Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing in the United Kingdom, in the United States by Scholastic, and in Canada by Raincoast Books, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The novel chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and the final confrontation between the wizards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in January 2007. Before its release, Bloomsbury reportedly spent GB£10 million to keep the book's contents safe before its release date. American pulisher Arthur Levine refused any copies of the novel to be released in advance for press review, although two reviews were submitted early. Shortly before release, photos of all 759 pages of the U.S. edition were leaked and transcribed, leading Scholastic to look for the source that had leaked it.

Released globally in 93 countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever. It sold 15 million copies in the first 24 hours following its release, including more than 11 million in the U.S. and UK alone. The previous record, 9 million in its first day, had been held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The novel has also been translated into over 120 languages, including Ukrainian, Swedish, and Hindi.

Major themes in the novel are death and living in a corrupted society, and critics have compared them to Christian allegories. Generally well-received, the book won the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and the American Library Association named it a "Best Book for Young Adults". A two-part film based on the book began showing in November 2010, when the first part was released; the second part is scheduled for July 2011.

Plot introduction

Throughout the six previous novels in the series, the titular character Harry Potter has struggled with the difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but vanished after attempting to kill Harry. Harry immediately became famous, and was placed in the care of hisMuggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

In Philosopher's Stone, Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11 and enrolls in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also meets the school's headmaster, Dumbledore, and schoolmaster Severus Snape, who dislikes him. Harry fights Voldemort several times while at school, as the wizard tries to regain a physical form. In Goblet of Fire, Harry is entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength. During Order of Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In Half-Blood Prince, he learns that Voldemort has been using "horcruxes" to become immortal. These objects are fragments of a person's soul placed within an object so that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can be regenerated or resurrected.^[2] However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form.^[3] When returning from a mission to discover a horcrux, Dumbledore is murdered by Snape, a former Death Eater whom Harry suspected of secretly remaining loyal to Voldemort. At the conclusion of the book, Harry decides to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes to defeat the wizard.

Plot summary

Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort completes his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure their friends and families' safety. They have little knowledge about the remaining horcruxes except the possibility that two are objects once belonging to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and the third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. As they search for the Horcruxes, the trio learn more about Dumbledore's past.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione recover the first horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. Under the object's evil influence and the stress of being on the run, Ron leaves the others. A mysterious silver doe leads Harry to the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, among the few objects able to destroy horcruxes. When Harry attempts to recover the sword, the horcrux attempts to kill him. Ron reappears, saving Harry and using the sword to destroy the locket. Resuming their search, the trio continually encounter a strange symbol, which an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, with the power to summon the dead to the living world; the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the other Hallows and their significance. Harry decides that finding Voldemort's horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows. They break into a Death Eater's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts to recover another horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Harry learns that another horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school and find the Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and destroy the cup and the diadem.

Voldemort and his followers besiege Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their allies, and various magical creatures defend Hogwarts. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Fred Weasley, and Severus Snape. Harry discovers while viewing the memories of Severus Snape that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a horcrux when he attacked him as a baby and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. These memories also confirm Snape's unwavering loyalty to Dumbledore and his role as spy in Voldemort's camp. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts the Killing Curse at him, sending Harry to Limbo-like state between life and death. There, Dumbledore explains that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort harming him; the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Harry returns, the battle resumes, and after the last horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort is killed, and the wizarding world lives in peace once more.

Epilogue

The novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set nineteen years later, in which Harry and Ginny Weasley are a married couple with three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron and Hermione married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Bill and Fleur Weasley's daughter Victoire in a train carriage. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife (revealed on Rowling's website behind the door as Astoria Greengrass) with their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he had ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat takes one's choice into account, like it did for Harry. The book ends with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

Background

Franchise

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.^[4] It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,^[5] after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.^[6]

The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanwas then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.^[7] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time byBloomsbury and Scholastic.^[8] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.^[9] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.^[10] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and it sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.^[11][12]

Choice of title

Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three titles for the book.^[13][14] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, named after the mythical Deathly Hallows in the novel, was released to the public on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling's website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers.^[15] When asked during a live chat about the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.^[13]

Rowling on finishing the book

Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007".^[16] In a statement on her website, she said, "I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She compared her mixed feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield, "a two-years' imaginative task". "To which," she added, "I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles". She ended her message by saying "Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series".^[17]

When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted. "These books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now, that they're all leading a certain direction. So, I really can't".^[18] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel".^[19] She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the series.^[20] Rowling also revealed she originally she wrote the last words to be "something like: 'Only those who he loved could see his lightning scar'". Rowling changed this because she did not want people to think Voldemort would rise again and to say that Harry's mission was over.^[21]

Major themes

J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potterseries, has said that the main theme of the series is Harry dealing with death.

Death

In a 2006 interview, J. K. Rowling said that the main theme of the series is Harry dealing with death,^[22] which was influenced by her mother's death in 1990 from multiple sclerosis.^{[21][22][23][24]} Lev Grossman of Time stated that the main theme of the series was the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death.^[25] In a review for USA Today, Deirdre Donahue agreed that death was a major theme inHallows, and that "Harry must wrestle with life's big issues: How should he define courage, whom can he trust, how much should he allow others—old friends like Ron, Hermione, Neville Longbottom, and Remus Lupin—to sacrifice for him" while comparing Harry to Frodo Baggins in the latter.^[26]

Living in a corrupted society

Academics and journalists have developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.^[27] Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered.^[28] Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".^[29]

Mary McCauley of The Baltimore Sun stated that the novel was a classic bildungsroman, and said that a "saving grace" theme of the series is a parent's love.^[30] Deepti Hajela of Deseret News said that no place or happy occasion was safe, and the novel was full of "humor, courage, redemption, sadness, terror, humor [and] human frailty".^[31] Writing for the Washington Post, Elizabeth Hand said that Rowling's major theme throughout the Harry Potter books was not the power of magic to maintain the wizards' social order, but that of love to create and sustain a community, to establish a sometimes fragile but remarkably resilient network of families, good, bad and indifferent.^[32] Self-proclaimed Harry Potter pundit John Granger additionally noted that one of the reasons the Harry Potter books were so popular is their use of literary alchemy (similar to Romeo and Juliet, C. S. Lewis's Perelandra and Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities) and vision symbolism.^[33]

Susan Hall wrote that there is no rule of law in the books, as the actions of Ministry of Magic officials are unconstrained by laws, accountability or any kind of legal challenge. This provides an opportunity for Voldemort to offer his own horrific version of order. As a side-effect Harry and Hermione, who were brought up in the highly-regulated Muggle world, find solutions by thinking in ways unfamiliar to wizards.^[34] Some political commentators have seen J. K. Rowling's portrayal of the bureaucratised Ministry of Magic and the oppressive measures taken by the Ministry in the later books (like making attendance at Hogwarts School compulsory and the "registration of Mudbloods" with the Ministry) as an allegory ofcriticising the state.^[35]