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Musings #8: DADA = Love
by Matthew Vines
February 20, 2005
To put it simply, I adore the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. So far, only one has been remotely kind, but Rowling illustrates each professor magnificently, making it difficult not to love the characters.
Quirrel could have used his talents to better the world, but his insatiability for power overwhelmed his senses, resulting in his demise. Although he can be classified as a “perfidious nincompoop,” he was also the device Rowling used to show the world that her book wasn’t your average children’s book, as he assisted in her first major plot twist. For this, we thank him. For siding with Voldemort, however, we allow ourselves to revel in his death.
Gilderoy Lockhart is, in a word, brilliant. Despite his utterly ridiculous pretentiousness, he retains an aura of lovability. How the mention of his name is not met with disgust by fans still boggles my mind. Here we have a man who has stolen credit for scores of discoveries made by other wizards and has ruined those wizards’ lives through the “Obliviate” spell, yet the majority of fans (including myself) merely chuckle at the mention of him. Perhaps this is because Rowling made his character laughable as well as contemptible, and perhaps it’s because the others are so much worse….
Remus Lupin has quite a history at Hogwarts, one which I doubt we’ve learned all about just yet. Lupin is my favorite character in the books, partially due to the fact that he is the only DADA teacher who cares for Harry and in part because of his calm and engaging disposition. Unfortunately for myself, I uphold the belief that all of the Marauders will pass on prior to the end of the series, a conviction that sadly includes the likes of Professor R.J. Lupin.
Onto book four’s DADA professor – Bartemius Crouch Jr./Moody. We know much less about Moody than we thought we did, because a certain Crouch thought it’d be funny to twist with readers’ minds and down the Polyjuice Potion for an entire year. From what we saw in book five, though, Moody seems to genuinely care for Harry, a quality esteemed by HP fans around the globe.
Dolores Jane Umbridge is arguably the most sour of the five professors we have encountered so far (an image only enhanced by her vexatious “heh hem” trademark), but her character is also the most appealing. I’ve racked my cerebrum in search of a fictitious character from any literary work that I love to hate more, but not one tops Umbridge. When Harry first takes notice of Miss Umbridge in chapter eight of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling likens her to a toad, giving her somewhat of a comical air.
Several months later at Hogwarts, Umbridge forces Harry to write lines using a quill that cuts into his hand as he writes on paper. These punitive measures, taken because Harry professed the truth about Voldemort to his peers, are beyond acceptable and even rival those mentioned by Filch in book one (the hanging of students by their wrists). However, when Umbridge is coolly ridiculed by McGonagall during Harry’s career counseling, readers practically explode with glee. And there’s no doubt that Fred and George’s “fly out” and Umbridge’s eventual dismissal actually improved fans’ opinions of her, as she is now merely a pathetic toad rather than a nefarious martinet.
Rowling places just the right amount of emphasis on each of the professors, making it so that the surname of each becomes automatically associated with the book number in which they taught. She doesn’t, however, make them such a focal point that they would be included in a one-sentence synopsis of the plot (providing that the sentence is within appropriate parameters).
Personally, I can hardly wait to find out who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be in HBP, but I can wait until 7/16. Umbridge’s character was partially spoiled on OotP’s book jacket (“a DADA teacher with a personality like poisoned honey”), which was disappointing, as I would rather wait until I can read page after page about them to find out whether they’re likable or not. If the pattern that Rowling has seemingly established (bad, bad, good, bad, bad) continues, we should be looking at a “good” professor this time around. Keep those fingers crossed!
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