(Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers. Please do not read it if you have not yet read the book.)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” suffers from an identity crisis, unable to decide between being a decisive and climactic ending to the series or a mad, frenzied dash through the first six books in an attempt to tie up loose ends. Readers may feel like they have been exposed to a hallucinogen, so sudden and divided are the images, so confusing the supposedly riveting action, and so clunky the wonderful and glorious exposition. The ill-natured Voldemort is at once cast as the most brilliant wizard in the world (save for the illustrious Dumbledore) and the most foolish man on the planet. Contradictions abound as this delightfully problematic book embarks upon the story of Harry’s last and final quest—to destroy the Horcruxes, sundered pieces of Lord Voldemort’s soul.
Harry is nothing if not his usual conflicted, angst-ridden self. Brooding and melancholy as per typical hero requirements, J.K. Rowling, in what she surely sees as a master stroke of literary brilliance, makes sure his world comes crashing down on him. Even his hero is not left intact, for Harry must choose between his blissfully naïve understanding of Dumbledore and the darker, flawed version offered by newspaper reporter Rita Skeeter. Angry at being forced to choose, Harry vows that he desires the truth, that last and most elusive of man’s desires.
Having been sworn to secrecy by the now late Professor Dumbledore, Harry and his friends wander through the woods in an attempt to secure the remaining Horcruxes and destroy them. Unfortunately, they have no idea what they are doing and are aided only by the mysterious gifts left to them in Dumbledore’s will. This leads to conflict and a tearfully important leave-taking by best friend and constant sidekick Ron Weasley. Love interest Hermione Grainger spends several nights sobbing as Harry continues being his moody and disinterested self. Happily, J.K. Rowling is able to work in the theme of constant friendship by having Ron appear in the nick of time to save Harry’s neck. This, in addition to various instances throughout the work where Hermione looks at Ron in great awe as he comes up with something rather clever, is a not-so-subtle attempt on Rowling’s part to recreate Ron’s image and make him worthier of Hermione’s brilliance.
This touching reconciliation leads to a daring attempt to find and obliterate a Horcrux stashed in Gringotts. The Wizarding Bank seems a rather odd place for the most brilliant and powerful wizard in the world to store a piece of his soul, but we follow the trio as they make their dubiously grand entrance and succeed in demolishing the place (albeit unintentionally). Rowling once again allows her trio to escape unscathed and continue on their ambling way.
Having previously discovered the existence of the Deathly Hallows, magical objects that allow their true owner immortality, Harry now turns into a glazed-eyed devotee. Torn between following the orders left by Dumbledore, a man whom he finds increasingly less trustworthy, and following his own desire to become master of the Hallows, Harry must engage in a deep internal struggle. Of course, as this is a Rowling book, he chooses the side of all that is light and good and determines that he must obey Dumbledore’s orders, even from beyond the grave.
But where to go next? Harry wishes to trust the eerie connection between his mind and Voldemort’s, but cautious Hermione urges him to leave that aside and follow in the pathways of Occlumency, thereby closing his mind. Speaking of Occlumency, one wonders where the villain of the hour, Professor Severus Snape, has disapparated to. Are we not anxious to discover his true loyalties? Is he dark and conflicted or good and kind? But Rowling hides him away and permits us very limited access to him. The only problem is her darkly sinister scenes which show him standing by as Voldemort kills others in front of him. These scenes veer so far to depict him as a cruel murderer that we know he has to be good. Otherwise, what was the purpose of all this exposition?
Since everything would be less interesting if Harry were ever wrong (or so Rowling seems to think), his stubborn insistence upon leaving his mind wide open to the advances of Voldemort prove advantageous. He finds that he is correct and that the last and final stand against Voldemort will take place at Hogwarts. Voldemort is the most powerful and threatening wizard in the world at the moment, and yet Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and the other magical wizarding communities seem to have been completely forgotten. Rowling is far more occupied with tying up loose ends and killing off characters than concerning herself with the intricacies of world politics. Indeed, she never follows up on the spectacularly entertaining visit to the Prime Minister of Muggles that takes place in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Though events are vaguely referenced, global politics seem quite unimportant when there are individuals upon whom to focus.
This is at once Rowling’s greatest flaw and greatest strength—her penchant for focusing upon her characters to the exclusion of all else, her desire to develop and create those characters in a meaningful and necessary context. While the major characters certainly develop throughout the book, the work does not succeed as the last in the line of an attempted epic fantasy. The individuals reach maturity and age convincingly; their choices are both powerful and moving. But Rowling prefers to conclude her work with a satisfying bang rather than a more disturbing, subtle, “still small voice” (Kings I 19:13). Of course, for those who prefer a more sophisticated style, this bang is hardly satisfying.
Where does this bang occur, this last grand stand? At Hogwarts, of course. The spectacle should be impressive but comes across as foolish. While Harry dashes around looking for a crown, the last Horcrux, and also finds time to poignantly save nemesis Malfoy’s life out of pity, the teachers arm themselves and participate in a bizarre caricature of a war, complete with Professor McGonagall yelling “CHARGE!” and the destruction of priceless pieces of art. It is quite difficult to take this war seriously. There are no last stands, no strong parting words, nothing that makes it seem real, that makes the deaths seem powerful. Instead, it is one long melee, complete with sound effects and a lot of shouting. This lessens the impact and makes the entire war seem rather ridiculous.
The ending, however, incorporates a mystical understanding of the power of self-sacrifice and love. Harry is required to sacrifice himself for the good of the whole; he must accept death and walk willingly into death, for he is the last and final Horcrux. He accepts his fate and walks to it in a chilling, beautiful scene, but the killing curse cast by Voldemort does not work. Harry finds himself in limbo, in a place that is of his own imagination, and engages in a powerful conversation with Professor Dumbledore, his mentor. Dumbledore explains that he is flawed and Harry is granted his truth. Dumbledore is a far more beautiful character due to his admission that he craved power and that he denied himself this power because he knew that he would fail were he truly tempted.
Since Harry willingly accepts the prospect of his death, he does not die. Instead he returns and succeeds in killing the fearsome Voldemort, but not before cautioning him to try for some remorse, as that would reform his splintered soul. Remorse is a powerful idea in Rowling’s book; she hints that it is Snape’s remorse for having been the spy whose actions indirectly caused the death of Lily Potter, love of his life, that enabled him to kill Dumbledore upon Dumbledore’s orders without severing or splintering his own soul. Snape, in the end, is a redeemed character, a hero through and through, a man who could not be called coward for a moment. Everything he did, he did for love, out of the love he felt for Lily Potter. We finally understand why Harry’s eyes, so like his mother’s, are so important.
Rowling’s book is a success in that she beautifully elaborates upon the themes of love, sacrifice, acceptance, and death. She does this by focusing more upon the individual characters than the political structure of the world she has created, but this is understandable and even forgivable. Although the action is clunky and the references to former books overdone, the end result is quite lovely. While Harry may never equal the grand Frodo Baggins, the weary Taran Wanderer, or the compelling Will Parry, he is sure to dance across the minds of many and lead them to the grand and welcoming vistas of literature and fantasy. Rowling has done a wondrous and magnificent thing in penning her series; her books have fascinated children all over the world and encouraged them to use their minds. She has helped to perpetuate a love of reading and the courageous advance into the realm of the imagination—and for that, if for no other reason, she can and should be respected.
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