Reputation and Expectation Theme in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Throughout the play, adult characters like Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have to live with their reputations—Harry as the heroic “Boy Who Lived” and Draco as an evil Death Eater. Meanwhile, their children, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, have to grapple with the expectations that come with their famous parents—Albus feels constantly inadequate compared to his father’s shining example, and rumors plague Scorpius that he is actually Voldemort’s son, which leads other kids to avoid him because they assume he will be evil, too. For each of these characters, their reputations weigh heavily on them: Harry feels guilty about the people he could not save, Albus feels like he is a disappointment, and Draco worries that he lost his way and as a result doomed Scorpius to life as an outcast. In this way, the play demonstrates that reputation and expectation can both be heavy burdens that foster guilt and regret.

Albus struggles with the expectations people have of him because of Harry’s legacy, and his attempts to prove himself lead only to trouble. From Albus’s first days at Hogwarts, it immediately becomes clear that he struggles to live up to Harry’s standard. He is immediately placed into Slytherin House rather than Gryffindor, he shows no talent for Quidditch, and he struggles in school. As a result, students call him a “Slytherin Squib” and say that he “really isn’t like his father at all.” Later, Albus tells Harry that he feels “disappointing.” These descriptions demonstrate how Albus struggles with other people’s expectations of him, to the point where he feels like he’s letting down himself and his father. To prove his worth, Albus tries to save Cedric by changing the past, which he views as “set[ting] one of [Harry’s] mistakes right.” And yet as a result, he and Scorpius nearly destroy the wizarding world as they know it. Albus understands that he did this because he “had something to prove,” which directly links the pressure of high expectations to the reckless—and sometimes seriously dangerous—actions that people often take to meet expectations and prove themselves.

While Albus struggles to be as admired as his father, Scorpius has an inverse problem: his father’s reputation is so poor that Scorpius suffers by association. When Scorpius first sets foot on the Hogwarts Express, other students steer clear of him. Rose even tries to prevent Albus from making friends with Scorpius because of the rumor that he’s Voldemort’s son. In subsequent years, Scorpius has to get on the Hogwarts Express early to avoid people staring and shouting at him. His family’s reputation—and the false rumor about his paternity—weigh heavily on him. Then, when Albus and Scorpius fight, Albus says angrily that he thinks Scorpius holds him back and that he wasn’t a “loser” before he met Scorpius. Scorpius grows frustrated in response, crying out, “People look at you because your dad’s the famous Harry Potter, savior of the wizarding world. People look at me because they think my dad is Voldemort.” Scorpius acknowledges that Albus has difficulties because of the comparison with his father, but even Albus plays into the bias that Scorpius is a “loser” that only exists because of a reputation that Scorpius cannot control. In this way, the play affirms that reputations can place a severe burden on kids like Scorpius, introducing conflict into even their most supportive relationships.

Draco also feels a burden, both in his reputation as a former Death Eater and in the reputation he has given Scorpius as Voldemort’s son. The fact that Draco was one of Voldemort’s followers makes other wizards and witches automatically suspicious of him. When Voldemort’s supporters start to stir again, Hermione explains that they’re investigating anyone involved in Dark Magic. Draco asks, “Back to being prejudiced against those with a Dark Mark?” In this way, Draco feels the burden of his past as he struggles to prove that he has become a better person. Draco also feels guilty for inadvertently causing the rumor about Scorpius’s parentage. When Astoria was pregnant with Scorpius, Draco hid away with her because she was very weak and he wanted to conserve her strength. He says that he didn’t realize that by hiding Scorpius away from “this gossiping, judgmental world, [he] ensured that [his] son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than [he himself] ever endured.” In this statement, he recognizes the profound burden that rumors and reputation have had on both him and on Scorpius, and the fact that those burdens led him to choices he now regrets.

Finally, even Harry is burdened by his heroic reputation—a positive reputation that he earned through his brave actions. A major aspect of this burden is Harry’s guilt that he can’t save everyone, even though he is known as a savior. For example, Amos Diggory approaches Harry to beg him to save his son Cedric, who died as a casualty in the conflict between Harry and Voldemort. As this would involve time travel, Harry refuses, saying that it would be too dangerous to attempt. In response, Amos asks, “How many people had to die for the Boy Who Lived?” This reputation, as the “Boy Who Lived,” plagues Harry and makes him feel guilty for those he cannot save, like Cedric, even though it’s not his fault that Cedric died. He struggles to want to live up to his own reputation as a hero and a savior, and when he fails to do so, he feels guilty.

By the end of the play, the characters have largely overcome their reputations and expectations: Albus shows that he can act heroically, Draco transcends his history as a Death Eater, people recognize that Scorpius isn’t Voldemort’s son, and Harry understands that not everyone can be saved. As a result, the characters feel much less encumbered, showing the importance of stepping past those heavy burdens of guilt and regret, and of living as oneself and not trying to live in a way defined by an external reputation.

Reputation and Expectation ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Reputation and Expectation appears in each scene of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.

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