Harry the martyr/Harry the killer

[ourobouros_1999 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14021

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:

> I get queasy in a different way at the thought of JKR killing 
> Voldemort in a way that releases everyone from guilt. 
<snip>
I felt as if James was trying to have her 
> cake and eat it too.  She wanted to satisfy the blood-lust of 
readers 
> and/or the readers' sense that justice isn't done unless the killer 
> dies; without capital punishment, she couldn't just wrap it up with 
a 
> "and he was found guilty and hanged"; and she didn't want our hero 
to 
> have blood on his hands.  So she found easy-to-swallow ways to kill 
> the guilty.  (In contrast, Dorothy L. Sayers has a killer get 
executed 
> and shows the agony of the detective, who goes about getting people 
> convicted but can't bear the guilt of their then being executed.  
> Much, much better!  but I take it the death penalty has been 
repealed 
> in England since her day.)
> 

My goodness, yes. This was always happening in those books. Sometimes 
we wouldn't care much about the executed person, but some of those 
endings were.....[ouch]. Lord Peter's one of my favorite recurring 
literary characters too. He *really* deals with the guilt aspect of 
it all....he even has to agonize about the fact that sometimes his 
stirring things up causes suffering. Er, (steering on topic), kind of 
like how Harry still has survivors guilt, and will probably feel more 
in the future if other characters die to save him. 

<snip>To me this poses real moral 
> implications for the readership: as if we really have executed 
someone 
> without acknowledging the weight of that responsibility.
> 

Yes. Although Voldemort lacks enough redeeming characteristics for us 
to really feel squicky about his messy death, I think it would fit in 
with the tone of the book not to have the end be unyieldingly sunny. 

(What's that sad part in GoF where Harry reflects on all the human 
relationships blasted because Voldemort, both directly and 
indirectly?)

Charmian