Dumbledore and Gandalf... COME ON HE IS NOT DEAD! not for long! ;)

[ahsonazmat]

No: HPFGUIDX 135478

Dilia says:
> Gandalf 
> obviously dies in the first book of LotR, yet in the second book, 
of 
> Lord of the Rings, he has been sent back from the other world, 
> ¨heaven, I would guess¨ to middle earth again. In other words, he 
> dies and returns. Furthermore, he is the only character, 
throughout 
> the whole story, that does something as great as this. In 
conclusion, 
> I am considering the chances that something like this could happen 
to 
> Dumbledore.
........................
> I just can't accept that Dumbledore got killed the way it 
happened, 
> it does not convince me. I mean the Order of Merlin (First Class), 
> Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International 
> Confederation of Wizards, and the Wizzard who defeated 
Grindelewald 
> in 1945? Nahh!
> 
> Can I get some comments on this? Id love to hear what you guys 
have 
> to say?!?!



      As much as I would love to believe Dumbledore is coming back 
(he was my favorite character by far), it is very, very, very 
unlikely. As was mentioned on this board before, his death is both 
logically and literally appropriate: within the context of the 
story, this is necessary for the progression of Harry's hero cycle 
(that is, Harry can't hide behid DD anymore; he must confront 
Voldemort on his own, once and for all - "the last and greatest of 
his protectors was now gone"), and within the overall construct of 
the message JKR wants to impart: war is ugly, and there must be made 
horrible, seeminly unsurmountable sacrafices; life is life, and 
death comes to people we least expect to lose - this is the nature 
of life, and Harry, along with all of us readers, must confront it. 

     Keep in mind, also, the canon evidence: the descriptions of the 
funeral, as well as the descriptions of Harry's inner thoughts, make 
the death very permanent (remember how Fawkes stopped singing and 
left, and Harry knew somehow "and he didn't know how he knew, but he 
knew", that Fawkes would never come back again... Fawkes, we could 
say, is a metonymy for DD). Further, Dumbledore's appearance as a 
portrait in the Headmaster's Office should cement this. 

     As for parallels with Gandalf...we must remember that Gandalf 
was never "Gandalf", as such. The wizard who went by the 
name "Gandalf" was actually a spirit power from Aman, sent by the 
Valar to aid the peoples of Middle-Earth against Sauron. Now, this 
is stuff well beyond LOTR, but is essential reading in Tolkien's 
overall schematic. Gandalf never actually died: he, as a spirit, was 
given a new form, or flesh, with which to return - Gandalf 
the "White", as opposed to "Grey". In short, because of the more 
complicated - one could say, essentially, hierarchial - nature of 
the power structure in LOTR, Gandalf (who is, as it were, immortal) 
and Dumbledore (who is in JKR's world very mortal) are in this vein 
incomparable. Their function(s) with respect to the protagonist, of 
course, is a whole 'nother story.


 - AA