Who is dolores umbridge

As well as making Harry use a quill that would slice open his hand and cause him to write in his own blood, she banned Harry, Fred, and George from playing Quidditch later in the year after they attacked Draco Malfoy though their bans were all lifted following Umbridge's eventual removal from Hogwarts for his cruel insults.

Dolores forcing Harry to write lines with his own blood as ink during a detention. Umbridge monitored all incoming and outgoing mail, and Harry's owl Hedwig was injured on Umbridge's orders. She made it difficult for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to visit Hagrid. Umbridge nearly used the Cruciatus Curse to get Harry to talk before Hermione intervened and, together with Harry, tricked Umbridge into going into the Forest to show her "Dumbledore's weapon".

This resulted in Umbridge being carried off by the centaurs, whom she had attacked first, due to her hatred of half-breeds. After the Ministry had finally acknowledged Voldemort's return to power, Umbridge was removed from Hogwarts. However, Harry was furious to learn later that year that Umbridge was still working for the Ministry of Magic.

The next year Lord Voldemort took over the Ministry. She branded Harry as "Undesirable No. This was a job that involved sadistically sentencing innocent Muggle-borns to Azkaban on the false charge of stealing magic. Enraged, Harry stunned Umbridge and retrieved the Horcrux. He also took the eye from her office and buried it. Given Harry's grudge against her, it is likely that he provided testimony against her during her trial before being given a life sentence in Azkaban. The delight of it extended to the point where she wished that he did not rest in peace but in endless despair in the Voldemort controlled world.

Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge , her superior. Umbridge was Cornelius Fudge's right-hand woman, being his Senior-Undersecretary, and he trusted her greatly to place her into Hogwarts to control it. He granted her many powers through Educational Decrees , and full-heartedly agreed with all of her comments and mockeries against Dumbledore and Harry.

Fudge seemed to be unaware of Umbridge's dark and sadistic nature. In return, Umbridge was loyal to Fudge only because of the power he was offering her, and felt no true attachments to the misguided man. She was also willing to break the law behind the Minister's back to achieve results, such as summoning Dementors in an attempt to expel Harry, as well as attempting to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse for interrogation, all the while stating that " what Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him.

When Fudge was dismissed, Umbridge stood beside the new Ministers instead, even when it became apparent that the new regime established in was morally corrupt which actually fell in line with her true personality. During their respective downfalls, however, Umbridge did not try to stand up for them, meaning that she only served them loyally for the power that she was offered, and felt no true attachments towards any of them.

Some of her equals also respected her enough. In fact, Percy Weasley sent a letter to his younger brother, stating that Umbridge was a "truly delightful woman", and that Ron should side with her instead of continuing to associate with Harry. However, others, like Amelia Bones and Arthur Weasley , didn't appear to like her. Furthermore, some lower-ranking employees tended to talk ill of her behind her back, as seen when she was the Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission , when some pamphlet makers complained about her usage of Alastor Moody's magical eye to monitor them.

She mainly keeps up the facade of a respectable official amongst most of her equals and superiors, but has no trouble tyrannising her subordinates. During her earlier years, she attempted to charm her superiors for a marriage, in order to raise her status and power, but, while they valued her hard work and ambitions, they knew her enough that they found her very difficult to like and refused to have any affectionate relationship with her.

Some of her coworkers who dislike her tend to ask her if she is related to the Umbridge who used to mop floors at the Ministry, which she took offensively before denying it, and caused some nasty events to happen to such people, thus leading to those who wished to remain on her good side to believe her invented ancestry. After the Ministry was reformed under Kingsley Shacklebolt 's guidance, Umbridge was arrested, tried and imprisoned for her crimes against Muggle-borns, as not all the Muggle-borns she sent to Azkaban survived their imprisonment during the Second Wizarding War.

Minerva McGonagall , her enemy. Minerva McGonagall disliked Dolores Umbridge from the beginning, and their relationship only worsened over time. When the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher began to invade Hogwarts with her Hogwarts High Inquisitor position, she did everything she could in her power to circumvent Umbridge's authority without risking the loss of her job.

During Umbridge's inspections of McGonagall's class, Minerva tried for the most part to ignore Dolores. This was difficult, due to Umbridge's constant interruptions of McGonagall using her signature soft, girlish cough of " Hem hem ".

When forced to acknowledge Umbridge's presence, McGonagall treated her with a cold and harsh demeanour, much to the pleasure of many students. Although Dolores had the authority to put Minerva on probation or even sack her, Minerva was not afraid to show her disgust and hatred of Dolores to her face.

Despite this, she understood that Umbridge had a lot of power and that she was reporting directly to Cornelius Fudge , and so Minerva once warned Harry Potter to tread carefully around Umbridge. Even so, she vehemently vouched for Harry during their Career Advice session, claiming that she would coach him nightly if she had to in order to realise his dream of becoming an Auror , after Umbridge's furiously protested that Harry would never become one; during this session, Minerva indirectly claimed Dolores' evaluation as incompetent and would not be taken into consideration.

After Umbridge fired Sybill Trelawney from her post as Divination teacher, Minerva even put aside her mild dislike of Sybill to focus even more on her hatred of Dolores. Even when Dolores took over Hogwarts, replacing Albus Dumbledore as head of the school, Minerva continued to help undermine Umbridge's reign, preferring to watch her struggle with the chaos that was being caused by the students and Peeves sometimes she even helped with it.

When Minerva attempted to prevent the attack on Hagrid, Umbridge and her cohorts shot her down with four simultaneous Stunners, severely injuring her, requiring her to be sent to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries Dolores was pleased at this, as it meant she had full control of Hogwarts.

After Minerva's return to Hogwarts, Minerva did nothing to curb the students' enthusiasm when Peeves chased Dolores from Hogwarts, only lamenting that she could not run after Umbridge herself because the poltergeist had taken her walking stick to hit Dolores with as he followed her from the school. Umbridge was a sadistic woman who enjoyed punishing and torturing students. Almost every resident of Hogwarts at the time hated Umbridge, but she particularly hated Harry Potter , Fred and George.

Fred and George were students who vehemently opposed Umbridge, and they used their mischief-making skills to undermine her authority. They developed special fireworks and set them off within the castle after Umbridge was appointed Head of Hogwarts. The fireworks took fantastical forms, such as a monstrous light dragon and Catherine wheels. They also created a Portable Swamp , which was commended by Charms Professor Filius Flitwick as a bit of " really good magic ," in order to anger Umbridge just before leaving Hogwarts.

When she attempted to punish them, Fred and George insulted her in front of the whole school and then fled with their broomsticks, much to her absolute fury, as she ordered her Inquisitorial Squad to apprehend the two, which failed.

In response, the twins "strongly suggested" that Peeves " give her hell from us " before flying out of the castle grounds, a departure that would become somewhat of a legend at the school. Some of the Slytherin students as well as the caretaker, Argus Filch , happily supported Umbridge during her reign as the High Inquisitor and later Headmistress of Hogwarts; relating her cruelty and sadism with their own ambitions.

In fact, Filch claimed that Umbridge was the best thing to happen to Hogwarts, falling for her ploy to gain his trust by rewarding him with, for example, permission to use torture as a form of punishment. However, Umbridge was fully aware that she could rely only on herself in the more crucial situations, evidenced in her reaction to Draco Malfoy 's greedy facial expression upon hearing of Dumbledore's fabled "secret weapon" from an apparently distraught Hermione Granger.

Umbridge, believing Hermione's bluff, then took it upon herself to discover this weapon first-hand rather than send one of her Slytherin cronies to do it for her. Severus Snape , who disliked Umbridge immensely. Like his colleagues, he did as little to help her as possible due to seeing her as the spoiled child she was. Because of this, Snape was the only one who could ignore Umbridge's insults and endure her tantrums.

He was, however, not above subtle taunting as shown when he merely raised an eyebrow after she told him he was on probation or when he pointed out the foolishness in her use of the entire bottle of Veritaserum which was fake he gave her when she only needed three drops.

Umbridge in turn seemed to enjoy bullying Snape over the fact that Dumbledore always refused him the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, which Snape found to be infuriating, and barely hid his rage. She was also annoyed with his lack of support for her and accused him of being "deliberately unhelpful". In general Umbridge seemed to expect more support from Snape, due to Lucius Malfoy speaking highly of him to her. In an alternate reality in which Voldemort won the war and Umbridge became the official Headmistress of Hogwarts, she kept Snape as a teacher of the school.

Umbridge claimed that she knew of Snape's true allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix for years, but did not act on it at the time; it was only when Severus assisted Scorpius Malfoy in defying Voldemort did Umbridge expressed her regret of not dealing with Snape before.

In short, it seems Umbridge kept Snape around for his teaching capabilities while disregarding his loyalty as something that could not bring harm to the new regime until he made an open move. Snape, in turn, had no qualms in blasting Umbridge back when she confronted them. He did not hesitate to express how he always considered her an "idiotic woman" and admitted that he never liked her in front of Harry, especially after hearing she foolishly called a herd of centaur "filthy half-breeds ".

Harry, sharing this contemptuous dislike for Umbridge, chuckled at Horace's comment. Umbridge sacking Professor Trelawney and attempting to send her away from Hogwarts Castle.

During her time as a student, Umbridge never truly enjoyed her time at Hogwarts, and being denied any position of power i. Prefect, Head Girl made her resent the establishment. Upon being installed by Fudge as a teacher, Umbridge saw it as a golden opportunity to get revenge against the school that did not as she saw it give her her due respect.

While at Hogwarts as a staff member, Dolores Umbridge was, overall, a highly unpleasant person to be around. As such, she was highly unpopular to most students and teachers in Hogwarts school. In fact, she was despised or feared by many of the other residents of the grounds, such as the Ghosts, Paintings, House Elves, and the Forbidden Forest Centaurs.

She would constantly interrupt teachers, such as Dumbledore during his welcoming speech, with her high-pitched girlish cough of " Hem hem " and speak to students in a condescending tone, as if they were simpletons or her inferiors; her personal speech during the Start-of-Term Feast already left a very negative first impression on the school in general, as most students could not be bothered to listen to the "load of waffle", while the teachers and Hermione Granger deduced the meaning that "the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts", which displeased them.

However, Dumbledore could not do anything about her due to her being appointed by the Ministry, and school life was made infinitely more difficult — for students and staff alike — by her presence. Umbridge, as High Inquisitor, inspecting Severus Snape. The students who despised her cruelty started a massive rebellion inspired by Fred and George Weasley after they set off a Portable Swamp and fled the school. The teachers and staff, most of whom despised Umbridge's methods and interfering in their classes, did little to support her, and instead allowed the students to run rampant.

Madam Pomfrey however looked after her as she would any other following her rescue from the Centaurs. Umbridge was particularly offensive and prejudiced towards Hagrid , due to his half-giant blood, and to Professor Trelawney , who Umbridge believed was a fraud.

Eventually, Umbridge sacked Trelawney and attempted to rudely evict her from the school, only to be foiled by Dumbledore. This also turned even more of the students and staff against her. In fact, the school itself appeared to deny her authority, sealing the Headmaster's office against her. In addition, Umbridge liked to intimidate Snape , despite both of them sharing a dislike of Harry Potter.

Unlike Trelawney, who took these horrible comments to heart and was deeply insulted, Snape rarely took any of her tauntings seriously. Besides, the staff, the students, and Peeves, the residents of the castle paintings also regarded her and her helpers with general distaste, swearing and making rude hand gestures at her and Cornelius Fudge when they left the Headmaster's office in pursuit of Dumbledore.

Dobby was also terrified of her, warning of her approach to Harry in hysterics, and barely able to say her name. Umbridge especially disliked Albus Dumbledore , as he kept undermining her attempts to wrest control of Hogwarts. She, like Cornelius Fudge , believed that Dumbledore was trying to overthrow the Ministry of Magic and hence usurp the position of Minister for Magic.

Of all, she was one of the only individuals who did the feat and mistake of angering Dumbledore when she attacked a student in front of him, a thing that even Voldemort himself was not able to do.

Dumbledore's Army , Hogwarts students who rejected her authority and rebelled against her. Dumbledore's Army was also an organisation founded in order to directly oppose Umbridge and her supporters. When Umbridge found out about the organisation, she utilised the powers of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four to have them all expelled, but failed due to Dumbledore taking the blame.

All of them, aside from Marietta, disliked Umbridge. For instance, Hermione cited that she was an evil woman trying to dictate the affairs of the entire school, while Ron said she was "sick" in the head. However, Marietta betrayed the Army to Umbridge because of her parents' loyalty to the Ministry. Although Umbridge feigned kindness in encouraging Marietta to do "the right thing", when Kingsley Shacklebolt secretly modified Marietta's memory, Umbridge was furious with the young girl for being unable to answer her questions.

This caused the High Inquisitor to violently shake Marietta until Dumbledore quickly stepped in. Umbridge always had a prejudiced view on those who were part-humans. She used the derogatory term " half-breed " and treated them particularly horribly. This extended to creatures that looked like part-humans, but were in fact a separate breed, such as centaurs , merpeople , and werewolves , as she either mistook them to be human-animal hybrids or simply found their appearances of being partially human revolting.

Regardless of her definition of "half-breeds", she was extremely cruel to them, writing an anti-werewolf legislation so they could barely find employment, and campaigning for merpeople to be rounded up and tagged, the latter which was never followed through due to the sheer ridiculousness.

In particular, Umbridge was horrible to half-giant Rubeus Hagrid , treating him like a dimwitted and violent troll , and ultimately tried to attack him under the cover of darkness. Umbridge was also horrified at the appointment of the new Divination teacher, the centaur Firenze. Her prejudice eventually led her to foolishly insult and anger a herd of centaurs who dragged her away, which led her to develop a phobia towards centaurs.

However, despite her hatred towards half-breeds, Umbridge did not seem to hate part-goblin Filius Flitwick , judging by Fred Weasley 's statement that she passed him on his inspection.

Although this is most likely a result of Umbridge's lack of knowledge on Flitwick's ancestry. Alternatively, it is possible that Flitwick's all-around competence led to her being unable to find a pretext to mark him down.

One year before she was incarcerated in Azkaban , Umbridge's cruel prejudice extended to Muggle-borns , due to her hypocritical-conformity of the ideology of blood purity. She sadistically interrogated them alongside Yaxley , two prime victims being Alderton and Mary Cattermole.

She also published a pamphlet stating the dangers of Muggles and referred to them as " Mudbloods ". Her crimes against Muggle-borns led to her imprisonment in Azkaban following the defeat of Voldemort , especially since some of the Muggle-borns she convicted did not survive Azkaban.

Although Umbridge was not a Death Eater, and had no direct contact with Lord Voldemort , she showed that she was fairly in line with their goals. This was due to Umbridge's callous nature, prejudiced beliefs both of which were similar to Death Eater behaviour and her antagonism and disrespect to Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore , whom she tried to hinder or thwart on several occasions.

Umbridge seemed to be on friendly terms with Lucius Malfoy , a known Death Eater who had close connections with the Ministry. Umbridge's duties as the head of this commission involved sadistically prosecuting innocent Muggle-borns who were the enemies of the Death Eaters.

However, Umbridge was never actually part of Lord Voldemort's ring of Death Eaters, although it appears that with her Mudblood prejudice leaflet , she supported Muggle-born segregation.

While Umbridge was never known to have joined Voldemort, or been aware of his infiltration of the Ministry in , her displayed behaviour suggests that she had no problems with the changes that he introduced. In an alternative reality where Voldemort succeeded in conquering Britain and killing Harry, Dolores was full-heartedly celebrating "Voldemort Day", showing she was aware of the Death Eaters taking over, and her full and open support for Lord Voldemort.

Umbridge as seen on Pottermore. Dolores Umbridge as she is depicted in the Order of the Phoenix video game. Dolores Umbridge as a POP! The woman in question returned my antipathy with interest. Why we took against each other so instantly, heartily and on my side, at least irrationally, I honestly cannot say.

What sticks in my mind is her pronounced taste for twee accessories. I particularly recall a tiny little plastic bow slide, pale lemon in colour that she wore in her short curly hair. I used to stare at that little slide, which would have been appropriate to a girl of three, as though it was some kind of repellant physical growth.

She was quite a stocky woman, and not in the first flush of youth, and her tendency to wear frills where I felt frills had no business to be, and to carry undersized handbags, again as though they had been borrowed from a child's dressing-up box, jarred, I felt, with a personality that I found the reverse of sweet, innocent, and ingenuous.

I am always a little wary when talking about these kinds of sources of inspiration, because it is infuriating to hear yourself misinterpreted in ways that can cause other people a great deal of hurt. She did not look like a toad, she was never sadistic or vicious to me or anyone else, and I never heard her express a single view in common with Umbridge indeed, I never knew her well enough to know much about her views or preferences, which makes my dislike of her even less justifiable.

However, it is true to say that I borrowed from her, then grossly exaggerated, a taste for the sickly sweet and girlish in dress, and it was that tiny little pale lemon plastic bow that I was remembering when I perched the fly-like ornament on Dolores Umbridge's head. I have noticed more than once in life that a taste for the ineffably twee can go hand-in-hand with a distinctly uncharitable outlook on the world.

I once shared an office with a woman who had covered the wall space behind her desk with pictures of fluffy kitties; she was the most bigoted, spiteful champion of the death penalty with whom it has ever been my misfortune to share a kettle.

A love of all things saccharine often seems present where there is a lack of real warmth or charity. So Dolores, who is one of the characters for whom I feel purest dislike, became an amalgam of traits taken from these, and a variety of sources. Her desire to control, to punish and to inflict pain, all in the name of law and order, are, I think, every bit as reprehensible as Lord Voldemort's unvarnished espousal of evil.

Umbridge's names were carefully chosen. Dolores is offended by any challenge to her limited world-view; I felt her surname conveyed the pettiness and rigidity of her character. It is harder to explain 'Jane'; it simply felt rather smug and neat between her other two names. Harry Potter Wiki Explore. Rowling Story. Explore Wikis Community Central.

Register Don't have an account? Dolores Umbridge. View source. History Talk Do you like this video? Play Sound. Harry was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad. Main article: Attack in Little Whinging. So silly of me. But it sounded for a teensy moment as though you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack on this boy!

There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited. The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your O.

You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please. Outside of discussion of the character in Harry Potter media and fandom, references to Umbridge most often compare her to other fictional characters or real people. The comparisons usually target her cruelty, though also her frumpy, pink attire, status as a professor and bureaucrat, and alliance with evil.

Online, some have taken to comparing female members of the Trump administration—especially presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway and sometimes President Trump himself—to Dolores Umbridge. Though they may have some qualities including pronunciation in common, Umbridge the character is not be confused with the word umbrage. This is not meant to be a formal definition of Umbridge like most terms we define on Dictionary.

Feedback See Today's Synonym. Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Tyrone Biggums. She does seem to have a very powerful personality, in any case, as she is a senior assistant to at least two Ministers Cornelius Fudge and Pius Thicknesse , and is respected within the Ministry. She manages to get herself into a position of significant authority under Thicknesse, despite not being a Death Eater — it seems that the higher offices in the Ministry under Thicknesse are filled by Death Eaters, for reasons that should be obvious.

Even prior to her appointment as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts and long before her crimes against Muggle-borns, Dolores Umbridge has a reputation within the Wizarding world as a politician who has particular prejudices against semi-humans or "half-breeds", most notably werewolves. It is this that leads her to smear and later sack Hagrid, since he is half-giant.

She has a weak self-image, which she props up with pomposity, elitism, officious behavior and a dependency on external props, such as the locket she extorts from Mundungus Fletcher and later claims as an heirloom that "proves" her descent from an old Wizarding family.

She exhibits paranoid behaviour both in her monitoring of students' mail as High Inquisitor and in her use of Alastor Moody's magical eye at the Ministry to spy on her staff outside her office. These personality traits are further compounded by her bigotry, which seems to be largely based on a fear of beings outside her understanding or control. It is these same prejudices which ultimately lead to her downfall, first by being seized by the centaurs whom she also calls "half-breeds" and then by being sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban for her crimes against Muggle-borns.

Umbridge has a particular dislike for Harry Potter. Throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , her bias against Harry in particular, and Gryffindor House in general, is evident. Using her newly acquired power under the Educational Decrees from the Ministry, she bans all extra-curricular activities and gatherings until they are approved by the High Inquisitor herself ; this meant that the House Quidditch teams were disbanded.

Slytherin 's team was immediately reinstated while Gryffindor was delayed from reforming for nearly a month when then-captain Angelina Johnson put in the request. Nonetheless, by the end of her time at Hogwarts, all Houses other than Slytherin are bereft of any points, until Professor McGonagall awards multiple points to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw on her return from St.

Most Hogwarts teachers despise her, especially those in the Order of the Phoenix. Slytherin prefects such as Draco Malfoy only appear to like her to the extent that she gives them the power to exert more than usual control over others, such as taking House points away. Argus Filch likes her, however, becoming excited when she reinstates corporal punishment for students and he is sorry to see her leave.

Umbridge claims relationship to the Selwyn family. This relationship is never proven and she uses the locket of Slytherin via its apparent antiquity and the "S" sigil on it , despite being totally unaware of its provenance or history, to bolster this otherwise-unsupported claim- much less suspecting that it is a Horcrux that is likely to twist her nature even further when she wears it which it does. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , the first book in the series, Professor Quirrell tells Harry that one of the lessons he had learned from "his master" was that "there is no right or wrong, only power.

Umbridge characterizes the worst aspects of political power. She is ruthless, cruel, brutal, corrupt and devoid of a moral or ethical centre, always presented with a soft, demure exterior.

She is depicted using any means to maintain her personal power and the political power of her bosses. She commits attempted murder via the Dementor attack on Harry , solicits bribes- at least from Mundungus Fletcher and tortures children to achieve her goals. Umbridge cannot tolerate anyone who disagrees with her views or the lies her Minister is spreading. She must exercise complete control over everyone and everything around her.

From her perspective, free speech, dissent, diversity and multiple points of view cannot be tolerated. Clearly, Umbridge represents the qualities of a totalitarian government. She leads not by consensus and respect but rather by fear and intimidation. Indeed, while she is taking over Hogwarts, the Ministry as a whole is controlling the press and information to spin events in their favour.

The power granted Umbridge by Fudge to consolidate his political strength and squash his perceived enemies is already familiar to us, as is her final crime of the "ethnic cleansing" of Muggle born wizards.

The author reminds us how easy it is for a person like Umbridge to thrive when a government loses its accountability. Throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , Umbridge attracted much contempt for her uptight policies, strict educational decrees and her basic power hunger. Despite this, she has the full support of Fudge and the Ministry. This puts emphasis on corruption and foolishness in Government this is also present, to a lesser extent, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , through Rufus Scrimgeour.

It also raises a theme of power and how it is misused. Study questions are meant to be left for each student to answer; please don't answer them here. It should be instructive to the student to examine the character of Umbridge.

It is of particular note that while she is not allied with Voldemort and thus nominally not on the side of the evil that Harry is fighting, she is still one of the most hateful characters in the entire series.

The reader accepts Rita Skeeter 's casual muck-raking as being part of the job she signed up for.