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
Albus is asleep in a hospital bed while Harry sits beside him. Above them is a portrait of Dumbledore. Dumbledore asks if Albus will be all right, and Harry explains that Madame Pomfrey had to reset Albus’s arm—she said it was like he broke his arm 20 years ago and it set in a very strange way, but he’ll be fine.
Dumbledore’s presence in his portrait here allows for a broader conversation about parenthood, reintroducing the idea that Dumbledore was a kind of father figure for Harry and introducing the parallels between Harry struggling with parenting Albus and Dumbledore struggling with being a good mentor to Harry.
Themes
Harry realizes then that he never asked Dumbledore about naming Albus after him. Dumbledore’s portrait observes that it’s a great weight to place on the boy. When Harry asks how he’s supposed to protect his son, Dumbledore laughs at the idea that Harry is coming to him about advice on how to protect a boy from terrible danger. Instead, Dumbledore says, Harry has to teach Albus how to meet life.
Dumbledore’s point that Harry placed a great burden on Albus with the names he gave him reinforces that Albus had an additional weight of expectation in bearing the name of two great wizards. Additionally, Dumbledore’s advice here indicates some of Harry’s struggles with Albus. While Harry wants to protect Albus, Dumbledore reminds Harry that it’s more important to help Albus know how to find his way through life rather than trying to figure out how to solve Albus’s problems for him.
Themes
Dumbledore says that he’s heard concerns about Harry and Albus—that they are struggling. He thinks that Harry is blinded by his love for Albus but doesn’t actually see who the boy is. But Dumbledore acknowledges that he’s only “paint and memory,” and he never had a son. Dumbledore then leaves to go to another of his portraits.
Dumbledore emphasizes that Harry isn’t taking Albus on his own terms—instead, Harry is viewing Albus through his own context and acting according to what Harry wants for his son, rather than what Albus needs himself.
Themes
Just then, Albus wakes, and Harry assures him that he’s going to be fine. He offers Albus some chocolate and eats it alongside his son. He asks how Albus’s arm feels, and Albus says it feels great. Harry then asks softly why Albus ran away. Albus lies and says that he and Scorpius didn’t want to go to school—they thought they could run away, but they changed their minds and came back. Harry asked if he ran away because of what Harry said, but Albus says that he just didn’t want to go back to Hogwarts—he never felt he really fit in there.
This scene is a complicated one, because even though Albus is lying about the reason that he ran away, he still was deeply hurt by not feeling that he fit into Hogwarts and was in fact upset because of what Harry said. Yet at the same time, he ran away because of wanting to live up to Harry’s reputation as a hero in saving Cedric. That Albus can’t be fully honest with his dad about what’s wrong shows that he still doesn’t feel Harry will fully understand or sympathize.
Themes
Get the entire Harry Potter and the Cursed Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
Harry asks if Scorpius encouraged Albus to leave, but Albus says no. Then Harry encourages Albus to stay away from Scorpius, because he’s dangerous. Albus protests that Scorpius is his only friend, but Harry replies that Bane told him that there’s a black cloud around Albus and he thinks Scorpius is bringing dark magic into Albus’s life. Albus refuses to do what Harry is asking.
This is another example of how Harry isn’t able to see what Albus needs, and instead his parenting stems from what he feels is best for his son or will make himself feel better. The play also suggests that Harry is prejudiced against Scorpius because of the rumors about Scorpius or because of the rivalry that Harry and Draco shared in childhood, indicating Harry’s problems in fixating on the past rather than actually trying to repair his relationship with his son.
Themes
Growing angry, Harry tells Albus that Professor McGonagall is going to keep an eye on him using the Marauder’s Map so that he and Scorpius can’t spend time together. He will go to class, and besides that, he will stay in the Gryffindor common room. Albus is stunned, saying that he’s a Slytherin. Harry tells Albus not to play games, and in the meantime he’s going to set up an investigation into Scorpius’s true parentage. At this, Albus starts to cry.
The more Harry describes his plan to Albus and makes his son cry, the clearer it becomes that Harry is focused only on what he wants for his son, rather than what his son needs. The fact that Albus now seems to have become a member of Gryffindor hints at some of the changes Albus has wrought from changing the past.
Themes
Harry says that he thought he wasn’t a good enough dad because Albus didn’t like him, but now he realizes that he doesn’t need Albus to like him, he just needs Albus to obey him because he knows better. He apologizes but says that it has to be this way.
Harry’s new perspective on parenting only heightens his conflict with Albus, because Harry is actively ignoring what Albus wants and who he is and instead only acts based on what Harry wants for Albus.
Themes
