CHAPDISC: DH32, The Elder Wand

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184744

- 
> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
> Chapter 32: The Elder Wand
> <snip summary>

Carol:
Wow, Zara! What a model of conciseness--one I'n not going to be able
to emulate with "the Prince's Tale," a long chapter full of dialogue!
> 
> Questions:
> 1) What is with ending chapters with the dramatic deaths of 
characters, including, of course, descriptions of their eyes? (I 
refer the reader to Dobby's sightless orbs staring unseeingly up at
the starry sky *sob*, Fred's eyes that stare without seeing, and 
Snape's eyes, from which "something" vanishes as he dies.) Feel free
to comment on similarities and differences between these three 
character deaths witnessed by Harry.

> 
> 2) Speaking of this something, what are we to make of it? These same
eyes have been elsewhere described thusly: "They were cold and empty
and made you think of dark tunnels". (Empty things have *nothing* in
them.)

Carol: 
I'm combining my responses to thes two questions.

With Dumbledore and other characters who are already dead when Harry
sees them, we get references (as I'll mention in my chapter
discussion) to characters with peacefully closed eyes. Snape, of
course, dies with his eyes open, staring into Harry's but seeing
Lily's (or a bit of Lily in Harry instead of only James). Sightless
eyes that stare without seeing, at least, eyes of people who could see
in life, seem somehow to indicate that life, the senses, the soul have
all left the body. (No other sense organ would serve this purpose,
eyes being the only ones that can open and close. A chest rising and
falling and then ceasing to rise might work (not that breathing is a
sense, but breath indicates life), but it wouldn't be dramatic. Eyes
are often a person's most distinctive feature, and Snape's black eyes
have been frequently mentioned in a number of contexts (as have
Dobby's huge green ones; Fred's haven't been mentione frequently, if
at all.)  

Snape's eyes are tied in with his Occlumency and Legilimency. The
"empty tunnel" passage you mention has always made me think that he
habitually uses at least some level of Occlumency to guard his
thoughts from anyone who might happen to be a Legilimens. In this
chapter, we see them go empty *before* he dies, not, I think, because
of Occlumency but because he fears that he'll die without having given
his message (or memories--I don't know what the original plan was) to
Harry. It reads to me like the emptiness of despair. When he sees
Harry, the spark of life evidently returns to him--a faint hope, a
strong determination, and he somehow summons the strength to perform
perhaps the most impressive instance of wandless magic that we see in
the books. The "something" that Harry sees leave his eyes must be life
itself or the soul. Snape has gone--to join Lily, I hope. (I imagine
him waking to find her as Harry finds Dumbledore. Time would have no
meaning in the afterlife, and she could be with him even as she's
summoned by Harry. Okay, that's my little fan-ficcy hope, not canon!)

> 
> 3) What was your reaction to Snape's death on your first reading of
it? Did the following chapter change your view? Does it affect you
differently on rereading?

Carol:
Pain. Horror. Fury at Voldemort. Loathing for Nagini. Brrr! She makes
my flesh crawl. I can read the chapter now without such violent
reactions. I feel something more like pity now, and I'm glad that
Snape is past his pain, both physical and emotional. Still, I'd rather
that he hadn't died. He was and is my favorite character.
> 
> 4) Voldemort compares Lucius and Snape. What meaning, if any, do you
ascribe to this?

Carol:

Does he? what does he say? I don't see it in your summary and I don't
have time to read the chapter. Both, of course, have been is
right-hand man. Lucius has failed him twice, but Snape--to his
knowledge!--has never failed him. (Snape has satisfactorily answered
Voldemort's erlier doubts.) But the useless, disgraced, wandless
Lucius dies and the brilliant, brave Snape is murdered for a piece of
wood (of which, ironically, he's not even the master). I can't tell
what you were looking for. Sorry.
> 
> 5) Will Zara ask a question that is NOT about Snape? Erm, right,
yes, well
Personally, I prefer the battle scenes in this chapter to
the ones in the previous one, even though the last chapter was named
after the battle. Which is your favorite scene of the first part of 
the battle (feel free to name one from the previous chapter!)? Why?

Carol:
My favorite battle scene hasn't come up yet. It's Neville killing
Nagini. I'm not much of a battle fan, I'm afraid. (If the duel between
snape and McGonagall counts, I rather liked that. Imagine what Snape
could have done if he were actually trying to kill her!)
> 
> 5) What was Draco doing on the upper landing of the marble
staircase, to need rescuing from a Death Eater, in your opinion? What
do you suppose happened to Goyle?

Carol:
Maybe he's still a bit dazed from Crabbe's death and the ordeal in the
RoR and doesn't know what he's doing. No idea what's happened to
Goyle. He's probably still out cold. Maybe Draco was going for help;
maybe he was looking for his parents. He might even have been looking
for a wand. (He can perform a Disillusionment Charm; maybe he wanted
to hide!)
> 
> 6) The Death Eaters brought a giant to the battle, and Grawp fought
him to defend the school. As payoff for Hagrid's back-story, Mme.
Maxime, "Hagrid's Tale", and the Grawp subplot in OotP, was this 
sufficient for you? Why or why not?

Carol:
Actually, they brought two, which was probably as many as they could
control. (I don't suppose Giants are susceptible to Imperius Curses.)
I suspect that Madame Maxime stayed at home; she'd have had a hard
time concealing her house-sized carriage and those Abraxan horses. I
never cared for Grawp or the giant plotline in the first place, so it
was more than enough for me.
> 
> 7) The Slytherin hourglass broke as Harry ran down the stairs into 
the Entrance Hall, just as the Gryffindor one had in the fighting at
the end of HBP. Did you ascribe any particular meaning to this bit of
trivia on your first read? Do you now?

Carol:
The short answer is yes! As a matter of fact, I was going to ask a
question about the Slytherin hourglass in my chapter summary for "the
Prince's Tale." Rather than answer your question right now, I'll just
give my expanded version and see if anybody bites: 

"The floor of the entrance hall is littered with emeralds from the
broken Slytherin hourglass, much as the shattered Gryffindor hourglass
rains rubies onto the floor in "Flight of the Prince" (another
Snape-centered chapter) in HBP. What do you think is the significance
of this repeated but altered detail? What might it symbolize or
foreshadow in both instances? Who do you think cursed the respective
hourglasses and why?"

I'll see what others say and, when I have another moment to breathe
and think, I'll read the responses and add mine.
 
> 8) What was your reaction to Hagrid's defense of the giant spiders
and its results?

"Don't hurt 'em!" (IIRC) is one of those ambiguous lines JKR loves to
write. Sometimes it's the speaker who's not identified. Here it's the
meaning that we need to guess. Does he mean "Don't hurt the
Acromantulas!" or is the telling the Acromantulas not to hurt the
kids? I fear ist's the first case, given his absurd infatuation with
dangerous beasties. Obviously, if it's the second, the Acromantulas
aren't going to listen to him. Pippin thinks they've been Imperiused,
but I think they've been promised *Hagrid* (much as Voldemort promises
both Wormtail and Harry to Nagini in GoF--he has to renege on both
promises, but that's beside the point.) It's poetic justice that
Hagrid is carried off by the spiders. Maybe he learns a lesson. I hope
the loathsome beasts are exterminated in the battle. (It's not as if
the spiders that Ron and Harry follow in CoS were baby Acromantulas,
which would make extermination impossible. "Tiny" baby Aragog was the
size of a Pekingese.)
> 
> 9) How cool was it that Hermione defended Lavender from Greyback? 
(Or, why was it not cool?) Why do you suppose Rowling chose Trelawney
as the person to finish him off?

Carol:
Is Greyback finished? I'm not sure we know that he's dead. It's
certainly good that Hermione, who never had much admiration or
affection for Lavender even before Lavender tried to steal Ron,
defends her from Greyback. It's rather like Snape saving Lupin: she's
not going to watch someone die whoms he can save even if she doesn't
like the person. Or, to paraphrase what Quirrell says of Snape in
SS/PS, she hates her but she doesn't want her to die. As for choosing
Trelawney to "finish off" Greyback--might as well put those crystal
balls to *some* good use! 
> 
> 10) Luna, Ernie, and Seamus's Patronuses are revealed to be, 
respectively, a hare, a boar, and a fox. Do they suit your ideas of
these characters? Why or why not?

Carol:
Well, a Patronus is a spirit guardian and doesn't necessarily reflect
the character himself or herself. Snape's doe Patronus reflects Lily,
not him, just as Tonks' new Patronus reflects Lupin and Harry's
reflects James. If, say, Luna's hare reflects her hare-brained father,
I'd say it's appropriate. A boar is strong and fierce (and a heraldic
symbol associated with Richard III). It may fit Ernie's long line of
warlock ancestors. A fox for Seamus? Are foxes associated with Irishness?
> 
> 11) Hermione tells Ron "Are you a wizard, or what?" when he regrets
Crookshanks cannot open the Willow for them. This echoes the moment in
PS/SS when Ron said the same to Hermione as she worried frantically
that she has no matches. What does this serve, in your view? Do you
see other mirrors in this chapter?

Carol: 
JKR is coming full circle with a number of lines and images, the
Slytherin and Gryffindor hourglasses among them. The motif of Lily's
eyes, partially developed with Slughorn in HBP, reaches its
culmination here (though it will resurface in the flashback chapter,
"Prince's Tale"). But as I didn't have time to reread the chapter
before responding, I can't recall any others off hand.
> 
> 12) Please excuse the length of these last. They concern the
"official" subject of this chapter as expressed by the title. I begin
with some quotes from the text and an observation.
> 
> "Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?" <snip>
> "I do not understand. You – you have performed extraordinary magic
with that wand."
> 
> This seems to me to establish the fact that Snape is aware Voldemort
has acquired a new wand, and has been for some time.  If you 
disagree, part a) of the question can be explaining to me why I am 
wrong. <g> What, if anything, does Snape's choice of the words
"extraordinary magic" suggest to you? Would you expect Snape 
recognized the new wand as the one Dumbledore has had throughout
Snape's entire life?

Carol:
I don't have time for a lengthy response, but I'll just say that this
segment was one of the least believable for me. The last time that
Voldemort has any contact with Voldemort is right *before* Voldemort
breaks open Dumbledore's tomb with the yew wand. (Snape seems shocked
by the revelation that LV has taken the wand from the tomb, so he must
have sealed it back up to conceal the horror of his crime.) That
happens around Easter break, right after "Malfoy Manor," IIRC, so
Voldemort has had the wand for about a month. However, the only
"extraordinary magic" (aside from mass murder of DEs) that Snape could
know LV performed with that wand is Nagini's bubble.

There's simply no reason to believe that Snape has seen him perform
magic with that wand--which he perhaps doesn't recognize as
Dumbledore's until LV mentions the grave robbing) or to indicate that
the wand isn't performing as LV expects it to. What's more
extraordinary than extraordinary? If he's performing extraordinary
magic, as he's always done with a wand perfectly suited to him, and
this wand is performing equally well, what is he complaining about?
It's like saying, "My wife is perfectly beautiful, but I want a wife
who's *perfectly beautiful!" Anyway, IMO, JKR's writing is at its
nadir in this section of the chapter. (The death of snape, though I
hate it, is a brilliant piece of writing.)
> 
> 13) Do you think the acquisition of this new wand might be a matter
Severus would have mentioned to Albus? Why or why not, and what do 
you suppose Albus would have said back, if yes? 

Carol:
Certainly, snape would have mentioned it to Portrait Dumbledore if
he'd known about it. IMO, he didn't know, with tragic consequences.
> 
> 14) How do you feel about not knowing the answers to these questions
about two major characters and the magical artifact that settled the
central conflict of the series?

Carol:

The same way I feel about the whole Elder Wand plot. Annoyed.

Thanks for tackling a difficult chapter. I couldn't have done it.

Carol, going to bed now and expecting to disappear from the list again
for a while!