Re: Harry’s fate according to the bookies (more literary spoilers)

[justcarol67]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> Carol:
> <SNIP>
>  "Romeo and Juliet" is a romantic comedy altered to have a tragic
ending (and a couple of other deaths, Tybalt's and Mercutio's, along
the way). 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Oh, am very curious. Did Shakespeare leave notes where he mentions
that he originally planned Romeo and Juliet to have a happy ending? Or
are you saying it because it is not written as classic tragedy is 
supposed to be written? Which I agree with.

Carol:
It's something I was taught in one of my English classes in grad
school. The teacher said that R&J followed all the conventions of a
romantic comedy (star-crossed lovers, misunderstandings, etc.) except
for the ending (and the two deaths I mentioned earlier--three,
counting Paris, whom I'd forgotten about). Imagine Juliet waking up
just half an hour earlier, in time to prevent Romeo's mistake. All's
Well That Ends Well, so to speak. 

Anyway, you're right that the story doesn't follow the plot structure
of a classic tragedy. There's no flawed protagonist along the lines of
Hamlet, Othello, or Macbeth, just a tragically mistimed "solution" to
their problem that accidentally results in tragedy. (I don't want to
say too much for fear of spoiling the play for anyone who hasn't seen
or read it.)

> Carol:
> "Titanic" is romantic tragedy based on a historical event (and
Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Jack, isn't even the protagonist; Kate
Winslett's character, Rose, is, and she survives).
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> Carol:
> <SNIP>
>  I'd say that Harry has more in common with Odysseus than Achilles,
or with Frodo (who doesn't die, regardless of the implications of the
film) than with Sigurd the Volsung. But again, the elements of myth,
legend, saga, and epic are not the primary genre she's working in.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> LOL, Eggplant apparently does not like Odysseus much <g> or
Gilgamesh for that matter or Luke if we are are back to Star Wars.
> 
> > Carol, who thinks that "Little Women," in which one of the main
characters dies but the protagonist grows up to become an independent
adult might be at least as close a parallel to the HP model as
"Hamlet" or "Romeo and Juliet," if not closer in some respects

Alla:
> 
> Yes, yes,  very cool parallel, in fact only one character dies, even
though she is very close to protagonist and it is growing up novel 
indeed.

Carol:
Thanks!

Carol, who wanted to follow up on the "Romeo and Juliet"-as-
romantic-comedy-gone-wrong idea, but her Yale Shakespeare doesn't say
anything about it, and the edition with all the wonderful notes and
prefaces got destroyed in a flood from a broken water main :-(