Umbridge's Motives at TBAY (Longish)

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 89453

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "augustinapeach" 
<augustinapeach at y...> wrote:
<snip>
 <Last summer, I had 
> these same questions about her.  But  others have argued so 
> convincingly that she was not connected with Voldemort that I 
forced it from my mind.  But now these ---- and all those questions 
are back.  I just don't know whether I'm going to a D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. 
or a D.U.N.G.H.I.L.L."
> 
> George blinked.  "What?"
> 
> "Is it a D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. – Dolores Is Surely A Spy To
Eliminate 
> Resistance, or is it a D.U.N.G.H.I.L.L – Dolores Umbridge is
Not 
> Giving Help In Lord (V's) Lark?  The problem is, there are can(n)
ons on each side.  Every time I think I have it figured out, I 
realize the other explanation is also perfectly plausible."
<snip> 
>> "Most of the time I think the evidence points to a 
> D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.  

<snip of some fantastic evidence to support D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.>

<"But Hogwarts is also where the 
> D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. starts to come apart.  Umbridge's cover story of 
> trying to eliminate threats to the Ministry is completely 
consistent with her behavior at Hogwarts – maybe it is a 
D.U.N.G.H.I.L.L., 
> after all>


Sophierom:

First, I want to say that I think this is a great post, and 
Augustina really does a nice job providing evidence to support the 
Umbridge as LV spy theory (D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.) She's almost completely 
convinced me that this theory is correct.

For me, the major stumbling block for such a theory isn't due to a 
detail or piece of evidence, but a larger thematic issue.  If dear 
Dolores is firmly in the LV camp, then JKR has reinforced the idea 
that the bad guys are really bad and that the good guys are really 
good ... and this just seems to easy, too black and white for some 
of the bigger issues she's dealing with in this series.  Granted, it 
is a children's book, and plenty of adult stories (novels, movies, 
etc.) accept this notion that the good guys are good and the bad 
guys are bad, end of story.  But I think HP is more sophisticated 
than that.  

We have, of course, already seen a more complex portrayal of 
the "good" guys and the "bad" guys; Crouch, Sr. isn't the most 
charming of heroes, and Snape, as past DE, has presumably been 
redeemed.  

But Umbridge is just so bad, so mean, so nasty, that it would be 
really interesting, I think, if she were working as an independent 
agent of sorts.  It seems too easy, thematically, for her to be a 
Voldemort sidekick.  If Umbridge is working for her own sense of 
ambition at the ministry, then it becomes the ruthless search for 
power for its own sake that is intrinsically bad; evil is not 
limited to one particular person or group.

Sophierom