Molly's "revenge" Re: Requiescat in Pace: Unforgivables

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 174806

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "guzuguzu" <guzuguzu at ...> wrote:
>
> Regarding the Bellatrix - Molly duel: 
>  
I found this scene to be completely
> ridiculous, actually. I'm leaving aside any moral issues, as I find
> them so muddy in DH anyway. We have a notoriously violent serial
> killer, who has taken down aurors and other veteran warriors, 
>versus a housewife, who we have no reason to believe has any 
>experience or particular skill as a warrior. Yet, *hundreds* of 
>people stand and watch the fight and do NOTHING? Yes, I know a few 
>girls try to help and Molly shoos them off...  No stunning spells 
>from the crowd? No Expelliarmus even? Not even from Ginny, who we 
>were told repeatedly in HBP was very magically strong? It made no 
>logical sense for Molly to win that fight, nor for everyone else to 
>stand around enjoying the show. I agree that it did fit in with the 
>larger message of DH, which was that apparently what you really need 
>to defeat evil is dumb luck.

va32h:

Putting aside the highly offensive suggestion that "housewives" are 
inherently incapable of any particular skill...

The Molly-Bellatrix duel seems to me to be clearly symbolic: Mother 
Molly takes down Barren Bella.

Molly is the mother figure, not only to her own brood, but to Harry 
and by extension the reader (and I know some readers hate Molly, but 
I'm looking at her role in the book, not whether you'd like to have 
her as a mum). 

Bellatrix, by contrast, is the woman so out of touch with what mother 
love truly is that she offered up her theoretical sons to Voldemort's 
service. 

When Molly says "you will never hurt our children again" she's not 
referring to the Weasleys - she's referring to all children. The 
hateful regime of Voldemort, as represented in that moment by 
Bellatrix, will never hurt the future of the wizarding world again. 

Mother love is a huge motif in the series. It's no coincidence that 
Voldemort, who never knew and therefore cannot comprehend mother 
love, has a childless woman as his "best lieutenant". And it's Mother 
Love that destroys Voldemort - in Godric's Hollow, and in the forest, 
when Narcissa lies to Voldemort in order to find and save her son. 

The other characters all stood around watching the duel because Molly 
needs to be the victor of this showdown in order to fulfill that 
motif. 

va32h

**please note that I am not suggesting that women who are not mothers 
don't understand motherly love. It's Bellatrix's character I'm 
referring to, not childfree women in general.