Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Too Dark for the Kids?
by Marilyn Green Faulkner
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, like its three companions, works best when it relaxes into a rhythm of riddle and mystery, treachery and victory, all centered in the delightful characters who walk the halls of Hogwarts.
At Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft, it’s another “Defense Against the Dark Arts” lesson with Mad-eye Moody, the sworn enemy of Lord Voldemort and his followers. Harry and his companions are horrified as Moody demonstrates the three forbidden curses on some hapless spiders. The results are indeed terrible to witness, as the spiders twitch and writhe in pain. With the last curse a spider is instantly murdered, in the very way Harry knows his parents were murdered. Moody completes the demonstration with this warning:
“Why am I showing you?” Because you’ve got to know. You’ve got to appreciate what the worst is. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you are facing it. “CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” he roared, and the whole class jumped again.” (217)
Like Harry and his friends, we would prefer to skip much of the graphic violence in the Harry Potter series. We’d rather enjoy a “Disney” version where the villains only threaten to do evil and don’t actually kill and torture people. This anchor volume, weighty at 734 pages, refuses to take that easy route. This is the darkest and scariest of the volumes. There are two murders in the first chapter alone, followed by more deaths, torture and a terrifying trial scene where a father, as judge, condemns his own son to a horrible fate. At its climax the evil Lord Voldemort returns to life through some very black magic. As usual the good guys often turn out to be bad guys and vice-versa. Rowling’s fiction has met with increasing criticism from conservative Christian groups for its use of magical elements (though most of the criticism from those quarters seems to come from people who have not actually read the books) and its dark themes. Since this is one story told in seven parts, this fourth volume gives us a better idea of where Rowling is headed with this fascinating series. Is Harry Potter still worthy of his fame? And, more importantly, is this series too violent and scary for children?
By way of exhaustive research on this issue I asked my son, Blake, what he thought about the Goblet of Fire, and he replied that he liked it the best of the four. When asked why, he said he liked the Tri-wizard tournament and the tasks that Harry had to face, especially the third one with the tricky riddle.
“Did you think the book was too scary?” I asked.
“No, I thought it was cool.”
“Did it upset you when that father sent his son back to prison and the dementors? I could hardly read that part out loud to you.”
“Oh, well, no, that didn’t scare me too much.”
“How about when Cedric died? That was terrible.”
“Yeah, well, it was sad, but the duel between Harry and Voldemort was so exciting, and that whole thing with the wands was great.”
From this conversation I learned that I have no idea what nine-year old children are thinking, or what scares them, since it seems to be a different set of things that scare their mothers! The decision we have to make as parents is whether to expose our children to this disturbing portrayal of evil in order to have them experience the thrill of overcoming it vicariously through Harry’s experiences. Personally, I think it’s worth it. As I discussed in the article, Harry Potter and the Uses of Enchantment, if it isn’t scary, the story does not engage the emotions of the child. It is the truly evil villain in the story that makes the triumph of the hero meaningful. If the witch isn’t really going to put Hansel and Gretel in the oven, or cut out Snow White’s heart, she really isn’t worth fighting. So, even though the villains are scary and the violence is sometimes graphic, if your child loves these books I wouldn’t worry too much about them, and just be happy they want to read a good, fairly difficult book. The moral values expressed by Rowling are so strong that they are great messages for children, and adults as well. These are so much better than most of the books kids are reading today that I welcome them.
Having said that, I’ll venture a comment or two about what the Harry Potter series is not. First, it’s not great literature, nor is it meant to be. The Potter series is what my old mentor, Arthur King, would have called “high escape.” Like the Hobbit books, they are meant to entertain on a high moral level, and they succeed. Much of the excitement of the books comes from the mysteries and riddles in each volume. There is always a question about who the villains are. When the mystery of each volume is revealed, it loses some of its appeal. Rereading the books is less interesting than one would expect, and this is an indicator when analyzing the nature of the books. The unusual popularity of the series has led some to rate them as classics. (I was surprised, for example, to see a Harry Potter book on the reading list for a college literature course this fall.) This is an example of popularity being confused with canonical worth. A classic of literature only emerges over time, and only time will tell where the Potter books will stand in the ranks of children’s literature.
Second, the Potter books are not the only books out there! Once your child has finished the series, capitalize on their new interest in reading by providing some other wonderful children’s classics. Rowling lists Ellen Nesbitt and Edgar Eager as two of her favorite authors. We enjoyed Eager’s Half-Magic series, and also Nesbitt’s The Enchanted Castle. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, is one of the greatest of the children’s series, and has the additional appeal of being a Christian allegory. Tolkein’s Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring trilogy will also appeal to children with a taste for fantasy. Frank Baum’s Oz books are delightful and the Redwall series has thrilled millions of children. Rather than read the Potter series over and over, encourage your child to branch out in the fantasy realm.
Finally, one criticism of the Goblet of Fire is that it bogs down over Rowling’s need to make social commentary. The best novels map the human heart and let the moral messages come as a by-product, and the first three novels in the series seemed content to do this. In this book, Rowling uses the relationships between magical folk and “muggles” to explore the social ills of bigotry and prejudice. She uses the plight of the house-elves to take a position on slavery, and even uses giants as a means of exploring the alienation of those who are in some way different. All of this is clever and useful when not pushed to an extreme, but in this volume the story sometimes gives way before the didacticism. Virginia Woolf, an astute critic of literature, said:
All novels…deal with character, and this it is to express character – not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved. (Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, 1924)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, like its three companions, works best when it relaxes into a rhythm of riddle and mystery, treachery and victory, all centered in the delightful characters who walk the halls of Hogwarts. Harry is a moral, serious boy who still has a sense of humor, a wonderful role model for any child, with his kind heart and his great sense of right and wrong. There is the bookworm Hermione and fun-loving Ron, the saintly Dumbledore and the kind giant Hagrid. Rowling’s characters are never flat and dull. Hermione may break a rule now and then and Ron may grow bitter with envy. Harry may suffer from jealousy and Hagrid may occasionally drink too much! This lends them a humanity that transcends the stereotypes in most children’s fiction today. Don’t worry about the villains in Harry Potter, rejoice that there are heroes out there for our children to emulate. As Mad-eye Moody says, you have to know the worst that is out there in order to have “constant vigilence!” It’s a sentiment we can appreciate, while enjoying a creative and delightful series we can share with our kids.
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