Literary Symbolism in POA

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 51958

Samnjodie:

>A friend and I were discussing a possible symbol employed by Rowling 
>that we both really really like.
>
>We think that the Dementors, and the effect that they have over a 
>person, is a symbol of depression and the effect that it has over a 
>person.

You're spot on. JKR has confirmed this more than once.
Here's part of a relevant interview:

http://www.cbc.ca/programs/sites/hottype_rowlingcomplete.html
    
J.K. Rowling Interview - Part 4
JK: Um, I was depressed, um, I'd say - would it be 1994 - I did suffer a 
spell of what I was told was clinical depression. I don't know, I was told it 
was. Yeah, I was depressed for a while. I'm not ashamed of that, plenty of 
people get depressed and I've never suffered from it again and I got through 
it. But the Dementors, uh, it's so hard to trace the origin of something. I 
saw these things and I knew what I wanted them to do, but they became, as I 
really thought about what they did, I realized that's what I was doing. 
That's normally the way it happens with me. I don't consciously think 'And 
now, I will create the personification of depression' but as I'm creating 
them I realize what I'm doing. You know, what unconsciously is going on. So 
they create an absence of feeling, which is my experience of depression. It 
is an absence…


Taken from Aberforth's Goat's JKR interview search engine, a wonderful 
resource.

http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/index.htm


~Eloise


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