Dolores Umbridge

[James McDaniel]

No: HPFGUIDX 80356

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix we are introduced to a 
seemingly blind hatred for half breeds and part humans, manifested 
in the person of Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge. Umbridge's disdain 
for all put pure humans is presented as a driving force in her life. 
Her hatred seems to be not only blind, but all encompassing. 
Other examples of extreme hatred, by an individual, of an entire 
race or type of person can be found not only in modern history 
(Hitler) but also presented to us by the pen of J.K. Rowling 
herself. For insight into ones attempt to subjugate an entire 
segment of society, we need look no farther than the very man 
Dolores claims no longer exists. Lord Voldemort.  To truly 
understand Professor Umbridge, we need to take a brief look at the 
motivation behind the Dark Lord's many character flaws. Voldemort, 
in being the series' resident genocidal maniac, has been given quite 
a multi-faceted personality. Yes, the man formerly known as Tom 
Riddle seeks not only immortality, but also, in the grand tradition 
of Salazar Slytherin, the complete annihilation of mud-bloods.
The main point of interest in Voldy's hatred of mud-bloods is the 
fact that he himself is a mud-blood. Having lost his mother soon 
after birth, he became an orphan, as he had been abandoned "in 
utero" by his namesake.  Because of this, young Tom Riddle grew to 
despise his father. As he grew into adulthood, along with 
transferring his hatred for his father not only to muggles but to 
all who had muggle blood, Tom sought to do everything in his power 
to distance himself from his muggle parentage. His hatred soon 
blossomed to the extent that he murdered not only his father, but 
also his grandparents. He changed not only his name, but his entire 
persona. He embraced the anti-mudblood teachings of Slytherin, and 
even formed the Death Eaters with which to wipe mud-bloods from the 
face of the earth. In short, Lord Voldemort's hatred of his father 
drove him to disguise his true identity and heritage while all the 
while leading him to attempt to eradicate a considerable segment of 
the wizarding population.
Now that this motivation has been established we need to take a 
closer look at Professor Umbridge. We find in "Order of the Phoenix" 
that Umbridge has long led a political crusade to strip away the 
rights of many half-breed or part human creatures including, but not 
exclusive to, Werewolves and Merpeople. She mistrusts, ridicules, 
belittles, abuses, and seeks to ostracize, all who are not 
completely human, going so far as to try to prevent some of them 
from  ever earning gainful employ.
In the actions of Professor Umbridge we see a deep seated hatred. 
Delores hates all who are not pure with a reckless abandon, and yet 
we are never given a satisfactory reason why. It could be just to 
establish her as an evil person that readers will automatically 
despise with a universal knee-jerk reaction. This though would be 
quite outside the norm of what we have come to expect from J.K. 
Rowling. In fact it is not like JKR at all. Why would she imbue such 
a central character with such an insidiously pervasive personality 
trait without ever giving us a shred of evidence to support why she 
is this way? I have a great deal of faith that this is not the case. 
JKR has never before introduced a trait which encompasses so much of 
a characters being as this and there not have been a reason why.
Consider for a moment this blind hatred of Umbridge's part. Now look 
closely at her personality. She is underhanded, vengeful, conniving, 
and unscrupulous. It is no secret that Dolores is just an all around 
mean person, and yet she consistently speaks in a blatantly 
falsetto, sugar sweet tone of voice. Her office, like her person, is 
awash in a sea of pink. Pink bows and little kittens do not seem the 
norm for women who carve lines in the hands of students, secretly 
set murderous Dementors on the trail of innocents, and use 
unforgivable curses on children. Her image seems so far removed from 
her personality that it almost certainly must be a not-so-cleverly 
crafted façade.  Some might even call it a gross overcompensation. 
An overcompensation for what though? What is it that she is publicly 
distancing herself from? Why does she seem so intent on presenting 
herself as a stereotypical proper woman when she obviously is 
anything but?
 Though I do not have the book in front of me, I would like to take 
a look at Umbridge's physical and psychological makeup before 
answering the questions already at hand. Her bizarre physical 
appearance is brought up almost as often as she herself is. Anytime 
she is mentioned in the book, it is soon followed with a brief 
passage on how phenomenally short and squat she is. Even her face 
and smile are constantly being compared to that of a toad.
If my memory serves me correctly, only three other wizards in the 
series have been presented, anatomically speaking, as being so 
grossly out of step with the rest of the wizarding world. The first 
is Professor Flitwick. As we know little if anything about his past, 
I fear Flitwick must be disregarded as part of this conversation.  
The other two, Madame Maxime and Hagrid, both turned out to be not 
fully human at all, but instead half-giants. In fact, other than 
these three, we see no indication of wizards ever looking much 
different than normal humans.
Although having already touched on Umbridge's demeanor, I believe 
for this conversation that it deserves another quick look. Despite 
her admittedly (thin though it is) sweet exterior, we have seen that 
at heart Dolores is conniving, insidious, vengeful, power hungry, 
and very untrustworthy.  Gather all of that together, throw in a 
violent rage (M. Edgecombe, Harry) lurking just beneath the surface, 
wrap a pretty pink bow around it and anyone has to admit that we are 
looking at a pretty distinct and pretty fishy package.
After addressing all of these traits, I find myself being led to one 
conclusion. JKR, while providing us with little info, is in fact 
dropping hints at just what it is that motivates Delores Jane 
Umbridge. Maybe, just maybe, the reason that Umbridge works so hard 
to present herself as a proper lady is that therein lies her hatred. 
Maybe she is not a proper lady at all, and like Hagrid and Maxime, 
isn't fully human.  Could it be that Umbridge despises and hates who 
or what she is for reasons not unlike those that motivate Lord 
Voldemort? She works against part humans with nearly the same 
voracity as Voldemort does with mud-bloods. She devotes her every 
waking moment to concealing her true, possibly less human, demeanor 
behind a sugary sweet façade, while physically looking barely human 
at best. 
While I firmly believe that Umbridge is a part human herself, I 
cannot be certain as to what exactly she is. Upon reflection though, 
my guess is that in her veins runs Goblin blood. She is devious, 
scheming, and opportunistic. She is short and stubby (not Boardman), 
with a huge mouth and eyes, and tends to become frighteningly 
aggressive at those times that she loses herself. All of these I 
believe to be Goblin traits. My thoughts though tend to be that she 
appears too human to be half-goblin, and that most likely one of her 
parents was a half-breed, thus leaving her as one quarter Goblin; A 
small enough amount to fool those around her, but just enough that, 
as hard as she may try, she cannot fool herself. This I see greatly 
exacerbating the hatred that she, for whatever reason, misdirects 
towards all part humans.
If Delores is indeed part Goblin, she could be far more important in 
the two upcoming books as Goblins may be a key in the coming war. We 
know that both sides are courting them in book 5, and every time 
they have been brought up in HISTORY OF MAGIC, it has been in 
relation to the great Goblin rebellion when they, for a time, 
overthrew wizarding kind. Whether you agree or disagree, I just feel 
that this is an option we all might want to consider. Thanks for 
reading.


~James
Hufflepuff