[HPforGrownups] Death of the Little Princes (R-3 OT)

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 11411


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From: <HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com>
To: <HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 4:57 PM
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Digest Number 522


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>    Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 14:53:07 -0000
>    From: msl at fc.net
> Subject: Re: The Death of Cedric
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., harry_potter00 at y... wrote:
>
> > It's just that Cedric's death didn't really do
> > that.  He was alive and then he was dead. I have to agree that it's
> > unsettling the way AK works, but doesn't make for a good literary
> > death scene.
>
> In this case I think that "unliterariness" was part of the point.
> Cedric's death reminded me of one of those scenes in gangster movies
> where the bad guy reaches out with his .45 and blows some poor slob's
> head off just for the hell of it.  The closest literary parallel that
> jumps to my mind is in Richard III, when Richard orders the children
> in the Tower of London killed; it's not something he needs to do,
> necessarily, it's just convenient.

 On the contrary - Richard III - at least the evil literary Richard III  of
the Elizabethan stage - needed to get the little princes out of the way just
as surely as Voldemort needed to dispense with the Potters *pere et fils*.
As long as the princes - the sons of the late king Edward IV - remained
alive, Richard's claim to the throne remained clouded, since he was
appointed to serve as their regent (the princes were then 12 and 10 years
old IIRC) until they reached an age to rule on their own.

(and did the historical Richard III - not nearly the blackguard his literary
reputation would suggest - really kill the princes?
The issue is thoroughly thrashed out by the Richard III Society:

  http://www.webcom.com/r3/intro.html


A better parallel would be R-3's ruthless removal of Buckingham, who had
served him loyally and skillfully, before R-3 decided to dispense of him.

   - CMC