A Character Bound By Prophecy - A Character analysis of Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter By: Madden Still
Hello,
Over our thanksgiving break I gained another hyper fixation, this time being Harry Potter. I've been going through the first book as of recent and now that I'm older, I'm realizing more and more things I missed when I was obsessed with the series at the ripe age of eight or nine. One of which being how the whole "Boy Who Lived" prophecy is depicted so I wanted to go over that in this blog.
SPOILER WARNING (If you somehow don't know the plot of Harry Potter)
As most of us know, Harry Potter's parents are killed by Voldemort while they're in their hidden house in Godric's Hollow. He uses a curse to murder Harry's parents and tries to do the same to him but Harry somehow survives with no more than a scar on his forehead. This seems like an impossible task for a newborn baby to accomplish however he succeeds because of a charm his mother placed on him right before he died. Now you might be wondering how Voldemort found them if they were in a hidden area. This Segway's into my discussion on fate in this series.
Dumbledore, a character we all get to know and love throughout this series is very aware of the prophecy that a boy born at the end of July would someday defeat the dark lord. Dumbledore entrusted the information of Harry's parents whereabouts to somebody who would then go on to tell Voldemort where they were located. This seems like an oversight on Dumbledore's end but it isn't. He knew that Peter Pettigrew would snitch and he told him anyway. Why? Dumbledore was painfully following the prophecy the entire story, secretly ensuring that Harry would someday defeat Voldemort. I found this very interesting because when I was young and watching the movies, I thought that dumbledor was simply a nice old man who also happened to be a very powerful wizard but now looking back on it, I realized how deep of a character Dumbledore is.
If I knew that Dumbledore was indirectly responsible for Harry's parents death when I was younger, I don't think I could see him as anything but a villain. Now that I look back on the books I'm realizing how many sacrifices Dumbledore made in hopes of Harry being able to bring peace to the wizarding world and stop Voldemort's evil reign once and for all. I encourage you to go back and read some of your favorite stories from you childhood. Who knows, you might learn to love a character you once thought was shallow.
Wow this is a super interesting take. I had never considered before that Dumbledore might have indirectly caused Harry's parents' deaths so Harry could be the one to defeat the dark lord. This post definitely helped me see a different side of Dumbledore I had never thought of before, because like you, I was under the impression that Dumbledore was just a kindly grandfather figure. I might have to reread these books to see if I can pick up on more of the subtleties of his character and others.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I loved about his character was that he was made out to be a perfect man in the beginning. As we see Harry's perspective change (especially in book five), that's when we first see him for what he might be. He starts to hate Dumbledore, and his portrayal in the books is made much worse through the fifth. From sixth to the end, you see Harry and his perspective mature, and as such his position on Dumbledore. I think your perspective from being younger and growing to writing this analysis is a great comparison to Harry's own perspective changing.
ReplyDeleteGood post. I was interested reading this othersided analysis of Dumbledore, risk killing a few, to potentially save many more. I however never finished the last book, so I don't know what happened.
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