DH as Christian Allegory (was Classical & Biblical Quotations)

[anne_t_squires]

No: HPFGUIDX 173147


> >
> 
> Now Melrose:
> I'm surprised that I'm not seeing more discussion on the various HP
> boards of what seemed to me the very obvious allegory in this book of
> the final days of Christ's life. I'm not a Christian now, but I was
> raised in a protestant religion and I felt like the parallels were
> almost painfully obvious. Someone who knows this stuff really well
> could probably find even more, but these jumped out at me:
> 
> *Endless camping = 40 days temptation in the wilderness
> *Resentment against DD = 'my god, my god why hast thou forsaken me'
> kind of experience
> *Snape cuts off George's ear = disciple cuts off ear of high priest's
> servant during Christ's arrest
> *Ron leaves the quest = disciples falling asleep in the Garden of
> Gethsemane
> *Malfoy denies the good side 3 times and is saved 3 times( 1 by
> DD/Snape in HBP, 1 in the ROR, 1 by the trio under the cloak) = Peter
> denying Christ 3 times and being forgiven
> *The most obvious: Harry has to lay down his own life to save others
> and (sort of) dies and (sort of) comes back to life = Christ death
> and resurrection.
> 
> Everyone might not agree that *all* of these are intended as a
> Christian allegory, but I suspect most would agree that the central
> point of the book, and indeed the whole series, is Harry sacrificing
> his life for others in a dead-on parallel to Christ's crucifixion. It
> now seems clear to me that this is JKR's main theme in telling
> Harry's story.
> 
> For me this theme is, meh, not so interesting, but it helps explain
> why she made some of the choices she did, and that I, for one, found
> disappointing (and that others have already pointed out in different
> posts).
> 
> Curious to know what others think. If this was her goal, was she
> successful?
> 
> -MelroseDarjeeling
>
Anne Squires:

King Herod tried to have the Christ child killed because he had been
told by the Wise Men that the stars foretold a new "King of the Jews."
 The parallel to Voldemort trying to kill baby Harry based on a
prophecy is obvious.

Marry and Joseph fled to another land to protect their child.  Harry
was placed in another world, the Muggle world, to protect his life.

To me the Deathly Hallows themselves could represent the temptations
that Christ faced in the wilderness.  I'm speculating, but perhaps---
 Satan tempted Christ three times.  The second (in some accounts the
third) temptation was to defy death by throwing himself off the
temple.  DH = 3, temptations = 3, DH = become master of death, 2nd
temptation = become master of death

Harry did learn of the Deathly Hallows and their meaning while he was
camping out, iow, in the wilderness.

But maybe this reading of the Deathly Hallows is just wild speculation
on my part.

Anne Squires