Bellatrix/Umbridge Similarities (Was:Re: I hate Fudge!)

[Shelley]

No: HPFGUIDX 147628

Geoff Bannister insightfully wrote:
>
> There is a curious parallelism between Bellatrix Lestrange and
> Dolores Umbridge in the way they interact (or fail to interact) with
> young people.
>
> They both appear to treat them as if they were not any higher than
> about Year 1 in school and speak to them condescendingly and
> patronisingly.
> Curious the similar ways in which they treat the young people. I can
> understand Umbridge because she appears to be a typical spinster
> maiden aunt - fluffly cardigan, little hair bow and not knowing how
> best to treat the class. But Bellatrix does not seem the type to
> react on the same way.
>
> Any views out there?


Shelley (wolfe275) wrote:
Hi, I forgot I belonged to this group-- it's my first post in ages.
I just finished rereading OotP, and I have two thoughts about this.

The first is that both characters are in sense socially/developmentally
stunted.  Umbridge lacks experience with children (and probably other forms
of social experience as well) because of (as you pointed out) her
maiden/spinster aunt personality.  Bellatrix, like Sirius, has spent most of
her adulthood in Azkaban.  She's missed out  (thus far) on having and
raising children, as well as just all other sorts of widom-gaining adult
life experiences.  Like Sirius, she also seems to have suffered some
emotional damage/regression from her time in Azkaban.  The kind of
condescension Bellatrix uses with Harry bespeaks immaturity-- it's more like
the mockery that an adolescent uses to  distinguish herself from children
younger than her, than the attitude that an adult would take with a child.

My second thought is that both women mentally rely on hierarchies of all
type to elevate themselves above others.  Bellatrix places herself as a
pureblood witch above all other beings.  Umbridge deplores half-humans;
given her tightness with Fudge and her alliance with the students of
Slytherin House, I bet if one scratched more deeply, one might find
prejudice against Muggles and Muggleborns as well.  Certainly she didn't
seem much concerned that a Muggle boy had been endangered by the Dementors
she sent to attack Harry.

Given these strains of self-elevating prejudice in both women, it makes
sense to me that they would cling to an age hierachy as well, placing
themselves above teenagers in value.  Certainly Umbridge seems to suggest
that youth automatically makes her students opinions-- and even lives--
unimportant.  Her response when Hermione questions her course aims is that
'Wizards much older and cleverer than you' are in charge (OotP (UK PB),
218).  And there's Umbridge's classic comment when Harry and Hermione lead
her to the Forest that 'The Ministry places a rather higher value on my life
than yours, I'm afraid' (OotP (UK PB), 663).  [sidenote: which is such a
shocking contrast to the other teachers, who would always place a student's
safety above their own]

For Bellatrix, I wonder if her age-condescension is tied to blood
prejudice.  Harry's both 'a little baby' and a 'filthy half-blood.'  Perhaps
she's a bit less insufferable with her nephew Draco...

Shelley