CONCLUSION. Chapter-8

Transcription

1 Chapter-8 CONCLUSION I think that the world of Hogwarts, or my magical world, my community of wizards it's like the real world in a very distorted mirror. We're not going off to a different planet, we're not going through timewarps. It is a fantastic world that has to live shoulderby-shoulder with the real world. 1 J.K.Rowling Undoubtedly, Harry Potter is much more than a mere phantasmagoria of magic and flying brooms. J.K.Rowling s seven books Series refutes the notion that fantasy provides only fun at the expense of free rein of imagination and therefore, is remote from reality. Rowling s fantasy clings to real life. Under the garb of magic it is the charm of reality that so attracts the reader. When there is always a dreamland of expectations and aspirations behind all our endeavours, these imaginative flights cannot be flagrant sallies of mind. As Shirley J. Nicholson alludes to Maslow s categorisation of scientists on the basis of their intuitive power, even Einstien s theories are influenced by his intuition and his fantasies: Maslow claimed that Einstein took intuitive leaps that his theories were free inventions of the imagination. His thought experiments were visualisations, often done while he shaved. In one of his thought experiments, Einstein imagined twin brothers, one of whom stayed at home on earth, while the other rode around the universe on a beam of light His revolutionary theory of the relativity of time came to him through his fantasy. 2 Just as fantasy can assist science it reinforces life in Harry Potter. A magical world dexterously camouflaged within the real world is actually like our own world turned upside down. When Harry enters 230

2 the ground of Hogwarts it is certainly astonishing to him to move into a castle wherein the stairs keep moving as well and the ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky outside. 3 It is but not a wonder that wizards are humans of flesh and blood, they breath the same air as we do and relish the same food. Life is as challenging and death is as inevitable in the world of wizards and witches as in the non-magical world. Magic is no guarantee to liberate them from the challenges put before human existence. Like us they struggle to live under all circumstances. Life at Hogwarts is magical but it is not artificial. Harry is not a phantom of the brain but a normal boy though, as Rowling says with a twist. He has his fears, his search for identity like us all. What one feels as a child and an adolescent growing to maturity, is what Harry feels in his journey with Hogwarts: When he first arrives at school he's totally unsure. He has the feelings we all have as adults as well when you enter a new place and you don't know what's going on. But greatly exaggerated obviously by the fact that he is set apart even there by his fame and his ancestry, and this curious quirk that meant that he survived this what should have been a fatal attack. He's every boy... but with a twist. 4 If we imagine Rowling s characters without their magical powers, they become normal humans as we are. They love, express their likes and dislikes and even reveal their hatred. Likwise, family, friends and numerous other ties influence the course of their lives, relationships verify their emotions and feelings. One wonders to see that at the mere age of forty three J.K.Rowling has achieved a fabulous succession to the great fantasy writers like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. However, her art of writing and her 231

3 vision in this genre is quite different from her predecessors. The gusto and vitality with which her books deliver a picture of real life is amazingly fresh and contemporary. Her characters are palpable. They act and react according to their temperament and not conditioned by the writer and her society. With her sharp and penetrating eye Rowling reveals their true colours dark or light whatever they may be. In the real drama of human emotions merits and demerits intermingle so also her characters are subject to commit mistakes like anyone. They are not completely faultless or free of guilt. Hence, these books easily touch the sensitive recessess of the reader s heart and mind. Fantasy without an intensity of truth is like a flower without fragrance. Rowling knows well where to put a full stop to the flights of fantasy. She least encourages the idle suspention of one s duties and over indulgence in automation devices. Dumbledore s suggestion to Harry about the temptation of returning again and again to The Mirror of Erised (which shows man s deepest desire) is a warning against the shortcuts: However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. 5 Harry is not tempted by the power of magic or Voldemort s scary methods to win over death which speaks of itself that fantasy in Harry Potter is more about life than magic. Rowling s philosophy has a depth but the ease with which she ponders over the most difficult and sensitive matters of life lends her moral lessons a practical value. Love, compassion, friendship, loyalty and even death and immortality are her prime concern. Facts of our 232

4 life that usually pass without our notice are delivered in a simpler vein; but they leave a lesson behind, for instance Hermione tells, Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than right. 6 Likewise, in Dumbledore s words Rowling hits at man s everlasting and unlimited desire of gaining more and more worldly pleasures regardless of their degrading effects: You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money ans life as you could want! He two things most human beings would choose above all the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things which are worst for them. 7 The experiences of a real life are always illuminating and Rowling s books are radiant with supreme virtuosity. She seems to emphasise upon tha single quality of man that is his sensitivity above all considerations since man man has stopped being a man in its absence. The modern man s ailment is his indifference to others and it is the root of all distortion and disputes. In Harry Potter every creature magical or non-magical is made to loose his heart displaying all natural emotion. Even the mythical creatures are capable of invoking an upsurge of emotions in the reader. The humanisation of a house-elf despite his being a subhuman confirms Rowling s remarkable emotional sensex. In The Deathly Hallows the death of poor Dobby and his funeral at Harry s hands wrings the reader s heart as the former sacrifices himself for Harry and others. It is an asset of Rowling s revolutionary approach to fantasy genre that has evolved a new link between realism and imagination. The issues are real, the problems are of this worldly. This is why Hogwarts is not situated in some imaginary or visionary land. The wizards have 233

5 their rules of magic but the principles of living are not different from those of a normal life. Their happiness and their agonies emerge as the happiness and agonies of the people in real life and this is what J.K.Rowling wants to make us see. While watching his parents grave orphan Harry fails to hold back his tears: And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off, or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them. 9 Sensing his grief and his wish to pay a tribute to his parents Hermione fulfills the duty of a true friend. Magic brings to the reader the emotions of a boy and the loyalty of a friend: He should have brought something to give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But hermione raised her wand, moved in a circle through the air and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid on his parents grave

6 References 1. "Harry Potter and Me"(BBC Christmas Special, British version), BBC, December 28, 2001,http :// /index.html. 2. Nicholson, Shirley J., The Intuition: Knowledge by Fusion, Theosophical Digest, 3 rd Quarter, Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone, London: Bloomsbury Pub.,2001(1997), p "Harry Potter and Me"(BBC Christmas Special, British version), BBC. 5. Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone, p Rowling J.K., Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, London: Bloomsbury Pub., 2006(2005), p Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone, p Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, London: Bloomsbury Pub., 2000, p.p Ibid. 235

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