What happens after death (Was Re: Death, where is thy...?)

rlace2003 rlace2003 at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 9 14:49:51 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 167236

> > Goddlefrood:
> > It is one of the continuing mysteries of the series. In respect
> > of ghosts we are apparently to learn more of them in book 7. The
> > portraits, so JKR tells us, repeat catchphrases only, more or
> > less, from when they were alive. My opinion, fwiw, is that the
> > portrait that we have seen the most of in the series to date
> > (Phineas Nigellus) does rather more than simply repeat
> > catchphrases.

> zgirnius:
> I tend to agree abd Phineas. He even appears to take completely
> independent actions on his own initiative for his own personal
> reasons. For example when he is told that Sirius has died, and he
> goes back to 12 GP to investigate.
>
> My thoughts on this are that perhaps the portraits do not retain
> all that much details of their past lives, more just general traits,
> but are able to act in the present somewhat as they might have.


Ryan:

Agreed.

I tend to think the portraits are some of the sloppiest writing JKR
has done.  If she intended to portray them (as she seems to have
said in interviews) as doing nothing more than repeating
catchphrases, then I think she's failed.

The portraits (especially the ones in the Headmaster's office)
certainly seem to be self-aware.  Even if they don't retain much
memory of their lives, they seem to have retained the memories of
what they've seen and heard since their creation.  And, they clearly
interact with each other and their surroundings.

Given that, I'd say the portraits are sentient beings, and that
Dumbledore's portrait will most likely help Harry to defeat
Voldemort, but probably won't have any juicy secrets to share.







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