Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
December 21st 2006 08:16
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Goblet of Fire breaks ranks from the earlier Potter novels in many ways: it is the first long novel in the series, the first to feature Voldemort-Potter conflict as the plot mainstay, the first to expand the limited perspective of Hogwarts and give us a wider view of the wizarding world and its politics.
At the beginning, Harry is happy. He gets to watch the Quidditch World Cup with his friends and there is a new tri-wizard tournament at Hogwarts. Harry gets the first jolt when he is selected as one of the champions even though he was underage and didn’t volunteer for it. The tasks are all too big for him and most of the book is about how Harry gets past the tasks, a fragmentary, serial plot that is rather unsatisfactory the first time you read it.
There is a lot going on in the background but that’s not enough to count as a central mystery (which is why I did not like this novel the first time I read it; not being aware of the dynamics of HP world, I couldn’t appreciate half of what’s going on.) Nevertheless, once you are familiar with the HP saga, Goblet of Fire makes for an exciting read.
But, once you go into the climax, the novel picks up amazing speed and depth and this probably is the most well-written climax in the series. For pure action, there is nothing to beat Order of Phoenix, for pathos half-Blood Prince, for complexity Prisoner of Azkaban but for simple well-written drama that makes your veins pop out, nothing can beat Goblet of Fire. As Voldemort is resurrected and the second war begins, you relish the anticipation of it all.
The novel is so long because there are a lot of unnecessary scenes like the Yule ball which add verisimilitude to the HP universe but little else to the plot. Details like these have been plaguing HP novels ever since. Also, Rowling builds up into major paragraphs what she could epigrammatically condense in few words in earlier novels. This takes away the special shiver the brevity of her style produced in the earlier novels. I think Rowling rather cunningly calculated that she had acquired enough fans by novel three that she could depend on them alone and provide a lavish dinner for fan base rather than a sprightly supper for the everyman. That takes away some points from the technical perfection of the novels but it still is a feast for the fans.
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