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
As Scorpius walks through Hogwarts, students greet him as the “Scorpion King.” They talk about how excited they are to “spill some proper Mudblood guts,” and one girl asks if he wants to take her to the Blood Ball. Scorpius is stunned that any girl is interested in him. Again, he hears screaming, and he asks her what that is. She tells him it’s Mudbloods in the dungeons being tortured—his idea. She tells him that the Augurey insists the future is theirs to make, and she wants to make one with him. She walks away, and Scorpius grows more and more concerned about this world and who he is within it.
These interactions with other students flesh out a new aspect of Scorpius’s reputation in this world. He has earned that “good” reputation through truly evil actions, such as devising the torture of “mudbloods.” The play is showing here that reputation is not necessarily related to any positive virtues, such as goodness or kindness. It is something someone gains by meeting societal expectations, whether those expectations are good or evil. That Scorpius has become evil in this world also ties back to Draco’s statement that without friendship, people can sink to very dark places. Without Albus, Scorpius didn’t have the bravery to be kind and defy the cruelty in the world. Meanwhile, who or what the Augurey is the play purposely leaves vague at this point.
Themes
