Behind the Veil

Behind the Veil

By JoTwo

In response to a question about whether she was a Christian, JKR replied:

"Yes, I am. Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said there was no God. Every time I've been asked if I believe in God, I've said yes, because I do, but no-one has gone more deeply into it than that and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60 will be able to guess what's coming in the books."

As I consider myself an intelligent reader, even though I'm neither 10 or 60 but somewhere in-between, I'm going to discuss in this essay how I think Christianity may affect how Harry Potter ends.

Before I start the discussion I am going to set out my definition of Christianity, ignoring the dogma of the different varieties of this religion and boiling it down to what I understand are the essentials.

To forestall any criticism of my theological interpretation I will tell you the background I'm coming from. My understanding is that of a person who was brought up in the secular but nominally Christian UK. I am officially a member of the Church of England, in the sense that I was christened and I put that denomination if I have to fill in an official form. However I am only an occasional churchgoer in both senses, in that I only go infrequently for specific events like christenings, weddings and funerals. I do not practice any particular faith, although I have read about various religions, and at the present time I am an agnostic.

I also don't know what happens when you die. I would like to think that you could be reunited in some way with people you've lost, such as my mum who died of cancer nearly nine years ago. However for all we know the physical existence might be the only one we have. Nobody can truly know the facts, as opposed to having a belief, in my opinion.

Following on, from what I understand, the essentials of Christianity seem to be as follows.

(Actually from what I have read, this issue is rather confused. Parts of the Bible imply that the dead stay dead until the Day of Judgement at the end of the world and then they are sent to the afterlife they deserve i.e. Heaven or Hell, e.g. St Paul, the Book of Revelations of St John. However I get the impression that the idea of that you are sent to Heaven after death if you are good enough rather than being "asleep" until Judgement Day is the one held by lay people who are not educated in theology.)

Jesus himself states 'Love your neighbour as yourself' [Matthew 19:19 and 22:39]. The idea is taken up by St Paul in I Corinthians chapter 13, entitled Love. I am not repeating it all, but here are some relevant extracts.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails ...

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

There are other themes in Christianity like forgiveness and the Kingdom of Heaven being established on Earth, but these are not relevant to this essay.

There was also a non-canonical belief that I do not think was ever part of official Christianity, which may influence Harry Potter. It was:

This is an event that is not mentioned explicitly in the Bible but which is portrayed in art and mentioned in literature. It was believed in the Middle Ages. The idea was first propounded in the eighth century and apparently had developed fully by the eleventh century. In this belief the risen Christ was portrayed in art trampling down the gates of hell and resurrecting or freeing the righteous dead, figures from the bible, such as Kings David and Solomon, various prophets, and even Adam and Eve.

Books also alluded to it, I think. For example, in The Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes, a knight in describing the meaning of Good Friday to the hero Perceval mentions as part of his explanation that "'...He was nailed to the cross and freed all His friends from Hell. It was a most holy death, which saved the living and brought the dead from death to life...'"

If I recall correctly Jesus himself was considered to have actually been in Hell himself between His death on Friday and His Resurrection on Sunday. These three days in the grip of death/Hell were considered to have been foreshadowed by the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the whale. There are pagan legends of characters descending into the underworld too. It could be possible that these stories also unconsciously influenced this non-biblical medieval idea of the Harrowing of Hell.

So, with these factors in mind, has Christianity influenced the Harry Potter story? Obviously on a superficial level it has not. For example, none of the characters ever attend Church or pray. Christmas is a jolly, secular occasion for food and presents, rather than having any religious significance.

However, on a deeper level the love theme is constantly and consistently highlighted. The incapability of evil to love is a characteristic of the arch villain. JKR was asked at the Edinburgh Book Festival if Voldemort had ever loved or cared for anyone. She replied:

"No, never. If he had he couldn't possibly be what he is."

It is also pointed out in canon that Voldemort does not have any regard for others. Dumbledore tells Harry that:

"'I trust you also noticed that Tom Riddle was already self-sufficient, secretive and apparently, friendless? He did not want help or companionship on his trip to Diagon Alley. He preferred to operate alone. The adult Voldemort is the same. You will hear many of his Death Eaters claiming that they are in his confidence, that they alone are close to him, even understand him. They are deluded. Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one.'"

In contrast Harry the hero possesses "power the Dark Lord knows not".

Dumbledore waxes eloquently about this in OOP.

"'There is a room in the Department of Mysteries,' interrupted Dumbledore, 'that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also perhaps the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and that Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.'"

After this hint, in HBP Dumbledore actually spells out exactly what this power is.

"'So, when the prophecy says I'll have "power the Dark Lord knows not", it just means - love?' asked Harry feeling a little let down."

(When I read that I felt sceptical about how love is supposed to be help against a deranged power-mad tyrant who's trying to kill you and take over the world, but Dumbledore confirms, "'Yes - just love'". I know it's what religions say we're supposed to believe but I don't think it would work in real life. It's not just Harry Potter that had this effect on me, so I'm not having a go at JKR. I enjoyed His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. However I found it a bit far-fetched that, from what I can recall, the love between Will and Lyra brought harmony back to nature, thereby restoring the flow of the oil from the trees that the wheeled creatures needed to survive. I remember thinking it was nice they were happy but I couldn't really see how a pair of twelve-year-olds being in love could have cosmic significance and save the multiverse. I guess one has to suspend disbelief for fiction.)

Anyway Dumbledore goes on to explain his reasoning to Harry.

"'You are protected in short by your ability to love,' said Dumbledore loudly. 'The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's. In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches...'"

Another similarity to Christianity is that in Harry Potter each person has a soul. This is proved by the fact that Dementors can suck it out of their victim leaving a shell of the physical body, which is alive in a vegetative state, but is no longer really living.

It is also possible for souls to survive physical death. This is shown by the presence of the ghosts. In OOP Harry and Nearly Headless Nick have the following exchange.

"'What happens when you die anyway? Where do you go? Why doesn't everyone come back? Why isn't this place full of ghosts? Why? -'

'I cannot answer',' said Nick.

'You're dead, aren't you?' said Harry exasperatedly. 'Who can answer better than you?'

'I was afraid of death,' said Nick softly. 'I chose to remain behind. I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't to have ...well that's neither here nor there...in fact I am neither here nor there ...' He gave a sad small chuckle. 'I know nothing of the secrets of death, Harry, for I chose my feeble imitation of life instead. '"

There also seems to be an afterlife for those who do seem to have "gone on", such as Dumbledore. He described death as the 'next great adventure' in PS/SS. (At the time I didn't pay much attention or take this comment too seriously because Harry Potter was a novel for children of all ages. Now that JKR treats death realistically I find it a facile remark, probably because I don't necessarily share her conviction.) Anyway at his own funeral this happens.

"Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue..."

As the phoenix was Dumbledore's Patronus (Edinburgh Book Festival) and JKR described a Patronus as a kind of spirit guardian on her website, this must be Dumbledore's soul beginning its journey to wherever souls end up after death.

At the end of book 6, it has not been stated where this is, but I think we've been given clues. At the end of the speech I've already quoted from Nearly Headless Nick about death he adds, "'I believe learned wizards study the matter in the Department of Mysteries-'". I think that Harry and the reader have already encountered the room where death is studied in the Department of Mysteries. This was the room like an amphitheatre, with a stone pit.

"...there was a raised stone dais in the centre of the pit, on which stood a stone archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling that Harry was amazed the thing was still standing. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly as though it had just been touched."

Significantly Harry and Luna who have both seen someone die know there is something on the other side, as they discuss here.

"'Yes, it was rather horrible,' said Luna conversationally. 'I still feel very sad about it sometimes. But I've still got Dad. And anyway it's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?'

'Er - isn't it?' said Harry uncertainly.

She shook her head in disbelief.

'Oh come on. You heard them, just behind the veil, didn't you?

'You mean ...'

'In that room with the archway. They were just lurking out of sight, that's all. You heard them.'

They looked at each other. Luna was smiling slightly. Harry did not know what to say, or think; Luna believed so many extraordinary things ... yet he had been sure he had heard voices behind the veil, too."

Plus the fact that Sirius falls through the veil and is immediately realised to be dead suggests that it leads to the afterlife.

I admit this observation is not original. Lots of fans picked up on this after OOP came out. They also pointed out that the Veil is an occult term used by real-life psychics to describe the division between the world of the living and the spirit world.

So putting all of this canon evidence and Christian beliefs together, this is my prediction for what may happen in book 7.

Harry is "the Chosen One", the only person who can save the wizarding world from Voldemort. To do so he may have to sacrifice himself. This may mean that Harry has to go through the Veil into the realm of the dead.

If so, he will be in good company. I've already described the harrowing of Hell by Jesus. If I recall correctly, in one of the earliest legends ever written down, Gilgamesh the King, a Mesopotamian epic, Gilgamesh visits the underworld. I know for certain that Orpheus and Hercules do in Greek myth, and I have read that Odysseus (Ulysses) did as well. So did Aeneas in The Aeniad, a Roman epic by a poet called Virgil. Through writing this, Dante made Virgil his guide in his imaginary journey to Hell, Inferno. Even in modern literature Will and Lyra go down into the world of the dead in The Amber Spyglass, book 3 in the trilogy His Dark Materials. With all these pre-cursors in literature and religion it will not be surprising if Harry ends up following in their footsteps.

While in the underworld, the visitor interacts with people who have died. Jesus, because he is divine, is able to release the good who died before the human race was saved. Orpheus plays his lyre so beautifully that he charms Hades (the ruler after whom the Greek underworld was named, known as Pluto by the Romans) into releasing his dead wife Eurydice. However he is warned not to look back at her until they reach the world of the living. Unfortunately when they are nearly there he breaks this injunction and loses her forever. Even though he is often seen as semi-divine Orpheus is therefore even unable to save one person from death. Odysseus and Aeneas speak with old friends while they are in the underworld. Will and Lyra talk to characters who have died earlier in the story, such as the balloonist, Lee Scoresby (I think this is the correct spelling) and Roger, Lyra's friend, a kitchen boy from the Oxford college where she was brought up. Will even gets to bond with the father he never knew when he was growing up and whom he only met briefly before he was killed, which was the moment they realised their relationship.

So if Harry goes beyond the Veil I think he could meet his parents, and maybe Sirius and Dumbledore, even Cedric. My concern is with the way that JKR may handle this. The Mirror of Erised scene where Harry sees his parents was moving because he was yearning for something that could never be. In comparison a reunion in the afterlife scene could tip over into cheesiness and sentimentality. Dumbledore's lines about the power of love were certainly heading this way. My initial reaction to Nearly Headless Nick's and Luna's comments was that it wasn't right for JKR to be stating beliefs as facts. Now I am able to accept it as part of the story line I can appreciate the emotional impact on Harry and feel that it works within context. For me Luna's comments work because she is so matter-of-fact and is not trying to make any moral point, unlike Dumbledore, and therefore it comes over as straightforward and sincere.

However I think we could be due for some mawkish, clichéd dialogue in book 7. For example, I'm expecting unsubtle wish-fulfilment, such as comments from James and Lily like, "We've always been watching over you, Harry," and "Love cannot die".

There is a possibility that Harry could permanently stay in the world behind the veil. The parallel would be the children at the end of the Narnia series realising that in the last book they really did die and are now in Heaven. However as JKR has gone to the trouble of creating a faithful love interest i.e. Ginny, whom she (if not all readers, including this one) considers to be the hero's equal, I think Harry will return to the living.

I think Lily and James will know a way for Harry to escape from the world of the dead. (They may know this because they will turn out to have been Unspeakables, possibly studying Death and/or Love.) Harry could be torn between wanting to stay with the ones he loves that are dead and returning to Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the Weasleys, his living loved ones. This may lead to a farewell scene where the Potters mouth platitudes about how Harry cannot stay; he has to go back to complete his task and/or live a full and happy life. They will still be waiting for him when his time comes to join them and then they will be together forever. This will either be an emotionally uplifting affirmation of love, and life after death, or make the reader reach for the sick bag, depending upon how JKR writes it, and the reader's taste.

Harry will then begin his return journey. There may be some obstacles to overcome but I'm sure Harry will succeed. He will finally truly be The Boy Who Lived, because he has escaped Death. In a sense, this will be a symbolic resurrection.

To return to the quotation from JKR, Christianity does seem to lay down a blueprint for plotting. I think that JKR is not the only writer who has used it. Unlike JKR, Philip Pullman does not believe in God and in his trilogy is critical of organised religion. However apparently Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, is based upon Paradise Lost by John Milton, which is itself derived from Christianity. Even though Pullman is definitely not a Christian, he still uses Christianity as a template for his own ideas. As stated earlier, Lyra and Will visit the afterlife. For Pullman this is a dreary place, a no-mans land or limbo. Lyra and Will find a way to free the dead. They persuade the Harpies not to torment the dead but, in exchange for true stories about their lives, show them a way out. Will uses the subtle knife that cuts between worlds to make an opening for the souls to escape. Even though the authorial intention is different, I think this is an analogy that supports the theory that Harry will make a descent into the world of the dead. Unlike in Pullman, I think the dead will be happy behind the Veil and it is only Harry who will ever leave.

Conclusion

As JKR is a Christian, I think she will be paying homage to her beliefs with the story line that I have outlined. However, I suspect that those who are already against Harry Potter because they cannot see the wood for the trees will see this as sacrilege instead.