Hey Everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing Lord Voldemort and his signature spell- the killing curse- Avada Kedavra. More
specifically, we’re going to be discussing the COLOUR of his signature spell- and exploring
why it is paired with such sinister looking hues of green.
Ever since I first read the books I took notice of the different colours that spells produced
- but never really thought much of it. We know that Expelliarmus is red, Patronuses
are white, and that Avada Kedavra is green, and that’s because it’s repeated over
and over. However, it recently occurred to me that there must be some rationale behind
the iconic colours used in the books. The frequent clash of red and green between Voldemort
and Harry MUST be symbolic in some way. What do these ‘jets of light’ mean? Before
we delve in to this further, let’s take a brief look at the backstory of Avada Kedavra.
The first thing that you need to know about Avada Kedavra is that is perhaps the most
sinister of the Unforgivable Curses- three of the most dark and powerful spells known
to the wizarding world. The Unforgivable Curses are tools of the Dark Arts and generally only
used by the darkest and most sadistic witches and wizards- a category that Voldemort fits
in to perfectly. Avada Kedavra, also known as the killing curse, serves a simple purpose
- it puts an end to the victims life.
If you want to kill your victim, then this is the spell to use- and it’s known to produce
a blindingly intense green bolt of light right before the victim simply drops dead. The biological
reason for how the victim dies is not clear- but there are two existing theories- the first
claiming that the victims internal organs cease to function after being struck, and
the second claiming that the soul of the victim is magically ripped from their body.
"There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible
something was soaring through the air — instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked,
but unmistakably dead"
There it is again- green light- and there seems to be a common theme between the colour
green and spells that are generally considered to be evil. We also see this with Morsmordre:
"Then he realised it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars,
with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher
and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a
new constellation."
With that being said, it would be all too easy to just make the assumption that green
= evil, and because avada kedavra is an ‘evil’ spell, that it would assume the colour green.
However, I think that there’s more to it than that.
Fortunately, this topic is somewhat touched on by JK Rowling.
“Green has long had a supernatural connection in the UK. Superstition says that it ought
to be worn with care; the fairies are supposedly possessive of it, as it is their proper colour.
It ought never to be worn at weddings, due to a further association with misfortune and
death. Green is the colour of much ‘Dark’ magic; of the ‘Dark Mark’, of the luminescent
potion in which Voldemort conceals one of his Horcruxes, of many ‘Dark’ spells and
curses, and of Slytherin house.”
For these reasons, ‘green’ seems like it would have been an obvious choice for Rowling
when choosing a colour to assign to the spell that represents death. And as for misfortune..
I can’t think of anything less fortuitous than dying. Assigning the colour green to
‘avada kedavra’ and other spells like it allowed Rowling to create a sort of dichotomy
of internal colour symbolism. These two conflicting worlds were chiefly represented by Voldemort’s
GREEN avada kedavra, and Harry’s RED expelliarmus. Very much unlike green, red has an almost
unspoken but seemingly implicit element of warmth, comfort, and security- and so it seems
fitting that Harry’s go-to spell, expelliarmus, would exude these almost contrasting characteristics.
One thing that I think is worth mentioning, however, is that ‘green’ is a very diverse
colour- and can actually come across in many different ways according to the respective
hue. Avada kedavra, at least in the films, sometimes looks almost turquoise- which to
me doesn’t exude the same feelings of ‘death’ and ‘misfortune’ commonly associated with
a darker, more sinister looking green. While darker hues of green commonly represent things
like death, greed, ambition, and wealth, - yellowy-greens are more representative of things like jealousy,
sickness and cowardice. And just to make things extra confusing, olive green is a colour traditionally
considered to represent peace- an association driven from the symbol of the olive branch
in Egyptian mythology.
Colours are a tricky part of storytelling, because often, there is so much underlying
symbolism to be uncovered. For this reason, authors should always be careful not to arbitrarily
choose colours, as so much meaning, whether intentional or unintentional, can be derived
from them. In short, green was chosen for avada kedavra because of its associations
with death- and red was chosen for expelliarmus because of its contrasting nature with the
green of avada kedavra. However, these colour decisions only work for some aspects of the
story. For example, Harry Potter, the hero himself, has green eyes, while the horrifying
unforgivable curse known as crucio is red. Harry certainly isn’t evil, nor does he
represent death, and crucio is anything but ‘warm’. These two colour choices directly
contradict the duality of Harry Potter’s suggested colour symbolism- and that’s why
when it comes to colours, things just aren’t so black and white.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe to support the
channel. Until next time
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live