Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing JK Rowling, the Goblet of Fire, and an unpublished but huge flaw that JK Rowling
encountered when she was writing the famed novel.
In an old interview with South West News Service, Rowling was questioned further about the error-
as it was something that she had revealed in a former interview, but never explained.
“You mentioned something in a recent interview about a flaw in Book 4…”
“Did I? Oh yes. . .I repaired it! This is why Book 4 nearly caused me a nervous breakdown
- because for the first time ever I lost my careful plot - which I've had since 1994,
I think. I really should have gone through it with a fine toothcomb before I started
writing and I didn't. I had a false sense of security because all my other plans had
held up so well. So I sailed straight into the writing of Four, having just finished
Azkaban. I had written what I thought at the time was half the book - it turns out now
to have been about a third of the book - and I realised there was this big hole in the
middle of the plot and I had to go back and unpick and redo. That's part of the reason
it's longer than I thought it was going to be.”
“Can you say what the flaw was, or would that spoil things ?”
“No, because that would ruin it”
In the interview with South West News Service, she discusses the errors very broadly-but
it wasn’t until much later, in her interview with Entertainment Weekly, that she finally
revealed the specifics of the error that she had made when writing the book. While discussing
her feelings surrounding the Goblet of Fire and how it was much harder to write than the
other books, she reveals the grave error that she had originally made:
“You sat on the title for a long time, too.”
“The title thing was for a much more prosaic reason: I changed my mind twice on what it
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.”
“Was this the hardest book you've had to write so far?”
“Easily.”
“Why?”
“The first three books, my plan never failed me. But I should have put that plot under
a microscope. I wrote what I thought was half the book, and “Ack!” – huge gaping hole
in the middle of the plot. I missed my deadline by two months. And the whole profile of the
books got so much higher since the third book; there was an edge of external pressure.”
“And what exactly was that gaping hole all about?”
“I had to pull a character. There you go: “the phantom character of Harry Potter.”
She was a Weasley cousin. She served the same function that Rita Skeeter now serves. Rita
was always going to be in the book, but I built her up, because I needed a kind of conduit
for information outside the school. Originally, this girl fulfilled this purpose.”
So there you have it- JK Rowling wrote and then had to remove an entire character from
the book- going from halfway done back to only a third of the way. I must confess that
I am very curious about this unknown Weasley, and why it is that JK had to do so much backtracking
to ensure that this character was completely erased from the book. Why not reframe the
character? Why remove them altogether?
According to JK Rowling's website, the unknown cousin of the Weasleys was ‘Mafalda Weasley’
- the daughter of the 'second cousin who's a stockbroker' mentioned in the Philosopher's
Stone.
Mafalda however, would turn out to be "the most unpleasant child Mrs Weasley had ever
met", and she would prove to continually butt heads with the protagonists.
"Mafalda was supposed to convey certain information about the Death Eaters to Harry, Ron and Hermione,
because as a nosy, eavesdropping Slytherin who likes to impress, she does not keep her
mouth shut when she overhears their sons and daughters talking,"
But Rowling ended up taking her out, because she felt that the character was out of place:
"Unfortunately, however bright I made her, there were obvious limitations to what an
eleven year old closeted at school could discover, whereas Rita Skeeter, whom I subsequently
built up to fulfil Mafalda's function, was much more flexible."
And that’s it for this video! Did you guys know about the unknown Weasley? If you guys
enjoy the content, please like the video and subscribe to support the channel.
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY