“Welcome, Death Eaters,” said Voldemort quietly.
Do my blonde locks make me look badass?
Goblet of Fire brings the Death Eaters into the spotlight, which means they get an entry all to themselves.
So I’ve been trying to figure out the motivation behind the Death Eaters, beyond the easy go-to assumption that they are just flat out evil. While this is obviously a Good vs. Evil story, I think it’s unfair to lump all the Death Eaters into one psychotic group. There’s depth there, which I guess is to be expected when there’s 4,000+ pages in which to establish it.
First off, what is the goal of the Death Eater organization? What is their platform? If you were to make a bumper sticker showing your support of the Death Eaters’ rise to power, what would that bumper sticker say? From what I can tell, the Death Eaters are interested in obtaining total power through any means necessary, and subsequently ridding the wizarding world of unpure Muggle blood. So the Death Eaters…are Nazis…with wands.
Kidding! Sort of…
I’m not trying to trivialize a historical atrocity by comparing it to a children’s book about magical people. I’m just noticing the architype – one of many that appears in the series. And yes, I can relate anything back to WWII if you give me enough time. Could you imagine Saving Private Ryan with wands?!?!
Anyway…
So we have the Death Eaters’ motivation. Good! Okay, so what makes a wizard become a Death Eater? What inspires this particular life choice? For Voldemort, I think it’s a massive case of “My parents never loved me” gone horribly ary. Maybe he’s the only actual psychopath. There can be one – just not a huge group. Again, it would be a cop-out to assume that all of the Death Eaters are psychopaths. Not only is it a broad assumption, but it makes for a dull story. So let’s call an evil crazy spade and evil crazy spade, until more details are provided to prove otherwise. Well done. Moving on.
Wormtail is clearly a Death Eater cause he’s too scared not to be. He’d weasle (weasley?) his way into whatever situation looked most benificial. He’s like me with the Phillies – a complete Fair Weather Fan.
Lucius Malfoy, on the other hand, is a Muggle-hater with a superiority complex and the intelligence to combine the two into a Maltov cocktail of “Awww…crap!”. He’s potentially the most dangerous of the bunch. The only wizard who may out-flank Mr. Malfoy is Snape himself, but he hasn’t fully turned coat yet.
This leaves Draco, a character I feel worse for as the series progresses. He’s a product of his surroundings, born into a family of Death Eaters and told throughout his life about the greatness of Voldemort and how folks like the Potters and Dumbledore will polute the old wizarding ways. Now he finds himself at the world’s most awkward age, stuck in a Dumbledor/Harry Potter sandwich. It’s not easy being the bad guy. This is why I still hold out hope for this little mop-headed albino. I know he joins the Death Eaters in later books, but I don’t think he’s a complete wash. The ultimate moment for me would be Draco joining forces with Harry in some way, shape, or form. I have a hard time accepting that the series would let one child go bad without redemption.
Then there’s the issue of the abscent Death Eaters - I kind of want to keep track of them, because I know there will be a major Azkaban breakout (I’m remembering more big moments from upcoming books as we get closer to the films I’ve seen recently). But right now, it’s all just a scramble of names. The Lestranges are in Azkaban, Macnair works for the Ministry, Crabbe and Goyle are alive and free and present (surprise) – not to mention the names that came up during the trial – Dolohov, Travers, and Mulciber are in Azkaban, Rockwood probably ended up there after the trial, and Rosier is dead. As for Snape? Well, Voldemort doesn’t mention him, so…
Okay, I know he kills Dumbledore. But I find the whole thing really confusing. Was he keeping Harry alive earlier so that Voldemort could kill him, or because he didn’t know Voldemort was gaining power? Is Snape bad throughout the entire series, or does he go back to being bad? Does he ever become good again?
Is Dumbledor actually not killed, but instead Snape kills someone under the influence of Polypotion Juice who looks like Dumbledore?
Yeah, I don’t believe that last one either.
You’re not too far off with the Nazi reference and the Death Eaters. JK said she looked at many groups like the Nazis before she fleshed out the Death Eaters. An additional interesting note is JK said that when the Muggle world is at war the wizarding war tends to be at war and vice versa. It’s not a coincidence that Dumbledore defeated Grindewald in 1945…
Do you ever get the feeling that J.K. Rowling put entirely too much thought into this series? I mean, to sit down and go into this much detail without knowing if the first book will even take off…gutsy.
She has volumes and volumes of histories for each character. She had the whole series planned before she ever wrote the first book.
Gutsy? Mmmmmmmmmm, yeah — that or … just really, really detail-oriented.
I find outlining to be the most painful part of writing. It’s a necessary evil, emphasis on the evil part. If the outlined story never gets written, or the written story never gets published, it feels like such a waste.
Now look at how much Rowling outlined to get this series together, and I can’t help but say she’s gutsy as hell. That is commitment!
Dumbledore.
Sorry, that was bothering me.
Yeah, there are a wide variety of spelling variations in this blog for certain words: Dumbledore, Voldemort, Quidditch. My spell check HATES me right now.
I don’t think it’s trivialising a major historical event to compare it to children’s books. I think it’s trivialising to children’s literature to say that it can’t cope with major historical events, or that kids can’t. It’s one of my pet irks to see children’s lit being dismissed just because it is for children. It’s one of the things I really like about the HP series – that Rowling doesn’t shy away from tackling big themes (like the Holocaust) or putting big dark horrible things in – that she understands that writing for children does not mean that all your characters have to be cute fluffy bunnies that learn a lesson and share their carrots with the other bunnies, and no one ever dies, they just go off to “the farm” or something…
Sorry, here endeth the rant.
So, I just discovered your blog, and have been reading it from the beginning. I find it very amusing and fun. I am an aspiring theatre person as well, so there is an added smile when I read your posts.
Several people have mentioned this before, but completely agree with the Nazi reference. I think the connections go very deep, especially in the seventh book, since you’ve finished the books, maybe you talk about this later, but I haven’t gotten that far in your blog yet. I read the seventh book when it came out, when I had free time at band camp. I kept thinking, government infiltration, control of schools, a leader instituting the “purification” of a race by killing those he feels are unworthy, and the leader is himself not what he and his followers deem perfect and worthy? This is the Third Reich with magic. I am so glad actually someone sees these connections. I bring up my theory with friends, and so many people tell me, “Well, I never thought about it, but I guess that works.”
Welcome!
What are of theatre are you hoping to go in to?
Thanks! So far, I’m an actress. I love being onstage, but I’m looking into directing/writing as well. You said your show went well. I’m glad. Out of curiosity, what show were you directing?
Around October/November, I was directing Sondheim’s “Company”. In February/March/April, it was Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.
It kept me crazy busy and so sadly, put Harry Potter on a bit of a back burner.
Are you working on any shows?
That’s awesome! I love Company. I’m a big Sondheim fan (I adore musicals in general, but Sondheim is amazing). I was in four shows this last school year (I’m in college now). Currently, I’m not doing anything, but I’ll be auditioning for a community theatre production of Waiting for Lefty soon.
omg I cannot WAIT for the Blog entries about the last book… uuuuh you will be flabberghasted I am sure…
I love it when you say Polypotion Juice instead of Polyjuice Potion. I don’t know why, but I burst out laughing every time. That should have been its name!
Just nitpicking, but you keep misspelling Dumbledore as “Dumbldor.” There’s an ‘e’ at the end. Sorry. XD
*misspelling it as “Dumbledor.” See, I’ve gone and made a typo as well! XD
In the earlier entries, before writing Harry Potter character names became second nature, I had some unique spellings for some of them. Needless to say, spell check was NOT helpful when it came to things like “Dumbledore”
One day I’ll go back and fix it. Or I won’t. It’s a little funny to look back and see how things were when I really had no idea what I was doing.
Here I am, in the year 2012, reading this blog (and enjoying it quite a bit) a long time after everybody else has, which I suppose is in keeping with the theme. Now, I realise there have been complaints about the spelling before, but I’m going to try and innovate in this ever-changing field of pedantry by drawing your attention to the non-Harry Potter-related misspellings – such as “archetype” and “Molotov cocktail”. You have a wonderfully articulate way of putting things, and it’s very distracting to come across these, they spoil the effect for us grammar Death Eaters.
I particularly enjoyed your “Lupin is an evil cat” theory, and it’s really fun to see what another reader thinks while reading the books for the first time, as opposed to the sharing of bizarre hypotheses we used to do between books, regarding potential future developments. So, you know, great idea, and thank you.
(I’m really not good at ending these things)
In response to you saying that Voldemort did not mention Snape, just thought I’d mention that he does. Not directly. Snape *is* mentioned in the graveyard scene, however. The first time I read the book and every successive time, I take the descriptions of nameless death eaters that Voldemort reels off and connect them with the names of death eaters that are absent from the graveyard. after pondering over my copy of the goblet of fire I have come to the conclusion that Snape is the one Voldemort believes has “left [him] forever” (” he will be killed, of course…”), meaning Karkaroff is the one “too cowardly to return,” and Barty Crouch Jr. is (of course) the one “who remains [Voldemort's] most faithful servant, and who has already reentered [his] service.” Just thought you’d like to know.
What makes you believe Snape is the one who “left [him] forever”?