| “ | I will have... order! | „ |
| ~ Dolores Umbridge's famous quote. |
| “ | That's right, because you know, deep down, you deserve to be punished. Don't you, Mr. Potter? | „ |
| ~ Professor Umbridge infamous quote after torturing Harry. |
Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge is a major antagonist in the Harry Potter series. She was a Ministry of Magic official and served as Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic under three successive ministers: Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour and Pius Thicknesse.
Umbridge was designated as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by order of the Ministry in 1995 and was later promoted to Hogwarts High Inquisitor and eventually Headmistress. This was part of a Ministry effort to keep the school and Harry under control. She was removed from these positions later on in 1996, when Lord Voldemort was revealed to be alive, and returned to the ministry, working as a judge under Voldemort's supremacist reign.
In the films, she was portrayed by Imelda Staunton.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- Unlike other villains in the Harry Potter universe who became villains due to mad delusions of perceived righteousness (such as Gellert Grindelwald who sincerely thinks he is breaking the chains of wizardkind) or pitiable factors out of their ability to control (such as Credence Barebone being continuously tormented for years, Draco Malfoy being threatened with his family's deaths, Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Junior's novel versions feeling helplessly backed into a corner that is the Dark Lord's malevolent embrace, Dolores Umbridge turned to a life of villainy of her own accord for no reason other than spiteful pettiness.
- Even as a child, she held a power-hungry and authoritarian nature, wanting to hold a position of power over others and feeling very resentful of Hogwarts for never giving her such authority.
- This power-hungry nature was her sole purpose for joining the Ministry, wanting to rise to power in whatever way possible and flaunting her titles whenever given the chance.
- Her prejudiced views toward Muggles were so vile that even Ministry workers with anti-muggle ideologies were shocked by her suggestions of how the non-magical community should be treated.
- Despised her Muggle mother and her Squib brother, considering them inferior to her and her father under the latter's influence.
- While she became this way because of her father, she was smart enough to understand the concept of right and wrong.
- Despised her Muggle mother and her Squib brother, considering them inferior to her and her father under the latter's influence.
- Became the Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office through her ruthless tactics and tyrannical leadership under her sweet facade.
- She also forced her father to quietly retire from his job, severing all ties to him and also denying she was related to him (thought he definitely deserved it for his xenophobia towards Muggles, Squibs and Half-Bloods), from that point on considering herself only a pure-blood rather than a half-blood.
- Due to her prejudice towards werewolves, she drafted the Anti-Werewolf policy, which made it almost illegal for a Werewolf to hold a job, driving most werewolves into poverty. This made her indirectly responsible for causing other werewolves into becoming criminals, such as joining Lord Voldemort's army in hopes of seeking a better life.
- Despite having No Kill Count, she manages to meet the standards for mass tortures and subjecting dozens of people to the dementor's kiss.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[]
- Sent the Dementors after Harry in his summer vacation, pointing out that she was the only one who acted, whilst other Ministry officials were "all bleating about silencing you somehow - discrediting you". By doing so, Dolores not only risked Harry to be condemned to a fate worse than death in case the Dementors kissed him, but also endangered the life of Harry's Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley.
- This her action resulted in his trial at the Ministry of Magic for using spells outside the school, where she, as a member of the Wizengamot court, spitefully voted guilty in order to get Harry expelled from Hogwarts, while lying the Ministry had not ordered the attack.
- Supporting Prime Minister Cornelius Fudge's claims, she was placed at Hogwarts to stop these "wicked, nasty attention-seeking stories" from spreading any further, to punish anyone that reinforced or questioned them, and if necessary find a way to remove Harry Potter from the school permanently.
- She also took sadistic pleasure in depriving Harry and many of the other students of the things that made Hogwarts life enjoyable.
- She also gave the students mere book work, to prepare for tests. When asked about the real world practicality, she denied any dangers that the students would need to face, showing she cared nothing about her students or their welfare.
- Put Harry in detention and forced him to carve the words "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand with a Blood Quill, leaving a scar that never truly healed, simply because Harry spoke out-of-turn in class, even though Dolores Umbridge herself planned on lying to Cornelius Fudge later on about using the Cruciatus Curse. She would do this multiple times throughout the school year.
- Inspected every professor at Hogwarts, though she was unable to find fault with most of them, apart from Sybill Trelawney and Rubeus Hagrid.
- She did, however, put massive unfair pressure on Professor Trelawney and demonstrated extreme bias, prejudice, and near-sabotage with Hagrid's inspection. She later attempted to banish her from Hogwarts permanently but was stopped at Albus Dumbledore's intervention (since she did not have the authority to remove them from the castle). And when the centaur Firenze was brought in to replace her, she felt insulted because she hated half-breeds and those who outmaneuvered her.
- In the movie, when Dumbledore explained that the power to remove people from the premises was still within his power, Umbridge simply replied, "For now!"
- She did, however, put massive unfair pressure on Professor Trelawney and demonstrated extreme bias, prejudice, and near-sabotage with Hagrid's inspection. She later attempted to banish her from Hogwarts permanently but was stopped at Albus Dumbledore's intervention (since she did not have the authority to remove them from the castle). And when the centaur Firenze was brought in to replace her, she felt insulted because she hated half-breeds and those who outmaneuvered her.
- Deliberately delayed the re-establishment of the Hogwarts Quidditch teams (with the exception of the Slytherins to whom Umbridge showed favor) and when Harry, Fred and George Weasley got into a fight with Draco Malfoy and Vincent Crabbe, banned them from the team and confiscated their brooms.
- Forced another student, Lee Jordan, to use the Black Quill simply because he mocked Educational Decree Number Twenty-Six.
- Overthrew Dumbledore by using Marietta Edgecombe as a spy to punish Dumbledore for threatening her position, blackmailing Edgecombe by threatening to have her mother, who worked at the Ministry, fired if she didn't comply (in the movie, she used veritaserum on Cho Chang to get the information on D.A. and made it look like she was the one who betrayed them to save her mother's job at the Ministry).
- Umbridge later lost her temper and shook Marietta roughly when she was unable to provide a fuller account of the secret D.A. meetings. This act infuriated Dumbledore, making her one of the few people to ever elicit Dumbledore's wrath.
- In the movie, after Dumbledore flees, she forces all the members of Dumbledore's Army, excluding Cho, to use the Black Quill, causing all of them great pain. Her reason for excluding Cho is to cause in-fighting among them.
- She tried to have Hagrid arrested by a group of Aurors for his loyalty to Dumbledore and being a half-giant.
- She attacked Professor Minerva McGonagall, alongside the Aurors, with four Stunning Spells when she tried to defend Hagrid, severely injuring her.
- Threatened to perform the Cruciatus Curse on Harry, despite being in front of several Hogwarts students (his friends and the Inquisitorial Squad).
- When she unreasonably demanded Snape give her Veritaserum to interrogate Harry, she put him on probation for being "deliberately unhelpful", even though she was the one who wasted the Veritaserum and there was nothing Snape could do to make more.
- Proceeded to insult the Centaurs and remorselessly tortured one with ropes, resulting in them capturing and dragging her away out of rage. In the film, Harry managed to get a belated revenge on Umbridge at this point, when she ordered him to tell the Centaurs she meant no harm, Harry spitefully replied, "I'm sorry Professor, but I must not tell lies!"
- She held no personal loyalty to Fudge despite working under him, readily abandoning him when he was forced out of office and perfectly willing to violate the rules against his will, as seen before preparing to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry, she says "What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[]
- Imprisoned and tortured innocent Muggle-borns under outrageous accusations and under the prejudiced beliefs that these witches and wizards stole their magic from Pure-bloods. Also threatened them with the Dementor's Kiss if they resisted.
- Due to the horrendous conditions in Azkaban, some of the victims died from their ordeal. Furthermore, she displayed absolute hypocrisy, inflicting permanent damage to Harry because she believed in not telling lies, yet blatantly lying about the Slytherin locket and about the charges placed under Muggle-borns.
- As the head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, she has a large wanted poster of Harry in her office, to which she has added the words "To be punished" indicating her hatred of him.
- Cares about absolutely nobody but herself and for all the things she's done she clearly takes sadistic pleasure in doing so and actually enjoys causing pain and harming other people, all because she wants to be feared instead of respected, as she considers herself above everyone.
- Her final fate, where she was sent to Azkaban for life due to her crimes, is never played for sympathy as she deserves it for all her crimes. In fact, it can be argued that she got off easy as Azkaban is no longer inhabited by Dementors, so she isn't in any danger of suffering the horrific fate she subjected many to.
In the Alternate Timeline[]
- After Voldemort murdered Harry, she served him openly and was given the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts. We see her running a dystopian variation of the school surrounded by Dementors where Slytherin is the only house.
- While she appeared affable towards Scorpius Malfoy, it is only because he was a good representation of what she wanted her students to be. The moment she realized he was problematic, she did not hesitate to have him subjected to the Dementors kiss.
- It's implied from their screaming that she had Muggle-born students tortured in the Hogwarts dungeon and, while it's stated that this was Scorpius's idea, she would have had to approve it as Headmistress.
- Although she didn't order the Hogwarts Dementors to suck the souls from Ron and Hermione, she was pleased upon hearing of it.
- She had the Dementors kiss administered on Severus Snape and attempted to do the same to Scorpius.
Trivia[]
- Some people believe that Dolores Umbridge isn't too bad and that she was just doing her job when Cornelius Fudge assigned her to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Order of the Phoenix. However, Umbridge shows harsh discipline methods like scarring students with Black Quill and attempted to perform the Cruciatus Curse on Harry Potter without Fudge knowing despite that the curse is one of the three Unforgivable Curses. This proves that Umbridge is evil and her decisions are almost always selfish and unreasonable.
- Despite this, some feel that her extreme cruelty in Deathly Hallows was given to the influence of Slytherin's Locket as a Horcrux, but J.K. Rowling has affirmed that this isn't the case and that the Locket couldn't worsen Umbridge as she was already such a horrible person. In fact, the locket, while a Horcrux, made her stronger. While "Word of God" isn't a factor in PE, Umbridge's behavior with the locket does nothing to contradict this perverse notion. Coupled with Umbridge's backstory, it's evident that her prejudice against Muggle-borns started long before she was assigned to trial them.
- It's also said that the locket would only have possessed her if she found a way to open it, and Harry says even if she did it wouldn't make any difference to her.
- Despite this, some feel that her extreme cruelty in Deathly Hallows was given to the influence of Slytherin's Locket as a Horcrux, but J.K. Rowling has affirmed that this isn't the case and that the Locket couldn't worsen Umbridge as she was already such a horrible person. In fact, the locket, while a Horcrux, made her stronger. While "Word of God" isn't a factor in PE, Umbridge's behavior with the locket does nothing to contradict this perverse notion. Coupled with Umbridge's backstory, it's evident that her prejudice against Muggle-borns started long before she was assigned to trial them.
- Dolores Umbridge was hated even by her own actress Imelda Staunton, who struggled with nausea when she read her character's lines and recalled the Black Quill scene as one of the "sickest" parts she has ever filmed. Even the author, JK Rowling, has despised Umbridge. Some fans even consider her to be worse than Voldemort.
External Links[]
- Dolores Umbridge on the Villains Wiki
- Dolores Umbridge on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Dolores Umbridge on the Harry Potter Wiki
- Dolores Umbridge on the Wikipedia
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 Pure Evils
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