I think you're dead right -- there are no genuinely happy families in the Potterverse. And maybe the most puzzling thing about that is how it squares with the "love" theme. Why does JKR go on and on about Lily's love, when she's also so busy subverting Harry's initial idolization of his parents and his infatuation with the smothering love of Molly Weasley? Why is the sacrifice of Barty's mother one of the most genuinely tragic stories in the book, when the male Crouches themselves are so worthless and unworthy of it? What's the point of love when it creates family relationships that turn poisonous, or smothering, or into a mockery?
It's possible to read this as deliberate sentimentality -- families are a mess, but at least people are trying to show love. Or, just the opposite, to read it as deliberate irony -- for all the hype it gets, love is a pretty futile thing. Or else again, as a clear-eyed meditation on the contradictions of the world -- people do fall in love, and do, also, consistently mess up the people they are closest to, and both things are just part of the way things are.
I can't decide which of these JKR may intend. I'd like to believe she's just taking an honest measure of human nature, in all its messy contradiction, but she really does seem to privilege love: Harry's capacity for it as well as Lily's sacrifice. And she really does seem to have a soft spot for the Weasleys, despite the mercilessness of some of ther characterizations.
Bad faith on the author's part? Or is there a better explanation?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-17 12:51 am (UTC)I think you're dead right -- there are no genuinely happy families in the Potterverse. And maybe the most puzzling thing about that is how it squares with the "love" theme. Why does JKR go on and on about Lily's love, when she's also so busy subverting Harry's initial idolization of his parents and his infatuation with the smothering love of Molly Weasley? Why is the sacrifice of Barty's mother one of the most genuinely tragic stories in the book, when the male Crouches themselves are so worthless and unworthy of it? What's the point of love when it creates family relationships that turn poisonous, or smothering, or into a mockery?
It's possible to read this as deliberate sentimentality -- families are a mess, but at least people are trying to show love. Or, just the opposite, to read it as deliberate irony -- for all the hype it gets, love is a pretty futile thing. Or else again, as a clear-eyed meditation on the contradictions of the world -- people do fall in love, and do, also, consistently mess up the people they are closest to, and both things are just part of the way things are.
I can't decide which of these JKR may intend. I'd like to believe she's just taking an honest measure of human nature, in all its messy contradiction, but she really does seem to privilege love: Harry's capacity for it as well as Lily's sacrifice. And she really does seem to have a soft spot for the Weasleys, despite the mercilessness of some of ther characterizations.
Bad faith on the author's part? Or is there a better explanation?