Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Chapter 16 & Chapter 17)
STATS
Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Series: Harry Potter (Book 4)
Author(s): JK Rowling
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy (Urban)
First Printing: 2000
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entire Harry Potter franchise. Heavy spoilers will also be provided for the entirety of both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (but not Onyx Storm, which has not yet been released at the time of this post). I will be confining the Fourth Wing and Iron Flame spoilers to the sections where I analyze the plot of Fourth Wing and compare it to Goblet of Fire. All spoilers shall otherwise be unmarked and can pop up at any time.
STORY
Hogwarts holds a feast to welcome Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. After they have eaten, Dumbledore reveals the Goblet of Fire and explains the Age Line that will keep underage wizards from entering, explaining that the selection will be made the following night. As Harry and the others leave the feast, he bumps into Karkaroff, who expresses shock upon recognizing Harry and a mix of terror and rage upon seeing Mad-Eye. The next day, Harry and the others see the Age Line in action against Fred and George. They then go to visit Hagrid, where they pick up on his attraction to Maxime.
When the selection arrives, we see Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory be chosen as Champions. Then comes the surprise selection of Harry as the fourth Champion. In the chaos that follows, the teachers are shocked and outraged. Mad-Eye proposes that someone entered Harry’s name to kill him. Ultimately, Bagman and Crouch, Sr. (hereafter referred to simply as “Crouch”) conclude that Harry is bound by a magical contract to participate. Crouch gives the date for the First Task as well as information on when they will be told about the Second Task.
Harry returns to Gryffindor Tower to discover that no one believes that he didn’t enter his name. He expects Ron and Hermione will believe him, only to discover that Ron believes he entered his name and is mad that Harry is lying about it. The two end up arguing, ending with Ron expressing disgust that Harry is chasing fame.
ANALYSIS
Establishment
In terms of new elements, I feel like only two elements of significance are established here.
Characterization for Maxime and Karkaroff through their dynamics with established characters and through their reaction to Harry being selected.
Harry being magically bound to participate in the tournaent.
Of these, I feel the second element is rather weak. We never actually learn how this magical contract compels Harry to do anything. Is it an Unbreakable Vow that will kill him if he doesn’t participate? For that matter, why can’t Harry just start each task and then immediately withdraw from it? The safety precautions implemented this year allow him to do that, so it seems like a solution that would both safe his life and satisfy the outrage of Maxime and Karkaroff. Ultimately, this is a handwave that Rowling doesn’t want us to think too much about, and given the general quality of the rest of her writing, it is incredibly unsatisfying.
Payoff
Harry’s name emerging from the Goblet is a twist that, while very sudden, does make sense upon reflection. It was made clear that the ban on underage wizards participating was imposed this year and enforced by Dumbledore’s Age Line, not inherent to the Tournament. The Age Line also has the obvious loophole that any mature wizard could enter Harry’s name instead. Thus, while Harry’s participation was not necessarily foreshadowed, it is a twist that makes sense within the wider context of the plot.
Mysteries
Who put Harry’s name in THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!
This is a mystery that slams into the audience almost as soon as Harry’s name pops out of the Goblet. We are in Harry’s POV, so we know he didn’t enter. Mad-Eye then heightens the mystery be explaining how hard it would be to trick the Goblet (in hindsight, his “speculation” was probably a confession of exactly how he managed it) and proposing that someone wants to kill Harry (which is true to Moody’s character, so Mad-Eye can admit to it without raising undue alarm). This is a question that will gnaw at Harry throughout the coming chapters.
Voldemort’s plans
Thanks to Mad-Eye proposing that Harry was entered in the Tournament as a means to kill him, Harry begins to reflect on the possibility that this is all part of the plans that Voldemort referred to in the dream.
Crouch
While Crouch’s behavior is not yet commented upon, it is clear upon a second read that he is already under the Imperious Curse at this point in the story. He is unfocussed and lacks any emotional investment throughout the argument between the teachers about Harry’s name appearing, only speaking up when asked to give feedback on the Tournament rules, speaking as little as he has to, and brushing off efforts to socialize. I imagine that the Imperious Curse does not give the bewitched person much leeway from improvisation, and his instructions were merely to ensure that the selection process went smoothly and otherwise deflect suspicion.
Mad-Eye’s history Snape and Karkaroff
During both their encounter at the feast and Mad-Eye’s later interjection after Harry’s selection, it is made clear that he and Karkaroff have very personal history, with Dumbledore needing to rebuke Mad-Eye from trying to bring up Karkaroff’s history as a Death Eater. This will pay off shortly when we get confirmation of that history.
COMPARISON TO FOURTH WING (Chapters 10 - 14)
These chapters are taken up by the Gauntlet, Presentation, and Threshing itself. I won’t rehash all the issues with these events (you are free to check the relevant sections of the Fourth Wing review for more on that). Instead, I will simply focus on payoffs and the failure of setups.
Payoff
For all of my issues with these chapters, they are indeed somewhat functional as a payoff for Violet’s arc. She overcomes challenges by using her intellect instead of her physicality; she is rewarded with a dragon for her courage, rather than her skill or power (and, indeed, her lack of skill or power makes the courage more impressive). It is satisfying when Tairn chooses her.
However, then Chapter 14 ends, and as Violet tumbles to (what should be) her death, a question sets it …
What now?
Setup
The moment Tairn chose Violet, the story that Yarros told us to expect is effectively over. Chapters 15 & 16 (which we will cover in the next part) are resolution to a conflict that has already been resolved. Those of us paying attention to Yarro’s death toll numbers will also have noticed that the death toll for the entire year has already been reached. Based upon everything Yarros has told us, the audience expects the story to be over now.
Which is a big problem, given we are only a third of the way through the book.
There was time in which Yarros could have at least mentioned the Squad Battle and the War Games in these chapters. This should have come before Violet overcame the Gauntlet, but she could have held off until Presentation in Chapter 12. After that, these events would have felt tacked on, but at least the audience’s expectations would have been adjusted to account for what could happen in the rest of the book.
Instead, we got none of that. We are in free fall now, praying that Yarros has a net or a pool of water or a bouncy castle to catch us.
Missed Opportunity
During the Presentation, the venin are brought up in a very forced manner.
To refresh everyone’s memory: during Presentation, the cadets are encouraged to talk so that the dragons can gauge their characters. Yarros fills this time with … filler. The chatter is forced characterization that goes nowhere, plus the characters talking dismissively about venin and wyverns as something that totally only exist in folklore and shouldn’t at all be taken seriously. This approach to discussing the venin might have worked if, again, this book had a prologue that established venin as being a very real threat in the present day. It would have cemented the dichotomy between what the people of Navarre are told and what is true. In isolation, it’s ham-fisted. Either Yarros is wasting our time with author’s notes, or she is screaming at us to remember this information for her big twist at the climax of the book.
Portraying Violet as a Luna Lovegood-type character could have patched this. During the Gauntlet, she has another moment of spewing author’s notes. If she had used this moment to spew more folklore, whether about venin or anything else, it would have tied her knowledge of venin and the conversation about them to her character in a meaningful way. What’s more, it would make the conversation in Presentation feel more natural. The idea of venin and wyvern would be disparaged not because Yarros wants to beat us over the head with the information but because the characters disparaging the idea have a strong motivation to disparage Violet as well, so they are coming at her through something they know she values.
It’s a small touch, but small touches would have gone a long way to save this book.
DRAGONS WERE THE FIRST TASK
Next time, we’ll dive into Chapters 18 & 19 of Goblet of Fire and Chapters 15 & 16 of Fourth Wing.
After the paradigm shifts of Harry becoming a Triwizard Champion and Violet being selected by Tairn, both books take a moment to reflect on how the main characters are reacting to their new circumstances and to prime the audience what comes next. Naturally, Goblet of Fire does this far better, but I don’t think that’s because these chapters of Fourth Wing chapters are inherently bad. As stated in this part of the review, Chapters 15 & 16 could have worked as an ending for the book. They simply don’t have the necessary foundation to facilitate a reset of the book so as to transition into the two-thirds of the story that Yarros has not prepared us for.
It’s coming on December 13th. I hope to see you all then. Have a good week.
