Death, Harry Potter, and Luna
Lovegood
Death plays a major
role as a theme in the Harry Potter series and throughout the books we
encounter different preceptions and ways that characters have dealt with it. Immediately
we are introduced to the concept of those trying to conquer death in Sorcerer's
Stone, Nicolas Flamel inventing the Philosopher's Stone and using the Elixir of
Life and Voldemort trying desperately to attain this object. Harry's life is
marred by death immediately - a violent murder of his parents which he
remembers in bits and pieces, and has to cope with the fact that his fame comes
from surviving death at the hands of Lord Voldemort.
As the series
continues we arrive at Order of the Phoenix. A monumental tome in the series
that emphasizes this theme even more with the death of Sirius Black in
"the Death room" in the Department of Mysteries. After his death,
Harry experiences extreme guilt and sorrow. No death in the series is perhaps
as dramatic and unfair in the eyes of
the reader - finally an adult whom Harry loves and trusts and sees as both a
"father and a brother" (OotP 831) has died in front of Harry. Throughtout
Order of the Phoenix, we expect Harry's rage and his angst and his overwhelming
feelings, so the fact that he destroys Dumbledore's office is not surprising.
His interaction with
Luna Lovegood at the end of Order of the Phoenix does affect how we perceive
death in Harry Potter. According to Voldemort "There is nothing worse than
death" (814), and Harry seems inclined to agree as he experiences the pain
associated with it, but Luna Lovegood first a quiet, odd sort of character ends
up having the greatest impact on Harry's grief by the end of Order of the
Phoenix. Meeting her in the corridor and realizing that she has lost all of her
possessions causes pity to swell in Harry, erasing momentarily "the anger
and grief that had filled him since Sirius's death." (862) Luna goes on to
explain that she lost her mother, but almost brushes it off by telling Harry,
"And anyway, it's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?"
Luna Lovegood
transforms from a slightly odd character for comic relief, to one who fits in
well with Harry's larger group of friends and accompanies him to the Department
of Mysteries. Luna is brave and kind, and her role becomes more important in
Order of the Phoenix and beyond, which gives Harry a different perspective on
many issues because she does believe such extraordinary things. Instead of
fearing death, like Nearly Headless Nick did, Luna embraces it as one of the
things that we don't quite understand, but is futile to worry over. "The
terrible weight in his (Harry's) stomach seemed to have lessened
slightly." (864)
I like that you brought up death as a theme in the series. I feel like we have yet to really explore this theme in class.
ReplyDeleteWhen beginning the series it's interesting how Harry's situation is presented almost simply. Maybe it's because the Dursleys are so hyper-realisticly mean, but it doesn't seem that we actually come to understand Harry's suffering until the Mirror of Erised scene. As you mentioned, we really get an understanding of the trauma Harry's endured by Goblet of Fire, when bits and pieces of his parents' death come back to haunt him whenever Dementors are near.
Speaking of Dementors, J.K Rowling has brilliantly used Dementors and Thestrals to explain that those affected by death see things that others don't. Interestingly enough, I found the same to be true of the Harry Potter series as a whole. It seems that those who have been unaffected by death, sometimes read the book as an adventure series without fulling realizing the pain and suffering beneath all of it.
Luna is a great character to share that scene with Harry at the end of book 5. You're right, while she was once a bit goofy, the end scene shows that she is a great example (for Harry) of someone who is coping with the death in a healthy way.