Harry Potter and the search for identity

 
Buy Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com
Buy Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com

Warning: This article contains plot spoilers

The third Harry Potter film was released on DVD on 19 November 2004, nicely timed for Christmas, after having been first released in cinemas at the end of May. The director of the first two films, Chris Columbus, has been replaced by Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican director of A Little Princess (1995) and Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001). The change in director has resulted in a darker, more grown-up film that is stylistically different from the first two.

The Prisoner of Azkaban opens the same way as its predecessors, with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) stuck at his the home of his Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths) and Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw) in Privet Drive.  Harry, now thirteen, is ganglier and has a fiercer temper than when we saw him at the end of the last film. A visit by Vernon’s sister Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris) leads to disaster when Harry Potter accidentally causes her to blow up and float away when he gets really angry at her comments about his mother and can’t control his temper. He has broken the Hogwarts’ rule of no magic outside school, and so he fears he might be expelled. Instead of thinking things through rationally, Harry runs away but is fortunately rescued by the Knight Bus. The bus takes him to Diagon Alley to stay in the Leaky Cauldron until the school term starts. There he discovers that something is troubling the wizard community. Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), a convicted murderer, has escaped from Azakaban. He is the first person ever to do so, and therefore he is much feared. Black is believed to be a follower of You-Know-Who, and was detained at Azakaban for killing Harry’s parents thirteen years ago. Rumours abound that Black is seeking to kill Harry.

It is with this in mind that Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express with Hermoine Grainger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) to begin his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There is heightened security set in place around Hogwarts, with the terrifying Dementors patrolling the grounds. The Dementors are the guards of Azkaban - black creatures that suck all the happiness and life out of the people they attack. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), coaches Harry on how to overcome his fear of the Dementors and face up to them in case they attack him, as they seem inclined to do. Another new teacher is the Professor of Divination, Sybil Trelawny (Emma Thompson), who predicts Harry’s death when she sees ‘the grim’ in his tealeaves. Buckbeak the hippogriff is Hagrid’s (Robbie Coltrane) new pet, a horse-griffin hybrid whose encounter with Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) means he faces execution.

As events take a more sinister turn, the distinctively older looking Harry, Hermoine and Ron set out to save Buckbeak from his execution, and discover more than they bargained for. They have no qualms about breaking the school rules to achieve their purpose, and are brave enough to put their own safety in jeopardy to help each other and preserve the greater good. They find out that the truth is not quite how they imagined it, and in the process Harry discovers more about his dead parents and their own school days.

This third film is definitely darker than the first two, and it is more emotionally challenging, with the evil Dementors creating an atmosphere of fear throughout. Professor Trelawny’s divination lessons, which involve predicting the future, take the magic practiced at Hogwarts to a more sinister level. She teaches her pupils to gaze into crystal balls, read palms and study tealeaves. Most of the students regard her as ridiculous and don’t take these exercises seriously. However, when she is alone with Harry she appears to become possessed and makes a prophecy that comes true. Although most of the magic in Harry Potter is unlike real witchcraft, divination appears to be similar to practices that takes place in our world and therefore seems to have blurred the boundary between fictional and real magic. Another reason this film is more intense than the earlier films is Harry’s revengeful desire to pay Sirius back for his parents’ death, which redirects itself to Peter Pettigrew when he discovers the truth. However, Harry is shown to be merciful when he refuses to let the guilty Pettigrew die. This mercy is not quite as amazing as it may seem because Harry’s motivation in preventing Pettrigrew’s death is to stop his father’s friends becoming killers, and he certainly gives no indication that he will forgive Pettigrew for what he has done. Nevertheless, Harry’s refusal to let Pettigrew die is still remarkable given the circumstances and the hatred he feels for the man. Therefore, despite the darker elements of the film, there is some light shining through in Harry’s character and the introduction of talk about mercy.

The Prisoner of Azkaban explores Harry’s identity and his family background, of which Harry is still pitifully unaware. Harry continues to identify with his parents, and specifically with his father, and is delighted when Professor Lupin is able to tell him more about his father’s character and abilities. As an orphan, Harry is very aware of his lack of knowledge of his family and heritage. There is a sense in today’s society that we believe that finding out more about our ancestors will give us a greater understanding of who we are and our own individual identity. This is demonstrated by the BBC2 prime time TV series Who Do You Think You Are? where celebrities investigate their family history. We live in an age where people are uncertain of their identity and how they should define themselves, and it is this uncertainty that often drives people to explore their past and family background. The Christian message is particularly relevant to this search for identity. The Bible teaches us that our identity does not come from what we do, from our achievements or even our family tree, although of course these things do have a shaping effect on our lives. God tells us in Genesis 1:27 that ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’ (NIV). This tells us that our identity comes from God who is our Father and Creator, whose image remains irrevocably part of us. It is God’s love that gives us worth as humans and, indeed, it is only when we understand this that we can really appreciate what it means to be human. It is a highly relevant concept to people like Harry who are trying to understand who they are.

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