Voldy, Macbeth and the ambiguity of prophecy (spoilers)

[inkling108]

No: HPFGUIDX 129103

Spoiler alert:  if you have not read JKR's FAQ poll response, please 
be advised that there are spoilers thereof herein.


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To me the most intriguing part of JKR's FAQ response was the part that 
touched on the significance of prophecy in her literary world.  To wit:

"If neither boy was 'pre-ordained' before Voldemort's attack to become 
his possible vanquisher, then the prophecy (like the one the witches 
make to Macbeth, if anyone has read the play of the same name) becomes 
the catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had 
not been made...Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices 
that had dramatic consequences"

and

"the prophecy...remains ambiguous, not only to readers, but to my 
characters.  Prophecies (think of Nostradamus!) are usually open to 
many interpretations.  That is both their strength and their weakness."

When I read this I realized I had to reexamine all my assumptions 
about the prophecy.  I also ran to the bookshelf to pull out Macbeth.

Think about it: if the prophecy is ambiguous to the characters, then 
maybe no-one knows what it really means, Dumbledore included.  If the 
prophecy is a catalyst as in Macbeth, it may be deliberately 
misleading and mischevious.  If "destiny is a name often given in 
retrospect to choices" then the whole presentation of a supposedly 
inevitable prophecy may be the Mother of All Red Herrings.

But the most intruiging thing is the Macbeth connection.  I don't 
think JKR was just using the play for the sake of example.  If we look 
at Voldy and Macbeth we notice certain similarities:

A powerful man enjoying a time of triumph hears a prophecy about his 
future that becomes an obsession.  Finally he takes matters into his 
own hands, believing that in doing so he fulfilling the prophecy and 
ensuring his own triumph.  Instead, he sets in motion a chain of 
events that leads to his destruction.

(You could even picture Bellatrix playing Lady Macbeth to Voldy, 
except he surely doesn't need any urging to shed innocent blood).

At the end of Book 5, Voldy is in a similar position to Macbeth after 
the murders of Duncan and Banquo.  Macbeth has tried to fulfill the 
witches prophecy and has suceeded in becoming King, but he is uneasy 
and still obsessed with the witches and their oracular power.  He seek 
them out to learn more about his future.

Similarly, Voldy has tried to fulfill Sybill's prophecy on his own 
terms.  Despite the disaster that followed, he has succeeded in 
dodging death and resurrecting a kind of body for himself.  Still he 
is uneasy because he could not kill Harry, and he becomes obsessed 
with finding out the full contents of the prophecy -- without success, 
so far.

When Macbeth approaches the witches for more information, they 
encourage him to be bloodthirsty and brutal, assuring him that "none 
of woman born" can harm him and that he cannot be vanquished till 
Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill.  He takes this to mean that he is 
indeed invincible and goes on an appalling rampage, killing Macduff's 
wife and children.  This ensures that MacDuff will seek revenge.  
MacDuff, who came into the world through a caeserean, raises an army, 
uses tree branches from Birnam wood as camoflauge, and marches to 
Dunsinane hill, and Macbeth is destroyed.

If this same pattern holds true for Voldemort, he will indeed learn 
the full contents of the prophecy in one of the coming books.  What he 
does will depend upon what he sees in the Rorschach (sp?) blot of the 
full prophecy.  "The prophecy remains ambiguous...to my characters."  
If his reaction is anything like that of Macbeth, maybe JKR's referenc 
to a coming "bloodbath" is no joke.

So, what about Harry?  JKR says: "Harry is propelled into a terrifying 
position he might never have sought'".  Many have wondered why JKR, 
who places such a high value on choice, would make a prophecy the key 
to the mystery of Harry and LV.  Maybe she did it to show 
that "Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices."  Maybe 
Harry will end up rejecting the prophecy and the fatalism it 
proclaims.  Maybe he will make his own free choice, based on his own 
vision and conscience.  It would be the biggest paradox of all if, in 
rejecting the prophecy, Harry makes a choice that ends up destroying 
Lord Voldemort -- thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and the filthy air

Inkling