ChapDisc - DH 16, Godric's Hollow

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182131

Alla wrote:
 
> Well, actually I do not see that it does, differ from DE philosophy
that is.
> 
> Let me explain myself. I am not talking about the whole passage, of
 course it IS different from DE philosophy in the sense that if one 
lets Jesus in his heart, he will live forever with Jesus in heaven,
NOT that one would live forever on earth as Voldemort and DE seem to
want to.
> 
> But imagine that you read only this one sentence:
> 
> "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
> 
> I really and truly understand why Harry was confused. I mean, that's
what Voldemort and Co want, to destroy death and live forever, don't they?
> 
> So, I get why he thought that, I would have thought the same thing,
had I not known.
> 
> To make a long story short, no I do not think the sentence itself
differs in any shape or form from DE philosophy.
> 
> The complete passage and the interpretation of course do differ, but
IMO not the sentence itself.

Carol responds:
I understand why Harry would think that, but Hermione clearly
understood the allusion to an afterlife. (After all, they were in a
churchyard!)

To me, the clear difference between DE philosophy, which is based on
the fear of death as annihilation, and the epitaph is that Voldemort,
in particular, is seeking to defeat death through earthly immortality
whereas the epitaph, even out of context, relates to the eternal life
of the soul, as Harry might have realized if he had thought about the
graveyard being a Christian cemetery on the grounds of a church. It's
ironic, IMO, that the churchgoers were celebrating the birth of Christ
while Harry was mourning what he thought was the permanent loss of his
parents. (We see how wrong he was in "The Forest Again" and "King's
Cross.")

Voldemort fears death and tries to conquer it by splitting his soul
and hiding it in Horcruxes. Ultimately, he fails (and, judging from
the horrible "child" in "King's Cross," pays a terrible penalty for
his ignorance and hubris, not to mention violence and selfishness and
cruelty). Neither Dumbledore nor wise little Luna fears death; both
know that it isn't the end but a new beginning.

Harry, at the nadir of his self-confidence and courage and hope and
faith in Dumbledore, sees death as the end, exactly as Voldemort does.
But it was obvious to me, at least, that Voldemort would be proven
wrong and Dumbledore right. You can't defeat death through earthly
immortality; death is the eternal life of the soul--nothing to fear,
only "the next great adventure."

Carol, who had no doubt whatever that Harry and the narrator were
wrong in this instance