Death, where is thy victory? (Was: The Message of DH)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 174772

houyhnhnm:

> > 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. 
> > I've always thought that right way to deal with death 
> > lies in living properly in this world and making the 
> > right moral choices. What lies on the other side 
> > (if anything) will takes care of itself when and 
> > if we get there.

Carol:

> But I don't think that's what the books show about 
> death, so we need to look at it as her characters 
> experience it or will experience.

houyhnhnm:

It's hard for me to do (that's what I was trying to say) 
because I don't think I look at death the same way that 
Rowling does.  I don't share her certainty of an 
afterlife, for one thing.  I do think, though, that 
there may be a consistency in the way she deals with 
death that is lacking (for many readers, including me) 
in the way she deals with right and wrong.

There are two ways of looking at the theme of death, 
I think.  Fear of one's own end and fear of losing 
others or dealing with the loss of others.

If we go back to PS/SS, in the first chapter we meet 
the boy who lived and has just been orphaned, so 
death is introduced in the first chapter of the first 
book.  Not that Harry would have had any concept of 
death at the age of 15 months, but he would have 
experienced abandonment as he waited for his mother 
to come to him and she never came.

Ten years later, Dumbledore has to rescue him from 
the Mirror of Erised, before which he would spend 
the rest of his life gazing at the dead parents who 
can't speak to him or touch him.

Two characters are introduced who have found a way 
to cheat death.  One is an evil Dark Lord and the 
other is a friend of Dumbledore's.

Voldemort's method of cheating death is clearly condemned.  
"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive even if 
you are an inch from death," say Firenze, "but at a 
terrible price.  You have slain something pure and 
defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but 
a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood 
touches your lips."

Keeping yourself alive by drinking unicorn blood is 
evil because you have slain something pure and defenseless, 
but what if you don't hurt anything else.  Is Nicholas 
Flamel wrong to use the Philosopher's Stone to prolong his life?

Besides his famous pronouncement about the next great 
adventure which I don't need to quote because everybody 
knows it, Dumbledore also has this to say about prolonging life:

"You know, the Stone was not really such a wonderful 
thing.  As much money and life as you could want!  The 
two things most human beings would choose above all--the 
trouble is humans do have knack of choosing precisely 
those things that are worst for them.

At the end of book one, the two death related themes--how 
do you deal with loss and how do you deal with the fear of 
your own end--have been introduced.  Harry has tried one 
solution to the first--day-deaming his life away in front 
of an image--and found it does not work.

Harry has been presented with two solutions to the second.  
The first, drinking unicorn blood, is horrible.  It's very 
clear to Harry that "If you're going to be cursed forever, 
death's better, isn't it."  The second, drinking an elixir 
of life, may seem to be not so bad, but there is the 
suggestion, at least, that that is not really a good thing either.

I agree that Harry is a Seeker and what he is seeking is 
the answer to these two questions about death:  How to 
deal with loss of loved ones and how to deal with the 
knowledge of one's own mortality.  The first answer may be
more important to him at age eleven. (I'm not sure how well
an eleven-year-old can comprehend his own death.) But the
second question is already there in the background because
someone *has* tried to kill him. 

I think it is necessary to start with the beginning and 
look at the other books in sequence to see how the theme 
is developed before tackling the complex messages about 
death in Deathly Hallows, but this is as much as I'm able 
to think about for tonight.