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
Back in Godric’s Hollow, Albus and Scorpius try to figure out their best plan. Scorpius points out that they can’t ask anyone for help, because Albus’s very existence proves that Harry survives, and that information could shift the future. Albus realizes that they need to find a way to get a message to the future—to Harry—and hope for help from there. Scorpius says that they could wait in hiding for 40 years and deliver the message themselves, but Albus knows that Delphi would try to find them and kill them. They need to figure out something that Harry will see at exactly the right time.
Albus and Scorpius finally recognize the incredible dangers in trying to change anything in the past, and so they understand that it’s better to try and focus on what they can do in the present, where Harry is. This reinforces the play’s metaphor: that even if one could change the past, it’s more important to focus on fixing problems in the present.
Themes
Just then, Harry’s mother Lily leaves her house with Harry in a stroller, and Albus sees that she’s wrapping Harry in a blanket. Albus remarks that that blanket is the only thing that Harry ever had from her. He sees how much she loves Harry, and he wishes he could tell Harry about this moment. Scorpius wishes he could tell Draco that he’s braver than Draco thinks.
Before, Albus rejected the blanket—a symbol of his rejection of Harry’s love. But here, he recognizes more fully that the blanket is important because it is the only connection Harry has to his mother’s love. Albus’s recognition of this fact implies that Albus is starting to understand Harry more, just as Harry understands his son more. Scorpius’s statement also demonstrates that he, too, wants to foster a stronger and more open relationship with his father.
Themes
Albus realizes then that Harry still has the blanket—and just before the start of the year, it got soaked with a love potion. Albus knows that Harry always finds that blanket on Hollow’s Eve, and so—back in the present time—he will probably take it out soon. If they can find something that reacts with the ingredients in a love potion, they can write on the blanket and the message will appear in the present. Breaking into Bathilda Bagshot’s house, Scorpius and Albus resolve to steal some wands and make some potions to carry out their plan.
As Albus comes up with the plan to connect to Harry through the blanket, the play suggests that Albus and Harry are repairing their relationship. Albus is able to use the blanket to forge a connection between them across time (in the same way that any heirloom forges a connection between family members across time), thus proving how Albus is now open to receiving Harry’s love through the blanket, and also open to returning that love in communicating to Harry through it.
Themes
