Skip to main content

A Letter to Tonks

Dear Tonks, 

I am just another Potterhead who had come across the wizarding world at the age of 11. Reading Harry Potter has been one of my best childhood memories. I grew up on these books. When Harry was in the fifth year and the cloud over his head had darkened more than ever, you entered like a cool, fresh breeze rushing into a congested chamber. You were the youngest member of the Order at the time. Your character was charming, young, wholesome with a pinch of clumsiness and a pleasant escape from everyone’s harsh realities. However, I believe you were so much more than a relief.

You, Tonks, were the definition of self-love. Being a metamorphmagus, you had the power to change your looks to the most flawless of features. And yet, all you ever played with was the colour of your hair. I vividly remember your hair going from bubblegum pink to a solid purple. As a 13-year-old, I found you so bold and unapologetic for being yourself. You were not insecure about the way you looked. Instead, you’d go flaunting it. 

As the story progressed, I saw you go through perilous times and stand bravely. Sirius’s death followed by your survivor’s guilt deteriorated your mental health. Add to it the pressure of the Dark Lord’s return and loads of responsibility on your shoulder to protect your people. Usually, your plotline gets very little attention in the books and is omitted from the movies. But given our current scenarios, it is the most relevant issue faced by all of us. This past year has wounded us at large, created an air of fear and uncertainty, taken away our loved ones forever. It is painful enough to keep surviving and seeing death all around. Being of an age where you can do very little to contribute or help on a large scale (unlike the frontline workers), it is bound to create guilt and helplessness in your mind. We were never prepared to take on a pandemic, yet here we are. The Dark Lord has returned. And while the Aurors are out their fighting the battle, we are trying our best not to succumb to the dark arts. 

Simultaneously, we are also fighting a battle within ourselves. Mental health is not a joke, especially in such grave times. I remember how weak you had become as if a Dementor sucked the soul out of you. Your hair was no more vibrant. You felt like you did not deserve to live. However, you kept going! I saw you rise like a phoenix from its ashes. Only, witnessing you gave me hope. It told everyone out there that depression can be battled with. Even though it leaves us empty, you can always add the colours back into your life. Especially you, Tonks. 

Lastly, you are the most underrated character throughout the series. You are rarely in the spotlight. There is always a greater plot than yours. And yet, you influence the minds of young, impressionable readers with your small gestures. You are loved by everyone, even the lone wolf Lupin. You have a strong mentor who you look up to. But the biggest takeaway for me was, you fought till your last breath for a cause and to create a better future for your child. It is something I will always commend. 

So, thank you Tonks, for making me believe in myself and bringing hope that times will get better. 

Yours lovingly

Antara.

P.S. I know you detest being called Nymphadora so I made a conscious effort not to.


This letter was one of the top ten entries in the P.S. I Love Literature Letter Writing Competition of The Novel Room, our Book Discussion Club. Students wrote letters to characters, writers, poets, books as part of a creative review and response activity, and these were read out in the session on April 29, 2021.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Review of "The Tale of the Rose" by Emma Donaghue

 A Review of "The Tale of the Rose" by Emma Donaghue - Mayura Bhandari “The Tale of The Rose” is a retelling of the popular children’s fairy tale, “The Beauty and The Beast”. It is one of the short stories in the collection by Emma Donoghue, called Kissing The Witch . The story is narrated from the point of a young woman who describes herself as having an appetite for magic. She doesn’t desire suitors, finery or riches. When her father’s ships get lost at sea, her cushy life disappears. But without despair, she gets to work. She washes her father’s clothes, finding peace and satisfaction in it. When fortune smiles upon their family, her siblings ask for riches and finery, but she desires a red rose bud. Her father returns and hands her the rose, explaining that the price of that flower was that he had sold her to a Beast. Obediently, she heads over to the castle, nervous and excited for a new chapter in her life. She recalls the lore the villagers told her. About a young ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Psychological Analysis Of Waiting For Godot

Psychological criticism adopts the methods of "Reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses. Here, we are going to apply the same form of criticism on Samuel Beckett’s play, ‘Waiting for Godot.’  Unanswered questions behind the characters behaviour are answered here. We would be looking further to the psychoanalytical approach, Sigmund Freud being the important proponent here. A major focus on the language and how dreams reflect our mental personality are given in his second essay, “Interpretation of Dreams.” The plot clearly states that Estragon has nightmares and Vladimir never addresses them and remains unhelpful towards it, being the one who is aware about their sufferings. The nightmares contain flashbacks and images of a gruesome and horrific event that has hap...
1 comment
Read more

Marxism in Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett, the most eminent Irish playwright wrote ‘’Waiting for Godot’’ in French in 1949 and then translated it into English in 1954. This play has been performed as a drama of the absurd with astonishing success in Europe, America and the rest of the world in the post second world war era. For this reason, Martin Esslin calls it, “One of the successes of the post-war theatre” (Esslin, Martin, 1980) In this play, the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, wait expectantly to see a man simply known as Godot, a character who does not make an appearance in the play, despite being the titular character. The play begins with waiting for Godot and ends with waiting for Godot. Marxism refers to the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers to form the basis of communism. Marxism introduced ideas such as Dialectical Materialism, Alienation, and Economic Determination. Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ has a minimalist setting...
Post a Comment
Read more