2nd Harry Potter movie:
Confrontation of pain, sadness and memories
Introduction
Oh my God, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is such a wonderful movie. What is wonderful about the Harry Potter movies is that every time I watch one, I see something I didn’t notice before. So I watched it again this afternoon and I got a few thoughts about it.
Harry Potter has got a lot of symbolism in it, a lot of archetypes and a lot of universal themes. I never try to take (great) cinema, or art for that matter, literally. Most wonderful things about a movie are not purely rationally explainable. Watching a great movie, hearing great music, looking at a beautiful painting, is mostly an emotional and irrational experience. So I’m gonna go into some topics about this movie that really spoke to me without trying to make sense of everything. Though I’m going to try to explain it clearly.
First of all, the one who taught me most about symbolism, archetypes and great ways to experience art is Jordan Peterson. I really recommend watching some of his videos about this sort of topic.
Here’s a link where he talks about Harry Potter: https://youtu.be/jnTFpCemVrA?si=qjkG5-7eEN2Cfw_E
I really do recommend his teachings about movies and stories. I hope I’m not copying what he says, but he definitely influenced me.
The movie, first thoughts
Okay, The Chamber of Secrets is fundamentally about facing your deepest fear. Slaying that big snake inside you, or in the world, come out damaged and be reborn as a more developed human being. That is basically what happens when Harry Potter faces Voldemort through exploring the diary. The diary contains dark/painful memories that lead him to his arch-enemy. Memories, bad things that happen to us, can be a really big burden, in this movie portrayed as a snake. You can get petrified by looking directly at it; it can even kill you. With wisdom and courage on your side you can also slay it, learn from it and become a better person.
I’m not trying to explain the movie in just one paragraph. It’s just an interpretation, one of the many you can have from watching symbolic movies. Harry Potter takes a lot of themes out of very old and fundamental stories from long ago and implements them.
Facing your fears, being petrified
What really grabbed me this time was the idea of being petrified, the diary, the snake and also the mandrakes and Moaning Myrtle. I don’t know if I’ll be able to explain it well, but let’s not worry about results and I’ll try to scribble down how I experienced it.
Firstly, you have this diary. What do people use diaries for? Among the many things, you use it to write down private matters, secrets, and sometimes, maybe most of the time painful subjects. So you write all your memories down. Painful memories, maybe even dark ones. When one goes through their past and hardship, it usually hurts. And if you start to dwell on it in a bad way, maybe naïvely or overwhelmingly, it can start to eat you up and make you scared. It can petrify you ’til the point where you can’t move. And that’s exactly what happens to the characters in the movie.
This pain and darkness is, I think, portrayed as a snake. Some get petrified. Ginny, a young, naïve first-year, is being led by it (the snake, this pain and darkness). And there are also individuals, in this case Harry Potter, who can actually delve into it, interact with it (hence his ability to talk with snakes). Because of his past, his parents being killed, his first encounter with Voldemort in the first movie, Harry might be equipped and experienced enough to face this pain. He follows this snake to its core, confronts it, and gets badly hurt with its teeth in his arm. Yet, because of his bravery (which we must admit, the fact that it’s really brave to confront your pain) he is gifted the Sword of Gryffindor. With which he slays the snake, the demon. And after being badly wounded, the Phoenix revives him.
By confronting his fears through the diary, his memories, he not only saves himself, but also saves Ginny, and therefore the whole school, Hogwarts. And I think the reason the story is so successful is because we can all relate to it. We all know how difficult it is to confront your fears, your past and face the future. I think, maybe unconsciously, we identify ourselves with Harry Potter. He is being responsible and brave, and that is something we all aspire to.
The Phoenix
What is so cool is the story of the Phoenix. The animal who dies and is immediately reborn. Symbolizing the death and rebirth of people who face their fears, or will become adult human beings. It’s such an amazing idea, I’m always blown away by it. And to think that it’s the pet of Dumbledore. Dumbledore, who basically is all-knowing, wise and good in this movie. He is one with the phoenix, they are connected. He is one with the death and rebirth of a person. It could be that he portrays God, a God-like character. Astounding!
Mandrakes, being petrified and Moaning Myrtle
So if you take the idea of facing your memories. There is a lot of sadness in that, and with sadness come tears of course. It’s interesting that mandrakes, the cure for being petrified, are constantly crying. And not just crying, extreme crying. Maybe healthy amounts of sadness and cries can help a person come out of extreme fear? Maybe that’s pushing it, I’m definitely not an expert. But it was interesting to me that mandrakes, medicine that cries heals the petrified. It cannot be a coincidence, though I cannot fully explain it either.
And then you have Moaning Myrtle who died in the past from coming in contact with the snake. Coming in contact with her past, the pain let’s say. So that confrontation for her was life-threatening and she is doomed to be a ghost that is constantly moaning. If you look at a ghost being a constant state of being, which they are, her contact with the ultimate fear has doomed her to be constantly moaning, crying and unhappy. Wouldn’t you say that people who don’t face their fears, learn from their mistakes, know their past, are constantly afraid/petrified tend to get bitter? Maybe they start moaning for the rest of their lives.
There is something about bitterness, unprocessed or unhealthy amounts of sadness that made me think about Moaning Myrtle. Like, if that inner pain and sadness completely takes over, it then will doom you to be a crying ghost of the person. I’m not judging, or claiming to know certain things, I’m exploring. But this was a part of the story that I felt. Let me know what you think!
Conclusion
Well this might be quite enough for one blog. Isn’t it great that a movie can stir up so many things inside the viewer! I cried during the last scene when Hagrid is being applauded for his story arc. The music by John Williams is also responsible for the tears. And I must say, I always welcome these strong emotions when it comes to art. There’s something magical about it, and might be the reason why I am constantly exploring it.
Thank you friends!