MAGIC TUMBLE DRYER (was: ANTIVIRUS - humble attempt of building a ship)

[mightymaus75]

No: HPFGUIDX 130014

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tigerpatronus" 
<tigerpatronus at y...> wrote:
> I think that the 7 Heavenly Virtues being represented in each of
> the 7 books are an excellent model for interpreting the HP saga.
> However, I think Maus has misidentified the Heavenly Virtue for
> Book 5 (see below.) It seems to me that OotP is not about Hope vs.
> Disillusionment but is about Prudence vs. rashness/stupidity. 
>

OotP was the first Harry Potter book that gave me the impression that 
it had a very clear-cut central theme, OotP was what made me wonder 
if not perhaps all Harry Potter books had one single defining theme. 
So I hope you'll understand if I'm somewhat reluctant to change my 
views. 

I have to admit though that a very good case can be made for Prudence 
vs. Rashness being the main theme of OotP: Harry acts rashly when he 
speaks up in Umbridge's DADA class even when he is told not to, Harry 
acts rashly when he attacks Draco after the Quidditch match against 
Slytherin, Harry acts rashly when he wants to run of alone after the 
snake attack on Arthur Weasley, and Harry certainly acts rashly when 
he rushes of to the MoM to save Sirius. The reason I still don't 
think Prudence vs. Rashness is the main theme of OotP is that at the 
pivotal moment, the battle at the MoM, Harry never shows true 
prudence. What would be the point of showing Harry acting rashly the 
whole year if Harry in the end doesn't overcome his rashness and 
shows he has learned from his mistakes?

And there are plenty of reasons to see Hope vs. Disillusionment as 
being the main theme of OotP: at the start of the book Harry is 
disillusioned by the fact that nothing seems to happen after the 
return of Voldemort, Harry is disillusioned when he finds out how 
many of the old order have died, Harry is disillusioned when Hogwarts 
turns out not to be save from outside influences when Umbridge slowly 
takes away everything he likes about Hogwarts, Harry is disillusioned 
when he finds out that James and Sirius were not always the nice 
people he imagined them to be, and Harry is disillusioned when he 
finds out that his role as the hero who neatly solves everything 
isn't always that simple. This is then also nicely symbolised by the 
Disillusionment charm at the beginning of the book. 

But most important of all in the battle at the MoM Harry shows true 
hope when he thinks of being with Sirius as Voldemort possesses and 
tries to kill him. Luna reminds Harry of this hope when she tells him 
we will see the people we loved again and when she isn't worried 
about her things turning up in the end, and the book even ends with 
an image of hope when Harry leads the Dursleys out of the train 
station into the bright sunlit street.

If you really want to convince me that Hope vs. Disillusionment is 
not the main theme of OotP, you will have to show me a moment where 
Harry shows true prudence.


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Alina <mysticowl at g...> wrote:
> I had a brief discussing last year in class about charity vs love
> and the meaning of caritas when we were discussing the Prioress in
> Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. And as I understand it, Love as Amore
> means romantic/sexual love while Charity/Caritas is love for
> humankind. I think then that caritas IS the appropriate theme for
> book 7, not amore, because so far the books haven't been romantice
> books (they have romance, but only so far as it develops character)
> and caritas is a better contrast to Voldy and the DE's hatred of the
> halfbloods and muggleborns.
>

We seem to have a slight misunderstanding here. There never was any 
doubt if the original meaning of this virtue came from caritas or if 
it came from amore, it most definitely came from the word caritas as 
used in early Latin versions of the New Testament. The question was 
how the original Latin caritas could best be translated in a single 
English word with the same meaning. 

Most modern versions of the Bible translate it as love, the King 
James version of the Bible however translates it as charity (which 
explains why the Seven Heavenly Virtues now include the virtue 
charity). As you pointed out caritas originally referred to a kind of 
divine love of all humankind, I therefore think love comes closer to 
the original meaning than charity does. You are right though in that 
love doesn't really cover the entire meaning of the word, so feel 
free to substitute 'divinely inspired love for all humankind' 
wherever it says 'love' in the original post.

-Maus


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