Dolores Umbridge

Character Analysis

Ministry: Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Head of Muggle-born Registration Committee

The evil, toad-faced Umbridge returns again! (Um, not that we encourage insults.)

We first met this heinous witch in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when she was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Crazy Umbridge reappears in Deathly Hallows in relation to the Slytherin locket Horcrux – she got it from Mundungus Fletcher, and now Harry, Ron, and Hermione need to get it back and destroy it. Indeed, she seem very fond of the locket, which she claims as a Selwyn family heirloom. Right…

Though not officially a Death Eater (we think), she sure seems to be enjoying herself in the Death Eater-controlled Ministry. Like the Death Eaters, Umbridge wants to do away with any witches and wizards that are not "purebloods." Her Muggle-born Registration Committee seems to echo the behavior of Nazis during the Holocaust, and she works with the Ministry to round-up and imprison any wizards unable to prove that they come from pureblood wizard families. Some are even executed (via dementor's Kiss).

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into the Ministry and steal the locket, Harry Stuns Umbridge. Though we're glad to see her hit by a spell, we were positively gleeful when we read an interview in which Rowling revealed that after the defeat of Voldemort, Umbridge is "arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns." (source). Snap!