Significance of the symbol of “Deathly Hallows”

                                            Name :- Nargis Ibrahimbhai Saiyad

                                      Roll no: - 13
                                  Class: - M.A. Sem.-IV
                             Paper: - New Literature

Topic: -    Significance of the symbol of “Deathly Hallows”

-:Submitted to:-

Dr. Dilip Barad

Dept. of English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

                                    Bhavnagar.

  Significance of the symbol of “Deathly Hallows”

                                                       J.k.Rowling, in her has given the title to the novel ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’ So, the “Deathly Hallows” must have significance in the novel. So, we should understand its meaning.

# It’s meaning -

                                 “Hallows” means “holy object”

                                                        We can also think that “hallow” meaning “holy” in Halloween (hallow-eve), the day before All Saint’s Day.

# Image - 

 It is an image uniting the three deathly hallows. The symbol consists of three geometric shapes.

                                                     "The Elder Wand," he said, and he drew a straight vertical line on the parchment. "The Resurrection Stone," he said, and he added a circle on top of the line. "The Cloak of Invisibility," he finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle, to make the symbol that so intrigued (fascinate, plot) Hermione. "Together," he said, "the Deathly Hallows."

                                                                         —Xenophilius Lovegood

# Representation-        They represent as follow:

·       Circle – the Resurrection Stone

·       Triangle – the Invisible cloak

·       Line – the elder wand

                                               Harry potter noticed this symbol in 1997, when Viktor Krum, pointed out that Xenophilius Lovegood was wearing this around his neck at Bill and Fleur is wedding.

                                                Gellert Grindelwald’s mark is a triangular rune that dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald used as his sign, though it is actually the sign of “Deathly hallows”. This “double association” seems to be reference to the Swastika, a sacred Hindu symbol of the sun, later adopted as the symbol of Nazi Germany.

 Rowling says that the objects are based upon

                           Geoffrey Chaucer – “The pardoner’s Tale”

# The Tales of Beedle the Bard-

                                                   By this, the author presented his own version of the origin of the hollows.

                                             “That is a children’s tale, told to amuse rather than to instruct. Those of us who understand these matters, however, recognize that the ancient story refers to three objects, or Hollows, which if united, will make the possessor Master of Death.”

                                                      It’s about three Peverell brothers who were travelling in the twilight. They reached one river. It was very dangerous. They simply waved their wands and created a bridge across the river. They were then stopped by capital Death himself. Even death felt cheated. Death pretended to congratulate them on being clever enough to evade him, and offered each of them a powerful magical item.

                                                   So, the first Peverell brother, Antioch Peverell, wished to have the most powerful wand. Death broke a branch off a nearby elder three and created for him the Elder Wand. The second brother, Cadmus Peverell wanted to humiliate death even further, and wished to have the power to bring loved ones from the grave. Death took an ordinary stone from the riverbed and created the Resurrection Stone for him. It was a stone capable of it. Ignotus Peverell, the third brother was a humble man. He didn't trust Death and asked to go on from the river without being followed by death. So, Death gives his own cloak, cloak of Invisibility. It never lost its power.

# Invisibility cloak-

                                                          “It was only when he had attained great age that the youngest brother finally took of the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son.” (For Ignotus)

     Harry is a living descendant of Ignotus Peverell.

# The Elder Wand-  

                                           Without realizing until later, Harry became the master of the elder wand when he defeated Draco Malfoy during the battle of Malfoy Manor in 1998. When his deed was done, Harry replaced it in the tomb of Albus Dumbledore. His mindset was that if he could die of natural causes. Its history of bloodshed would be gone forever.

# The Resurrection Stone-

                                        It was disguised inside a snitch; the first one Harry had ever caught in a Quid ditch match. There were written some words on the snitch. They were,

                                       “I open at the close.”

                                                      Then Harry came to know later that he had to be close to death. So, to open it, he said,

                                        “I’m about to die.”

                                                 Harry used it to bring back and talk with his parents, Lupin, god father and also Sirius Black. After killing the Horcruxes he drops it in the forest.

# Use of “Deathly Hallows”-  

                                                    The Hallows can’t be used wrongfully to cheat death. Any desire for personal gain immediately cancels out the possibility of mastering one of the hallows. For example, when Dumbledore is tempted to use the Resurrection stone to bring back his family for apologizing, it fails.

# Master of Death-

                                                          Only Harry Potter the only known Master of Death. He didn't unite all three of them physically at the same moment, as he possessed no more than two at the same time. Albus Dumbledore had also gathered all three physically but didn't master the usage of cloak.

# Conclusion-  

                                 The hallows played a particularly important role in the lives of Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald and Harry Potter. The Master of Death became Harry but by accepting death as an ultimate reality. It is not dark. So, it reminds us,

                                  “There is nothing Dark about the Hallows- at least not in that crude sense. One simply uses the symbol to reveal oneself to other believers, in the hope that they might help one with the Quest.”

                                                    -Xenophilius Lovegood

              J.K.Rowling thus also gives message to human- beings.