SKETCH: Azkaban and the Dementors

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22479

Hi,

Here is the promised sketch. There are lots of things I didn't have 
time to research and put in, but since I'm already late, I decided 
better late than later. 

All page numbers refer to the British edition.

Enjoy!

Naama

======================================

SKETCH: Azkaban and the Dementors

Azkaban
============
The first time we hear of Azkaban is in CoS. Harry and Ron are 
talking to Draco, disguised as Crabbe and Goyle. Harry-Goyle is 
puzzled at the unfamiliar term, and Draco explains, "Azkaban - the 
wizard prison, Goyle." (p.167) Thus, the first mention of Azkaban is 
accompanied by its short, dictionary definition.

Later in the book, suspected of opening the chamber, Hagrid is taken 
to Azkaban. He is described as extremely scared and agitated by the 
forthcoming imprisonment. 
[Note: Do we, at this point, have any idea that Azkaban is different 
from a Muggle prison? In my first reading, it didn't strike me as odd 
that Hagrid should be so scared of going to jail. After reading PoA, 
of course, I received a very different, much more poignant, 
understanding of Hagrid's fear.]

So, Azkaban is "the wizard prison." Like other wizard institutions, 
it appears to be one of a kind. 
[Note: This singularity is an interesting aspect of the Potterverse 
(which I only realized when thinking of this sketch): Hogwarts is the 
wizard school, Gringotts is the wizard bank, Quidditch is the wizard 
sport. Only in GoF are parallel institutions introduced (the other 
wizard schools).]

`Azkaban' sounds a lot like `Alcatraz' (this has been mentioned 
already on the list), and the two prisons are similar also in that 
both are located on small islands. Assuming that the similarity is 
not coincidental, a question arises, whether it is a hint to the 
moral taint of Azkaban. Will Azkaban end as Alcatraz did - shut down, 
abandoned,  a symbol of oppression and cruelty? 

In PoA (p.204), Professor Lupin describes Azkaban thus: "The fortress 
is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls 
and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped 
inside their own heads, incapable of a single, cheerful thought. Most 
of them go mad within weeks." Muggle prisons generate despair and 
misery via physical conditions, lack of freedom and brutality of 
guards and fellow prisoners. The wizard prison (following the wizard 
habit of relying on magic for everything) fulfills this function via 
the magic creatures that guard it - the Dementors.



Dementors
=============
It is only in PoA that we learn of the Dementors, the dreaded guards 
of Azkaban. During the first few chapters they are referred to 
as "the Azkaban guards."  Stan and Ern (of the Knight Bus) tell Harry 
the story of Sirius Black. When Stan mentions them, Ern says "Them 
Azkaban guards give me the collywobbles." So, although we (well, I) 
accept that Black is the bad guy at this point, already a menacing 
aura is built around the mysterious Azkaban guards.
We receive another, stronger hint that there is something dark and 
out of the ordinary about them when we overhear Arthur Weasley's 
argument with his wife. He tells her that Dumbledore reluctantly 
agreed to station the "Azkaban guards" around the school grounds. 
When she questions this reluctance, he says, "Dumbledore isn't fond 
of the Azkaban guards. Nor am I, if it comes to that ...but when 
you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join 
forces with those you'd rather avoid." (p.75-6)
[Note: This marks the start of a theme JKR develops and brings to the 
fore in GoF - the question of the justification of means by ends. 
Specifically, collaborating with the Dementors to achieve security. 
By the end of PoA we remain with very little faith in the 
justifiability of collaboration with Dementors, regardless of how 
pressing the circumstances may be. They are simply too evil.]

The first time we hear the term `Dementor' is after Harry et al. 
encounter a Dementor on the Hogwarts train. Lupin tells them that it 
is "a Dementor, one of the Dementors of Azkaban." (p.95)
This first encounter gives us the most detailed description of how a 
Dementor looks, some description of how it behaves and an 
introduction to the psychological effects it has, particularly on 
Harry.
A Dementor is cloaked, it's face completely hidden under the hood. It 
is very tall. It has hands – "glistening, greyish, slimy-looking and 
scabbed, like something that had decayed in water.." It spreads 
darkness (lights actually go out when a Dementor appears). It 
breathes "a long, slow, rattling breath, as though trying to suck 
something more than air from its surroundings." (p.93-4)
When the Dementor on the train did this, "An intense cold swept over 
them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went 
deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very 
heart...Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was 
drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. 
He was being dragged downwards, the roaring growing louder..And then, 
from far away, he heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading 
screams." (p.94)
However, a Dementor can also be driven away by a wizard. Lupin had 
shot a "silvery thing" out of his want at the Dementor and it "glided 
away" (p.96). An encounter with a Dementor leaves you feeling sick, 
with cold sweat on your face. Chocolate is the cure for this. 

We are left in this state of partial knowledge until after Harry 
passes out in the middle of a Quidditch match, falling fifty feet 
almost to his death. Then Harry has a conversation with Lupin, during 
which Lupin gives the "official" explanation of what Dementors are 
and do:
"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They 
infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and 
despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around 
them....Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy 
memory, will be sucked out of you. It it can, the Dementor will feed 
on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself - soulless 
and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of 
your life." (p.203-4) He also says that "Dementors are supposed to 
drain a wizard of his powers if he is left with them too long.."
Worse than all that is the Dementors' ability to devour the soul 
itself. Lupin tells Harry of the Dementors' Kiss: "I suppose there 
must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws 
upon the mouth of the victim and - and suck out his soul. ...You'll 
have no sense of self any more, no memory, no .. anything. There's no 
chance at all of recovery. You'll just - exist. As an empty shell. 
And your soul is gone for ever ... lost." (p.266)

So, Dementors are spiritual predators/parasites. They feed on 
the "products" of human souls and can even annihilate the soul 
itself. 
[Note: Do Dementors feed on the good stuff they suck out or on the 
bad stuff that's left and stimulated inside? From Lupin's description 
it would seem that the former is true, but then they are driven away 
by the Patronus, which is a projection of "good stuff" and is 
incapable of despair.]

The Dementor effect has been compared both to clinical depression and 
to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and seems to combine 
elements of both. The victim both looses sight of all that's 
worthwhile in her life (depression) and  continaully re-lives his 
worst memories (PTSD). So, even a person who has not been through any 
trauma or painful experience will still lose joy, hope and will to 
survive. Ron described: "I felt weird, like I'd never be cheerful 
again..." (p.96). Harry, who has gone through a massive trauma - the 
murder of his parents and the encounter with Voldemort, has a much 
more disturbing experience. When he encounters a Dementor, memories 
that he didn't know he had rise, and drown him in their terror and 
pain. 
[Note: There are therapies (regressive therapies) whose main goal is 
to achieve a re-living of the original trauma (and experiencing the 
accompanying, repressed, pain). In the Dementor effect, I find there 
is some tension between the deadening, depressing effect and 
the "flashback" effect. Harry (and we) learn a great deal from his 
newly discovered memories, and it is very difficult to view such 
knowledge as a bad thing. It seems almost like a foreign element is 
introduced for plot reasons.]

Muggles can't see Dementor but are susceptible to their effect 
(p.203). (Think of that the next time you take your favorite 
antidepressant.. <shudder>)


Questions:
============
1. We know that Dementors can be driven away. Do you think they can 
they be destroyed? How?

2. Why can't Muggles see Dementors (but can see dragons, for 
instance)?

3. When was the alliance with MoM formed? Did Fudge initiate it? 
Under what circumstances? Why would the Dementors enter such an 
alliance - i.e., what's in it for them?

5. Do you think any crime deserves such a punishment - being forced 
into clinical depression?

6. How were wizards punished before the Dementors became the jail 
keepers? Is it possible to imprison a wizard who has his full powers?

7. Other questions regarding Dementors: What do they look like 
underneath the cloak? They have hands, so presumably they have 
bodies. How is that body maintained? (do they breath? Eat? 
Propagate?) Are they sexual <double shudder>? Do they have voices? Do 
they speak? How do they communicate with humans (e.g., Fudge)? 

8. Rhetorical question: What is JKR favorite kind of sweet?