CHAPDISC: HBP30, The White Tomb

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 165716

> > 14.	There is something odd about the way Ginny accepts Harry's 
> > decision, while Ron and Hermione refuse to do so. Even stranger, 
> > Harry does not really attempt to talk them out of sharing his 
> > destiny. (And still more strange seems his surprise at Ron and 
> > Hermione's reaction.) Does it mean that for Harry (and even for 
> > Rowling) friendship is something infinitely more important than 
> love? 
> > Even so, Ginny is not just a girlfriend; she is a friend as well. 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Hmmm, I would say that JKR certainly writes friendships much better 
> than she writes romance (see trio friendship as example and 
romances 
> in book 6 as examples as well, and I **do** love Harry/Ginny, but 
> was not happy as it was written).

a_svirn:
Yes, but that's not the problem. Some authors don't do love stuff 
well. I am OK with that. Austen, for one, is notorious for dismissing 
all that love nonsense with something like:  "and he expressed 
himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently 
in love can be supposed to do," and heading straight to the epilogue. 
What I find strange is the way Ginny is always excluded from Harry's 
immediate circle. He grew up with her as much as he grew up with Ron 
and Hermione; she has always stood by him; she is loyal to the right 
cause; she is one of the most prominent members of DA; she is 
certainly one his nearest and dearest, and yet she is always left out 
of everything that is really important. Why wasn't she told about the 
Prophesy? Why wasn't she told about horcruxes? 
 

> > 15.	The last two chapters of the book allude very distinctly to 
> > Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle."  The phoenix lament, 
> the 
> > anthem, and the central episode with the funeral fire. Is this 
> > supposed to be a clue to the relationship between Fawkes and 
> > Dumbledore? 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Oh, have not read it. Please, please ellaborate.

a_svirn:
Well, it is a rather enigmatic poem (allegoric, I am afraid, -- 
sorry, I know some fellow-listers do not like allegory
) It is about 
the ideal "chaste" love and constancy between the Phoenix and the 
Turtle-dove. In the poem (as almost in any other works of literature 
I know) Phoenix is female though, unlike Fawkes. 

There are number very striking coincidences. The poem is about 
funeral. It stats with the description of various birds arriving at 
the double-funeral of the turtle and the phoenix. It seems that the 
entire aviary community congregates there except some well-known 
predators who are not invited. Compare with the way (nearly) everyone 
came to Dumbledore's. 

The dove was mortal, naturally, but phoenix self-incinerated herself 
on his funeral fire. 
The central part of the poem is the anthem (here is a parallel with 
the "otherworldly music" at Dumbledore's) which starts with the 
assertion that 

Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence

In a way, that's what happened at the Dumbledore's funeral – 
his "essence" or whatever "fled" in a flame that took the shape of a 
phoenix.


Also the anthem describes the unique relationship between the two:  

So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:

I'd say, the phrase "but in essence divided" sounds like a reverse 
quote. And, indeed, Voldemort (or at least a part of him) shares a 
body with his snake, but their essences are divided. 

The final part "Threnos" asserts the finality of the death – "Death 
is now the phoenix' nest" – their mingled ashes are enclosed in the 
urn. (like the white tomb?)