Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parenthood
Time, Mistakes, and the Past
Friendship, Family, Love, and Bravery
Reputation and Expectation
Death and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
Aboard the Hogwarts express, Rose tells Albus that they need to seriously consider where to sit—their parents all met on the Hogwarts Express and became friends for life. Albus thinks that this is quite a lot of pressure, but Rose is excited, because she knows everyone will want to be friends with them because of their parents. She says that they should go into each cabin and then figure out which people to be friends with.
Rose and Albus feel additional pressure of expectation simply taking the train to Hogwarts, because their parents all found their best friends on their very first train ride to school. Rose also notes the benefits that they get from their parents’ reputation, expecting that it will make them popular among the rest of the students—illustrating again the power of reputation and expectation in their lives.
Themes
Albus ducks into a cabin with one boy sitting alone. The boy introduces himself as Scorpius and offers Albus some candy, but Rose treats him very coldly. Albus talks warmly to Scorpius, but Rose keeps hitting Albus, gesturing to him to stop talking to the boy. Scorpius acknowledges this, saying it’s because his parents are Draco and Astoria Malfoy and they didn’t get along with Albus and Rose’s parents. Rose points out that Draco was a Death Eater.
Whereas at this point Albus benefits from his father’s reputation (even though the prospect of living up to that reputation makes Albus nervous), the play provides an alternate perspective for a student like Scorpius. Unlike Albus, Scorpius’s father’s reputation as a former Death Eater plagues Scorpius and makes other students like Rose treat him very coldly.
Themes
Scorpius also addresses the rumor about him: that his parents couldn’t have children, so Astoria used a Time-Turner to travel to the past and conceived Scorpius with Voldemort. Rose jokes that Scorpius couldn’t be Voldemort’s son because he has a nose. The tension breaks some, and Scorpius assures them that he looks just like Draco, and that he’d rather be a Malfoy than the son of the Dark Lord.
Scorpius’s potential ties to Voldemort also add to the idea that reputations can be burdensome, as the belief that he is Voldemort’s son plagues him even more than his actually being Draco’s son. Additionally, the play introduces the idea that fixating on the past is dangerous by introducing the Time-Turner. This illustrates how, even as wizards have the ability to change the past, this ability can come with severe consequences for the present, such as the rumors Scorpius experiences.
Themes
Rose starts to leave, but Albus tells her to go on without him, even when she says she’s not going to wait for him. After Rose leaves, Scorpius thanks Albus for staying, and Albus says that he just stayed for the candy. As smoke comes out of Scorpius’s ears from the Pepper Imp candy, he thanks Albus loudly for staying for the candy, and Albus laughs.
This moment is a key turning point for Albus, as he feels much more connected to a boy like Scorpius, who is also worried about the expectations and reputations that his parents place on him, than someone like Rose, who feels confident in herself. As they share candy (paralleling the way Harry and Ron shared candy in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), the play hints at how friendship will help them overcome their shared and individual struggles.
Themes
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