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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Analysis

By: Harleen

    Hello everyone. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the second longest book in the series so far. J.K. Rowling said that this is a vital book as it reveals so much about Harry's past, present, and future. And of course, the matter of Lord Voldemort rising again is also an essential part of the book.
    In this article, I will be discussing in detail what happened and the events that occurred when Voldemort came back. I will also be discussing some of the hidden messages hidden in the events of that night.

    I would first like to talk first about the only power Voldemort kept when Harry defeated him. The power to possess. He possessed snakes, rats, and various other creatures to go into hiding. Then he possessed Professor Quirell. He could have possessed Wormtail but he chose not to. The power to possess can be very dangerous when put into the wrong hands. Such as Voldemort's hands. I think it is evident that Voldemort will possess many other people before the series is through. Perhaps the people closest to Harry? To trick him into walking right into Voldemort's clutches.

    Another interesting bit is Wormtail's hand, or new hand as the case may be. First of all, he used a silver dagger to cut off his hand. Will he use this silver dagger later on in the series, perhaps to kill a werewolf as the superstition is? Or can his new silver hand be used for the same purpose? In the Goblet of Fire, it mentions twice that this silver hand is very strong and powerful.

    Then, when Voldemort activated the Dark Mark and the Death Eaters began to Apparate, some of them did so behind a yew tree. Voldemort's wand is made of yew; could this yew tree serve some sort of purpose to Voldemort being so near his home and his father's grave? Perhaps Voldemort's wand came from
that very tree. And while we're talking about Death Eaters, let's talk about their name. Death Eaters. Death Cheaters? The names are startlingly similar. Either way, both names imply that they are not afraid of death and will escape their death by any means necessary.

    Now, what I thought was extremely interesting was Voldemort's speech to the Death Eaters about the process to his return. What I thought very important was how Voldemort had experimented many methods of immortality and cheating death. He said he had taken steps to remain alive even when he should have died. And one or more of those experiments had worked. He was able to survive the Avada Kedavra curse. Has this semi-immortality lasted all those years? Is he still able to survive the killing curse? Or does the fact that Voldemort now has Harry's blood change that? But I'll get to that a bit later.

    During Priori Incantatem, Harry heard a phoenix song within the gold cage. Voldemort and Harry both share Fawkes' feathers in their wands and perhaps this is what brought the song. The phoenix is sometimes represented as an emblem of immortality. Perhaps the symbol of the phoenix subconsciously told Harry that while in the golden cage, the neither Death Eaters nor Voldemort could touch him.

    Finally, I will be talking about the now famous gleam of triumph shown in Dumbledore's eye when Harry told him about how Voldemort had some of his blood. Now, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid thought Voldemort didn't have enough human left in him to die. But now that he has Harry's blood in him, he is now human enough and can be killed. Dumbledore's gleam of triumph showed that he realized this and knew that he could be killed.