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Actually, no, what Dumbledore sees in the mirror was exactly what Harry sees in the mirror: his family. According to Rowling, Albus Dumbledore sees “his family alive, whole and happy – Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.” Source
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense since it’s your deepest desires. Going back to what Macy said, though, it does make one wonder if Dumbledore can manipulate the images inside so that he can see both….or if what he sees has changed over time with wisdom and perspective.
But if I looked into the mirror I’d probably just see my family safe, secure and happy. That’s honestly it, which is saddening. Ask me about 7 years ago and i’d have a lot more colorful things to say but that’s probably all I’d see now…. hmm.
It’s called growing up. Welcome to the real world. It sucks.
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Just thought, there’s a lot of parallels between certain characters in the Harry Potter books. For Example:
Voldemort and Dumbledore- Powerful wizards with loyal followers
The Dursleys and the Malfoys- A family trio (consisting of a father, mother and son) that extremely dislike Harry muggles/wizards aren’t as good as wizards/muggles respectively.
Ron and Hermione and Crabbe and Goyle- Best friends to the leaders of their little trio, Harry and Draco respectively.
Basicaly, throughout her books, Rowling has given us characters who are two sides of the same coin.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of FelixYeah, that makes a lot of sense since it’s your deepest desires. Going back to what Macy said, though, it does make one wonder if Dumbledore can manipulate the images inside so that he can see both….or if what he sees has changed over time with wisdom and perspective.
I think what the mirror reveals as person’s deepest desire can vary over time as a person grows and develops. For example, if Albus Dumbledore sever did see himself as the Master of the Deathly Hallows as a young man when he looked in the mirror, he learned from the errors of his ways as a direct consequence of what happened to his family. Now, as an older man, he deeply regrets what his ambition cost him. Albus, as an old man full of regret, sees his family, whole and in tact. When Albus cautions Harry not to dwell so much on the what could-have-beens that he forgets to live, Albus speaks from experience. It’s safe to infer that Albus has spent many a night gazing in the mirror looking at the ghosts of his family, just as Harry has. Yet, Albus was keen enough not to let the mirror drive him mad, as it has so many fine wizards and witches before him or Harry.
Basicaly, throughout her books, Rowling has given us characters who are two sides of the same coin.
Yes, they’re all foils of one another. Draco Malfoy is an excellent example of a foil of Harry Potter; Draco serves to draw a contrast to the protagonist for which the entire series is named.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
I think what the mirror reveals as person’s deepest desire can vary over time as a person grows and develops
100000% agree.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think what the mirror reveals as person’s deepest desire can vary over time as a person grows and develops
100000% agree.
I think I slightly disagree but cannot find the words to properly express why so excuse me while I ramble for awhile and hope that you all can catch my meaning. Okay? Here we go:
I disagree. I think our desires may change but our deepest desires will always remain the same because, obviously, that is apart of who we are not just what we want at this particular moment. Dumbledore really could be extremely cold and want a pair of socks. But I think we all agree that is not what he sees in the mirror. Socks could be a desire but his deepest desire could be seeing good triumph over evil, seeing Voldemort defeated or whatever. That is what he’d see in the mirror probably.
Look at Ron. He looks in the mirror and sees himself Quidditch captain and Head Boy. Sure those are his desires but what’s really is deepest desires? He wants to be somebody. He has lived under the shadows of six brothers all his life. They all have their accomplishments and he does not. He is just Ron, no one special, and if he wants to be special he has to be better than them. Even being friends with Harry must make Ron feel inferior a bit because Harry is this rich heroic legend of a guy beloved by Ron’s own mother while Ron is just a poor Weasley. Deep down inside Ron wants to be his own self. To have something great in his name. And will that change? No. JK Rowling has said that Ron feels his proudest accomplishment (bare in mind: even after helping to defeat Lord Voldemort and going on this whole journey with harry, falling in love with Hermione, etc) that his proudest moment….was being put on a Chocolate Frog Wizard Card. I think, for him, that was his “I FINALLY MADE IT!” moment. If Ron looked in the mirror at that point… I think he would see himself as he is.
Idk. Basically what I am saying is there is a difference between our desires and our deepest desires. I think what we desire can change as we go through life. But not our deepest desires.
*this feels like it made no sense and the following gif illustrates how I felt typing it*
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGICI disagree. I think our desires may change but our deepest desires will always remain the same because, obviously, that is apart of who we are not just what we want at this particular moment.
I get what you’re saying. Here’s why I think you’re (somewhat) wrong.
(brief spoilers for the purpose of illustrating my point)
Dumbledore’s mirror vision is seeing her family reunited and happy once more. That is his deepest desire. However, that cannot be his deepest desire until after he’s lost his sister and the rest of his family, either to death or estrangement. Until that happens, it cannot be his deepest desire because his deepest desire is part of circumstance.
I think in some cases, like Ron, the need to “have made it” is always part of him because his circumstance has always been as the smallest and “least remarkable” (in his mind) brother. It wasn’t something that happened to him, it’s been his reality since he was old enough to understand his reality. Dumbledore’s reality shifted and that’s when and why his deepest desire shifted.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I get what you’re saying. Here’s why I think you’re (somewhat) wrong.
(brief spoilers for the purpose of illustrating my point)
Dumbledore’s mirror vision is seeing her family reunited and happy once more. That is his deepest desire. However, that cannot be his deepest desire until after he’s lost his sister and the rest of his family, either to death or estrangement. Until that happens, it cannot be his deepest desire because his deepest desire is part of circumstance.
I think in some cases, like Ron, the need to “have made it” is always part of him because his circumstance has always been as the smallest and “least remarkable” (in his mind) brother. It wasn’t something that happened to him, it’s been his reality since he was old enough to understand his reality. Dumbledore’s reality shifted and that’s when and why his deepest desire shifted.
It’s similar to how we learn that Boggarts can change form. Like personal desires, your biggest fears change over time.
Good points.
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGICHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel
“Nicolas Flamel,” she whispered dramatically, “is the only known maker of the Sorcerer’s Stone!”
Summary
The Christmas holidays are over and life begins again at Hogwarts for Harry, Ron and Hermione. The trio continue to look for Nicolas Flamel and what he might have to do with the grubby little package being guarded by the three-headed dog, but to little avail. Finally, a stroke of luck leads Harry, Ron and Hermione to the big discovery. After Draco harasses Neville, Harry tries to comfort his friend with a chocolate frog and gets another Albus Dumbledore card. It is then that Harry remembers why the name Nicolas Flamel sounded so familiar: he is mentioned on Dumbledore’s Chocolate Frog card.
Nicolas Flamel is a 665-year-old wizard who made the only know ‘Sorcerer’s Stone,’ a magical stone that turns any metal into gold and also produces the Elixir of Life, which grants the drinker immortality. Hermione puts all the pieces together and the trio (and us) realizes that the grubby little package being guarded by Fluffy, the three headed-dog, is the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Accompanying this discovery is the rather horrible news that Snape will be refereeing the next Quidditch game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, something that makes everyone nervous for Harry who’s last game involved a bucking broomstick, assumed to have been a jinx from Snape. Hermione and Ron take their wands to the game in case they are needed to protect Harry, but the game is over quickly when Harry catches the Snitch almost immediately.
As Harry heads back to Hogwarts after the game, he spies Snape and Professor Quirrell heading toward the Forbidden Forest and overhears bits and pieces of a conversation in which Snape threatens Quirrell. The conversation is fairly opaque but we get hints that there are other things besides Fluffy guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone. The chapter ends ominously that the Stone will be stolen soon since all that stands between it and Snape is Quirrell’s courage.
Analysis
Historical Fiction
Nicolas Flamel was a real life figure who lived, roughly, between 1330-1418. He was a manuscript seller and a scribe, and a rather successful one. Because of his success and also his long life, in a time when living long was a rarity, he later gained a reputation for being an alchemist and creating the Philosopher’s Stone (American Harry Potter books call it the Sorcerer’s Stone at JKR’s editor’s insistence). This reputation, however, came about in the 17th century, long after Flamel died. The legends about him persist and he is often used in many works as an ideal alchemist, and is always attached to the Stone. But, in fact, no one is really sure if Flamel practiced alchemy at all. While it was common for men of means to dabble in the practice, the legends about his extraordinary gifts and abilities are simply that, a legend.
The fictionalized Sorcerer’s Stone in JKR’s saga works the same way it was believed to work in our historical reality: turning other metals into gold and producing an Elixir of Life that would grant the drinker immortality. During the age when alchemy was at its height, the search for the creation of the Stone was considered the Magnum Opus (Great Work) and became the focal point for many of the alchemists.
As the alchemists set about their work, more and more tales about the Stone itself sprang up to the point where the legend of the stone was traced back to Biblical times, specifically to Adam, who gained knowledge of the Stone from God, and the later Temple of Solomon (Psalm 118 has a whole passage about a rejected stone). From the Biblical times, we move into the Greek world and ideas stem from Plato’s “Timeaus” and the so called prima materia (first matter) that arose when the world was created. This prima materia was relegated the first ingredient needed to make the Stone.
The Elixir is also part of the historical annals and long sought after from many different cultures. The Elixir is not localized to one specific culture or people or even religion because the idea of immortality is more universal. Thus there are stories about Chinese Emperors searching for a magical drink (apparently this drink contained mercury, which will just kill you quicker…); there are myths about the Indian gods and a drink called Amrita; there are, of course, Greek and Egyptian myths in which Hermes/Thoth drink “white drops” (liquid gold) and become immortal. In the Christian tradition, the Elixir of Life can be seen as a metaphor for eternal life through faith in God and Jesus largely due to a passage in the Gospel of John that states: “But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Also the whole rite of communion has eternal life through belief/liquid drinking written all over it.
Often times immortality is read as a good thing and a noble quest because the god(s) are immortal, but there are plenty of stories about mere humans who are granted/punished with immortality and discover it is nothing grand. Consider, for instance, the stories of Tantalus and Prometheus. Both are doomed to live forever, but under dire and abusive circumstance, Tantalus thirsty and hungry in spite of food and water being right in front of him and Prometheus having his liver pecked out everyday, only for it to grow back. Or the story of Tithonus who was given immortal life but not youth and so continued to age forever and ever and who eventually begs for death. The point being that immortal life is relegated to the divine, or those who have achieved a spiritual immortality (ie: in the Christian tradition). Humans, however, who are granted immortality, find that it’s not all it is cracked up to be and that sometimes you have to welcome Death as an old friend. Human response to Death and their attempts to either subvert or accept it plays a major role in the Harry Potter saga, as we will see over the course of the next few books.
It’s not really necessary to know all this for the Harry Potter saga, hence why I’m only briefly touching on certain matters in our real world. Instead, I think what is important is that the magical world is a place where myths become reality but in JKR’s saga, they are done cheekily and with a dash of humor. For example, Nicolas Flamel is still alive, having created the Stone and producing the Elixir of Life. But instead of being an all-powerful wizard who has conquered death (something another wizard in this series is trying to do….), he enjoys a quiet life and opera. Not exactly a wizard that might make you quake in your boots.
Another example is Fluffy, the three-headed dog who is absolutely a Cerberus stand in. But, while ferocious and scary, is also named Fluffy and thought to be a swell pet by a man who has some giants blood in him (another mythical monster).
JKR does this frequently in her works. She takes a mythical/legendary figure or monster and makes them almost seem ordinary once you are a part of the magical world. No one in the universe blinks an eye at there being centaurs, phoenixes, basilisks, giant spiders, giants, or elixirs that make you immortal. They are all considered, if not normal, then at least well within the accepted parameters of the world. This also relates back to Harry and his own monomyth since he is that legend or myth brought to life in the saga itself.
The Plot Thickens
In @Josephine analysis for chapter 11, we talked about confirmation bias and we see it playing out here once more. Harry, Ron and Hermione are convinced that Snape is after the Stone (and Harry). Because they already believe this to be true, every action taken by Snape is seen as more confirmation to prove their theory. Snape referring the Quidditch game is a threat against Harry. Snape meeting with Quirrell in the woods is him trying to get to the Stone quicker.
Once again, though, Snape’s actions and what he is saying are opaque to the point where we’re not sure what he’s talking about. Yes, he is clearly threatening Qurriell but at no point does he mention wanting the Stone for himself. We’ve stated the theme of Book 1 over and over as being “things are not what they appear” and this is a perfect example. Quirrell is a bumbling, stuttering scardy cat and Snape is the greasy, dressed in black professor who seems to have taken a special liking to torturing Harry Potter. But reading between the lines of this conversation, Snape is really just asking how much Quirrell knows. Snape doesn’t mention his desires for the Stone or the Elixir, just trying to get information out of Qurriell.
I agree that Snape is suspicious, and even more so to three 11 years olds who have a bit of an overactive imagination, but it is also their own personal prejudices against Snape in light of actions and words against them that keep leading them down the “Snape is evil” path.
Potential Foreshadowing
1. Hints that there are more things guarding the Stone than just Fluffy
2. Neville standing up for himself
Conversation Questions
1. Do you think Harry, Ron and Hermione are right to be so suspicious of Snape?
2. What actions could Harry, Ron and Hermione take to prove that Snape is really the bad guy?
3. If you could drink the Elixir of Life and gain immortality, would you?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"1. Do you think Harry, Ron and Hermione are right to be so suspicious of Snape?
Even though we, the audience who have read all 7 books, are aware of Severus Snape’s complex history with Harry’s parents, 11-year-olds Harry et al are not. I was only about 11 or 12 when I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and I recall being suspicious of Snape myself. This is a classic example of an authorial misdirection. Rowling wants her readers to suspect Severus Snape; even his name just sounds slimy! Everything about him — from his physical appearance, to his desire to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, to his disdainful attitude towards Harry, to his association with Slytherin (“where bad wizards come from”) — reinforces the reader’s initial impression that Snape is a black hat. This again plays to the theme of “appearances can be deceiving” that Rolwing uses throughout her series.
2. What actions could Harry, Ron and Hermione take to prove that Snape is really the bad guy?
Well, that is a difficult quest, because Hermione is already convinced she caught Snape trying to jinx Harry Potter’s broom. She, along with Ron and Harry, are therefore wary of Snape being referee at the next quiditich match. When they report their suspicions to people of authority like Hagrid or Professor McGonagall they tend to dismiss the young wizards’ concerns. In reply to the question, I don’t think there is really anything the students could do to prove Snape is guilty of trying to get his hands on that stone. That is why Harry, Ron and Hermione eventually decide they must beat Snape to the stone, never suspecting that someone else could be the one trying to get his hands on it. I question why the trio hold off on reporting their suspicions to Albus Dumbledore directly. Perhaps they feel they need more concrete evidence to indict Snape; moreover, one could argue that even if the trio had reported their suspicions directly to Dumbledore sooner that Albus would’ve replied that Snape would never do such a thing as a Hogwarts professor.
3. If you could drink the Elixir of Life and gain immortality, would you?
I wouldn’t want to be immortal, since immortality can actually be more of a curse than a blessing. Movies like The Age of Adeline and books like Tuck Everlasting reveal that those “blessed” with everlasting life end up living a strange and very sad kind of existence as they not only outlive everyone else of their generation but remain ever young. The fact that they don’t appear to age puts them in danger with others who would wish to study them like scientific specimens or exploit them for monetary gain. Even in the magical world of Harry Potter having the Philosopher’s Stone is a very dangerous thing indeed as dark wizards would use it incorrectly to assert their dangerous views on others forever.
Often times immortality is read as a good thing and a noble quest because the god(s) are immortal, but there are plenty of stories about mere humans who are granted/punished with immortality and discover it is nothing grand.
Yep. See my note above.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
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