More on Albus Dumbledore_

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Hi, everyone. This will be quite short, but something sunnyskywalker said in a previous discussion rang bells with me. What if these books aren't quite what we think they are?


I am thinking of an interview with Rowling some years back, when she answered a question about her faith with words to this effect: "I struggle to keep believing". If anyone has the exact quote, I'd be grateful!

Because, you see, that is quite moving to me. It is hard to keep believing in God when you witness truly evil things happening to people you love. At least, you can't go on believing, like a child, in the wise old man with a beard who will make everything all right. That's so obviously not what God is.*

But, in these books, we have a wise old man with a beard. And he is very, very imperfect. Rowling's depiction of Dumbledore does, indeed, seem like an indictment of sorts.

But Dumbledore is obviously not God. He is just the headmaster of a wizarding school. Harry, despite some of the imagery surrounding him, is just as obviously not Jesus. Who is he? As I said on my blog some time back, he is an everyman character - specifically, he's Percival, the fool.

And - I think there is some kind of sense there, lurking deep down. I can't quite put my finger on it, but sometimes I think it's there.

Because, if there is a Christ figure at all in these books (but I don't think there is), that is definitely Severus Snape, in spite of his obvious imperfections. If Harry is Percival, Snape is the Fisher King; the wounded king of a wounded land. And what heals the Fisher King? Compassion and curiosity. Percival is supposed to ask a question. We all know that Harry never does that, don't we?

But, if Snape is the Fisher King and Harry Percival, who on earth is Dumbledore? Because he's not God. Not consciously, anyway. And - it's interesting that one of his names is Percival. What I'm getting at is that I sometimes think that the 'lost boys' of Hogwarts are all facets of him.

Rowling is playing with some very powerful archetypes in these stories, I think, and that's why we are still struggling to find meaning in them.

My two cents!

* As those who know me know, I'm a devout Catholic. To me, God is nothing like Dumbledore.

Comments

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Like you, Dumbledore does not resemble my personal understanding of God. Thinking about it, though, Dumbledore is something of a personification of a classical understanding of God.

The classical God is rather aloof and unapproachable. At times, he will seemingly abandon us without explanation, yet we are still expected to remain faithful to him. Everything that happens is all part of God's plan, even though some of it makes no sense to us. The experiences and events that cause us suffering only appear "bad" to us because we lack God's perspective to see how they are all part of a greater good. It is not our place to question what God is up to....

Many Christians do believe in such a God.

However, if JKR did mean for Dumbledore to represent the classical God, it's not clear to me if that's how she herself sees God or if she was attempting to highlight the problems with that kind of theology.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. One might add the fact that - as of DH - it turned out the real point in being "good" WAS to be on the side of "god" (Dumbledore)and not of doing right things or omitting to do bad things. In other words, very much the god of the Old Testament as quoted above by lissa2.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes - I agree with you. If she does mean us to see Dumbledore as God, it's very unclear what she means by that comparison.

[fishinginthemud.livejournal.com]

That no matter how terrible it turns out God is, you're still supposed to do whatever you believe he wants you to do without question if you want to be a good person. Only bad people would ever really question or defy God, even though good people sometimes falter in their faith.