musings about things, mostly PoA Chapter 17

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 21512

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Zarleycat at a... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., joym999 at a... wrote:

> snip 
> > 
> > There is another issue which I believe that JKR treats 
> metaphorically 
> > in PoA.  In her summary of Chapter 17, Marianne asks "What 
stopped 
> > Harry killing Sirius?"  I believe that Harry does not kill 
Sirius, 
> > and later does not allow Sirius and Remus to kill Peter 
Pettigrew, 
> > because he realizes the moral implications of doing so.  I think 
> that 
> > this whole chapter is a metaphorical argument against the death 
> > penalty.  I am basing this conclusion not only on the text, but 
> also 
> > on the fact that we know that JKR's political leanings are to the 
> > left and that she once worked for Amnesty International, an 
> > organization which is adamantly and actively opposed to the death 
> > penalty.
> > 
> > Harry is, at one point, consumed with anger and convinced that he 
> > wants to kill Sirius Black.  However, when the opportunity is 
> > presented to him, something prevents him.  He "knows" that Sirius 
> > Black killed his parents, is the right-hand man of a mass 
murderer, 
> > and is the cause of much of the misery and pain he has 
experienced 
> in 
> > his young life.  Yet he pauses, perhaps wondering if he has the 
> right 
> > to kill Sirius, perhaps thinking that maybe it is wrong to kill 
no 
> > matter what Sirius has done, or even that maybe there is no way 
of 
> > knowing for sure that Sirius is guilty.  Then again, maybe Harry 
> > pauses because he realizes that he's a 13-year old wizard who 
> doesn't 
> > know enough magic to actually kill anyone


And there's also a Shakespearean parallel: in Hamlet III,iii, the 
Prince is prepared to wreak vengeance against Claudius, but hesitates 
when he finds him praying: 

HAMLET
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

"Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all" - the difference is 
that Hamlet's hesitation has catastrophic consequences; none of the 
other deaths in the play would have occurred if Hamlet had dispatched 
Claudius on the spot. OTOH, Harry's hesitation has (at least so far) 
entirely fortunate consequences - we might well imagine the effects 
on Harry had he killed Sirius only to later learn of his innocence.

  - CMC