"When they entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher’s desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Harry was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad."
—A negative impression of Dolores [1]
—A negative impression of Dolores [1]
Dolores Umbridge was a member of the Ministry of Magic, being a Senior Undersecretary, to Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. As pink as she may be, she is as dark and as cruel as they come.
As time went on, Umbridge became worse, by conversing about her dislike of Muggles and how they were ruining the magical community. Now, she sounds like a pure-blood, as close as she possibly could be with anti-muggles, however, her ideas on how to deal with Muggles drew a line in the ground, as she was very cruel and unjust in her ideals. Most people could not stand Umbridge, but with her speaking of how she wanted to rid the world of Muggles and some magical creatures, she put a dividing line between her and many people.
Umbridge was also an awful professor, holding extremely high rules over everyone's heads. If you did something that was awful in her eyes, she would punish you automatically. Umbridge had a fascination on creating tools of torture, specifically her Black Quill, that did not use ink but the blood of whoever was using it. At one point, she made Harry Potter use said quill, which creates one of the most remembered lines “I must not tell lies.” She is the second person to put a scar on Harry, with Lord Voldemort being the first.
Umbridge only truly cared about having power and status, thinking that these two things would help her progress further than her family ever did. Her wanting of being seen as important and being in a position of power drove her to disclaim her family, turning away from them as she saw them as awful and completely idiotic. As she began her climb to power, she discarded everything that would make her heritage as a half-blood known. Instead, she did everything in her power to become someone she could never be, pure-blood.
In the end, Umbridge was taken down from power and sent to Azkaban, as in her final time with the Ministry, she sent multiple muggle-born people to their deaths at Azkaban, not caring one bit what would happen to them, and only seeing them as people who stole magic.
On Thursday I will go slightly more in-depth, with my partner, of Umbridge’s character, hopefully shedding more light on her.
Quiz Questions:
Who is Dolores Umbridge?
Which group of magic users did Umbridge dislike?
What instrument of torture did Umbridge use on Harry Potter?
What were the two things that Umbridge wanted the most?
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Discussion Questions:
Do you/anyone you know have a deep wanting of power? If so, why and how far would you go for power?
Would you ignore your family lineage just to look better in the public eye?
How far is too far in forms of punishment, i.e. using a Black Quill on a student?
Do you think that Umbridge should be given any benefit of the doubt, as in, do you think that she was right in her ideas with Muggles?
https://www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/Dolorus-Umbridge
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Listening Library, 2003.) [1]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New york, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007.)
Had to adjust your formatting, it was spilling all over the page. Check to make sure everything's still intact.
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