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
In 1995, Albus and Scorpius swim through the lake, hearing Ludo Bagman announce above the surface. Cedric Diggory swims through the water, and Albus and Scorpius fire an Engorgement charm at him. Cedric starts to grow and float out of the water, and Bagman announces that Cedric is out of the second task. Bagman also states that Cedric is turning into a balloon, and that fireworks are exploding around him, declaring, “Ron loves Hermione.” Albus and Scorpius high five as people laugh.
Rather than going back to correct what they did in messing up the first task, Albus and Scorpius choose to go back to a different time to try and make even further changes that will hopefully prevent Cedric from winning the tournament and still keep Ron and Hermione together, showing how they still don’t fully appreciate the dangers of this kind of time travel and trying to affect the past.
Themes
Just then, the world becomes darker, almost black, and the Time-Turner stops ticking in a flash. Back in the present, Scorpius emerges from the lake, triumphant. But then he quickly realizes that Albus isn’t coming up. Scorpius looks back into the water, calling Albus’s name, and then he starts to panic.
The play now hints at the dire ramifications that Albus and Scorpius’s actions in the past have had on the present—the world has become darker, and Albus seems to have ceased to exist.
Themes
Whispers in Parseltongue erupt, and Dolores Umbridge pulls Scorpius Malfoy out of the water. She says that his family may be important, but she’s the headmistress and she doesn’t have time for his dillydallying. Scorpius says there’s a student in the lake—Albus Potter. Umbridge explains that there hasn’t been a Potter at the school for years, and he died. Scorpius is aghast—Harry Potter is dead.
Albus and Scorpius’s actions have changed the world so much that Umbridge (a menacing professor from Harry’s fifth year at school) is now the headmaster of Hogwarts and Harry is dead.
Themes
Wind blows throughout the theater, and dementors begin to fly, sucking the happiness from the stage. Whispers grow; Harry’s nightmares have come to life. Umbridge says that Harry died as a part of a failed coup on the school more than 20 years earlier. She says to stop the nonsense—he’s upsetting the dementors and ruining Voldemort day. Giant banners with snake symbols descend over the stage, and Scorpius is horrified.
As the play reveals just how much has changed in the present—with Voldemort ruling over the wizarding world—the full implications and danger of Scorpius’s and Albus’s intense focus on trying to change the past comes into full view.
Themes
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