Movies - Dolores Umbridge

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Dolores Jane Umbridge is a fictional character from the Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling.

Umbridge is a short, squat woman resembling a large toad. She often wears a black velvet bow in her hair that reminds Harry of a fly about to be caught. She has a high, girly voice that Harry describes as sounding like poisoned honey. The name Dolores has the Latin word dolor, or pain, as its root, the name itself means 'Lady of Sorrows', possibly reflecting the misery she brings to the students of Hogwarts. The name Umbridge is pronounced the same as umbrage, meaning resentment or pique at an often imagined insult.

In the upcoming Order of the Phoenix
film, Imelda Staunton will play Umbridge.

Background and role in the novels

Umbridge first appears in (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), as Senior Undersecretary to Minister of Magic (Cornelius Fudge). As Senior Undersecretary, she is one of Harry's interrogators in the Wizengamot, a wizard's court, when he is tried on charges of breaking the ban on underage sorcery. It is later revealed that Umbridge herself had ordered Dementors to attack Harry, causing him to use magic for self-protection.

Umbridge is subsequently installed at Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor by order of the Ministry of Magic. She is soon appointed the first ever "Hogwarts High Inquisitor," in which position she is given extraordinary powers over the students, teachers and curriculum. Umbridge creates an Inquisitorial Squad, which is comprised entirely of Slytherins and rewards some students for reporting on others and sanctions them to act as enforcers of Umbridge's rules.

After Dumbledore leaves Hogwarts, Umbridge is installed as Headmistress. However, the Headmaster's office refuses to open for her, and her time as Headmistress is characterized by rebellion by most of the student body and faculty. Ultimately Dumbledore is reinstated as Hogwarts headmaster, and Umbridge is forced to resign.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Umbridge returns to the Ministry under the new Minister Rufus Scrimgeour, but the nature of her position is not revealed.

Umbridge is prejudiced against non-humans and part-humans ("half-breeds") and has drafted anti-werewolf legislation making it very difficult for characters such as Remus Lupin to hold jobs.

Her time in Hogwarts is characterized by cruelty and physical punishments against students — she stands out especially for forcing Harry to write lines using a quill that magically causes the words to be cut into the skin on the back of the writer's hand. She also authorizes the botched whipping of Fred and George Weasley, and eventually even plans to use the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse in order to extract information from Harry.

While in the Forbidden Forest Umbridge later crossed paths with a group of centaurs. After she allowed her prejudice to get the better of her, it was only fitting that the centaurs beat her within an inch of her life. Only the goodwill of Albus Dumbledore (who entered the forest alone to rescue her, though after a considerable amount of time due to the battle in the Ministry and the revealing of pivotal information to Harry) saved her from a certain death. After her recovery in the hospital wing, Umbridge attempted to escape Hogwarts, but accidently ran into Peeves. He chased her off the grounds, beating her alternately with a sock full of chalk and Professor McGonagall's walking stick.

Critical response

Professor Umbridge is one of the most unpopular Harry Potter characters; J. K. Rowling herself has noted many times that Umbridge is "horrible".

Novelist Stephen King, writing as a book reviewer for the July 11, 2003 Entertainment Weekly, noted the success of any novel is due to a great villain, with Umbridge the "greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter...".

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