"Play up! Play up! And play the game!", GOF and the 4th task to find the Philosopher's Stone. |
 Mar 25 2007, 12:20 AM
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Madame Pince's House Elf  Posts: 4,718 Joined: 5:46pm January 28, 2005 Location: In HP Book Club 5, awaiting Deathly Hallow's release.  |
GOBLET OF FIRE AND THE TRANSFIGURED CHESS SET
Long before the release of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, it has been surmised that each of the tasks to get the Philosopher's Stone in Book 1 matched one of the seven books in the series. These tasks, undertaken by Harry, Hermione and Ron, had been set by each of the heads of Hogwart's four houses, the DADA teacher and Dumbledore, himself, with Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, supplying Fluffy, the Cerberus-like dog, to guard the trapdoor which led down to the Devil's Snare. The Devil's Snare was a Herbology task, set by the Hufflepuff Head of House, Professor Sprout, and links well to the Chamber of Secrets with its piping, underground location and with the deadly basilisk which inhabited it. Whilst the next task, to identify which key would open a locked door, was set by Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, and also the Ravenclaw Head of House. It was Professor Flitwick who informed the eavesdropping Harry about the Fidelius charm, and who also taught the cheering charms which Hermione missed at the end of the year's exams. And it was the Patronus Charm which Harry learned so well in Prisoner of Azkaban, which would continue to be useful to him in Goblet of Fire, as well as subsequent books. The fourth task was set by Professor McGonagall, the Gryffindor Head of House, and the Transfiguration teacher. However, which out of Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, DADA and Potions plays the biggest part in the action in the fourth book? And what does their participation in this giant chess game suggest about the trio? Does this participation foreshadow the events of Goblet of Fire, in particular, or maybe later books? Professor McGonagall, whose transfigured giant chess set had to be traversed to the next stage to find the Philosopher's Stone, was noted for her strict but fair administration of house affairs. In many ways Professor McGonagall with her enthusiasm for Quidditch, her stiff upper lip, hard wooden straight-backed chairs, tart remarks, and very Scottish tartan hankies, dressing gown and other tartan accoutrements, exemplifies a particularly British set of values, the sort of values expressed in Sir Henry Newbolt's World War 1 poem, Vitae Lampada, the first verse of which goes something like this: QUOTE There's a breathless hush in the close to-night Ten to make and the match to win A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play, and the last man in. And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat. Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote "Play up! Play up! And play the game!" How do the trio, other members of Gryffindor or even ex-members like Percy or Wormtail, and including the four champions, reflect the values of this poem? And what do the game of chess, the Triwizard Contest, the Quidditch World Cup and the Yule ball have in common? Here is a link to SCollins' useful Scribbulus essay, The Quidditch World Cup, plus Jason Knott's Hogwarts:School of the Virtues which emphasizes that courage is the main virtue associated with GOF. This post has been edited by WaggaWaggaWerewolf: Mar 25 2007, 04:12 PM --------------------  Check out Book Number 5 POA edition. |
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Apr 1 2007, 12:24 PM
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Knockturn Alley Fingernail Vendor  Posts: 784 Joined: 2:22pm March 19, 2006 |
QUOTE(WaggaWaggaWerewolf @ Mar 25 2007, 01:20 AM) [snapback]1151229[/snapback] The fourth task was set by Professor McGonagall, the Gryffindor Head of House, and the Transfiguration teacher. However, which out of Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, DADA and Potions plays the biggest part in the action in the fourth book? There is alot to think about from your first post, so I'll come back to most of it. I want to comment on just this one quote from your post, for now. I think Transfiguration, Potions, and DADA play the largest role in the book, with DADA coming out in the lead. Transfiguration = We see Rita as an unregistered Animagus that just loves to cause trouble. We see Krum attempt to transfigure to get through the 2nd task. We see Sirius still transforming so that he can meet up with Harry/Ron/Hermione and not get caught as he's living in the cave. Putting these 3 things together seem like a lot for one book to make one think it was about that, but I don't think any of these things even combined is enough to show it be a leading factor to the end result. I almost want to say that Transfiguration task could be linked to PoA. Potions = We see the Polyjuice potion that fake Moody uses to disguise himself and help carry out LVs plan. I think this is a big part of the book, and is crucial to the story-line, but not enough to make it be the leading factor. I think we could say that the Potions task be linked to HBP. I do want to state though that out of the Potions task we saw in PS/SS, it was a riddle and with Hermione's help, Harry got through the riddle. In GoF, he also had a riddle to get by but he had to work it out on his own. While both the fake Moody taking the potion, and the riddle could be linked soley to this book, I think it is plausible but may be better linked to another book. DADA = I believe this may be the biggest part of this book. Between the World Cup with the DEs and then the Dark Mark, the Cup being tinkered with so Harry's name comes out, the Unforgiveable curses being taught in the class, LV coming back and the dark arts used to accomplish that, Harry and LV fighting with Harry escaping, Cedric being killed by LV, Crouch Sr being killed by his son, the trials of those that attacked Neville's parents and the Karkaroff trial deal, hearing about Aurors for the first time, and etc.....I could probably go on and on but I won't. I believe that GoF is one of the books we see the most of the Dark Arts coming into play so far, even though a good case could be made that DADA is better suited with OOTP. I could see DADA interchanging between GoF and OOTP very easily and Potions being interchangeable between GoF or HBP easily. --------------------   |
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Apr 1 2007, 05:55 PM
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 9 Joined: 8:39pm April 6, 2006 |
cauldronaddict
nice links  but I think you missed a very important one to potions, yes it was very[u] Dark Arts but it was definitely a potion that brought LV back. if that is not enough to bump potions up in the list I don't no what is. Though HBP is deinitely potions intensive as well.
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Apr 1 2007, 06:14 PM
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Knockturn Alley Fingernail Vendor Posts: 784 Joined: 2:22pm March 19, 2006 |
QUOTE(sciprof @ Apr 1 2007, 06:55 PM) [snapback]1163097[/snapback] cauldronaddict nice links but I think you missed a very important one to potions, yes it was very[u] Dark Arts but it was definitely a potion that brought LV back. if that is not enough to bump potions up in the list I don't no what is. Though HBP is deinitely potions intensive as well.Oh my how could I forget that.  I guess I was too busy linking that part to DADA that I totally skipped it being a potion as well.Hmmmm, now that makes me rethink if GoF should be more linked to the Potions Task than to the DADA Task.  -------------------- |
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Apr 3 2007, 04:37 AM
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Madame Pince's House Elf Posts: 4,718 Joined: 5:46pm January 28, 2005 Location: In HP Book Club 5, awaiting Deathly Hallow's release. |
QUOTE(CauldronAddict @ Apr 2 2007, 03:24 AM) [snapback]1162468[/snapback] I think Transfiguration, Potions, and DADA play the largest role in the book, with DADA coming out in the lead. Transfiguration = We see Rita as an unregistered Animagus that just loves to cause trouble. We see Krum attempt to transfigure to get through the 2nd task. We see Sirius still transforming so that he can meet up with Harry/Ron/Hermione and not get caught as he's living in the cave. Putting these 3 things together seem like a lot for one book to make one think it was about that, but I don't think any of these things even combined is enough to show it be a leading factor to the end result. I almost want to say that Transfiguration task could be linked to PoA. I think transfiguration plays a greater part than you think. Krum did, indeed, partly transform himself in the second task. What about Cedric transforming a rock into a dog in the first task? What about the transformation of Hermione from a plain ordinary schoolgirl to an envied escort for Krum? Rita Skeeter's articles transformed so-called facts into something much worse, and the juiciest articles she got was in her transformed state. Barty Crouch Jnr might have used potions, but he also transformed into the helpful coach, the DADA teacher, 'Moody'. And then he transformed his father's dead body into a bone. What about leprechaun gold which disappears after sunset? Or a friendly face who turns hostile? Voldemort might have used a potion to get where he was, but he, too, underwent a transformation, into a solid body. And as for Harry, he underwent the greatest transformation of all, from an innocent schoolboy participant to the traumatised teenager who returned with Cedric's body. QUOTE DADA = I believe this may be the biggest part of this book. Between the World Cup with the DEs and then the Dark Mark, the Cup being tinkered with so Harry's name comes out, the Unforgiveable curses being taught in the class, LV coming back and the dark arts used to accomplish that, Harry and LV fighting with Harry escaping, Cedric being killed by LV, Crouch Sr being killed by his son, the trials of those that attacked Neville's parents and the Karkaroff trial deal, hearing about Aurors for the first time, and etc.....I could probably go on and on but I won't. I believe that GoF is one of the books we see the most of the Dark Arts coming into play so far, even though a good case could be made that DADA is better suited with OOTP. I could see DADA interchanging between GoF and OOTP very easily and Potions being interchangeable between GoF or HBP easily. You might have a point. After all, DADA features in all the books. As Dumbledore might have said, the DADA teachers all have something valuable to impart. DADA is the drawing together of all the disciplines. Harry does learn many charms with Professor Flitwick, but it is in the DADA classes that Harry learns firstly the Patronus charm, then about the Unforgiveable spells. And many of the spells he learns in charms, for example, summoning, banishing, cheering and, later on, the protean charm, did have applications in DADA. -------------------- Check out Book Number 5 POA edition. |
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Apr 3 2007, 02:00 PM
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Leaky's Resident Bibliophile Posts: 8,279 Joined: 5:01pm April 18, 2005 Location: Finding Neverland.   |
I think Herbology had it's fair share in GoF. Harry had to have the gillyweed to survive the task.
Honestly, I think each task was meant to test each wizard in a particular branch of magic somehow. I know the tasks were meant to test the bravery and nerve of the competitors, but it seemed to also have an academic side. After all, the champions were relieved from exams. -------------------- "I know who Harry Potter is. I just don't know who the other two are. Himmie and Roland?"
"No, Grandma, Ron and Hermione." |
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Apr 3 2007, 04:52 PM
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Knockturn Alley Fingernail Vendor Posts: 784 Joined: 2:22pm March 19, 2006 |
QUOTE(MonieLou @ Apr 3 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]1165851[/snapback] I think Herbology had it's fair share in GoF. Harry had to have the gillyweed to survive the task. Honestly, I think each task was meant to test each wizard in a particular branch of magic somehow. I know the tasks were meant to test the bravery and nerve of the competitors, but it seemed to also have an academic side. After all, the champions were relieved from exams. Harry didn't have to use gillyweed, it was just the option that Dobby gave him, with help from fake Moody of course and curiously enough, it was the only time we saw Herbology be used. I think you're on to something here though MonieLou, and it would go nicely with this book being a middle-ground/turning-point in the series. Task 1 - We see Transfiguration from Cedric, Charms from Harry and Fleur, DADA from Krum. Task 2 - We see Transfiguration from Krum, Charms from Cedric and Fleur, and Herbology from Harry. Task 3 - We only see Magical Creatures and DADA, unless the Mist would fall under something? Not a real task but if we lump the graveyard in here we would have: Task 4 - Potions (resurrection), DADA (too many to list), Transfiguration (Cup being a port key I think we could link here, or Wormtails hand), Charms (Accio Cup). Which would be considered the biggest role for the whole book though to link it to the 7 steps to get to the stone? -------------------- |
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Apr 3 2007, 05:32 PM
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Madame Pince's House Elf Posts: 4,718 Joined: 5:46pm January 28, 2005 Location: In HP Book Club 5, awaiting Deathly Hallow's release. |
QUOTE(CauldronAddict @ Apr 4 2007, 07:52 AM) [snapback]1166109[/snapback] QUOTE(MonieLou @ Apr 3 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]1165851[/snapback] I think Herbology had it's fair share in GoF. Harry had to have the gillyweed to survive the task. Honestly, I think each task was meant to test each wizard in a particular branch of magic somehow. I know the tasks were meant to test the bravery and nerve of the competitors, but it seemed to also have an academic side. After all, the champions were relieved from exams. Harry didn't have to use gillyweed, it was just the option that Dobby gave him, with help from fake Moody of course and curiously enough, it was the only time we saw Herbology be used. I think you're on to something here though MonieLou, and it would go nicely with this book being a middle-ground/turning-point in the series. Task 1 - We see Transfiguration from Cedric, Charms from Harry and Fleur, DADA from Krum. Task 2 - We see Transfiguration from Krum, Charms from Cedric and Fleur, and Herbology from Harry. Task 3 - We only see Magical Creatures and DADA, unless the Mist would fall under something? Not a real task but if we lump the graveyard in here we would have: Task 4 - Potions (resurrection), DADA (too many to list), Transfiguration (Cup being a port key I think we could link here, or Wormtails hand), Charms (Accio Cup). I agree that the champions had to be good students overall, and that GOF was a turning point for the series. There are two other tasks that also could be included. These are the Yule Ball, the unexpected task, in which Harry saw Rita Skeeter and in which Hermione, who had earlier done some fancy dentistry on herself, was briefly unrecognisable. I expect Potions, Charms etc were used to get ready for that event. Even Ron tried to improve his dismal daggy drapes with a severing charm to get the lace off. What about the Quidditch World Cup at the beginning of GOF? How does that get included? QUOTE Which would be considered the biggest role for the whole book though to link it to the 7 steps to get to the stone? I'd say the idea of games in general. Or is it strategies to get through them? -------------------- Check out Book Number 5 POA edition. |
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Apr 3 2007, 05:42 PM
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Knockturn Alley Fingernail Vendor Posts: 784 Joined: 2:22pm March 19, 2006 |
QUOTE(WaggaWaggaWerewolf @ Apr 3 2007, 06:32 PM) [snapback]1166177[/snapback] I agree that the champions had to be good students overall, and that GOF was a turning point for the series. There are two other tasks that also could be included. These are the Yule Ball, the unexpected task, in which Harry saw Rita Skeeter and in which Hermione, who had earlier done some fancy dentistry on herself, was briefly unrecognisable. I expect Potions, Charms etc were used to get ready for that event. Even Ron tried to improve his dismal daggy drapes with a severing charm to get the lace off. What about the Quidditch World Cup at the beginning of GOF? How does that get included? QUOTE Which would be considered the biggest role for the whole book though to link it to the 7 steps to get to the stone? I'd say the idea of games in general. Or is it strategies to get through them? I had been racking my brain trying to figure out how to include the Yule Ball and it didn't even come into my head about Potions for hair/makeup and Charms like Ron's robes. Great linking there! Quidditch, well we see alot of Charms being used on the tents, Souvenirs, Muggles in the air, etc... We see the Port Keys for arrivals (Transfiguration) and some of the tents were transfigured to be larger, we see DADA with the Dark Mark, Magical Creatures (house-elfs and goblins I think fall under this don't they?)........ Are there any links to the World Cup that could be Potions, or Herbology? I can't recall any off of the top of my head. I think strategies to get through them is a good way to think about Tasks as we can think about the World Cup that way as well. Krum was showing strategy by faking out the Ireland seeker and just to play the game requires alot of strategy in general. Each Task required alot of strategy and thinking, especially 1 & 3 for quick thinking abilities if you had to change your strategy. Task 2 you had to think alot to work out how to open the egg, then to get the riddle, then come up with your plan. It would be really hard to change your original plan while in the midst of Task 2, whereas the other 2 Tasks you could. -------------------- |
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Apr 3 2007, 08:42 PM
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Slug and Jiggers' Apothecary Apprentice  Posts: 1,410 Joined: 9:09am July 15, 2005 Location: behind one of the revolving doors |
QUOTE Even Ron tried to improve his dismal daggy drapes with a severing charm to get the lace off I've always wondered why Mrs. Weasley didn't do this for Ron. --------------------  Thanks Mokey |
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