Topic: Thematic concern in Harry Potter and

Deathly Hallows

Name: Rasila Jambucha

Semester: 4

Paper: 13 The New Literatures

Roll no: 22

Year: 2013-2015

Submitted to: Smt. S.B.Gardi,

Department of English

M.K.Bhavnagar University.

love

Sacrifice

Perseverance power

Choice

Death Good vs. Evil

Minor Theme

The Difficulty of loving the Dead

• Doubts Harry feels

-Dumbledore really loved him?

( when he learns Dumbledore had a mother and sister buried in the same place as Harry’s parents)

Importance of second chance

• Once Snape was a death eaters

- earlier = working for Voldemort

- but then, helping Dumbledore in his mission

(when he knows, Voldemort kills Lily)

• Ron character

- earlier = help Harry

- then, when things get too tough he give up because of some misunderstanding or jealousy. i.e. wearing locate horcrux

- then he realizes his mistake and come back again

Keeping faith with the Dead

• Believing in Dumbledore’s quest after he is dead is not easy for Harry

• Snape: loyal follower of Dumbledore but also he was loyal to Lily Potter

- keeping faith with the women he loved after her

death

• Dobby the house-elf gets himself killed saving Harry and his friend

- and dies in Harry’s arms

• the process of burying Dobby helps put Harry

into a better frame of mind about his mission

- then Harry reminds that, he made a promise to

his dead friend that he needs to honor

love

• Tom Riddle

- grew without the unconditional love and care

- in early life because of lack of love = find sociopathic

qualities

- he also murders his father and grandparents and uses

their death to create horcrux

• Snape loves Lily

- Voldemort kills Lily

( if he didn’t kill her, then he still have had a loyal servant and Harry might have been successfully killed long ago)

• Harry has friend

(they believe in him and his mission)

• Voldemort has followers

(they have fear that he kill him)

Death

• To create a horcrux is through the murder of another

• Voldemort greatest fear: killing others to save his life

• James and Lily Potter surrender to death to save their son

• Harry face death bravely

(when at the end Voldemort invite him to meet in the

forest and he look ‘golden snitch’

“ I open at the close”

• He realizes that can only be opened as he is facing his death

• Using Resurrection stone :

- recalls his loved ones temporarily from death

- gains courage to face Voldemort and his own death

• Dumbledore -

‘'Do not pity the dead Harry, pity the living.”

Good vs. Evil

• Voldemort and Death Eaters represent the “Evil”

• Harry and his friend represent the “good”

• Snape character (complex)

Sacrifice

• Lily’s sacrifice herself for Harry

• Harry give up his life to save the world and others

choice

• After Dumbledore’s death he’s lost the guiding light and got chance to make his own decision

• If he might take wrong decision, then many people affected by his decision

• Voldemort, at the end , is given a chance at redemption but he refuse

• Dumbledore -

“ It is our choices Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities”.

perseverance

• Harry, Ron and Hermione continuously try and figure out how to destroy Voldemort

• All of the intertwining stories that emerges here are about keeping faith and staying true to a mission

• Perseverance is the name of the game, and all of our character play it

power

• Voldemort’s thirst for power takes him on a torturing and murdering spree.

Work citation

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/potter7/themes.html

from this site I found three major themes

http://www.shmoop.com/harry-potter-7-deathly-hallows/themes.html

from this site I found other themes