I think it’s fair to say that few books have ever
inspired as much controversy as J.K. Rowling’s hugely popular “Harry Potter”
fantasy series. With more than 400 million copies sold, the books have impacted
popular culture in a massive way. And, of course, they’ve attracted praise and
scorn from virtually all sides, including an almost unprecedented amount of
criticism from the conservative Christian community.
Five years ago, I began reading the series
suspiciously, expecting to encounter a barrage of subversive, anti-Christian
propaganda(largely due to my mother’s ill response to the series). I’d read
plenty of articles about the “occultism” of the series, and heard all the
anti-”Potter” arguments. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I’d been
mistaken: the books were adventure stories in the style of Roald Dahl, with a
layer of fairy-tale magic added on. I devoured the first six volumes, read the
seventh book as soon as it came out, and moved on to other things. This past semester,
I took the time to revisit the series from a more critical standpoint. The
first time I read the books, I did so primarily for entertainment. The second
time around, I was specifically looking for themes – and more specifically, I
intended to write this commentary. This will necessarily be a fairly long
discussion to explore the three predominant motifs and look at the First
Deathly Hollows movie and how I believe it best portrays the themes throughout
the series. I will reference book 7 more than the movie because I’m using more
content from part one, as I have not yet seen part two and have yet to find the
time to watch it.
(Note: In
order to evaluate the complex themes of this series, the following commentary
contains spoilers)
SUMMARY:
I know we just read it but this is just here as a
refresher. Feel free to skip this bit if you’d like. The “Harry Potter” series
is the story of the eponymous hero, orphaned at birth and left in the care of
the cruel Dursley family of “Muggles” (non-magical people). On his eleventh
birthday, Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts, a school for young wizards and
witches, and promptly enters a world of wonder and mystery. At Hogwarts, he
meets his two closest friends – Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger – and begins
studying magic. It soon becomes clear that the death of Harry’s parents was no
accident: the evil Dark Lord Voldemort murdered them. Voldemort also attempted
to kill Harry, but his attack rebounded on himself, severely crippling
Voldemort’s power. The first few books of the series develop the characters and
set the stage for Book 4, in which Voldemort returns to power and regains a
corporeal body. Aided by his fellow evil wizards (“Death Eaters”), Voldemort
begins a campaign to kill Harry Potter, the only one who may stand a chance of
defeating him. The last three volumes deal with Harry’s increasingly desperate
battle against Voldemort, and his fight to remain steadfast even as the world
spins into chaos around him. It’s a fairly simple story arc, but the intricate
web of plots and subplots grips the reader’s attention.
THEMES:
Throughout the course of the series, there are
three fundamental concepts that drive the story: the power of love, man’s
struggle against death, and the relationship between Harry and his mentor
Dumbledore. Each of these deserves thorough evaluation.
1. The Power of Love
I feel almost infant writing on this specific
instance but I find it unavoidable in this story of our near-Christ hero. One
of the most recurring themes in the “Harry Potter” series is the sacrificial
love of Harry’s mother Lily, who died to protect her infant son. Voldemort’s
deadliest weapon, the “Killing Curse,” rebounded when he used it against Harry,
shattering the Dark Lord’s power. In the final pages of Book 1, Voldemort
cannot physically touch Harry due to the power of his mother’s love in him.
Later in the series (after the Dark Lord’s return to power), Voldemort attempts
to “possess” Harry but cannot due to the contrast between Harry’s soul and his
own. Harry’s life is founded on his love for others, while Voldemort’s life is
centered around hatred. Headmaster Dumbledore observes at one point: “That
which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to understand. Of house-elves
and children’s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and
understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a
power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped.”
On a less complex level, love also repeatedly
motivates acts of self-sacrifice on the parts of the main characters. Primary
characters are willing to (and do) suffer unbelievable loss for one another,
even giving up their lives in order to do the right thing. The love between
family members is celebrated as beautiful and noble, never something to be
mocked and sneered at.
However, the true significance of this theme does
not emerge until Book 7(and movie 7 part one and part two).
Throughout the book, Harry, Ron and Hermione have
successfully located and destroyed the six Horcruxes, magical objects bearing
fragments of Voldemort’s essence. (While the Horcruxes exist, Voldemort cannot
be truly killed.) However, it soon becomes clear that, in fact, a seventh
Horcrux exists: Harry Potter himself. The curse that originally failed to kill
Harry struck Voldemort instead, blasting away a piece of Voldemort’s tainted
essence…which in turn bonded to Harry. While Harry lives, Voldemort cannot
truly die.
The situation may be summarized thusly: Harry, a
bearer of evil that is not his own, must suffer death at Voldemort’s hands.
The symbolism is almost explicit. While Harry is
certainly not Christ himself, he is the books’ “Christ figure”, willingly
enduring a sacrificial death in order to save others from evil. He chooses to
lay down his own life to end the evil caused by another. Harry even observes:
“I don’t want anyone else to try to help. It’s got to be like this. It’s got to
be me.” While this motif is certainly common even in non-Christian literature,
it gains special significance when viewed in light of another prevailing theme
(to be discussed later).
This theme of sacrificial love applies on another
level as well, through the character of Severus Snape. The often-irritable
Potions teacher at Hogwarts, Snape frequently appears to be antagonistic
towards Harry throughout the series (although, interestingly, he often
intervenes to protect Harry during the darkest moments). In the closing pages
of Book 6, Snape appears to be allied with Voldemort, lending credence to
Harry’s longtime suspicions.
However, Book 7 finally provides the full story.
Snape, a longtime admirer of Lily (Harry’s mother), was forced to watch as she
married a man Snape deemed reckless and immature. To make matters worse, Lily
asked Snape to watch over their newborn son in the event of her death. Since
that point, Snape’s relationship with Harry has been a constant source of
pain…yet Snape chooses to sacrifice his own feelings and defend a child he
believes should have been his. This subplot is one of the most moving elements
of the entire series.
2. Man’s Struggle Against Death
The “Harry Potter” series is, in many ways, a
parable about the danger of desiring immortality. Voldemort is obsessed with
the concept of living forever, no matter what the cost. This dark desire leads
him down the path of villainy, transforming him from a disturbed orphan boy
into the living incarnation of evil. He attains a sort of pseudo-immortality by
constructing the aforementioned Horcruxes – but in order to do so, he must take
a human life for every Horcrux he creates. Dumbledore sharply critiques this
empty attitude towards life: “As much money and life as you could want! The two
things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do
have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”
In contrast, Harry and his friends are unafraid
of their own mortality. When Harry confronts Voldemort and suffers death at the
Dark Lord’s hands, he awakens to find himself in a limbo-like state between
life and death. There, he sees the mutilated soul of Lord Voldemort – an
affirmation that souls are ultimately held accountable for their actions, and
that the material world is but the precursor to something more. Death is seen
not as an end, but rather as a beginning. As Dumbledore puts it: “It is the
unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”
But for Harry, death isn’t the end. To complete
the Christ metaphor, Harry is resurrected from the dead, defeats Voldemort once
and for all, and saves the magical world. His death leads to the salvation of
countless others.
3. Harry’s Relationship with Dumbledore
(Note: I am not going to explore the hot-button
issue of whether Dumbledore is or is not homosexual. The issue was never raised
or alluded to in the novels themselves; thus, for the purposes of this
commentary, this will not be under consideration.)
I must confess that I missed the significance of
this theme the first time I read the series. However, this is perhaps the most
interesting and uniquely symbolic element of the entire seven-book saga. To
offer some background, Professor Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts
School, and fulfills the role of a father to Harry. He helps Harry wage his
battle against Voldemort, providing counseling and insight throughout the
series. Their relationship can be analyzed on two distinct levels: as a
metaphor for the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, and as a
metaphor for the relationship between God and His people.
Throughout the course of Book 7, Harry struggles
with the quest that Dumbledore has left him: finding and destroying Voldemort’s
Horcruxes. In the same way that Jesus pleaded with God the Father in the Garden
of Gethsemane to “take this cup from [Him]“, Harry struggles to understand the
“cup” that Dumbledore has left him to bear. During his journey to face
Voldemort and die at the Dark Lord’s hands (a sequence clearly inspired by the
Garden of Gethsemane), Harry never questions Dumbledore’s authority or his
command, but sincerely wrestles with issues of grief and loss. It isn’t a
perfect analogy – for instance, it’s not as strong as the
Aslan/Emperor-over-the-Sea allegory found in the “Narnia” books. However, the
way in which Harry fulfills the task left him by Dumbledore is, to an extent,
analogous to the way in which Jesus obeyed His Father’s will.
On another level, Book 7 also serves as a
metaphor for the relationship between God and His people. After Dumbledore’s
untimely “death” in Book 6, a series of rumors begin to fly regarding
Dumbledore, questioning his authority and his wisdom. These rumors are
strikingly similar to arguments leveled by those antagonistic toward
Christianity. Harry must decide whom he trusts: Dumbledore, who is no longer
directly there with him, or those who criticize him.
In total, these are the three themes that struck
me most upon a rereading of the series. Careful readers may note that I’ve
frequently referred to the seventh volume of the series in exploring these
issues; however, these ideas are developed throughout the series as a whole.
Book 7 successfully unites all these elements into a dramatic, triumphant
finale. This isn’t to say that there aren’t other themes in the books. There
are countless other elements worthy of analysis – race and class
discrimination, civil disobedience, and the corrupting effect of power, just to
name a few – but these three are perhaps the standouts from a Christian
worldview standpoint.
“Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1″, director David Yates’ third
contribution to the eight-film franchise, is a rich, dark adventure story that
transcends its genre. Just like its predecessor, “Half-Blood Prince,” this new
installment works not just as another Harry Potter movie, but as a strong film
in its own right. (Note: for the purposes of this discussion, “Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows – Part 1″ will be evaluated on its cinematic merits alone.
A more comprehensive treatment of the Harry Potter worldview is forthcoming.)
The movie opens on a world on the brink of war.
Evil Lord Voldemort is growing stronger by the day, and is even making
incursions into the non-magical world. And the three protagonists – Harry, Ron,
and Hermione – are in the very center of the gathering storm. In the wake of
Headmaster Dumbledore’s death (at the end of the sixth film), Harry faces a
seemingly impossible task: locate and destroy the six Horcruxes, magical
objects that prevent Voldemort from being killed.
It all sounds pretty complicated, and it is. A
particular highlight: the story of the eponymous Deathly Hallows is told
through a visually stunning shadow-puppet animated sequence.
Cinematically, the movie is wondrous to behold.
Beautifully paced and filmed, with seamless CGI effects, it balances fast-paced
action sequences with quiet, tender moments shared between friends. And this is
where “Deathly Hallows – Part 1″ finds its surest footing. For most of the film’s
latter half, the narrative becomes a “character-driven” story rather than a
“plot-driven” story. Harry, Ron, and Hermione become far more believable as
they struggle with very human weaknesses, including jealousy, frustration, and
despair. Having grown up in their roles, the three leading actors are certainly
at their best in this penultimate chapter. For all the talk about magic and
epic confrontations, “Harry Potter” is very much a story about friendship, and
this movie accurately captures that spirit.
This is a slow-burning installment – all things
considered, there’s less action than, say “Goblet of Fire” – but the slower
pacing of this film is the very reason it’s so potent. For example, a lingering
shot of Hermione’s agonized face as she erases her parents’ memories (to
protect them) is genuinely moving. Rather than following his contemporaries’
lead – packing the final installment of a series with innumerable explosions
and frenetic action scenes – director Yates opts for a quieter, more emotional
approach. In keeping with its subject matter, this movie is dark and far more
existential feeling than it’s previous counterparts when dealing with crisis
and how the constructs of evil and good become blurred.
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