Portrait theory/Death

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 68346

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "John Gabriel" 
<jgabriel66 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "owlery2003" 
<owlery2003 at y...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > I've been thinking about the various portraits in the series. The 
> > characters within them are not static. They converse with the 
> > living on contemporary subjects, apply logic, display the same 
> > personality traits as in life - for all purposes, the same as if 
> > the person was really there. [...] Are portraits "windows" for 
> > characters who've passed beyond the veil? [...] It would be great 
> > to see Sirius become a permanent "fixture" in Harry's life again.
> 
> I don't think Sirius will return, except in Harry's memories.
> 
> If Sirius were to return, even as a portrait, it would rob his 
death 
> of the meaning it has within the context of the story. Sirius's 
> death is the symbol of death within the context of the story. It's 
> meant to illustrate the suddeness and irrevocability of death. 
Allow 
> Sirius to return as a character in a portrait, and you diminish 
this 
> sense of death's irrevocability. The plotline would then become a 
> simple fantasy without meaning, a wish-fulfillment, rather than 
> using fantasy's ability to deal with trauma in an imagined context.
> 
> I think this point is further emphasized by Harry's encounter with 
> Nick after Sirius's death:
> 
> 
> Nick turned away from the window and looked mournfully at 
Harry. "He 
> won't come back."
> 
> [...]
> 
> "He will not come back," repeated Nick quietly. "He will have ... 
> gone on.
> 
> 
> While Nick is ostensibly talking only about the possibility of 
> Sirius returning as a ghost, I believe the artistic power and goal 
> of his speech would be nullified if Sirius were to return as a 
> portrait. JR is saying here, "This is how death is."
> 
> Sirius won't be back. Not even as a portrait. He can only return in 
> memories. Like any of the dead.
> 
> John Gabriel

I, too, although I hope I'm wrong, believe that JKR has been pretty 
emphatic about Sirius' death being permanent.  In her interviews she 
spoke not only about the tears she shed when writing the death, but 
in one interview she also said that when she wrote this character in 
earlier books she had to be in denial about what his ultimate fate 
was.  I think the conversation with Nick is another way of shutting 
the door to a return.  And, I think that the broken two-way mirror 
will remain just that - a broken artifact.  Even if it is repaired, I 
predict that this will be the first gift that Harry receives that 
will no longer function the way it was originally supposed to 
function.  

Having said all that, JKR also says things in the books like "the 
dead never really leave us." I take this as meaning more that the 
influence of those we've lost can remain behind, rather than that the 
dead are rattling around in our closets. The understanding remains 
with we, the living, that a lost friend, parent, whoever, did love 
us, and the memory of that love can still give us strength. In that 
sense, I think Harry will draw on the affection he and Sirius had for 
each other.

And, having said that, (sets one foot onto USS SAD DENIAL) in JKR's 
world, some of the dead, or representations of them, do come back to 
appear in some form.  Ghosts, portraits, the shades of James, Lily, 
Cedric, etc. appearing in the graveyard. People have posted that 
Sirius can't come back because that will rob the death of its 
meaning. Well, yes as a story line, that may be true, but that flies 
in the face of others deaths not being quite finite.  That's saying 
THIS DEATH must be a real death as we know it, whereas James, Lily, 
and Cedric died, but somehow managed (or were helped by a certain set 
of circumstances) to manifest themselves and communicate with the 
living.  In that sense, that seems somewhat arbitrary to me. It's as 
if a new set of rules is being used, because Sirius remaining dead 
(and incommunicado from beyond the grave) is necessary to the plot.  

And, there is that niggling business about the lack of a body.  JKR 
could certainly have shown a sudden, unexpected death, and left a 
body behind.  Harry could still have been in denial about what he 
just saw. Rather waiting for Sirius to come out from behind the veil, 
Harry could have been waiting for him to revive from a stunning 
spell.  The death would have been just as sudden, just as 
irrevocable, and would not have left the door ajar.

Marianne