Harry Potter, Cursed Child and the Problematic Depiction of Women
By Lacy Baugher
We were going to put a photo of Astoria Malfoy here, but there isn’t one. Because she’s not in the play. (Photo: Harry Potter Play Official Site)
Astoria Malfoy
Astoria Greengrass Malfoy exists almost entirely outside Cursed Child’s narrative. We never actually see her on stage. She gets zero lines. But she is a paragon of virtue so exceptional that she manages to turn Draco Malfoy into a nice person. Or at least into less of a complete jerk. Astoria is more of an idea than an actual person, almost solely functioning as the concept of “Draco’s wife” or “Scorpius’ mother”. That’s literally it!
Astoria lives and dies in the margins of Cursed Child. When she is (unsurprisingly) fridged in the play’s second act, her death is used solely as a catalyst to fuel emotional angst for her husband and son. She is only important to the play by reason of her death, and she doesn’t even get to die well. Astoria is merely unlucky enough to have some random family curse manifest itself in her. She’s the embodiment of that “too good for this world; too pure” Tumblr meme, rather than a real person.
If Astoria Malfoy was such a life-changing, incredible woman shouldn’t we, the audience, at least get the chance to meet her?
Next: Rose Granger Weasley is barely present