Sunday, December 25, 2005

A Land where Death is So Cheap…

Gone are the days of Shakespeare when he ‘wasted’ one of his longest plays ‘Hamlet’ where the Prince of Denmark spent half his time soliloquizing ‘To Be or Not To Be’. Today is the era of J. K. Rowling, where the Hero called Harry Potter lives in a world where death comes now and then, in full consciousness or in a pure absence of the brain.

Another edition of The Daily Prophet and one won’t be much surprised on Ron asking Hermione “Is anybody we know dead?” As if it were asking “Is he asleep” or “Is he on a holiday”. Hats off to JKR for that…

It all started with James and Lily Potter. Cedric Diggory and Sirius Black followed suit, and now; of all the people in the Magical world, Dumbledore??? It’s agreed that James and Lily died much before the real adventures began and therefore their death is justified.
Say even Diggory was not as close to the reader’s brain so as his death would affect him to a great extent. But what did the authoress have for Sirius Black? A moment back, he was there, smiling and dueling with his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange. And just in the very next moment – Harry’s Godfather was no more. And did anybody seem to mind it? Of course, nobody did. It might have made just another one in The Daily Prophet – An item of much interest to Rita Skeeter and Luna Lovegood than Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley. Unfortunately, even JKR took this issue as lightly as that of Amelia Bones. But dear JKR, what of your readers? What of those who had been, by now, been so much attached to Sirius… of those who were anxiously waiting for a movie called ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ just to see how their dear Sirius Black looked like? All, in vain!

And now here we have the man who stood by Harry all through the last six long years, Albus Dumbledore – the man who is no more. And what a paradox!!! Life for everybody still remains the same. Harry could still feel the trace of a flowery scent in the air, and recognize Ginny. Fleur still loves Bill even after he is bitten by a werewolf called Greyback under extraordinary conditions. Tonks declares her love for Lupin. Molly Weasley is much more concerned of her injured werewolf-bitten son rather than the dead Dumbledore… and Deputy Headmistress Prof. Minerva McGonagall taking Dumbledore’s seat as the new Headmistress. Everything remains the same, as if this murder was intended to be another one in The Daily Prophet.

What can be JKR’s aim in doing it? Clear enough, she wants her old Harry to be the one and only Supreme Hero. Any effort by any other character in defeating Lord Voldemort would only dilute Harry’s image as the Hero. What philosophy!!!

So who’s going to be the next? Oh my, JKR has a world of options. I won’t be much surprised if any of Lupin, Hermione, Ron Tonks, McGonagall, etc etc etc is the next. Of course any one of the Weasleys won’t mind to die. They are SO many, one less in number and it won’t matter would it? Arthur, Molly, Charlie, Bill, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny… Ay, there’s the rub. Not Ginny! Don’t we see she is our Hero’s latest girlfriends, what if Harry has already denied her for any more ‘snogging’…