Dolores Umbridge (open spoilers)

[Chimera]

@sachertorte

She is clearly allegory for racism, but I think she represents the motivation for discrimination too.

I don’t see that. I see the classic power-mad manager turned up to 10. We have all known these people, and I’ve been fired by a few of them.

[BrainGlutton]

If you ran the Milgram Experiment but started with a select group of sadistic control-freaks instead of a random sample of volunteers, she would be the one to buzz the zapper first, and oftenest, and most persistently even after she has been informed the subject is noncommunicative and presumably dead. Which is more or less what does happen to her, except she gets real subjects. All the same, however, her experience is within the conceptual paradigm of the Milgram Experiment: She needs some kind of authority figure to fully enable and legitimize her tendencies. On her own, e.g. as acting head of Hogwarts, she sometimes finds herself . . . impotent.

[Kizarvexius]

@classyladyhp

She tortured Harry. I would consider that evil. Remember when he had to write lines as a punsihment and the words got etched into his flesh as he wrote them.

She wouldn’t see it as torture, but as good, old-fashioned, spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child discipline. The sort of thing she’d expect him to thank her for ten years up the road.

[Apollyon]

@classyladyhp

She tortured Harry. I would consider that evil. Remember when he had to write lines as a punsihment and the words got etched into his flesh as he wrote them.

Spare the magical flesh-etching pen and spoil the child.

Harry wasn’t the only one she inflicted that horibble corporal punishment on IIRC. Evil? Certainly distasteful to modern sensibilities… but would you consider say Singaporean judicial canings to be evil? Or Napoleonic-era administritive lashings in the army and navy?

[Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension]

I spoke with Attacklass, our resident Potter-expert. She agrees that Umbridge is primarily an anti-muggle opportunist who was happy to back the apparent winner. Not to Godwinize, but I’m reminded of Arendt’s term, the Banality of Evil.

[Sampiro]

@Kizarvexius

She wouldn’t see it as torture, but as good, old-fashioned, spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child discipline. The sort of thing she’d expect him to thank her for ten years up the road.

Cruciatus was torture by anybody’s definition, and highly illegal. Of course she’d already broken several laws, including setting the Dementors on Harry and then lying about it (or at least not offering the truth) in his trial.
Non HP trivia about the actress Imelda Staunton: her husband is Jim Carter, the English character actor known for many roles but most recently the butler Carson in Downton Abbey. He towers above her. She totally deserved an Oscar nomination for Dolores Umbridge as her characterization (even in Deathly Hallows where she’s only on screen a few minutes) was just pitch perfect all around, especially when you’ve seen her play the sweet and naive Vera Drake or other characters that are total turnarounds from Umbridge.

[Kizarvexius]

@Sampiro

Non HP trivia about the actress Imelda Staunton: her husband is Jim Carter, the English character actor known for many roles but most recently the butler Carson in Downton Abbey. He towers above her. She totally deserved an Oscar nomination for Dolores Umbridge as her characterization (even in Deathly Hallows where she’s only on screen a few minutes) was just pitch perfect all around, especially when you’ve seen her play the sweet and naive Vera Drake or other characters that are total turnarounds from Umbridge.

I had no idea. Jim Carter is one of my favorite actors. His turn as Déjà Vu in Top Secret! makes me laugh every time since he (in that film anyway) was a dead ringer for my high school French teacher.