When J.K. Rowling entered Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, one of the most contested parts was the ending that took place nineteen years later with the gang and their families at platform 9 3/4. Interestingly enough, this is exactly where the new book, the script of the play just released in London’s West End, begins. The story introduces us fully to Albus, Harry’s middle son and his struggle growing up in the shadow of the world’s savior. The story is poignant and had me choking back tears as I found myself in love with the world of Harry Potter all over again.
Past Suffering
Rowling has never downplayed the struggle of life or it’s unfairness. In direct opposition to so much of popular entertainment, the Harry Potter books have always embraced the ideas of suffer and death as natural. It’s echoed beautifully in the script when Dumbledore’s portrait tells Harry,
“Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.”
It’s a powerful reminder to us all that life is not fair and that suffering is part of all our experiences. Suffering cannot be avoided, therefore you can only control how you let it affect you, mold you and teach you.
Suffering can often lead to the desire to change the past or into destructively obsessing over it, leaving us stuck. The Cursed Child‘s plot is a clear picture of what happens when we mess with time in such ways. Our past, our suffering, our experience make us who we are and the only thing that can change is the future. Harry points this out to Draco in the latter half of part two,
“Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons, not what they needed, what what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.”
Albus is struggling with all of these things plus the thought that he should have done better. This feeling drives him to do something that puts the entire world in extreme peril. So often we as humans are so hard on ourselves, willing to give grace to everyone else but us. Harry lovingly reminds Albus that both of the men that he’s named after were great, but also deeply flawed, we all are. We can do better and the future is wide open for us to, not though self flagellation but though using the lessons of the past change our future.
Conclusion
There are so many continuing Rowling themes in The Cursed Child, family, friendship, the power of love and the nature of life itself; I am honestly still mulling them over. What I can say for certain, this is a worthy addition to the Harry Potter story. Rowling has said that this will be the final story for Harry and if so it’s wonderful to know, all is well. The Cursed Child is rated 4.5 out of 5 wands.
42lifeinbetween.wordpress.com 