Themes and Analysis

‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ is considerably darker and grittier in tone. A natural transition into a ‘coming of age’ saga, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ builds into the required environment for future books to develop on. There are several interesting themes that are new to be expected from a Harry Potter book. ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ delves deeper into Harry’s psyche and portrays a lot of emotional turmoil he goes through, something that was not explicitly shown in previous books.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Themes

Fear

Fear is one of the most important themes in ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.’ The dementors who guard the prison of Azkaban are meant to embody the essence of fear. They feed off one’s happiness, hope, and cheerfulness leaving behind a concentrated ‘concoction’ of fear and doubt.

The dementors first appear on the train, and their presence makes Harry faint, before which he hears a woman scream and sees a flash of green light. He later reasons it to be an old memory of his mother’s death at the hands of Voldemort. His innermost fears and painful memories are poured out whenever the dementors appear, just like most of our innermost fears and pain that resurface whenever we are in a difficult situation, despite there being no correlation to any of our fears and worries.

Triumph over Fear

An equally important theme in ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ is also the triumph over fear. Harry starts the year off feeling very scared and alone because he is the only one who fainted in the compartment when the dementors came, and he is the only one who was stopped from fighting a boggart. He also sees a black dog several times, including the grim, which is said to be a bad omen.

However, Harry learns to triumph over his initial fears. He learns to cast a Patronus charm and eventually learns to ward off the dementors whenever they come toward him. Finally, he saves himself and his godfather Sirius from a hoard of about a hundred dementors with a very powerful Patronus that most adult wizards would find difficult to cast.

Time

The only Harry Potter book in the original series to feature time travel, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ is one of the most interesting books to be written in the series. Time is a crucial plot device, especially for the climax of this book. Even before the time traveling occurs in the book, the events coincide very aptly to set up the narrative of the book. In retrospect, it is seen as the effect of Hermione and Harry traveling back in time. For instance, the time at which Harry from the future casts a Patronus coincides with the exact moment after which the dementors would probably have performed their kiss on Sirius, ripping his soul apart.

Captivity, Confinement and Freedom

Another major theme in ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘ is that of captivity, confinement, and, eventually, freedom. Wrongfully accused and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Sirius Black spends thirteen years in prison trying to get out and hunt down the person responsible for his best friends’ murders, and his need to get out keeps him sane in the prison. These themes have been addressed very well in this book. Eventually, when Hermione and Harry free both Buckbeak and Sirius from their fates, the joy of freedom that both Buckbeak and Sirius experience adds to the narrative’s triumphant approach to a happy ending for a long-held-captive person.

Analysis of Key Moments in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

1. Harry receives birthday cards and presents from his friends through owl posts and also long letters from Ron and Hermione explaining what they did in the summer.
2. Harry inflates Aunt Marge after she repeatedly taunts him and keeps insulting his parents, and then leaves the Dursleys’ house with his trunk and all his other things.
3. Harry encounters the Knight Bus, which takes a stranded witch or wizard to any place in London. He then climbs aboard and is dropped to the Leaky Cauldron, where he meets the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge.
4. Harry stays in the Leaky Cauldron and explores Diagon Alley, doing homework and eating Fortescue’s ice cream. He then meets Ron and Hermione, and Hermione takes a ginger cat Crookshanks as her pet from the pet shop.
5. When the students are leaving for Hogwarts aboard the Hogwarts Express, the dementors enter Harry’s compartment, and Harry faints after hearing a woman scream.
6. In Professor Trelawney’s Divination class, Ron finds a Grim in Harry’s tea leaves, and Trelawney predicts that Harry’s life is in grave danger. Later, Malfoy is injured by a hippogriff named Buckbeak after Malfoy insults it.
7. Malfoy pretends to be in pain due to his injuries, and Professor Snape orders Harry and Ron to do all of Malfoy’s potion work.
8. Sirius Black, an allegedly notorious murderer, is sighted in Hogwarts castle. He slashes the portrait of the Fat Lady, and she runs and hides in another portrait.
9. The students are all summoned to the Great Hall when the castle is searched extensively. Snape mysteriously takes over Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and during the Quidditch match, Harry falls off his broom when a bunch of dementors starts swarming around him.
10. Fred and George hand Harry the Marauders’ Map, using which he secretly goes to Hogsmeade.
11. Harry receives a surprise gift in the form of a brand new broomstick, the Firebolt, but is unaware as to who sent it to him.
12. Professor Lupin teaches Harry how to cast a Patronus charm using a boggart as a stand-in for a dementor.
13. In another Quidditch match, Harry is successful in winning Gryffindor 150 points by catching the snitch. Later at night, Sirius Black enters the Gryffindor common room and slashes Ron’s bed curtains.
14. Snape tries to confiscate Harry’s Marauders’ Map but is saved by Professor Lupin’s sudden arrival.
15. Hagrid loses his case for Buckbeak, and Buckbeak is sentenced to death.
16. Professor Trelawney, oblivious to herself, suddenly goes into a strange trance and predicts Voldemort’s return.
17. It is found out that Sirius Black is innocent, and it is Peter Pettigrew who betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort.
18. When they are all taking Peter Pettigrew back to the castle, Lupin suddenly turns into his werewolf form, and Peter Pettigrew escapes.
19. Harry finds out that Hermione has a time-traveling device, and they together trace their past and save both Buckbeak and Sirius from danger and send them safely away.

Writing Style and Tone

The writing style and tone of this book are quite similar to its predecessors. ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘, however, is known for its dark and gritty narrative, as opposed to the first two books, which were tamer in comparison. The highlight of this book is the complications in narration that arrive from time travel. But J. K. Rowling manages to write this part of the book quite well, and the continuity of the narrative stays intact.

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