Abstract
Death is no less a subject of interest when life itself is a waking dream; a dream which none of us would wish to break soon. This paper examines the delineation of death and immortality in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Through her seven novels, Rowling explores the themes of death, the quest for immortality, and the acceptance of mortality as fundamental aspects of the human condition. The contrast between Harry’s brave acceptance of death and Voldemort’s desperate quest to conquer it forms the central thematic tension of the series.
Keywords: Harry Potter, death, immortality, Voldemort, J.K. Rowling, near-death experience
Death in the Harry Potter Series
To discuss and deal with death is to discuss and deal with the biggest apprehension in life. But Rowling goes as far as making this fear vivid to us with an almost cathartic effect. Her characters put forth their subconscious fear of death instinctively and she makes no attempt of any sort of bravery if they show what they feel.
The outset of the story brings to us the one year old little baby Harry who has lost both of his parents at the cruel hands of Lord Voldemort. The protagonist Harry enters the scene with deaths already set in the background denoting the dominance of death throughout the Series. Death pervades the atmosphere. Voldemort’s fear of death drives him mad to the extent that he recklessly kills people only to pave his path to immortality. But Harry faces death time and again, only to shatter Voldemort’s evil designs.
Voldemort’s Quest for Immortality
Thus Voldemort goes through ‘a half-life, a cursed life’ a life more terrible than death only in the hope to rejuvenate, to come back to his own by defeating death once for all. In this maddening pursuit, he loses all that is essential for a worthy existence — love, compassion, fraternity and above all humanity.
Voldemort tries to defeat death up to the end of the series but death remains what it is — an inevitable truth which impartially treats all muggles or wizards alike. Sean Harris points out in his biography of Rowling, ‘One of the most interesting features of Harry Potter saga is that characters can die. Magic cannot cheat death.‘
The Ghosts and the Afterlife
The matter of life and death in Harry Potter moves beyond the apparent struggle of man between life and death and his quest for immortality. There is another dimension of Rowling’s exploration. The presence of ghosts in the books reveals more of her intentions. The ghosts of Hogwarts specifically, Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron, the Friar and the Gray Lady serve greater roles than they appear to be playing. They are there not just to create supernatural effect or for comic relief they often provide; behind their very presence is the deep concern of the writer for the unresolved mysteries of life, death and immortality.
Near-Death Experiences and King’s Cross
The best of Rowling’s ideas and opinions about life and death seem to sum up in the seventh and final novel when Dumbledore shares with Harry his philosophy of life and death in the chapter King’s Cross. The truth dawns upon Harry as well as the reader that death cannot be a bigger concern when life itself has many secrets to unfold before us and in this spirit Voldemort’s desire for immortality seems futile. With a tinge of morality Rowling imagines a peaceful and holy departure to the good and selfless people as we find in almost near-death experience of Harry when he finds himself with Dumbledore at a strange place full of peace.
Rowling comes up with a brilliant definition of immortality when Dumbledore declares: “You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.”