Saturday, August 6, 2016

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by: J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a novel that marked the transition into a darker tone for the Harry Potter novels as the novel ended on a sad note with the villain going away free while an innocent man is sent on the run with the entire world after him.  To continue this trend Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, must have an opening to cement the fact that this dark tone is where the series is going.  Rowling then proceeds by cutting any “previously on Harry Potter” segment and starting far away from Harry in Little Hangleton.  Chapter One recounts the murder of the Riddle family and how their groundskeeper Frank Bryce was convicted before jumping to an evening after Bryce was released from prison.  He hears some noise coming from the Riddle House and goes up there with a light to overhear Wormtail, aka Peter Pettigrew, and the weakened Lord Voldemort discussing their evil plans.  This works as a previously on, except for events we didn’t know.  They have killed Bertha Jorkins, placed a spy at Hogwarts and are waiting until after the Quidditch World Cup to put a plan into action for capturing Harry Potter and getting Voldemort back at full power.  Voldemort then realizes Bryce is there and kills him simply because he is a Muggle.  Chapter Two opens with Harry waking up from seeing these events as a dream with his scar hurting.  As a chapter it is used to show that this summer Harry has been keeping up with Ron, Hermione, and Sirius and writes to Sirius about his scar hurting.  This really serves to bring Sirius back into the forefront of the minds of the reader as he will be having an effect on the plot later.

 

This novel contains the shortest time spent at the Dursley’s, only Chapters Three and Four as the next morning Harry wakes up to the postman delivering the mail with an invitation to the Quidditch World Cup from the Weasley’s which is covered in stamps.  The Dursley’s don’t want Harry to go, but they let him once he mentions that he has been writing to Sirius who the Dursley’s think is a murderer.  It’s an interesting bit of characterization for Harry showing just how cunning he actually is and how he would have done had he been placed in Slytherin house, and is almost always missed when reading this novel.  The Weasley’s come to pick him up through the Floo Network which makesd Aunt Petunia go crazy as the soot makes the house a mess and Fred and George accidentally drop a candy for Dudley to eat which causes his tongue to grow to five feet long.  This puts light on not only their characters, but also Arthur Weasley’s character as Mr. Weasley is angered that they would take advantage of a Muggle like that as he is part of the minority that still treats Muggles as equals to wizards in their own way.  He and Molly have raised their children to respect Muggles, but in all their antics Fred and George only play horrid pranks on people who they think deserve it.  In the minds of Fred and George, giving Dudley that candy was payback for the way he treats Harry on a daily basis.  This is really the point of Chapter Five as well, to provide characterization for the Weasley family as Bill and Charlie are home from their jobs and we find Percy has become the assistant to Bartimeus “Barty” Crouch.

 

Chapters Six, Seven and Eight take us to the Quidditch World Cup which the underage members of the Weasley family along with Harry, Hermione and Cedric and Amos Diggory go to by Portkey.  A Portkey is a magical object that is bewitched to transfer those who touch it at a specific time to a different location.  We get to see just how Cedric still hates that he beat Harry in Quidditch in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, while his father Amos revels in this fact that his son beat the famous Harry Potter.  Chapter Seven introduces us to Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch who are in charge of transportation for the British wizards and keeping the Muggles away from the gathering.  Bagman is a good natured gambler while Crouch can only be described as a total and complete stick in the mud.  Bagman as a gambler even makes a bet with Fred and George about the outcome of the match and we see several other Hogwarts students including Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang and Draco Malfoy are present to see the World Cup.  It is interesting to see just how many people come out to the cup and also how the Malfoy family has Cornelius Fudge in their back pocket.  Chapter Eight is the actual match which fulfills the Quidditch requirement for this novel and is again a great read as Bulgaria gets the Snitch while Ireland wins.  This allows Fred and George to win the bet against Bagman in a complete game of chance.  It also introduces us to Barty Crouch’s House Elf Winky which sets off a desire in Hermione to start fighting for the rights of Elves although Winky and many other House Elves don’t really want rights or even freedom.

 

Chapter Nine takes place in the evening after the match where a group of Death Eaters, supporters of Voldemort, take the four members of the Muggle Roberts family and hoist them into the air, parading them around and forcing them to do acrobatics in the air.  This is another indicator of the tone as Rowling makes the description of what is happening to the Roberts is stomach churning and treated by the Death Eaters as fun.  They scatter however when the Dark Mark, the mark showing that a Death Eater has attacked, is shot up into the sky.  The impact of this mark is elaborated on in a single excerpt of dialogue that gives off this sense of foreboding by Arthur Weasly, described as thus:

“You have no idea, you’re too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you’re about to find inside. Everyone’s worst fear… the very worst…”

The chapter ends with Winky being freed by Crouch for finding Harry’s wand which went missing which gives Hermione further excuse to campaign for House Elf Rights.  This brings us to Chapter Ten which shows how the rest of the wizarding world reacts to the events of the Quidditch World Cup.  The Daily Prophet reports on it as the Ministry having no control while everyone becomes worried while Mr. Weasley has to work several long hours at the Ministry in light of this.

 

Chapters Eleven and Twelve bring us to Hogwarts introducing us to Colin Creevey’s little brother and revealing the Triwizard Tournament being hosted at Hogwarts.  The Tournament consists of three tasks where three champions compete for glory and a one thousand Galleon grand prize.  New rules have been added so that only students of age can compete in the tournament.  Chapter Thirteen introduces a lot of the problems this novel has, mainly the overabundance of filler subplots that pad out the novel to its longer length.  We get the plotline with Care of Magical Creatures and the Blast Ended Skrewts, creatures bred by Hagrid which are extremely dangerous, and Hermione’s S.P.E.W. campaign for House Elf rights.  They both tie into the main plot but they are forced in and become distracting to the reader as they rear their ugly heads every so often.  Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen actually give us the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year, Alistor “Mad-Eye” Moody whose big introduction is turning Malfoy into a ferret after he tries cursing Harry.  He shows in this scene that he is no nonsense, yet in his first class with Harry he shows he does understand his students.  He still shows them the three Unforgivable Curses, the Imperius, Cruciatus and Killng Curses, as ones to watch out for, but like Lupin boosts Neville’s confidence by encouraging him to pursue Herbology, the only subject he is good at.  There is also a Divination class scene that I think is meant to be comedic and it is a bit funny, but feels a little bit out of place.

 

Chapters Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen actually get us to start the Triwizard Tournament.  Chapter Fifteen sees the arrival of the candidates from the two wizard schools, Beauxbatons from France and Durmstrang from Bulgaria.  The way they arrive at Hogwarts is a complete spectacle as Madame Maxine, head of Beauxbatons is a large woman who arrives in a flying carriage a la Cinderella and Igor Karkaroff arrives with Durmstrang from a giant ship rising from the Great Lake.  Bagman and Crouch will also be at Hogwarts for the Tournament and the welcome feast for the guests leads into Chapter Sixteen where the Goblet of Fire is revealed to be the manner of selection for the Champions for the Tournament.  Prospective champions have twenty-four hours to submit their names.  Anyone under the age of seventeen who tries to cheat the goblet have their plan backfire with Fred and George aging to old men after taking a few drops of aging potion.  The next evening the Goblet of Fire spits out the names of the champions, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons who is half veela, a creature that ensnares men with charms, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang, the Seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch team and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, giving Hufflepuff some well-deserved attention for once.  Once the three champions have left the hall to be briefed on what they must do, the goblet spits out a fourth name, Harry Potter.  Chapter Seventeen is a short chapter displaying the reactions of Hogwarts to Harry being picked as fourth champion.  The staff of every school is outraged, but still have to allow him to compete with only Dumbledore, Hagrid, Moody and McGonagall actually believing that he couldn’t have put his name in the Goblet of Fire.  The Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins mostly are adverse to Harry as Champion, many even wearing “Potter Stinks: Support Cedric Diggory” badges.  Gryffindor House is very split on the issue with people like Colin Creevey and Angelina Johnson being happy for Harry, Hermione understanding Harry’s troubles and desire to actually watch the Tournament and Ron getting the wrong idea and becoming jealous.  We really get to see Harry grow up and change as he has to avoid everyone he was once best friends with.  Chapter Eighteen isn’t any better as Rita Skeeter arrives at Hogwarts for the weighing of the wands, a precaution to see that the champions’ wands are in working condition.  She takes Harry aside for an interview which she takes and warps into her own narrative.  This makes Harry’s troubles even worse as everyone reads the article and makes the torment much worse.

 

Chapters Nineteen and Twenty bring us to the First Task as Hagrid shows Harry and Madame Maxine whom Hagrid is attracted to, that Charlie Weasley has been brought in with four dragons which the champions will have to defeat.  This information allows Harry to make peace with Cedric as he gives up the secret as Fleur and Krum most likely know.  Most of the chapter is then devoted to the research Harry and Hermione do to figure out how to defeat the dragon.  Moody shows how much he likes Harry by nudging him in the right direction by using the Summoning Charm to get his Firebolt and use that to defeat the dragon.  The chapter ends with a conversation between Harry and Sirius through the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room where Sirius tells him to be on his guard, but cannot give him any advice as they hear noise.  Chapter Twenty is entirely devoted to the actual First Task where Harry gets the most dangerous dragon and actually has the most interesting solution when having to get a golden egg.  This gets him a decent amount of points from the judges.  More importantly after the task he and Ron make up after Ron wakes up to the idea that Harry really doesn’t want any more glory than he already has. 

 

The golden egg is the clue for the second task, but that plot thread is held off for Chapters Twenty-One, Twentey-Two, Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four.  Chapter Twenty-One wraps up the S.P.E.W. plot by revealing that Dumbledore actually treats the house elves very well and Dobby is actually being paid to work in the kitchens at Hogwarts along with Winky.  It also reveals that Crouch actually disappears for a period of time and hasn’t been going to work at the Ministry with Percy taking over his duties.  Chapters Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three actually addresses the growing emotions of Harry and Ron as they have to ask out dates for the Yule Ball.  They have their egos diluted when everyone they are close to have dates.  Ginny and Neville are going together, Fred and Angelina Johnson are going together and even Hermione has a date.  This really addresses that Harry and Ron are starting to notice girls as Ron asks Fleur out who is using her veela powers at the time, but gets rejected, while Harry asks Cho, but she’s already going with Cedric.  They eventually go with the Patil twins, but they actually are stunned that Hermione goes with Krum and are so jealous of her and Cho, they totally ignore their dates.  The ball is a chance for everyone at Hogwarts to let their hair down and it is an extremely fun read as every character gets described when they are dancing, even some of the teachers.  Harry and Ron do get some information however that Snape and Karkaroff know each other and that Hagrid is actually a half-giant.  Chapter Twenty-Four actually deals with this as Rita Skeeter writes an article about Hagrid, although she was banished from the grounds with testimonies from Slytherin students about how awful he is as a teacher and a person.  The chapter is dedicated to outlining the prejudice of the wizarding world as an explanation to how the Ministry’s mindset and Voldemort’s mindset are different.

 

The second task is picked up again with Chapters Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven with Cedric tipping off Harry to the fact to open the egg underwater.  It sings a song saying that a treasure of Harry’s will be dragged to the bottom of the Black Lake and he has to rescue them.  The actual task takes up the entirety of Chapter Twenty-Six and shows just how moral Harry is as the treasures are actual people.  He only has an hour to save Ron from the bottom of the lake, but he also saves Fleur’s sister when it is apparent that she isn’t going to make it to the bottom of the lake.  This does give him enough points to be tied with Cedric for first place in the tournament.  Chapter Twenty-Seven is the aftermath with another article by Skeeter this time slandering Hermione and getting her sent hate mail and a meeting with Sirius in Hogsmede where we get a perspective on Voldemort and his followers as to how evil they actually are.

 

The next three chapters serve as a set up for the climax of this long story, as the third task is announced and Mr. Crouch is found, but is then killed and Harry going to Dumbledore’s after another dream of Voldemort.  He goes into Dumbledore’s memories of Death Eater trials which shows just how awful Crouch was and that he had a son who died in Azkaban.  This brings us to Chapter Thirty-One which is the Third Task, a giant maze which is perilous with Fleur being attacked, Krum using the Cruciatus Curse on the others and Cedric and Harry actually win.  All is not well as the Triwizard Cup is a Portkey that transports them to a graveyard.  This is the climax where in Chapter Thirty-Two, Cedric is killed cementing that nobody is safe and Voldemort is resurrected.  Chapter Thirty-Three is then devoted to characterizing Voldemort as a ruthless killer calling out his Death Eaters by name who originally remained secret.  He then in Chapter Thirty-Four duels Harry wanting to kill him but Harry escapes with Cedric’s dead body exclaiming that “He’s back, Lord Voldemort’s back”.

 

The Final Three Chapters are used to wrap up everything in what could have been a completely rushed sequence, but it is not.  Chapter Thirty-Five reveals that Moody isn’t actually Moody, but Barty Crouch Jr. using Polyjuice Potion.  Now this twist is great as it had been hinted at and Rowling points everything out in this Chapter.  Fudge has a Dementor come to Hogwarts and perform the kiss while in Chapter Thirty-Six we get to see Cedric be given tribute.  Harry does get the winnings but gives it away to Fred and George to start a joke shop while Chapter Thirty-Seven actually explains how Rita Skeeter was able to get all those stories once she was banned, she is an unregistered Animagus. The final lines of the novel give us the sense that everything has changed and a new chapter is being written in Harry’s life.

 

To summarize, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is still a great novel in its own right, but it really fails in the aspect of pacing as several subplots actually get in the way of telling a story.  Everything does connect, but it really makes it harder to get through in just a few places.  85/100

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