The Deathly Hallows: Morality of Mythical Objects

[prep0strus]

No: HPFGUIDX 177398

I’ve been thinking about the Hallows, and how strange they are, both
as items to include as part of a children’s fable, and as real
objects.  I really wonder about what JKR’s thought process was in
including them, so I’d welcome any thoughts people might have on the
matter.

Fairy tales often encourage people to make the right choice by showing
what happens when you make the wrong one.  And there’s usually a
consistency to how the rules work â€" especially in the ‘three wishes’
variety.  But in the story of the Deathly Hallows, that seems to go
out the window.

The resurrection stone… doesn’t work.  At least, it doesn’t work the
way the requester intended.  The wish granter has twisted the wish,
made the gift feebler, so that it can never truly deliver.  This is
nothing new for a wish fable â€" often people don’t get what they
expect.  Except the other two hallows DO work.

The wand works just fine â€" but the greed of others makes it something
not desirable.  It does its job TOO well, inspiring envy and brings
destruction upon its owner.  This too is not new to a fable type
story, but again, it doesn’t match with the others.  Also, it is
usually because of the person who has the item using it improperly
that makes this happen.  That is shown in the story with the seeking
out a fight and then bragging about it â€" drawing attention.  However,
this flaw does not appear in regards to the stone, where his desire
may be seen as improper by jkr, but he does nothing wrong, really â€" it
simply doesn’t work.

Finally, we have the cloak, which works perfectly, exactly as the
wisher desired it to… even though that doesn’t make much sense.  So he
spent his life hidden under a cloak, and some how managed to marry and
have kids?  The wisher does not behave inappropriately, so the wish
doesn’t turn on him.  And the wish granter does not deceive him like
he did the one who wished for the stone.  So the moral has to be that
the cloak was the correct wish â€" do not wish for power, do not wish to
bring loved ones back from the dead, but DO wish to avoid death.

It’s very strange, and not balanced.  In addition, the idea of
invisibility, as opposed to our other two potential gifts â€" power, and
resurrection, being the most admirable… I find that odd.  People often
ask what superpower one would want if given the choice â€" flight,
invisibility, etc… and I always feel that invisibility is the one with
the weird taint on it.  It’s not that good things can’t be
accomplished with it â€" we see Harry use it well.  But the things that
jump immediately to mind seem to be burglary and peeping toms.  To be
invisible is to be doing something you don’t want others to see.  To
do something you’re ashamed of, or afraid of, or are escaping
responsibility for.  Now, I don’t think that’s how it is in the real
story, where Harry uses his cloak to hide from bad guys and accomplish
important tasks he needs to hide from grown ups… but in a fable, it
seems like a very strange moral.  It is saying the wish that is the
most admirable is the one that allows you to do things that you might
be ashamed of.  And, in the way the brother uses it, it is saying you
must stay hidden your entire life.

And it goes against the way JKR wrote the whole story in other ways â€"
bravery, facing fears, even death, seem to be what she values highest
in this world.  Running and hiding don’t jive with this.  Harry also
gets to be the big hero, noticed by all, a lot of the time â€" on the
Quidditch field, at the end of the first two books at least, and JKR
does not suggest that this is bad.  Harry (to quote ‘Wizard People,
Dear Reader’) is a glorious god!  How does this match with the best
wish you can make is to hide?

Finally, the way the story transfers to real life… the resurrection
stone is the same in that it does not have the power it is supposed
to, and yet, Harry is able to use it for comfort, not pain.  The wand
is clearly also the same â€" extremely powerful â€" but powerful not just
for duels. Also for fixing wands and presumably anything else. 
Without the hubris present in a fable character, does it truly need to
be removed from society?  Can’t it do good?  And, if it can’t,
shouldn’t it actually be destroyed, not just put somewhere so that
harry, as an auror, is always at risk of losing control over it? 
Finally, the cloak… which works very well as an invisibility cloak,
but nowhere is it suggested that one could actually avoid death when
wearing it.  So it, unlike the others, is actually LESS in real life â€"
though still the ‘right’ object.  Still the most moral, most correct
wish.  Even though it can only be used for skulking and spying, hiding
and avoiding.

I just don’t understand the moral I am supposed to learn from the
story of the three brothers, or the story of the hallows in the ‘real’
world of the books.

~Adam (Prep0strus)