Ollivander's Apprentice
Posts: 2,176
Joined: 7:39pm March 11, 2007
Location: wandering in the Forbidden Forest, listening for the Phoenix song
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QUOTE A FRESH LOOK AT THE SEVEN TASKS TO REACH THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE One of the more intriguing aspects of the Harry Potter series are the seven tasks to find the Philosopher's Stone. These tasks start with getting past Fluffy, going down a trapdoor to Devil's Snare, finding in a host of flying keys the right key to open a door, then taking part in a huge Chess game. Ron is knocked out by a rampaging Queen but Hermione and Harry escape, pass a troll even larger and smellier than the one they all saw on Halloween eve, and then have to solve the Potions riddle. It is Hermione who solves this puzzle then she goes back to tend to Ron and get help from Dumbledore. Meanwhile, Harry proceeds to the next task where he finds Quirrell looking into the Mirror of Erised, attempting to get the Philosopher's Stone. Up to that point Harry had been expecting Snape, whom the trio suspected was the one who wanted to take the Stone. But Snape had been the one to formulate the Potions Riddle, whilst Quirrell, whose idea for guarding the stone was the troll, had been the DADA teacher that year, having previously been the Muggle Studies teacher. Hagrid was the owner of Fluffy, the three headed dog, whilst Professors Sprout, Flitwick and McGonagall had set the other three tasks. Although surviving tasks like Devil's Snare or the Flying keys seem dangerous enough, the main tasks include the Chess game with giant chess pieces. Would all these chess pieces, including the White King and Queen, resemble any of the main characters in the story? Another important task was Snape's potions task.
What fun questions! This thread got me thinking......I'm going to toss out a few late night ideas and thoughts to start the conversation......
My read was that each of the 7 tasks set out in PS/SS were actually life lessons that Harry had to learn throughout the series in order to finally defeat Voldemort.
1. The first task was getting past Hagrid's 3-headed dog Fluffy, who was soothed by music, to get to the trap door. I saw Hagrid's task as symbolic of taming the wildness (disorder/illogic) within, in order to get to the goal. This was a difficult process for Harry. He had to work the entire series to quell his hot-headedness and his passions in order to come to full maturation. Once he had tamed the disorder and his emotions - and learn the hard lessons of self control - he could successfully access his intellect and intuition to complete his goals.
2. The Devil's Snare grew in dank, dark conditions and ensnared the victim in its tenacles until they were unable to move. I saw the Snare as symbolic of ignorance, which binds people tightly to one position. (Think the Durselys). The Devil's Snare was tamed by light - lumos - which I saw as knoweldge. Harry had to move beyond his preconceived notions and open his mind in order to gain the knowledge which would bring him victory. (One example would be Harry's final revision of his view of Severus Snape and of Dumbledore, which allowed him to make the choices and decisions he made in DH).
3. The Flying Keys were set by Flitwick. Keys are usually the symbol of knowledge, which in this case was winging by just out of range. Harry, both as literal Seeker for the Quidditch team and symbolic "seeker of knoweldge", was able to use his new skills to capture the keys. This task pointed, I thought, to the necessity of knowledge and perpetual seeking of understanding. HArry was a perpetual seeker; he learned much about magic and even more about life lessons during the series, all of which had a role in his end game.
4. The Chess game was set by McGonagall. Ron played this game for Harry, enabling him to get to the next level. As we recall, Ron sacrificed himself to the White Queen in order for Harry to pass. This chess game was, I thought, symbolic of the "life chess game" set in motion by Voldemort to kill Harry and gain power. Voldemort was ultimately checkmated by Dumbledore's ability to save Harry and the wizarding world. Harry was placed on that "chess board" from the moment Voldemort heard the prophesy.
Ron was as necessary to Harry throughout the series as he was on the chessboard; he was Harry's guide to the wizarding world, its ways, its culture, and its darker side. Without Ron's friendship, Harry would surely have been adrift. I thought it interesting that Ron was taken out by the White Queen, who in alchemy is the archetypal feminine.....the cool, moist, receptive counter to his fiery Red King. The White Queen is also linked to the anima, the link to the emotions, intuition, and love. (Ron was indeed dumbfounded later in the series by Fleur, a White Queen figure, and Ron had his hardest lessons in maturation dealing with love and feelings - Hermione, in short - as we saw by the torture created for Ron by the locketcrux). Interestingly, when Harry was able in the end to defeat the White King (Dumbledore?), the White King takes off his crown and throws it at Harry's feet. I found this to be a fascinating presage to the King's Cross chapter in DH, where Dumbledore admits that Harry was the better man and was, unlike himself, the worthy master of the Hallows. There, certainly, Dumbledore "takes off his crown" once more to Harry.
5. The troll was set up by Quirrell. I thought the troll to be symbolic of base power. (No refinement there!) That went along with Quirrell's adopted philosophy that there was no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it. As we saw, Harry was never really tempted by power. In PS/SS, the troll was already knocked out - Harry didn't have to fight it - just like he never had to fight an attraction to power in life.
6. The potions were set by Severus and required the cool use of logic under fire. Now, if anything symbolised Severus' abilities, this task did. As a double agent for Dumbledore against Voldemort, Severus had to keep a cool head and iron self control at all times. The man embodied self discipline. Severus always remained calm and focused under the most intense of situations, as we saw over and over throughout the series. This task reflected the qualities which Harry would also need to untimately attain in order to completely defeat Voldemort. The advice Severus hurled at Harry at the end of HBP was foreshadowed in this task: Harry would need to learn to keep his mouth shut and his mind closed.....intelligence, not raw emotion, would serve him best. We see that final maturation in Harry in DH during his final battle with Voldemort. There is little raw emotion, just calm, cool purpose.
7. The Mirror of Erised. Set by Dumbledore, this task was about seeking, not obtaining. Harry had to want only to find the stone, not possess it. And how this foreshadows the lessons Harry had to learn in DH! There, Harry also had to seek, not only horcruxes but Hallows as well. To master death, Harry had to be pure of heart. In the end, Harry only used the Elder Wand at the very end to defeat Voldemort.....but he dismantled the 3 Hallows and insured that those seeking to obtain power over death (and power and dominance in the wizarding world) would be unable to do so. Harry started the series by doing the same in PS/SS - he kept Quirrell from obtaining power by keeping the philosopher's stone from him. Harry comes full circle from PS/SS to DH - Harry is always the seeker, never the dominator.
More later on the correlation between the DADA teacher and the seven books and the seven tasks.....
This post has been edited by fidelia: Oct 29 2007, 12:24 PM
Reason for edit: Edited to fix quote.
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Oct 26 2007, 05:24 AM
Check out Book Number 5 POA edition.
. What about the 'Weasley is our King' song or LV, himself? 
to him, in one of the climaxes of HP7.
