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
A montage begins, with time rapidly shifting. In the Great Hall, the Sorting Hat starts to sort students as people whisper how much Albus looks like his father, Harry. The Hat sorts Rose into Gryffindor and Scorpius into Slytherin. When Albus steps up, the hat pauses before sorting him into Slytherin. There is a silence as everyone is dumbfounded, including Albus. Scorpius waves to Albus to stand next to him.
The montage covers a lot of time in a short period, and focuses on the ways that Albus falls short of the expectations others had for him and that he had for himself based on Harry’s reputation. His worst fear for his first day comes true: being sorted into Slytherin rather than Gryffindor. At the same time, it shows how Scorpius’s friendship is already helping Albus get through these difficult moments, as he immediately makes Albus feel welcome next to him.
Themes
The scene shifts to the students’ first flying lesson with the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Rose shows immediate promise as her broom flies into her hand when she calls it, while Albus’s broom sits on the floor, refusing to come to him at all. Other students start to laugh at Albus, saying he isn’t like Harry at all. They call him a squib.
Albus continues to struggle in his first days at school—so much so that people even comment on how unlike Harry he is (even though just a few days earlier they had been saying how much Albus looks like him). This again highlights Albus’s burden of feeling he is not living up to Harry’s reputation.
Themes
The scene shifts back to platform nine and three-quarters, a year later. Albus asks Harry to stand away from him as people crowd Harry for autographs. Albus feels like Harry Potter’s “disappointing” “Slytherin son.” James teases Albus again for being placed in Slytherin, which Harry tries to quash. He asks if kids are being unkind, wondering if Albus might try to make more friends, and Albus assures him he has a friend—Scorpius. Harry says that as long as Albus is happy, that’s all that matters, and Albus says Harry didn’t need to bring him to the station.
This scene shows how the burden of being compared to Harry starts to weigh heavily on Albus’s and Harry’s relationship, as Albus feels “disappointing” in comparison to Harry because he isn’t following the same path and hasn’t found the same success in school. Harry has difficulty fully understanding Albus’s perspective as Albus pushes him away, not knowing how best to make him feel happier. However, even Harry highlights the importance of friendship, knowing that a good friend—like Scorpius—can help Albus overcome these struggles.
Themes
Albus gets on the train, and Draco Malfoy appears next to Harry. He explains to Harry that the rumors about Scorpius’s parentage aren’t going away and Astoria is growing very ill. He asks if the Ministry could release a statement explaining that all the Time-Turners were destroyed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, but Harry tells Draco that the rumors about Scorpius will blow over, and he believes that addressing them will simply feed them.
Draco, too, is fixating on the past, as he struggles with how to combat the rumors about Scorpius’s parentage. And again, Draco emphasizes the problems with fixating on or trying to change the past, as denoted by how people focus on Time-Turners to give credence to their theories about Scorpius’s parentage.
Themes
Get the entire Harry Potter and the Cursed Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
As the train departs, Albus says that Rose doesn’t have to talk to him. She replies that she’s just keeping up the pretense of being nice to Albus for their parents’ sake. When Scorpius runs up and greets them both, Rose leaves, annoyed, though Scorpius wonders if she’s warming up to him.
Albus’s failure to live up to expectations is hurting his relationships even with Rose, who is his cousin and previously was a close friend. However, Albus’s closeness with Scorpius again shows how they rely on each other to overcome their respective struggles with the other students.
Themes
Time jumps to the Great Hall, when Professor McGonagall announces that Rose is the newest member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Albus tells Scorpius not to clap, because they hate Quidditch and she wouldn’t clap for him. Later, in Potions class, Albus and Scorpius hear other kids talking about how Albus is “irrelevant” and Scorpius is Voldemort’s son. Albus gets upset, frustrated with his life.
Albus illustrates how the burdens of expectation and the reputation he is gaining at school as someone “irrelevant” is only leading to a downward spiral, as he then cuts himself off further from the other students and becomes bitter. Scorpius provides the only solace as they face these struggles together.
Themes
It’s Albus’s third year now, and he’s back on platform nine and three-quarters with Harry. Harry gives him a permission slip for Hogsmeade, but Albus says he doesn’t want to go because he knows it’ll be full of Hogwarts students, and he lights the paper on fire. Harry says that Professor McGonagall commented that Albus has been isolating himself, but Albus doesn’t know what to do. He can’t “magic [him]self popular” or “transfigure [him]self into a better student.” He tells Harry to cast a spell to make him into what Harry wants him to be.
The play continues to show the building tension in Albus and Harry’s relationship as Albus worries about not attaining the same popularity or academic achievement that Harry did. Additionally, Harry doesn’t seem to understand exactly how to comfort Albus. Whereas Harry always understood Hogwarts as a place of magic and belonging, it is a source of constant misery for Albus. This introduces the problem with parents like Harry trying to understand their children in terms of their own experiences rather than seeing their children for who they are. As a result, Harry’s attempts to soothe Albus actually leads Albus to feel even more misunderstood and inadequate.
Themes
Albus then boards the train and finds Scorpius, who looks miserable. Albus guesses correctly that Astoria passed away, and Scorpius says he didn’t know how to tell Albus. Scorpius asks Albus to come to the funeral, and to be his friend, and Albus promises to do so. Later in the Great Hall, Albus’s younger sister Lily is sorted into Gryffindor. Albus is dismayed, and the other students start to laugh at him again. Albus says angrily that he didn’t choose to be Harry’s son.
Albus’s exchange with Scorpius reinforces how friendship helps them brave the struggles and tragedies in their lives, like losing a mother. In cases like these, friends don’t even have to do anything other than simply provide that friendship in order to make others feel bravery and stronger, as Albus does for Scorpius. Meanwhile, Albus now struggles with being the only person in his family who isn’t living up to Harry’s precedent, as his sister Lily is sorted into Gryffindor.
Themes
