On the subject of Umbridge and Book VII

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143691

Amiable Dorsai wrote:
<snip>
> I think Umbridge, as the personification of everything bad about the
> Ministry, is set to take a big fall in Book 7.  I hope we get to see
> it "on camera".  One of the minor disappointments for me in HBP was
> that we didn't get to see Fudge get the boot.

Carol responds:
I rather like Fudge, weak though he is, and at his worst under
Umbridge's influence in OoP. Once he concedes that Voldemort really is
back, he returns to his usual self, concerned with informing the
Muggle PM of goings on in the WW that might affect Muggles even though
he's no longer the Minister for Magic. I certainly prefer him to
Scrimgeour, who strikes me as more like a general in command of a
military junta than a diplomat.

As for Umbridge, except for her prejudice against werewolves,
centaurs, and other "halfbreeds" (as if either were the result of a
human/beast, erm, marriage), strikes me as exemplifying government
interference in school administration. (I could be wrong, as I'm not
British and don't really know what's going on there.) But note her
views on preventing "progress for progress's sake" and "pruning . . .
practices that ought to be prohibited" (OoP Am. ed. 213-14). As
Hermione notes, the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts, which may
reflect JKR's views on what's actually happening in British schools.

Be that as it may, she has always reminded me of Dostoevsky's Grand
Inquisitor (her own chosen title later in the book High Inquisitor,
can't be coincidental). The Grand Inquisitor (who, of course, was only
a fiction within a work of fiction, but that's beside the point)
believed that the masses were incapable of meeting their own needs or
making their own decisions. They needed those who knew what was best
for them to keep them contented and happy, even if that meant burning
heretics and other rabble-rousers at the stake. Umbridge's view of the
Hogwarts students as little children ("Well, it is lovely to be back
at Hogwarts . . . and to see such happy little faces looking back at
me!" 212) who need to be kept safe (taught only the theory of DADA,
not any actual spells, which might endanger them) and assured that
He_Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is not coming back is exactly the view of the
Grand Inquisitor that the masses must be protected from anything that
will disturb their tranquility, including the fear of death, by
punishing those who spread such "lies." (The Grand Inquisitor burns
heretics; Umbridge burns the message "I will not tell lies" into
Harry's hand.)

If we must have poetic justice, how about having her serve her own
detention, writing "I will not tell lies" in her own blood? Or if
that's too brutal, too "eye for an eye," how about just having the
word "Liar" written in permanent pimples on her ugly, toadlike cheeks?

Carol