Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a fantasy book written by British author J. K. Rowling and the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series. It follows Harry Potter, a wizard in his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the mystery surrounding the entry of Harry's name into the Triwizard Tournament, in which he is forced to compete.
The book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury and in the United States by Scholastic. In both countries, the release date was 8 July 2000. This was the first time a book in the series was published in both countries at the same time. The novel won a Hugo Award, the only Harry Potter novel to do so, in 2001. The book was adapted into a film, released worldwide on 18 November 2005, and a video game by Electronic Arts.
Synopsis
Plot introduction
Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up and the added challenge of being a famed wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but was mysteriously defeated after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry, though his attempt left a lightning-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his abusive Muggle aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, who have a son named Dudley.On Harry's eleventh birthday, he learns he is a wizard from Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and enrols in Hogwarts. He befriends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and confronts Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain power. In Harry's first year, he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers at Hogwarts. After returning to school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked by the legendary monster of the Chamber of Secrets after the Chamber is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and thwarting another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears he has been targeted by escaped mass murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry encounters Black at the end of his third year and learns Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learns that it was his father's old school friend Peter Pettigrew who betrayed his parents.
Plot summary
In a prologue, which Harry sees through a dream, the 3 Riddles are murdered. But they weren't poisoned or hurt in any way. They were in perfect health but when they died, they had a petrified face. Everyone suspects the caretaker Frank Bryce, but he was released. Later on Frank Bryce, Muggle caretaker of an abandoned mansion known as the Riddle House, is murdered by Lord Voldemort after stumbling upon him and Wormtail. Harry is awoken by his scar hurting.The Weasleys invite Harry and Hermione Granger to the Quidditch World Cup, to which they travel using a Portkey, meeting Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff sixth-year, on the way. In the match, Ireland triumph over Bulgaria, despite the skill of Bulgaria's star seeker, Viktor Krum. Ministry of Magic employees at the World Cup discuss Bertha Jorkins, a missing Ministry worker. Her head-of-department, Ludo Bagman, is unconcerned.
After the match, hooded and masked Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort, attack the camp site, causing terror and abusing the Muggle campsite owners. The Dark Mark is fired into the sky, causing mass panic. Harry discovers that his wand is missing. It is later found in the possession of Winky, Barty Crouch's house elf, having been used to cast the Mark. Although few believe Winky could have conjured the Mark, Barty Crouch dismisses Winky from his service.
At Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore announces that Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody will be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year. Dumbledore also announces that Hogwarts will host a revival of the Triwizard Tournament, in which a champion of Hogwarts will compete against champions from two other European wizarding schools: Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute. The champions are chosen by the Goblet of Fire from names dropped into it. Because Harry is under 17, he is disallowed from entering.
At Halloween, the Goblet of Fire picks Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons Academy, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang Institute, and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts to compete in the tournament. Unexpectedly, it also chooses Harry as a fourth champion. Despite anger from the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingents, Harry's being chosen magically forces him to unwillingly compete in the Tournament. Few believe Harry's protests that he did not put his own name in; Ron, envious of Harry again being the centre of attention, accuses Harry of lying and breaks up their friendship.
In their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, Professor Moody introduces the class to the Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, through which a wizard can be controlled as another wills; the Cruciatus Curse, which causes immense pain; and Avada Kedavra, the killing curse.
A tabloid-style reporter, Rita Skeeter, starts writing scandalous articles of half-truths and outright fabrications in The Daily Prophet about those at Hogwarts, starting with Harry. Because of the Prophet's high readership, her words hold sway among the wizarding population.
Despite champions not being allowed to know, Hagrid covertly reveals to Harry that the first task is to get past a dragon. Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons, and Professor Karkaroff, headmaster of Durmstrang, also discover this. Sure that they will tell their respective champions, Harry informs Cedric about the dragons in the interest of fairness. Harry struggles to think of a way past a dragon, until Moody suggests flying. Hermione helps him to perfect a Summoning Charm, which he uses to summon his Firebolt broomstick and fly past the dragon to retrieve a golden egg, receiving high marks from the judges. Ron and Harry reconcile, Ron now understanding the danger of the tournament. Harry's egg is supposed to contain a clue to the next task, but when opened it shrieks loudly.
Hermione, outraged by Barty Crouch's treatment of Winky, infiltrates the school kitchen as part of a house elf welfare campaign. She takes Harry and Ron there to meet Dobby, who now works there after his freeing in Harry's second year. They also find a distraught and depressed Winky. Dobby is the only house elf to appreciate his freedom, despite his hardworking nature; the others reject Hermione's idea of payment and holidays, which they find distressing.
The students are informed of the Yule Ball, a Triwizard Tournament tradition, which requires Harry to find a partner with whom to open the dance. He asks Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw fifth-year with whom he is smitten, but she has already agreed to go with Cedric. Ultimately, Harry asks Parvati and Padma Patil to go with him and Ron. Hermione, offended that Ron did not consider her except as a last resort, attends with Viktor Krum, causing jealousy in Ron. At the ball, Cedric tells Harry to take the egg into the bath in the prefects' bathroom to work out the clue, but, jealous over Cho, Harry is reluctant to accept the advice.
Rita Skeeter writes an article revealing Hagrid's half-giant parentage, a taboo in the wizarding world. After Hermione confronts her, Skeeter writes articles painting Hermione as Harry's unfaithful girlfriend. After masses of hate mail, Hermione swears revenge on Skeeter.
The trio secretly meet Sirius at Hogsmeade, who tells them that Barty Crouch was fanatical about catching and punishing dark wizards. This culminated in Crouch sending his own son to Azkaban, where he later died. Sirius suspects that someone is attempting to attack Harry through the Tournament. He suspects Karkaroff, who is a former Death Eater who walked free.
Acting on Cedric's tip, Harry takes the egg to the prefects' bathroom by night, where with help from Moaning Myrtle he discovers that the task is to recover something dear to him from Merpeople at the bottom of the lake in the grounds. While sneaking back to Gryffindor Tower under his invisibility cloak, he sees Barty Crouch in Snape's office on the Marauder's Map, despite Crouch supposedly being too ill to judge the Triwizard Tournament. While investigating, Harry falls into a trick step and drops the egg, which attracts Filch, Snape, and Moody. Moody's magical eye sees Harry stuck under his cloak, but Moody covers for him, then borrows the Marauder's Map.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione are unable to find a way to survive underwater for the second task, leaving Harry panic-stricken. On the morning of the task, Dobby gives him Gillyweed, which would be helpful to Harry, as he overheard in a conversation involving Moody. The Gillyweed allows Harry to find Ron at the bottom of the lake. However, he refuses to leave the hostages belonging to the other champions behind, and insists on rescuing Fleur's sister when Fleur does not arrive. Although Harry finishes last, he is awarded him high marks for 'moral fibre.'
One month before the final task, Harry and Krum are talking near the Forbidden Forest when they encounter Barty Crouch, who stopped appearing to work at the Ministry several months ago. Although insane, in moments of clarity he confesses to have done 'something terrible,' that Bertha Jorkins is dead, and begs for Dumbledore. Leaving Krum with Crouch, Harry fetches Dumbledore but returns to find Krum stunned and Crouch gone, Krum claiming that Crouch attacked him from behind. Moody gives chase but does not find Crouch.
During a Divination lesson, Harry experiences another dream involving Voldemort punishing Wormtail for a 'mistake.' Harry tells Dumbledore about this, and stumbles upon a memory-keeping device in Dumbledore's office, a Pensieve. Inside the Pensieve, he discovers that Ludo Bagman was accused and acquitted of Death Eater activity, and that Barty Crouch's son was sent to Azkaban for helping to torture Neville Longbottom's parents into insanity.
Harry prepares for the final task, a hedge maze filled with dangerous creatures and obstacles, the goal being to reach the Triwizard Cup at the centre. Inside the maze, Harry stuns Krum, who was using the Cruciatus Curse on Cedric. Helping each other, the two reach the Cup. They agree to touch it at the same time and become joint winners. However, on touching it they discover that it is a Portkey that transports them to a graveyard. There, Wormtail appears, kills Cedric, and ties up Harry. Wormtail uses Harry's blood, Tom Riddle Sr.'s bone, and his own hand to restore Lord Voldemort to a body.
Voldemort, alive again, summons his Death Eaters, berates them for believing him dead, and mentions that he has a 'faithful servant' concealed at Hogwarts, who has led Harry to the graveyard. He tortures Harry, then challenges him to a duel. However, when he and Harry fire spells at each other, their wands connect unexpectedly, causing echoes of Voldemort's previous magic to appear, including manifestations of Cedric and Harry's parents. These echoes provide a distraction for Harry, who escapes with Cedric's body to the Cup, which takes him back to Hogwarts.
Under the panic caused by his arrival, Moody takes a traumatised Harry to his office. He reveals himself to be Voldemort's 'faithful servant.' He explains that he put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire and has been guiding him to ensure he would touch the Cup first: he gave him the hint about flying, staged a conversation about Gillyweed in front of Dobby, cursed obstacles from outside the hedge maze, and used the Imperius Curse on Krum to force him to curse Cedric. As Moody prepares to kill Harry, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape intervene and stun Moody. Slowly, Moody changes appearance to become Barty Crouch Jr., the supposedly long-dead son of Barty Crouch Sr., who was using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Moody.
Using Veritaserum, they learn that Barty Crouch Sr. rescued his son from Azkaban as a favour to his dying wife: the Crouch Jr. who died in Azkaban was his mother, disguised under Polyjuice Potion. Crouch Jr. was kept imprisoned at home. Winky convinced Crouch Sr. to allow Crouch Jr. to see the Quidditch World Cup, where he stole Harry's wand, escaped, and conjured the Dark Mark. Wormtail, meanwhile, had captured Bertha Jorkins, who had once seen Crouch Jr. at home and been bewitched to forget. This allowed Voldemort to discover Crouch Jr.'s whereabouts, then formulate a plan to install Crouch at Hogwarts and lead Harry to him. Crouch Sr. was imprisoned by Wormtail, and when he escaped to Hogwarts, Crouch Jr. killed him.
Dumbledore explains that Harry's and Voldemort's wands connected because they share a core of a feather from the same phoenix, coincidentally Dumbledore's own phoenix Fawkes.
Dumbledore announces Lord Voldemort's return to the school. However, many people, including Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, refuse to believe it. Fudge has the Dementor's Kiss performed on Crouch Jr., who is thus unable to give testimony proving Voldemort's return. Dumbledore puts his own plans against Voldemort into action.
Hermione discovers Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus who can take the form of a beetle, allowing her to eavesdrop on secrets. She blackmails Skeeter to force her to stop writing her stories. Not wanting his tournament winnings, Harry gives them to Fred and George to start their joke shop, and returns home with the Dursleys.
Development
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series. The first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997. The second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published on 2 July 1998. The third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, followed on 8 July 1999. Goblet of Fire is almost twice the size of the first three books. Rowling stated that she "knew from the beginning it would be the biggest of the first four." She said there needed to be a "proper run-up" for the conclusion and rushing the "complex plot" could confuse readers. She also stated that "everything is on a bigger scale," which was symbolic, as Harry's horizons widened both literally and metaphorically as he grew up. She also wanted to explore more of the magical world.Until the official title's announcement on 27 June 2000, the book was called by its working title, 'Harry Potter IV.' Previously, in April, the publisher had listed it as Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. However, J. K. Rowling expressed her indecision about the title in an Entertainment Weekly interview.
"I changed my mind twice on what was. The working title had got out — Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. Then I changed Doomspell to Triwizard Tournament. Then I was teetering between Goblet of Fire and Triwizard Tournament. In the end, I preferred Goblet of Fire because it's got that kind of cup of destiny feel about it, which is the theme of the book."
Rowling mentioned that she originally wrote a Weasley relative named Malfalda, who, according to Rowling, "was the daughter of the 'second cousin who's a stockbroker' mentioned in Philosopher's Stone. This stockbroker had been very rude to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the past, but now he and his wife had inconveniently produced a witch, they came back to the Weasleys asking for their help in introducing her to wizarding society before she starts at Hogwarts." Malfalda was supposed to be a Slytherin and was to fill in the Rita Skeeter subplot, but she was eventually removed because "there were obvious limitations to what an eleven year old closeted at school could discover." Rowling considered Rita Skeeter to be "much more flexible." Rowling also admitted that the fourth book was the most difficult to write at the time because she noticed a giant plot hole halfway through writing. In particular, Rowling had trouble with the ninth chapter, "The Dark Mark," which she rewrote 13 times.
Themes
Jeff Jensen, who interviewed Rowling for Entertainment Weekly in 2000, pointed out that bigotry is a big theme in the Harry Potter novels and Goblet of Fire in particular. He mentioned how Voldemort and his followers are prejudiced against Muggles and how, in Goblet of Fire, Hermione forms a group to liberate Hogwarts' house-elves who have "been indentured servants so long they lack desire for anything else." When asked why she explored this theme, Rowling replied,She also commented that she did not feel this was too "heavy" for children, as it was one of those things that a "huge number of children at that age start to think about."
Publication and reception
UK/US release
Goblet of Fire was the first book in the Harry Potter series to be released in the United States on the same date as the United Kingdom, on 8 July 2000, strategically on a Saturday so children did not have to worry about school conflicting with buying the book. It had a combined first-printing of over five million copies. It was given a record-breaking print run of 3.9 million. Three million copies of the book were sold over the first weekend in the US alone. FedEx dispatched more than 9,000 trucks and 100 planes to fulfil book deliveries. The pressure in editing caused a mistake which shows Harry's father emerging first from Voldemort's wand; however, as confirmed in Prisoner of Azkaban, James died first, so then Harry's mother ought to have come out first. This was corrected in later editions.Launch publicity
To publicise the book, a special train named Hogwarts Express was organised by Bloomsbury, and run from King's Cross to Perth, carrying J.K. Rowling, a consignment of books for her to sign and sell, also representatives of Bloomsbury and the press. The book was launched on 8 July 2000, on platform 1 at King's Cross – which had been given "Platform " signs for the occasion – following which the train departed. En route it called at Didcot Railway Centre,, the Severn Valley Railway, , Manchester, Bradford,, the National Railway Museum, Newcastle, Edinburgh, arriving at Perth on 11 July. The locomotive was West Country class steam locomotive no. 34027 Taw Valley, which was specially repainted red for the tour; it later returned to its normal green livery. The coaches of the train included a sleeping car. A Diesel locomotive was coupled at the other end, for use when reversals were necessary, such as the first stage of the journey as far as Ferme Park, just south of. The tour generated considerably more press interest than the launch of the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad which was premiered in London the same weekend.Critical reception
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has received mostly positive reviews. In The New York Times Book Review, author Stephen King stated the Goblet of Fire was "every bit as good as Potters 1 through 3" and praised the humour and subplots, although he commented that "there's also a moderately tiresome amount of adolescent squabbling...it's a teenage thing". Kirkus Reviews called it "another grand tale of magic and mystery...and clicking along so smoothly that it seems shorter than it is". However, they commented that it did tend to lag, especially at the end where two "bad guys" stopped the action to give extended explanations, and that the issues to be resolved in sequels would leave "many readers, particularly American ones, uncomfortable". For The Horn Book Magazine, Martha V. Parravano gave a mixed review, saying "some will find wide-ranging, compellingly written, and absorbing; others, long, rambling, and tortuously fraught with adverbs". A Publishers Weekly review praised the book's "red herrings, the artful clues and tricky surprises that disarm the most attentive audience" and saying it "might be her most thrilling yet." Writing for The New Yorker, Joan Acocella noted that "where the prior volumes moved like lightning, here the pace is slower, the energy more dispersed. At the same time, the tone becomes more grim."Kristin Lemmerman of CNN said that it is not great literature: 'Her prose has more in common with your typical beach-blanket fare and the beginning contained too much recap to introduce characters to new readers, although Rowling quickly gets back on track, introducing readers to a host of well-drawn new characters.' Writing for Salon.com, Charles Taylor was generally positive about the change of mood and development of characters. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Kristen Baldwin gave Goblet of Fire the grade of A-, praising the development of the characters as well as the many themes presented. However, she did worry that a shocking climax may be a "nightmare factory" for young readers.