirius was not kidnapped and Sirius could have lived. The broken mirror, which Harry doesn’t find until after Sirius’ death, provides Harry with a bitter reminder of what happens when he tries to go it alone. But that lesson doesn’t sink in quite yet as we find out later at the Burrow.
Nothing so earth shattering in the case of the teacup. I wouldn’t say that Dudley suddenly “loves” Harry but he seems to have repented of his former treatment of Harry and the teacup is a peace offering. Again, Harry is ignorant of this small gesture of apology until it is too late: the tea is cold and the cup broken. In the next chapter Harry will see the transformation in Dudley. Dudley provides the first example of the possibility of redemption and repentance for youthful sins that we see in this book, a foreshadowing of the upcoming revelations about Dumbledore and Snape.
The cut finger itself is perhaps interesting given the repeated description of and reference to it. It is a “jagged cut” on the “fourth finger of his right hand.” The jagged cut is evocative of his lightening shaped scar but is really a counter to it, as I’ll explain in a moment. The fourth finger is the ring finger. It’s not the left hand, on which one might wear a wedding or engagement ring in modern custom, but the right hand on which a woman might wear her deceased mother’s or grandmother’s wedding or engagement ring. I also think it may have been an older custom to wear engagement rings on the right hand, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think this has anything to do with Ginny, but rather perhaps a symbolic indication of the mirror as protection of the fathers – of Dumbledore from beyond the grave, who has arranged for Aberforth to get the mirror and keep an eye on Harry [note Harry's finger slips on the edge of the mirror again when he sees the blue eye in it; in addition, Harry injured his hand in the cave and used the blood from it to get himself and Dumbledore out of there] and of Sirius and James (and Lily), who eventually accompany Harry on his walk in the forest.
Harry of course doesn’t know any of this yet. He proceeds to reread Doge’s hagiography of Dumbledore, in which Doge is blind to Dumbledore’s flaws, and Skeeter’s hit piece, in which she is blind to Dumbledore’s redemption. Harry then strides “blindly” around the room, choking on his revulsion and fury about Skeeter’s piece. The chapter closes with Harry’s blind certainty that the “bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.” Note the word “pierce” like what the mirror did to his finger. This sentiment is of course our big clue that the eyes of Albus Dumbledore definitely WILL pierce Harry again.
And need I mention that the cutting and piercing bring to mind the crucifixion imagery of the prior chapter and give us a bit of foreshadowing of Harry’s self-sacrifice and Narcissa’s nails “piercing” Harry in the forest.
Also wanted to note Doge’s sentence about Dumbledore, “I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older person’s suffering.” This sounds a lot like Harry. In a sense it rather echoes DD telling Harry in his office at the end of OOTP that he understands how Harry feels and Harry says he couldn’t possibly understand. As we know by the end of DH, DD did understand all too well.
Sorry for the triple posts, but why does Harry bring his potion making kit but not his cauldron? I guess he can’t use magic to reduce the size to pack it and assumes he can borrow Ron’s or Hermione’s which can be reduced in size at the Burrow and enlarged as needed. However we never see this nor do we ever see any potion brewing, so why bother mentioning he packed it? Seems like a “loaded gun” that doesn’t go off by the end of Act III like Checkov would require.
I find it somewhat fortuitous that as I’m watching Kenneth Branaugh’s Othello we’re now discussing Harry’s lack of faith in Dumbledore. At first both Harry and Othello have perfect faith in DD and Desdemona, respectively, but once a third party (Rita and Iago) starts whispering doubts in their ears that trust is always in question. Iago says that trifles in the hands of innocents are simply trifles, but in the hands of the jealous (or in Harry’s case, the doubting) are verifiable fact of another’s betrayal. For Othello it’s Desdemona’s handkerchief, and I think for Harry it’s DD’s letter to Grindelwald. It takes death, in one form or another, for both men to realize their errors in doubting the people close to them and in trusting hearsay and false proof. Obviously some parallels aren’t going to work between the book and the play, but it was fun to think about. Back to Iago!
Lily Luna, your observations about sight and knowledge are spot on. The connection is no accident. Rowling ties the two together constantly throughout the series. My chapter in Hog’s Head Conversations examines the link and the major magical objects that utilize the theme. It’s actually rather fascinating (the connection, not my essay) — at least to a big dweeb like me!
The chapter foreshadows the long camping trip…blindly wandering around, beset by conflicting opinions, betrayal, confusion and bloody wounds, not to mention an “icy bath” of reality. Harry’s internal struggle here foreshadows the strife amidst the Trio, who represent Body, Mind and Spirit. The cut on his finger–”from Dumbledore”–foreshadows Harry’s wound of disbelief.
Remove the extreme hagiography of Doge and the vitriol of Skeeter (and implications of DD/student impropriety) and we come closer to the blended truths about a very human man. Harry still has those youthful all black and white, no grays pride and prejudices, with little tolerance for deviation from them. His reaction reminds me of Slughorn’s about Snape–”but I knew him!” Although, Dumbledore’s confession at the end of OotP and saying Harry should be angrier than he is, should have been a warning.
I, too, wonder about the Dumbledore household; Rowling doesn’t open this up satisfactorily enough for me, leaving too much to the imagination as to exactly what provoked three deaths and brotherly estrangement. As a side note, I’ve always believed that James and Lily Potter were living in the Dumbledore house in Godric’s Hollow.
Really good thoughts, Lily Luna, as usual. Oh, if Harry had used the mirror! Sirius’ depression would have been relieved by the contact, and of course, it would have saved his life. Fricka, you could say that, with an abrupt, horrible jolt, Dumbledore repented and matured his youthful essence into a wise, caring man, while Riddle remained within his youthful essence and distilled it into complete evil.
Gwen L, the difference between Iago’s whispers and Skeeter’s gossip is that a lot – not all – of what Skeeter says is actually true, especially the stuff about his family, and his youthful intolerance of Muggles. As is the stuff that Doge writes. And there is a big difference between the objects of the rumours: Desdemona is totally blameless, DD not as much. I’m not just nitpicking here. I think that Harry’s task is different from Othello’s: it’s not to discern the truth from lies and restore his trust in a trustworthy man, it’s to forgive DD for not being perfect and put his trust in a flawed man.
@RR… I know there are more differences between the two than I have time to enumerate. I saw the parallel more in the fact that both protags are influenced by someone else rather than trusting their own feelings. And the negative gossip holds much more sway than evidence or witnesses that present contrary information. Basically that it’s easier to believe tha bad.
I’d also argue that for Harry it is about restoring his faith in DD. He doesn’t get to the point where he can forgive DD until he “dies,” trusting in his mentor and the mission that DD set him to do. Once he views Snape’s memories he stops questioning who DD was as a person. On his way to the forest he replicates DD’s plan by leaving three people behind to complete the mission. Once he’s in King’s Cross and talks to DD he forgives him.
About that mirror: Harry’s neglect of it was plot driven. Obviously, if he had used it to communicate with Sirius, then Voldemort’s plan to get Harry to the Ministry so he could liberate the prophecy would have failed. Sirius would have lived. Voldemort would not have been able to make the last assault on Harry’s mind, which showed us exactly where JKR was going with all this. But even if Sirius had survived Order, he would have died sooner or later, because he was always destined to walk the last walk with Harry. I’m not sure about Lupin – I think Arthur Weasley may have been a contendender for the role of fourth dead friend-or-relative.
About the teacup. I’d missed its significance entirely. Yay for Dudley, able to summon a single charitable impulse after all.
I forgot to mention that this chapter lays the foundation for Harry’s struggle with and choice to believe, which is the critical theme of this book. At the end of HBP, Harry is sublimating his grief for Dumbledore by staunchly setting himself apart from the Ministry as “Dumbledore’s man, through and through,” determined to fulfill Dumbledore’s assignment. Skeeter’s article begins the penetration of his belief shield.
To gain a greater understanding of DH, I highly recommend The Deathly Hallows Lectures by John Granger, who has a whole chapter on Choosing to Believe, and three chapters on the eye symbolism and meaning.
Did you call?
Dolks, has anyone mentioned that the title chapter is also the title of Tennyson’s most famous poem? It is very helpful for understanding the chapter to read the poem; Ms. Rowling is hunting the same prize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Memoriam_A.H.H.
That should be “folks” rather than “dolks.”
John, chief of dolks
John, is that related to Elvendorks?!
Thank you for the pointer towards Tennyson’s poem, John. Very interesting.
RR, when Rowling decided to let Arthur Weasley live, she killed off Remus and Tonks instead. And sure, not looking at Sirius’ present was plot driven, but doesn’t mean it is without meaning.
Dave (and Arabella), thank you for your kind words. I have read about 6 or 7 of the essays in the HHC, but I think I haven’t gotten to yours yet and look forward to it.
Arabella and RR, interesting thoughts on Othello. Another Othello moment in DH, perhaps, is the locket horcrux stoking Ron’s jealousy and mistrust of Hermione and Harry, making him think Hermione prefers Harry to him.
Also, a minor correction to what I wrote — it’s not technically Rita Skeeter’s hit piece, it’s an interview by another journalist with Rita Skeeter about her forthcoming book.
Just like Morpheus said of Neo- “He’s beginning to believe.”
Great comments so far! What struck me in rereading this was knowing the full story, how little Dodge knew about his best friend. You read his obit and think of Dumbledore, it looks to us initially that Dumbledore’s father was a muggle-hater, but the young Dumbledore seemed to rise above it. Knowing the full (or at least a fuller) story, it just struck me how little even his greatest friend knew him. It’s remarkable to me how Dumbledore managed to keep so many secrets from his closest friends (of course, this is coming from a girl who loves to talk, and confides everything to her best friend). We’re also reminded in this chapter that the only personal question Harry ever asked Dumbledore was one he did not answer truthfully.
What I noticed in this chapter was that Harry shows a new self-awareness. He realizes his own self-absorption. He realizes that he never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past, what the duel with Grindelwald was like, etc. He realizes that all their conversations had focused on Harry’s life and future. He also has a moment like this in Goblet of Fire when he realizes that he’s never asked Neville why he was raised by his grandmother, and feels that Neville perhaps has it worse them him, parents who are alive, but don’t know him.
I agree with others pointing out that one theme of this book is adulthood, and an important step of adulthood being the realization and acceptance that your parental figures or flawed. Harry’s learned this before with his father and Sirius, and his Dumbledore lesson will be the hardest learned yet.
Here’s another thought about Harry’s growing up. Until this point, Harry’s faith in Dumbledore’s wisdom was strong but unquestioned. Now, with Dumbledore gone and the vultures beginning to circle, he’s beginning to ask questions. And with the questions comes doubt. One of his tasks in DH is to deal with his doubts without adequate answers to his questions and commit himself to DD all over again. But this time, he needs to consciously decide whether he’s going to have faith in Dumbledore without knowing all the facts. It’s a very typical adult dilemma: we are often in a position of having to make important decisions without knowing all the facts. We make the best decision we can given the facts available to us. It’s a delicate balance: second guessing yourself is not very helpful, yet you can’t close your mind to new facts. And yes, our intuition is part of what goes into these imperfect decisions. To live and move forward with uncertainty is a very adult task.
Good points all, especially Lily Luna and Gwen Limbach!
Something I still haven’t quite figured out, though: why did Rita Skeeter say that “After they’ve read my book, people may be forced to conclude that Grindelwald simply conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and came quietly” ? I mean, we do know Dumbledore was gay – incidentally, I wonder if Rita found out! – but I don’t see how that would’ve affected Grindelwald’s sights on world domination.
On another note, I’m in the camp that Remus was killed off solely so he could accompany Harry on his final journey. Sirius, not so much, because it was the only way to complete his character arc. Right since childhood – as we see in Snape’s recollections in The Prince’s Tale and Snape’s Worst Memory – he was fierce and intense, and after the Halloween of 1981 and his Azkaban stint he really did become unhinged. To cut a long fangirly monologue short, the whole of OotP was a wild downward spiral for him, and his charging into his own death was quite the perfect end for this broken-beyond-repair character. So, yeah. Not really plot-driven.
Jackie, good points about Sirius. I’m not sure I’d say he was broken past repair (I mean, compared to the competition, he’s actually quite intact). But he was doomed to die because of how he was – brave and reckless and after a certain point, careless about his own life. So you could say that his character drove the plot.
Sorry for the double-post, but I too was confused about the “white handkerchief” reference. I don’t know what Skeeter – and JKR – meant by that.
Very insightful posts, everyone! I wish to respond primarily to Arabella Figg, with her reference to Harry’s “struggle with and choice to believe.” Then John Granger made the connection to Tennyson, with Alfred’s great poem In Memoriam. That is one of my all time favorite works, and the only reason I can think of that I didn’t make a connection between the poem and JK’s chapter is that I recall reading somewhere that she said she was not influenced by him. Is this more of Jo’s misdirection, I wonder? Anyway, I want to share one of the sections of the poem here:
Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroy’d,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;
That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivell’d in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another’s gain.
Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
This all speaks so clearly to me of the dilemma of the walk by faith for Christians–that we, like Harry, are operating with limited knowledge, and that at some point we also must put our doubts behind us and make that leap of faith. This also indicates to me that here Harry is serving as everyman, if I may make a further reference, and that is to a chapter in JG’s book, Harry Potter’s Bookshelf.
Adding to the great observations about the mirror:
This reader was ecstatic to see the return of the two-way mirror, which I found to be the most effectively tragic device in Order of the Phoenix and suspected would pay off in some way by the end of the series. In another example of Rowling’s really fun mashing up of various folklores, the two-way mirror seems to be taken almost wholesale from the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, and perhaps some parallels can be drawn between the Beast, a once charming prince now locked up in his castle, and Sirus, the once charming schoolboy now under effective house arrest in Grimmauld Place. I think the mirror also exemplifies how Rowling often plays with magic realism even though her books already take place in a magical setting. On one level, you have your more commonplace domestic magic and the well-established academics of magic in what are effectively the hard sciences of wizardry– charms, potions, transfiguration. On another level, you have these seemingly inexplicable phenomena, like Harry seeing his dad’s patronus in Prisoner of Azkaban or the prophecy foretelling Voldemort’s “marking” of Harry, that ultimately are given a rational explanation. Similarly, here, we are set up to suspect that Dumbledore might have returned from the dead, but in the end we find out that the “bright blue eyes” were that of Aberforth all along.
I also found that describing Harry going through his six years worth of possessions was a clever way for Rowling to handle the obligatory recapping chapter. One of the small delights of reading Harry Potter for me has always been the preciousness with which Rowling describes the acquisition of possessions or material objects. I love how these objects gradually acquire their own sense of history as the serial progresses, and how every time the Invisibility Cloak, or the Marauder’s Map, or th Firebolt, or Sirius’s bike makes an appearance we’re reminded of what these possessions mean to the characters. The chapter nicely sets us up for the coming story, which itself is largely a quest for various material objects that have their own personal meanings (the Horcruxes) and mythical meanings (Hallows).
Haven’t yet gone through every single comment for all the great insights, as something Fricka mentioned in her initial post jumped out at me and I want to follow up on it before losing my train of thought:
“It seems to me that Harry is less bothered by the revelations per se than that Dumbledore never confided much information about his background to Harry, including the startling fact that Dumbledore’s family lived in Godric’s Hollow, the same place as Harry’s parents.”
Fricka, this was more or less exactly what I thought too when I read it (as I also found OOTP to the book where Harry confronts/grapples with some of these issues on a larger, more grown-up scale). As I was reading that particular passage you wrote, it occurred to me that it is very much the flip side of the coin Red Rocker mentions in his chapter summary/analysis about Harry’s regrets that he didn’t make more of an effort to learn about DD when he had the chance. Both your observations on that tie in very well with how I tend to perceive the nature of Harry’s anger. Oftentimes in the series, when Harry is at his most angry it’s because on some level the person he’s really most angry with/at his himself.
If someone’s already commented on this, my apologies for a “double post”… it just really immediately jumped out at me and I wanted to toss it out there before my train of thought was derailed by all the other great insights I know y’all have expressed on the chapter.
Promise to come back and sift through everyone’s insights for further illumination/inspiration… for now, chores beckon.
Re: Jackie’s comment (21) – the white handkerchief to me simply refers to the white flag of surrender. This has been changed by Skeeter from a flag to a handkerchief as a disparaging reference to muggle so-called magicians who make handkerchiefs appear from all over the place during their act, including from their wands.
I do not think there is any ‘gay’ reference at all, unless one sees a handkerchief as an effeminate object (???) or maybe there is more to this sentence than I know.
@Jackie.. Thanks! As far as the white handkerchief goes, I think you could read it a few ways. It could be the more obvious notion of surrender, so that there wasn’t an amazing battle that adds to DD’s prestige but simply surrender. SeaJay, interesting connection of handkerchief being considered more feminine, though at one time in history both men and women carried handkerchiefs.
The other way to read that sentence is with a more sexual connotation, which might support an erotic relationship between DD and Grindelwald. The “white handkerchief” could be seen as ejaculate, occurring at the same time that he “came quietly.” Doubtful this is Skeeter’s meaning, though she does love her innuendo.
About the white handkerchief: I too did not see this as a gay reference at all. Rather, for me, Skeeter’s implication was that there hadn’t been a duel at all, and that Grindelwald had just surrendered. Which makes no sense to me because there is no explanation for why this might have happened, or how it casts DD in a bad light.
As for the handkechief’s symbolism: most of you here are too young to understand the function of a handkerchief – or even to have seen one, probably. But I remember my mother ironing my dad’s handkerchiefs, and him never leaving home without one in his pocket. That and his slide-rule, another mid-twentieth century artefact. Anyways, the point is: in the past, everyone carried a handkerchiedf, so there was no particular symbolism attached to carrying one.
Rita is plugging her book in which she reveals the Grindy/DD friendship. I think she may be implicating DD in Grindy’s reign of terror by his refusal to take G on. We know that DD was probably trying to figure out how to defeat the Elder Wand.
Skeeter is also broadly implying there was something fishy about DD’ s delay due to the DD/G friendship. I think Rita suspected or figured out the nature of their friendship (I know, extra-canonical, but it really struck me, knowing that this time).
Red and Gwen, just read your comments. Another implication is that Grindy would have surrendered to DD any time, and DD’s mysterious delay led to several years of unnecessary slaughter, for which DD should be blamed.
Oh, and sometimes a handkerchief is just a handkerchief.
Every time I come visit and try and find something to add I get so caught up in all of the other great comments.
This time it is John who has sent me for a spin with the great catch in the connection to Tennyson. It is especially interesting due to the speculation regarding the nature of the relationship between Tennyson and Hallam.
Just a few small points Harry bumps into the tea cup and thinks it to be a clever booby trap foreshadowing his search for the Hufflepuff cup which will indeed be booby trapped.
The way Albus and Elphias meet and become friends is reminiscent of Harry and Ron.
Rita claims to have access to “a source most journalists would swap their wands for” (Bathilda). When Harry does go to me Bathilda he does indeed end up losing his wand.
Who knew that Tennyson might have had homosexual yearnings for another young man he met as an undergraduate at Cambridge and that some of the most famous lines in poetry:
I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
were inspired by the death of a friend who might have been more than that?
So did JKR name her chapter as a direct allusion to Tennyson’s poem and thus to his loving and possibly romantic relationship with Hallam? Or are the words in memoriam so commonly used in epitaphs in English speaking (and for all I know other languages as well) cultures as to have no particular connotation beyond the meaning in memory of?
Thanks to Shimon, you wrote in 33: “The way Albus and Elphias meet and become friends is reminiscent of Harry and Ron”. I also could see some generational parallels and the dynamics of the friendships, of one boy being “so called famous” and the other friend being just ordinary as Harry and Ron when they where younger. This connects with Elphias’ recollections and his feelings in his article about his friend, Albus Dumbledore as to being out-shinned at school. And I think Ron did very well adjusting to these forces and having to deal with four older brothers and his struggles to find “his way” in life. Connects also with these two brotherly rubbing between — Albus & Aberforth, this is JKR’s text of Elphias’ account “. . . They rubbed along as comfortably as two such different boys could do. In fairness to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in Albus’s shadow cannot have been an alto¬gether comfortable experience. Being continually outshone was an occupational hazard of being his friend and cannot have been any more pleasurable as a brother. . .” in a few words Elphias could relate!
It occurred to me…we only have Doge’s claim that he and Albus were so very close. I’m betting not as close as he thought, at least after their schooldays, or surely Doge would have known of Albus’ ideas. I think DD was a quite solitary man without true, as in equal, friends, after Grindlewald… much like LV.
I’m coming in a little late. Great posts everyone! I wanted to comment on a couple of mentions earlier in the thread regarding the Arthur Weasley death reprieve and the substitution of Remus and Tonks instead. I realize this is a little off-chapter, but since others brought it up first . . . When I read DH for the first time on the day of its release and came to the point of Lupin’s visit to the trio at Grimmauld Place where he announced that Tonks was pregnant, I knew immediately that Lupin and Tonks were goners. How did I know this? John Granger’s excellent exposition of the alchemical structure to the whole series. In one of the chapters of “Unlocking Harry Potter,” John makes several predictions as to plot points to look for in DH based on the alchemical structure of the series. One was the creating of the “orphan.” There was some speculation, I believe, that this would be the child of Fleur and Bill who might perish in the final installment and their child become the orphan. Anyway, regardless of any change in plans by JKR as to who would die in the last book, the deaths of Lupin and Tonks seemed assured to me when it was announced that she would be having a baby.
Speaking of the alchemical structure of the series, it would be great to see some discussion of this as we go through the various chapters. With each re-reading, I pick up more clues and alchemical references than the last time (I’m still learning . . .). I am also learning more about Shakespeare’s use of literary alchemy in his plays and have heard that his works may have had a significant influence on JKR ( I haven’t ready HPBS yet).
Sorry this post is a bit out of order, chapter-wise, but I hope that those of you who have some knowledge of literary alchemy might bring some of that into the discussion as it’s something that I’m really interested in, but not very knowledgeable about.
A year ago, due to the press of time and preparations for a daughter’s wedding, I stopped following this blog. I’m only now making the effort to return. I am impressed by the depth of the comments. I am edified and learning a lot. Thanks to all who are contributing: I do not intend to neglect this wonderful discussion again.
Kathy, I too am slowly grasping alchemy (often failing, despite reading all of John’s books). But I’m seeing more as I read through the book this time.
Forgive another comment so soon, but I wanted to point to the Skeeter interview as it pertains to Rowling’s experience with the media, and her critics in academia and the Christian culture wars. Perhaps with Doge’s elegy, she’s satirizing hagiographical views about herself; both views held by those who think they “know her.”
Just a very quick note to colorless.blue.ideas – welcome back. We’ve missed your contributions, and I’m glad you’ve returned!
I would say one thing regarding the white handkerchief. I don’t think it means much because it’s hard to find any precedent in the texts for that metaphor being anything other than an expression of weak surrender. I certainly don’t see it as anything quite as graphic as phallus/ejaculate — at least not as a consciously constructed metaphor. If you’re into psycho-analytical criticism, then sure. But, to carry that interpretation over as a metaphor consciously built into the chapter’s symbolism, we would need some precedence, and I can’t find anything like it.
Arabella, I think you’re headed in the right direction in comment #38. I’ve always interpreted these competing descriptions as a critique of the person being turned into a personality as their identity is mediated through other channels. Instead of becoming “better known” or more “knowable,” the person recedes further and further behind the communication channel that mediates them. Always notice that what Harry is taken as much by the spectacle of both Doge’s and Skeeter’s descriptions. The force of the language and the people originating is what comes into focus first. Dumbledore has to be “recovered” because his death, combined with Harry’s memories and the public descriptions, has scattered his identity.
And, it has to be said that Harry experiences all this while still undergoing the grieving process. I think an interesting analysis of DH would ask if Harry’s emotional journey can be mapped across the stages of grief (and maybe see how that also maps to John‘s alchemical theories).
Dave, I agree about the five stages. And they needn’t be in Kubler-Ross’s order. I often think the emotional impacts and repercussions of events on and for Harry, the trauma, is too little discussed. Interesting idea re tying the stages to the alchemy.
Kathy: The discussion you’re looking for on the alchemical scaffolding in Deathly Hallows is chapter 2 of The Deathly Hallows Lectures, ‘The Alchemical End Game: Deathly Hallows as Alchemical Rubedo.’ Thank you for only remembering that part of my predictions in Unlocking that worked out (sort of).
There are four alchemical stages of the Rubedo, as we get them in Deathly Hallows: alchemical wedding (cauda pavonis), nigredo, albedo, and rubedo. The opening chapters are the set-up for the alchemical wedding and for Harry’s final dissolution, purification, and perfection in the real business part of the adventure.
‘In Memoriam’ in its allusion to Tennyson tells us Harry’s last chrysalis experience and alchemical transformation will turn on his eye-dentity issues and understanding of the death of his mentor (taken together, ‘the struggle to believe’). The mirror and eye paragraph that close the chapter are the pivotal perumbration of the ‘leap of faith’ moment in the Malfoy Manor dungeon, decision in Dobby’s grave, and his meeting face-to-face rather than in a mirror (cf., 1 Cor 13:12) with Dumbledore at King’s Cross.
There’s more on that in Chapter 5 of The Deathly Hallows Lectures, Chapter 5, ‘The Seeing Eye.’
I worry that my participation in this discussion will inevitably be a Gilderoy-esque series of allusions to the book I’ve written on the subject of these thread. For those this inevitably mercantile contribution (“buy and read my book!”) annoys or offends, my apologies.
John, in haste, just back from a wonderful day in Rochester with Mr. Prinzi
John, next con we expect you to bring your peacock quill pen for your book signings!
And wear your swirly robes!
I vote for lilac-colored robes!
Or periwinkle blue, to match Gilderoy’s eyes.
I found this interesting quote:
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose, there are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.””
by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. This quote could correlate with the 5th stage of Acceptance: With Harry viewing of Snape’s memories and his walk into the Forbidden Forrest talking with his family.
…yes periwinkle blue definitely …
Getting back to what Arabella Figg wrote about the stages of grief and how that might connect to the alchemical stages, I have to admit that I’m a bit adrift on that. I am familiar with the Kubler-Ross stages, but I don’t think we view Harry going through the grief process in such clear cut ways. In his fourth year, Cedric is killed, and he does experience some comfort from Molly’s hug, but it is very brief. Fifth year, Sirius is killed, and there’s no funeral or memorial service as he fell through the veil. The next year, Dumbledore is killed, and while there is a funeral which helps to bring some closure, it’s followed very rapidly by Harry’s decision to go it alone to get Voldemort. There seems to be a lot of denial or burying his feelings as he goes from each of these losses. I don’t think we see him really move much past the anger stage, but if someone has a different slant on that, I’d be interested to read it. As for how that connects to the alchemical process, I’m not sure. Help!
According to Wikipedia:
The Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the five stages of grief, was first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying.
It describes, in five discrete stages, a process by which people allegedly deal with grief and tragedy, especially when diagnosed with a terminal illness or catastrophic loss.
Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to people suffering from terminal illness, and later to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). [1] This may also include significant life events such as the death of a loved one, divorce, drug addiction, or an infertility diagnosis.
The stages are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance
Kübler-Ross claimed these steps do not necessarily come in the order noted above, nor are all steps experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least two. Often, people will experience several stages in a “roller coaster” effect – switching between two or more stages, returning to one or more several times before working through it.
The interesting thing about applying the stages of grief to Harry’s reactions post-Dumbledore is that he has at least three catastrophic events to grieve through: the loss of Dumbledore, the loss of the man he thought was Dumbledore, and his own death. And this doesn’t even include the trauma of the losses of Dobby or Fred or Lupin. Or, of course, his own resurrection, a fate so rare that one could count the number of fellow victims on the fingers of one finger.
Where I’m going with this is that the kid doesn’t get to properly grieve anyone or anything before the next loss, and the next, and the next one after that.
However, I do think that his reaction to his own imminent death is pretty neatly mapped out, and we’ll have a heck of a time deconstructing the sequence of his emotional reactions when we get to that chapter.
“Where I’m going with this is that the kid doesn’t get to properly grieve anyone or anything before the next loss, and the next, and the next one after that.”
Absolutely and it drives me crazy. None of the kids seem to have help coping with grief. Harry experiences all these losses without time to work through them. With all the deaths until the end he has denial, anger and depression. I do see some bargaining over Sirius, in a way, but no others. I think he finds acceptance with DD’s death after Dobby’s. But his own death–I hadn’t thought of that.
Red Rocker, oh, you stole my comment!! Although I wasn’t going to give an excursus on the Kubler-Ross stages of grief.
I’m right with you, though, in that Harry doesn’t get any time to grieve. One would think that after OOTP in which his beloved godfather dies & he is pretty much to blame that he would be in heavy counseling or would be particularly gloomy or reflective. Instead, one month or so later, he’s wondering when DD’s going to show up & then whizzing back off to Hogwarts where he immediately is embroiled in all sorts of new adventures & starts repeating many of the mistakes he made that led up to his godfather’s death, i.e. his obsession with Malfoy & his blindness regarding the Half-Blood Prince.
Of course, I blame the author for Harry’s lack of grieving time. She needs to move the story along & introspective reflection has never been Harry’s big thing anyway, although you’re right that his own face off with death is mapped out more completely.
Of course, Harry’s situation might be somewhat analogous to a soldier fighting in a war, where over the course of several battles one loses buddies, bosum friends, & mentors without any time to grieve & copes by suppressing the emotions of grief & loss until the war is over. Or else breaks under the strain & suffers combat fatigue.
revgeorge,
You’ve just summed up Hans Salye’s General Adaptation Syndrome. Harry is a prime candidate to break… But he’s made of sterner stuff. Or, he’s full of love.
That should be Selye.
revgeorge, the analogy to the situation of a soldier during wartime occurred to me as well, and why not? Harry et al are in a war.
And I know it’s a work of fiction and none of the characters are real, but I still feel the oddest urge to defend Harry against the judgement that it was his fault that Sirius died. Sirius was murdered by Bellatrix. It was 100% her fault. But if we are going to trace the chain of events which led to Sirius’ death, then we can go back to Dumbledore’s inexplicable reluctance to speak the words which would have spared everyone a lot of heartache: “Voldemort’s messing with you Harry. Ignore him.” Instead of which he spent most of Order dodging him and sending him for occlumency lessons with Snape which anyone would have guessed were not going to work out. And no matter how fine a rationale you build for why DD wouldn’t level with Harry in Order, in the final analysis, Sirius died because JKR wanted him to die.
Returning to Harry’s reaction to his multiple losses: when your job is to save the world and everyone in it from evil, you can’t really take the time to grieve your losses; there are horcruxes to seek out and destroy, memories to retrieve, walks to walk, and megalomaniacs to vanquish.
Red Rocker, perhaps I’ll rephrase my comment then, if Harry was a normal human being & not a character in a story, then he should’ve spent his time blaming himself for Sirius’ death despite the fact that he perhaps wasn’t responsible for it. Because there’s lots of things we humans spend our time fretting over & worrying about & beating ourselves up for that definitely aren’t our fault but we claim them as our fault anyway.
Red, will also agree that Sirius had to die because JKR wanted him to die. But then everything in the Harry Potter series happened because Rowling wanted it to happen. Even Dumbledore’s failings & dodginess happened because JKR wanted, nay needed it to happen for the plot of her story.
Plus, I should’ve said above that we beat ourselves up for “things” that definitely aren’t our fault…
Korg, better to be full of love than some other things, eh?
revgeorge you are absolutely right of course. Everything happens because the author wants it to happen. But some events are more character driven, and some events are more plot driven. On that dimension, I think that Sirius was born to be blasted backwards through the Veil – by someone, and Bellatrix was born to be the one to do it – to someone. And yes, I’ll grant you that Harry was born to rush madly off to the Ministry without thinking out the whys and wherefores. But the actual choice of when and where and how Sirius was to die – that was entirely plot driven.
Along the same lines, I’ve been thinking about the death of Ariana, and why JKR killed her as she did. I understand that DD had to have a chequered past, and needed a traumatic event to pull him up and point him in the right direction. But why did it have to take that form? I would love to have a conversation with JKR about why she chose as she did.
Couldn’t you just see a parody of OOTP where Sirius says “I know I have to die in the next chapter but first I need to go help rescue Harry and fight a battle. Be there in a jiff. Get the veil ready. Guess that Grim I looked like was my own death omen, not Harry’s.”
Red Rocker, certainly agree with you that it’s fascinating how things worked out & why certain things had to happen, in JKR’s estimation of course, for the story to be concluded in the way she wanted. I don’t know if I’d necessarily want to have a conversation with her as it is, remembering how untrustworthy I find authors at times, but certainly I would read & analyze anything she put out.
Too funny, Lily Luna!! Makes one wonder what might have happened if Sidney Carton had known his fate was destined by his author ahead of time.
Maybe you’ve hit on something…
Harry’s terrible night terrors (dreams); his need for (or even addiction to) adrenalin; his mistrust of authority, especially the government; mood swings, self-medication of butterbeer and flashbacks are all classic symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. People looking into those green eyes will end up seeing a ten-thousand yard stare. He’s a soldier that has seen too much.
Thank you, Red Rocker, Arabella Figg, revgeorge, korg20000bc, and LilyLuna. After I wrote my last bit and went off to bed, I kept waking up thinking maybe I had gotten off-topic and thought I would get up extra early and write, ” Ignore this post,” but after reading all the insights here, it pretty much validates what I thought about Harry’s not being given time to grieve properly. I did have the thought that he is essentially in a war, and in war time, there isn’t time to go through that process. Black Angus, he certainly would be a candidate for Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome, but we don’t see that. I have the feeling the 19 years between the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry’s sending off James and Albus to Hogwarts, he and Ginny could have had some rocky times while he adjusted to “normalcy”.
Thanks also for the laughs, LilyLuna, about what Sirius might’ve said if he realized the author was sending him to his death.
LL, that is pure genius. It reminds me of the movie with Emma Thompson as the author who is planning to kill off her character, and Will Ferrell as the character who becomes aware that is what she is planning for him.
But lowering the self-awareness down a notch, I don’t think Sirius Black would have rejected the likelihood that he was destined to die in battle. Don’t think he would have minded either.
BA, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Harry were to suffer from PTSD. But somehow I think that knowing the key to the meaning of everything – what the heck, being the key to the meaning of everything – might mediate the effects of traumatic stress to a certain extent.
I’m sure death was a wonderfully cathartic experience for Harry… Kinda like when Neo comes back and beats Agent Smith. He realises that he doesn’t have to fight.
I agree that Rowling doesn’t adequately show her protagonist grieving, and I think it illuminates the fine balancing act that Rowling performs in the series that at times can’t be sustained. By focusing on the quotidian elements of attending school and showing our characters slowly grow up, as if in real time, Rowling evokes a verisimilitude that compels us to feel that we have ownership of the characters as well and to ask questions like, why isn’t Harry grieving more. (I think this is in part the secret to Harry Potter’s mass popularity in this age of participatory fandom, where ‘serious’ comic-book movies are on the rise.) So, it’s disappointing when Rowling must overlook these issues to abide by the present-tense forward-momentum of a fantasy epic.
But perhaps, as Fricka originally proposed, Rowling means to portray Harry’s burial and denial of his grief. His trauma is portrayed more symbolically through the shard of the mirror (an object that is very much tied to a period of grief he endured at the end of “Order of the Phoenix” and that literally forces self-introspection), and it’s subsumed into the more generic storytelling elements, like the red herring of Dumbledore’s resurrection. I do think that the last sentence of the chapter may be indicative of the bargaining stage, as Harry for a fleeting moment entertains the possibility that Dumbledore isn’t dead.
To extend the symbolism, I like how the shard of the mirror is “buried” under the contents of Harry’s trunk.
John,
Yes, add my thanks for reminding us about the great Tennyson Poem, “In Memorium.” I did notice the potential allusion when I saw the title, but being lazy I did not go back to re-read the massive thing.
However, immediately the famous line ” ‘Tis better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all” passed through my mind. I think that line alone serves a great thematic purpose here. The alternative to that path is the path that leads to Voldemort’s world view.
Personally, I suspect that it is this line that Rowling wants us to consider
Wordsaremagic, I think so.
Of course, the line “He seems so near, and yet so far” also relates to Harry’s mood in this chapter. I doubt, though, that “Nature red in tooth and claw” has anything at all to do with DH…
By the way, the poem itself is here.
Lots of really good thought on Harry’s grieving/not grieving. AJ, your thought about the shard and introspection fits very well with John Granger’s eye chapters in The Deathly Hallows Lectures.
While, I’d like to see more grief help, I think Rowling really is portraying how it is to be in unrelenting war. We don’t get to see the characters decompress and work through their grieving in the books, which they certainly must have after Volde War II, but during the epilogue we see that “all was well.”
As usual, it’s the senstive Luna who perceives Harry’s need after the Battle of Hogwarts.
I just finished the King’s Cross chapter (how much I’d forgotten about this book!) and Skeeter wasn’t far off in her malicious comments re her comments on Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Dumbledore tells Harry he had superior skills and was cowardly, fearing that Grindelwald would inform him that he killed his sister, which he couldn’t bear to know–and that he believed Grindelwald knew this. Only DD’s shame finally forced him to act.
Wow, your parents come in for the weekend and look at all the things you miss! I just wanted to shout out about the great insights here. Harry at his most angry being largely angry with himself (and projecting that onto otheres) is a really good point, and I love the discussion about the stages of grief and how Harry deals with them.
I agree with Red Rocker that the poor kid has no time to process any of his grief whatsoever before he suffers another catastrophe. Given that people have pointed out that Harry is in a war-time situation, I wonder if it’s that JKR neglected to deal with Harry’s grief, or that there just simply was not time for Harry to begin to deal with his feelings on anything, he couldn’t come to terms with anyone’s death it seems until he faced his own. Dobby’s was the first death in which I saw Harry determined that it should mean something, that he chose his course of action out of respect for Dobby’s memory. Perhaps not solely that, I’m just not sure how to phrase it, I’ll have to mull it over for a while.
Arabella Figg I just read your guest post at the Hogwarts Professor
I am so very proud of you, I see so much talent in you thanks, for your amazing insights. Continue Robert
A Quest/Test Horcrux / Hallows Theory
http://hogwartsprofessor.com/?p=1071
Wow! Thank you, Robert! What a lovely thing to say. I’ll be more fully fleshing out this topic here, so I hope you stick around.
I was thinking that if you make a vertical column of the horcruxes in the order in which they are destroyed and overlay an intersecting horizonal row of the hallows in which Harry acquires them, you get a cross. I tried to replicate it below, but when I previewed it, the system erased my leading spaces so it didn’t look right. The column would look like this:
diary
ring/stone
locket
cup
diadem
Harry
Nagini
and the horizontal row would look like:
cloak ring/stone wand
If you do something similar for the horcruxes in the order in which we first see them in the series, ring/stone becomes the middle of both the column and row (leaving row as hallows in order Harry acquires them). Here’s the column:
Harry (SS)
diary (COS)
Nagini (GOF)
ring/stone (DD wearing on visit to Slughorn)
locket (in pensieve visit to Gaunts)
cup (in pensieve visit to Heb. Smith)
diadem (when Harry hides HBP’s potions book)
Not sure where I’m going with this . . .
Wow… I thought maybe I was barking up a stupid tree with the grief comment. Glad to know there are smarter folks than I who can pursue it more thoughtfully! There are some really awesome thoughts in there.
My two cents from a literary angle…
I don’t think you have to choose between “wartime psychology” vs. “plot-driven demands.” The two actually dovetail to my mind. Stating it simply, part of the thousand-yard stare someone referenced earlier is generated from a kind of plot-driven thinking in strategy and tactics. The human angle isn’t the first consideration in a fight. Read Hemingway or Tim O’Brien’s novels, or maybe the poetry of Wilfred Owen (“Dulce et Decorum est” just makes me shiver and weep), Siegfried Sassoon, or Yusef Komunyakaa, and much of the trauma they write about stems from the incessant need to move forward in whatever task they have. At first they don’t have time to grieve; then once a pause is found, the trauma is so searing they don’t want to face it.
That need to move forward is also the perfect description of a plot-driven narrative. HP certainly has its well-developed characters, but our glimpses into them almost always involve their physical embodied reactions to conflict. Since Harry is our narrative filter in HP’s limited third-person perspective, his inner life is all we’re ever privy to. Rowling chooses to let us see Harry fully respond to his inner life almost always in chaos and crisis. He learns by doing — which I think is something that Dumbledore tries to slow down in HBP, and is why so much of the inner turmoil Harry feels in DH‘s camping sequences are alleviated during Dobby’s burial. Harry chooses to “do it properly”, digging by hand instead of using magic.
Harry’s need to “do” and fight lend themselves quite well to a plot-driven story.
Great points, Dave. If you appreciate Owen’s poetry, you might also try out Greater Love.
Back from vacation (no wi-fi) and the pub is full of patrons and their lively conversations!
Red Rocker – Great comment regarding “Voldemort’s messing with you Harry. Ignore him.” Yup. Those seven words sure would have made a difference.
There is a problem with DD telling Harry: “Voldemort’s messing with you Harry. Ignore him.”
DD being the manipulator that he is, may want LV to remain ignorant of the fact that DD knows LV can see through Harry’s eyes.
DD may want to feed LV false information via what he chooses to tell or show Harry.
Of course in the end it is LV who feeds Harry false information!
I think John Granger may have alluded to this idea towards the end of his ‘Keys’ book?
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