Analysis: Chapters Thirty-Four–Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Four represents the climax of the novel,
not only because Harry finally confronts Voldemort without any defense, but
because his long struggle with his doubts about Dumbledore is finally
at an end. Having seen Snape’s final memories in the Pensieve, Harry
has seen his worst fears realized. He feared all along that Dumbledore
did not love him or have his best interests at heart, and now he
sees (or thinks he sees) that Dumbledore knew for Harry’s entire
life that Harry would have to die, and that Dumbledore’s careful
guidance and protection of Harry was all for the sake of sacrificing
Harry. In other words, Dumbledore did not love Harry; there was
something else that he loved, a vision of the future that he treasured,
and he was willing to let Harry die to bring it about.
Paradoxically, Harry’s acceptance that his worst fears
are true frees him from those fears. He finds that he agrees with
Dumbledore: If Harry’s dying is the only way for the world to be
rid of Voldemort, then Harry should die. Dumbledore’s love (or lack
of love) for Harry should not be the thing by which Harry judges Dumbledore.
Dumbledore’s goal was the right one, and Harry finds the courage
to carry it out.
Harry’s reward for this acceptance, of course, comes in
Chapter Thirty-Five, when he gets to meet Dumbledore once more and
see that Dumbledore really did love him. One of the mysteries of
the book, the thing readers are likely to continue pondering long
after they put the book down, is what this meeting with Dumbledore means.
Did Harry die and truly meet Dumbledore in the afterlife before
returning? The answer would seem to be no, since Dumbledore tells
Harry more or less plainly that Harry is not dead
and that this meeting is all in his head—yet real nonetheless. The
epigraph from William Penn stated that friends who die are never
truly lost, and that we can still speak to them and commune with
them fully. The author’s interpretation of this excerpt may be that
when we know and love someone and they die, our mental re-creation
of that person within our own minds is real and meaningful, and
the conversations we have with them within our minds are precious
and real as well. Harry has finally let go of his fears of Dumbledore
lying to him and not loving him, and he has regained Dumbledore—a Dumbledore
he carries within him.
The shuddering child on the floor, whom Harry cannot help,
is a very effective element of the scene, lending just a hint of
horror to counterbalance the generally positive message of the chapter.
The child is horrifying and yet sympathetic, and sticks in our memory because
it is never explained. Clearly, the child is connected to Voldemort,
who took the form of a horrifying baby at the end of Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Perhaps this is what Voldemort becomes
when he passes out at the same time as Harry (as we find in the
following chapter). Perhaps this is Voldemort’s soul, or perhaps only
the fragment of his soul that Voldemort killed when he struck at
Harry.
