OOP: Umbridge = Nurse Ratchett (and other comparisons)

[medeacallous]

No: HPFGUIDX 61944

I haven't read all the comments yet (for anyone who wonders, I 
guilted my husband into buying me a copy on Friday and I've finished 
it and started again), so I won't be offering my whole opinion yet, 
but here are my most original comments (haven't noticed them from 
anyone else).

1.  Umbridge = Nurse Ratchet(t)?  I noticed three characterisations 
in this book who strongly reminded me of characters from other books 
or movies.  Anyone who's watched One Flew Over the Cuccoo's Nest see 
that same sinister sweetness, that 'I'm going to sadistically hurt 
you but you'll be happy to know that it will improve you, I know I 
am' in Umbridge?

2.  Sirius = Steerforth (from Dickens' David Copperfield)?  Of 
course the circumstances are different, and it's only in this book 
where we see the reckless, unsympathetic side of Sirius to this 
degree, but it's interesting that in DC there's a teacher at the 
boarding school the two boys attend who reminded me strongly of 
Snape when I re-read the book last year, and Steerforth is 
particularly aggressive and unpleasant towards him.

3.  Snape as Templeton (from Charlotte's Web).  This is a lark, 
really, but when I was reading the OotP sequences at Black's house 
at the beginning of the book, the way Snape kept dropping in and 
then rushing off on 'errands', and rubbing it in how much danger he 
was in and how he was risking his life, reminded me distinctly of 
Templeton the rat.  I almost heard Paul Lynde's voice instead of 
Rickman's!

More later,

MC