Some thoughts regarding Umbridge...

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

So, as I've been preparing Abridged chapters of OotP I've obviously been doing quite a lot with Umbridge, and there will be more still to come. The more I think about the way she's presented in the books, the more disturbing and inappropriate it seems.

I first read the fifth Harry Potter book when I was around eleven or twelve years old, and I distinctly remember not being particularly troubled by Umbridge at that time, although I understood that she was a villain. I even found a lot of the things the students and professors did to try and outwit her funny, to the point she almost seemed to be a joke character (particularly because she's introduced as someone we're supposed to hate because, horror of horrors, she makes the students read their books and doesn't let them use magic).

Now, apparently that wasn't the intent. Apparently we really were supposed to see her as a bad guy played completely straight, and as someone worse than Voldemort--but the trouble is, her abuse of Harry is handled about the same as the Dursleys' abuse of him: yes, it's horrible, and in the real world it would be grounds for him to be taken away from her forever; but like the Dursleys she's presented mostly as something to mock (or at least that's how she came across to me). Think about it: if Umbridge is really a villain who's supposed to be played seriously and invoke nothing but fear and loathing, then how come the series basically has the students wage war against her through pulling pranks? It's an extra layer of silliness that's detrimental to our understanding of her as a sadistic monster, as, in a way, is having the first thing we see her do in class be to make the students read instead of doing magic--in a series that was anti-intellectual to begin with! The more I look over this book, the more it seems like Rowling just couldn't decide whether she wanted Umbridge to be a children's book stereotype like the principal from Matilda or whether she wanted her to be a seriously credible threat as a villain, and as a result her portrayal's a mess. Sure Umbridge is a sadistic psychopath who mutilates fifteen-year-olds, but how are we supposed to take her seriously when she's stumped by students setting off fireworks in her classes or eating candy that makes them sick enough to miss them?

And needless to say, the idea that Umbridge could be a bad guy in her own right without being a Death Eater went out the window by Book 7, where she's towing Voldemort's party line anyway.

Sorry--this is a lump of undigested thoughts. But I just think there's something very wrong with the way Umbridge is portrayed, you know?

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I distinctly remember not being particularly troubled by Umbridge at that time/

I was and that’s probably because she kept hindering Harry over and over again. It wasn’t as if there was a pause in between where she left Harry alone; it was one thing after another. Plus, the whole book left me frustrated and depressed because of the tone, what had happened to the characters, Harry’s caps-lock rage, etc., so Umbridge only added to the bad mood I was in while reading it.

/if Umbridge is really a villain who's supposed to be played seriously and invoke nothing but fear and loathing, then how come the series basically has the students wage war against her through pulling pranks?/

But that’s a good point. While it was nice to see some resistance against Umbridge, it’s bothersome how ultimately trifling it was. George and Fred Weasley resist Umbridge, but they do so…by leaving. They drop out of school and just leave. It ultimately takes the centaurs to defeat Umbridge, and even then, it’s Umbridge’s own racism, ignorance, and stupidity that sets the centaurs off. Also, while plenty of people in this community have speculated about what might have happened to Umbridge and the implications that that has, it’s never stated for sure what happened to her. So, the payoff and catharsis isn’t really there, because her defeat wasn’t directly brought about by the heroes and we don’t even see how she was defeated. We see the aftereffects, but what happened to her is still so vague that it’s not satisfying. And then she somehow winds up working at the Ministry anyway.

/And needless to say, the idea that Umbridge could be a bad guy in her own right without being a Death Eater went out the window by Book 7, where she's towing Voldemort's party line anyway./

Oh, yes, that was definitely a big disappointment and waste of a plot idea that was brought up in OotP. Sirius said that the world wasn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters and yet by the end of DH, what ended up happening?

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

The series still had potential after OoTP, but it was lost with HBP really. One can characterise HBP as the big waterslide that eventually dumps the reader in the sewer of DH.

[sunnyskywalker]

I think there was a good idea here, but she didn't quite carry it off: that evil can be banal, even stupid, and still cause horrendous damage -- that that's actually part of what's scary about it. I mean, if all we had to worry about was the occasional criminal mastermind, we'd all be pretty darn safe, wouldn't we? But turns out a mean-spirited little bureaucrat is still just capable enough to send soul-sucking demons after you and then put you through potentially life-ruining legal troubles to boot. And you're only saved from being stripped of most of your legal rights because one of the most powerful men in your country helps you out. And then when she starts taking over your school, the fact that some of her reforms are actually kind of fair makes it hard to prove just how evil she really is, and you can't be sure that she won't do something horrible and irreversable because she's so incompetent that she can't actually anticipate consequences that well. And because she isn't a once-in-a-century Dark Lord, you realize that there might be lots of other people just like her, and you can't just kill them all and be done with it.* That's terrifying.

But Harry just gritted his teeth and got through the blood quill, and most of her other measures were downplayed or played for laughs too, and the resistance was almost jolly -- and not in a "we're laughing to keep sane" way. So it was hard to take her seriously. She was more frustrating and super-annoying than scary.


*Come to think of it, Rita Skeeter's return in this book could have strengthened this idea. Sure, they have her under their thumb now, but who knows if she'll find a way around that someday -- and then what damage could she wreak? Writing terrible things could lead to all sorts of harm which they couldn't use to justify killing her or even locking her up for life. So then what?

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Umbridge is the symptom.

The problem is, the AUTHOR seems to believe that beng obnoxious towards an authority figure is the smae as taking a principled stand against abuse of authority. Alfred E. Neumann is the same as Ganhi and Martin Luther King.

The best place to see this is in Deathly Hallows, where our dear Neville devolves morally as a result of channelling Harry as a moral/political preceptor.

Neville presents himself in the Hogshead with matching scars marring each cheek, and seems equally proud of earning each.

One was given him by Amycus, for saving a little kid from being tortured.

The other, by Alecto, for responding to her racist teachings by asking her how much nigger blood SHE had?

Oh--excuse me, my mistake, it was that OTHER double-g word they both were using.

But you see the point.

Mouthing off to someone spouting offensive ideology, ADOPTING THEIR OWN {POMT PF VEW to do so, is morally ranked as EQIA: to risking torture and death to save a little kid from being tortured.



So making an offensive nuisance of oneself is morally equivalent to, say, the Birmingham strike.

Of course, at least Neville only behaved pointessly offensively to the Carrowas.

when we go back to the Wtins and Peeves, they were obstructive, obnoxious, and violent to EVERYONE.

but it's okay, when they finally channel it against the false prophet....

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Neville only behaved pointlessly offensively to the Carrowas

Pointless and reckless - Neville is finally accepted as a true Gryffindor.

Quietly going on in-spite of being afraid causes people to wonder if he should of been in Hufflepuff.