Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapters 33-34
Mark True statements with a “T” and False statements with an “F.” Write your answers to the discussion points in the com boxes below.
1._____ The resurrected Voldemort restores Pettigrew’s right arm with a magical silver hand. He then calls the Death Eaters by touching the Dark Mark tattoo on Wormtail’s left inner arm. “How many will be brave enough to return?”
2._____ Voldemort’s “true family returns,” fall to their knees, and kiss the hem of his robes. The Dark Lord does not forgive or forget. “I want thirteen years’ repayment before I forgive you.” The Death Eaters thank him for his mercy.
3._____ Voldemort tells the story of his being vaporized at Godric’s Hollow, how he survived, and the string of good fortune that brought Peter Pettigrew to look for him, Bertha Jorkins to Albania, and the Dark Lord back to the UK.
4._____ Voldemort regains his first body (the nasty baby) via a potion he makes with Pettigrew’s help out of unicorn blood and snake venom. For the re-birthing potion he needed flesh of a servant, bone of the father, and blood of a fiend.
5._____ Voldemort hits Harry with a Cruciatus Curse. His insistence on using Harry becomes clear. He tells the Death Eaters that “I am now going to prove my power by killing him….You will be left in no doubt which of us is the stronger.”
6._____ The battle between Harry and the Dark Lord begins as a wizard’s duel. Harry is forced to bow, suffers the Cruciatus Curse, and then falls under the spell of the Imperius Curse. Harry escapes when a Death Eater accidentally interrupts.
7._____ Harry and Voldemort’s spells meet in midair “and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold.” The two “were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light.”
8._____ With Phoenix Song in the air, Harry forces a bead of light into the Dark Lord’s wand which emits “echoing screams of pain” and five human figures.
9._____ Cedric’s figure begs Harry to tell Cho he loved her while his parents tell him how to escape. All the figures close in upon Voldemort and the light cage collapses when Harry breaks the connection and runs for the Portkey Cup.
10._____ Dodging curses and headstones, Harry runs to Cedric before Voldemort gets the drop on him. As the Dark Lord raises his wand, Harry “Accio!”s the Portkey in a Cup just in the nick of time. “He heard Voldemort’s scream of fury.”
Discussion Points: What are Voldemort’s reasons for wanting to use Harry’s blood for his resurrection brew? How does Harry’s escape amount to a counter-resurrection on his part? The Dark Lord’s speech to his followers tells us what about him? Them? Contrast this Wizard’s Duel between Harry and Voldemort with the duel at the end of Order of the Phoenix, and the two duels in Deathly Hallows, noting especially the attitude of Voldemort versus that of Harry. What determines the outcome of each duel? Which elements change? Which elements remain the same?
[JAB] At long last–some answers!
1.F/T The entire statement is actually true, however the order of events listed implies that Voldemort restored Pettigrew’s hand before the other items when in fact Voldemort made Pettigrew suffer for a long time before restoring his hand.
2. T
3. T
4. F The statement fails on the last word which should read “foe”.
5. T
6. F There is no interruption, Harry defeats the Imperious Curse outright.
7. T
8. T
9. F Cedric does not mention Cho (although Cho will later ask if he did.)
10. T
Under discussion points:
Voldemort used Harry’s blood so that he could acquire a portion of the shield Lily gave Harry–and inadvertently set up the scenario for his own downfall by providing Harry a way back from the verge of death in DH.
Harry is not “in his grave”, but he is bound helpless to a gravestone; yet he overcomes apparent certain death to escape at the last minute. Symbolically, if not literally, returning from the Dead. Each Resurrectee had to have assistance along the way, neither Harry not Voldemort could “come back” by themselves. So there is a great deal of parallelism in the two story lines.
The Dark Lord’s speech indicates that in Voldemort’s opinion, he is all that matters in all the world. Everything in the whole world is defined to him in terms of whether it helped or hindered him on his journey to his destiny. To LV, his followers have no reason for existing except to serve him. In complementary fashion, his followers accept this role! They fear Voldemort, and are attracted to that fear hoping that by ingratiating themselves to the Dark Lord, they will escape being harmed by him. It is a relationship based on Mutual Assured Terror. The Terror is mutual because all through the speech LV continuously dwells on his despair that any of his “loyal” followers would ever come. LV is terrified his followers won’t follow.
The contrast of the various duels between Harry and LV shows an interesting progression:
The first meeting, that could barely be called a duel occurs in Philosopher’s Stone where Harry is an untried stripling with no idea whatsoever of how to resist or defend himself; but LV is also a captive existing only in Quirell’s head. Harry outsmarts (or out “good intentions”) LV, but it is Dumbledore that sends LV fleeing in terror.
The next duel (CofS) has Harry starting to take the initiative and do something resembling fighting, but LV isn’t really there, just a hint of a long ago former self that can’t apparently do much more than sic other monsters on Harry…although he is getting stronger all the time. Harry “wins” but “dies” in the process. Fawkes saves the day so many times that it can hardly be said that Harry “won”.
The next duel is in the Shrieking Shack in PofA. Here LV technically is not present at all. The duel is between Harry the Avenger and Harry the Justice Seeker. Harry the Just wins in a symbolic victory of the Ethos of Dumbledore (Love and Forgiveness) over the Ethos of Voldemort (Hate and Vengance).
Then we hit GOF’s duel. Lord V is wholly restored, and although he is still doing “stretching” exercises he appears to have Harry dead to rights. Harry escapes when 1) LV underestimates Harry’s power (H. escapes the Imperius Curse) 2) Harry offers unexpected strong resistance, 3) the wands suddenly take over the duel. 4) Harry is able to (unwittingly but effectively) summon aid from LV’s past victims.
In future duels, we see the pattern continuing of Harry getting stronger and LV and his minions failing to realize the extent of Harry’s resources. But in DH we see the ultimate conundrum of the series, and of the Christian story as well. It is by total sacrificial surrender that Harry wins; and in the end, it is LV’s own wand and curse which rebound to finally do him in. But those are stories for another quiz;-)