Dumbledore's Plan/Deaths in DH/Catharsis

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 177459

Pippin:
But as for accepting
the facts as Dumbledore states them, who is he going to
argue with? Snape's dead, and portrait!Dumbledore is absent.

lizzyben:

How convenient, Potrait!Dumbledore. IMO he was hiding from Harry cause
didn't have the courage to face him & tell him the truth. Right here,
right now, I am challenging anyone to explain Dumbledore's Plan in a
way that makes sense. The contender must include: the Hallows, the
purpose of the will gifts, the reason Snape wasn't informed, purpose
of the Seven Potters, DD's failure to provide the Horcrux book or
Sword, the purpose of his murder, and his envisioned plan for the
Elder Wand. (Note: The Plan CAN'T be to help Voldemort win, even
though this is the most likely outcome).


Pippin:
Me, I loved the book, and the more it's criticized, the more things
I find in it to love. There's no lack of mourning rituals, all you have to
do is go back and read them again. We have Fawkes's
lament, Dumbledore's funeral and Dobby's burial. We don't need to
have them over and over again for the sake of every character, at least I
don't. It'd be like the RoTK movie, which ends when the ring is destroyed
and ends when Aragorn gets married, and ends when Sam gets
married, and then when Frodo goes over the sea...but wait, there's
more! <g>

lizzyben:

I didn't mean that there should be 50 separate funerals for every
single character who died, but just that there should be *some*
ceremonial recognition of the people who had died. Not so much for
them, as for the readers. There needs to be an emotional catharsis for
the audience - and DH didn't have one. I've got no problem w/death &
tragedy, but what bothers me was the lack of closure or resolution of
those deaths. People need a mourning period to recognize the loss,
honor the dead, and move on. DH seemed to just keep adding to the list
of dead in an almost casual manner, w/o providing any resolution at
the end of the battle. 

"Catharsis - The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional breakdown
or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great sorrow,
pity, laughter or any extreme change in emotion that results in the
restoration, renewal and revitalization for living."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis

Usually, tragedy is presented in such a way that the audience finds an
emotional catharsis. OK, an example would be Dead Poet's Society,
where the audience is put through the emotional ringer after a student
kills himself, and Keating is fired. But at the end, there is a sense
of healing, as the other students grieve together and honor their
friend; and they stand on their desks & recite "Captain, My Captain"
to honor their teacher. The characters, and the audience, go from
sorrow to renewal. From mourning to healing.

LOTR is actually another good example. Boromir was sort of a jerk, and
he tried to steal the ring, but he also died protecting the hobbits.
Even though they are pressed for time, the remaining members of the
Fellowship take the time to respectfully bury his body, honor his
memory, & recite poems of his homeland. This shows not just a respect
for the dead, but a respect for life as well - that each life is
precious and worth remembering. The ceremonial ritual provides
catharsis & closure for the Fellowship. And in a work of fiction, the
ceremony provides catharsis & closure for readers as well.

I didn't feel a similar emotional catharsis in DH. The reader is wrung
through the emotional wringer as character after character is killed
off - but it is mentioned almost in passing, and those characters
aren't honored. After the battle, we don't get to see how the Weasleys
or Harry or Hermione cope with their loss, how they mourn the people
they care about, or how they've changed. Instead, there's a tacked-on
saccharine Yay! Happy! ending 20+ years later. Lame. That's not
catharsis. 

So even though Deathly Hallows was all about death, it seemed unable
to confront or deal with the actual reality of death. Or grief. Or
mourning. Or healing. "Death" was the major theme of the novel, yet it
doesn't seem to have resonated w/many people. Instead, people are
debating Draco, or the Mauraders, Hermione's parents, etc. The actual
main theme seems to cause mostly puzzlement & confusion; instead of
inspiration & emotional catharsis. So, if JKR wanted to make a Very
Profound Statement about Death, IMO she failed. And IMO the novel even
failed to address death at all in a healthy fashion. By that I mean
that the novel either used really, really lame platitudes (Dying
doesn't hurt a bit! Wow, it's so brave to choose to die, even though
death is totally wonderful! Look how happy & smiling dead Lupin, Lily,
& Sirius are now! Yay, death!) or just totally ran away from the
actual effects that death has upon the living. (No portrayal of the
actual grieving process, no ceremonial mourning rituals, no emotional
catharsis or closure, no sense of healing). It's yet another weirdness
to add to the pile. Deathly Hallows wallowed in Death, but ran away
from death at the same time.


lizzyben