The Message of DH (WAS: Unforgivables - from a different angle)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 174665

> houyhnhnm:
> 
> That is what I wanted, too.  The story *seemed* to be 
> about good and evil and how to live your life.  Lately 
> I have been wondering if the theme Rowling was really 
> persuing was not how to live, but how to die.
<snip>
> I don't think my attitude towards death is very much 
> like Rowling's.  Although I am afraid of death, I doubt 
> if I share either her indignation at its existence or 
> her certainty that it can be overcome. <snip>

Jen: Do you mean that was your intepretation of the series, that 
death was either depicted as something to feel indignant about or 
overcome?  

About halfway through my re-reading of DH, JKR's choice of "The 
Liberation Bearers" and the words of William Penn became more 
meaningful to the story for me.  The realization crept in that DH was 
very much an exploration of the acceptance of death:  Voldemort's 
refusal to accept and defiance of death contrasted with Harry's 
longing to be with those he loved or never had a chance to know.  The 
big final decision for Harry at King's Cross was choosing to return 
to the living when a part of him had always longed to move on with 
the dead, "the dead who walked beside him through the forest were 
much more real to him now than the living back at the castle..." (DH, 
Chap. 34, p. 701, US ed.)  That moment was another like others 
before, such as seeking out the Mirror or wishing to join Sirius.

I haven't done much analysis of death as a theme, just speaking 
strictly from my first couple of readings of DH and how it might fit 
with the other books.  JKR has said death is a 'strong central theme' 
and it's what interested me the most after reading book 1.  Other 
themes didn't meet my expectations but this one most definitely did.

Jen