When I finished reading chapter 31, I couldn't help but be reminded of Pippin in Lord of the Rings. I've often compared Fred and George to Merry and Pippin; the mirthsome hobbits are certainly more differentiated than the twins, and spend significant time apart from one another in the last book, but I can definitely see shades of them in the Weasley twins, and the conclusion of that chapter really reminded me of Pippin's apparent death.
"And the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness." (636) and "...Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face." (637)
"Blackness and stench and crushing pain came upon Pippin, and his mind fell away into great darkness. 'So it ends as I guessed it would,' his thought said, even as it fluttered away; and it laughed a little within him as it fled, almost gay it seemed to be casting off at last all doubt and care and fear." (874)
Not that I think it was intentional, but it's an interesting parallel...
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2 comments:
Erin, that's a wonderful parallel, a beautiful one, though painful. I'm so glad you pointed it out. I hadn't thought of Fred and George as Merry and Pippin, but on some levels, it definitely works.
The big Tolkien echo I think we were supposed to pick up was the way the locket horcrux, when worn, could turn the wearer's thoughts toward dark, despair and evil. So much like the ring of power. And interesting that it seemed to affect Ron most deeply.
It occurs to me too that Harry's invisibility cloak has a bit of an elvish cloak quality about it...
The locket definitely had a very powerful sense of the Ring about it, and I also thought there was a strong parallel in the climactic horcruxes or hallows decision, whether to try to harness power for oneself or to focus one's energies on destroying a source of corrupting power. It's different, of course, because aside from the ring, which has already been taken care of, the hallows and the horcruxes are two different matters. But they're deeply entwined, and Harry really does have to make that decision consciously, pursuing one while rejecting the other.
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