DD death

[ClareWashbrook at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 152781

 
bjk5377:
>> Are we sure DD's dead?  When Harry thought he saw a phoenix rise 
out of the flames around DD's coffin, could that not have been DD?  
I wonder why he would die to save the life of a death-eater-in-
training... <<

To respond in reverse order:
 
...Because Dumbledore doesn't think that anyone is beyond salvation 
(cite -Snape) and he was in a pretty poor state anyway.
 
As to 'is he dead?' - this one keeps running around my head and 
won't quit.  
The circle goes like this:
 
JKR uses English Literature and classical mythology A LOT and there 
are strong resurrection/surviving death trends in many of these, 
extending into our "muggle" culture which she also uses.  So will 
he come back to life?  It feels so wrong, is it meant to feel wrong 
and will this be corrected?  

All precedents of influence upon her writing suggest that he will 
come back to life BUT it is what would be expected by the intelligent 
reader and desired by the emotional reader, therefore will she 
confound these expectations by keeping him dead and making us deal 
with it.  Is death something that we have to deal with to deal with 
the darkness? 

People die in fairy tales and in the same stories which set other 
precedents for predicting her writing, which undermines the precedent 
and leaves it up in the air. But there is the double bluff and 
making such a big deal (and big white icy monument) of his death 
could be distracting us from the fact that she will follow the 
classic line and keep him around in some way.  He drunk the liquid 
in the horcrux receptacle and had previously made statements about 
it being a bad idea to split one's soul - bluff? - could the 
replacement necklace actually be ADs horcrux?  But wouldn't that 
make him bad/tainted etc, so she wouldn't do that. And on and on and 
on and on because I want him to but I don't want him to because it 
would be an emotionally pleasant feeling and because it would be an 
overused lame cop-out literarily, but still my head spins round...
 
No resolution to suggest but the debate comes down to Desire vs.  
Writing style and if I put my emotions aside...I think he's gone!
 
smiles,
Clare xx