Morals from the Wizarding World

Yes, I have to admit; I was one of the crazy Harry Potter fans that flocked to the midnight premier. Although non-fans would beg to differ, seeing HP on the big screen at midnight was definitely worth my time. Not only did I feel a sense of overwhelming excitement for the next movie, but also my love for the wizarding world was rekindled. This particular movie was different from all the rest in that they used graphic animation for an entire scene. Hermione reads the story of the three brothers, as black and white graphic images flit across the scene. I loved this part and I think it added a lot more to the movie than if she had simply read aloud. The story is about 3 brothers who come to an impassable river and create a bridge, angering death so much that he stops them in their path. Cunning as he is, death gives them each one request. The first brother asks for a wand that can never be defeated. The second brother asks for the power to bring back loved ones from the dead. And lastly, the third and wisest brother asks for a way to be invisible to death until it his time to leave the earth. Unsurprisingly, the first two brothers do not live long, for their wishes turn against them and death gladly takes them for his own. But, the third brother lives a long life until he gives his invisibility cloak to his son, greeting death as an old friend. This fictional story is meant to teach kids the morals of humility, wisdom…etc. But also, it unveils universal messages; one cannot cheat or ignore death for it is inevitable.

Long before the time of Harry Potter, the sagacious lessons taught in the tale of the three brothers were present. On the wall of the Camposanto, the enclosed burial ground next to Pisa’s Cathedral, is a fresco called The Triumph of Death. On the left, young aristocrats, in lavish attire, stumble upon three corpses decomposing in their coffins. The men hold their noses and the women turn away in horror, as they stand amidst the atrocity of death. In the far left upper corner, Saint Macarius unfurls a scroll, which discusses the inevitability of death. In comparison, the figures in the far right scene seem to foolishly ignore death. As they amuse themselves, angels and demons compete for the souls of the corpses piled in the foreground. The wealthy persons carousing in luxury are unprepared for death, and therefore are unlikely to achieve salvation; imagery meant as a warning against greed and lust.

Although some die-hard fans derive their moral lessons from Harry potter, I am proud to say that I have learned equally as much from a 14^th century Italian fresco.