DHW, Day 5: Dumbledore’s Defender

After Hog’s Head PubCast #30, Reyhan wrote, “Travis, history will record you as Dumbledore’s greatest apologist.” I’m not sure any volumes of history will record me at all, but there is a certain truth here: I’ve been “Dumbledore’s Defender,” in a very stubborn and staunch way, since I launched the site.

The primary reason is a simple one: I love the character. I think he’s brilliantly written, and he’s exactly the kind of “wise old man” I’d want as my mentor. It’d be impossible to get into all the issues surrounding Dumbledore at the moment, but I’ll hit just a few key ones.

Dumbledore as Deconstructor

One of the things I most love about Dumbledore is that Rowling uses him as the one who can see and deconstruct the great prejudices and institutionalized racism in the Wizarding World. Not only does he see them, but he knows how to patiently address each issue in a way that is sensitive to the concerns of the oppressed. He’s not a self-righteous man on a political power trip. His deconstruction of the Wizarding World in Chapter 37 (“The Lost Prophecy”) is probably my favorite portion of the entire series.

Dumbledore’s Strength Under Control

While I abhorred Michael Gambon’s performance in Prisoner of Azkaban, it was Goblet of Fire that pushed me right over the edge. His incessant loss of temper, his shaking of Harry, and his shouting greatly missed the calm, powerful aura of Dumbledore. Rowling wrote Dumbledore as an incredible example of what “righteous anger” looks like.

Dumbledore’s Mercy

Yes, I think it was Dumbledore on the Tower; and yes, I think it was his great mercy that caused Draco to falter in his mission. We all talk of love and tolerance, but we all have our breaking point. A certain type of person comes along, and we become unnerved, caustic, and upset. Dumbledore is the model of everything we want (and sometimes claim) to be regarding respect for human beings. The man is not even shaken in the presence of the Dark Lord himself, throwing AK’s at him left and right. He loves the unlovable, receives the outcasts, and forgives the worst betrayals.

Dumbledore as Christ Figure

I finally came around to the firm conclusion that the Cave scene in Half-Blood Prince is the figurative death-resurrection scene of that book. It’s got all the right elements which John Granger has laid out for us: They go “underground” (into the cave); Harry is convinced he’s going to die (there’s a part where Harry is certain he’s about to become another inferius, another guardian of a horcrux, and he’s saved in the presence of a Christ symbol. That symbol? Well, its very subtle and cleverly done. The phoenix has served as Christ symbol in three of the four books up until this point. Just as Harry is about to be pulled under, red and gold flames are conjured by Dumbledore. Using the descriptors “red” and “gold” calls to mind the phoenix colors, and Dumbledore, the one who was willing to die in pursuit of the destruction of evil, is at the command of those flames.

Not long after, on the tower, Dumbledore sets into motion the plan to save Draco, his would-be murderer, by “dying” at the hands of Severus Snape, who in reality, I think we will find, un-stoppered his death in that moment. One can hardly find a more potent illustration of the moment when Christ looked at his own murderers and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” His reminding Draco that it was his (Dumbledore’s) mercy that matter serves to reinforce this.

Questions about Dumbledore’s Character

Of course, many questions have surface about Dumbledore’s character, not least that he is a manipulative old man. One of the more creative versions of this is that the whole leaked prophecy debacle was on his orders – that Snape gave Voldemort the first part of the prophecy on Dumbledore’s command, for the purpose of creating his downfall. I’ve written and spoken at great length against this particular theory, though I do admit that Harry Potter mavens much more brilliant than I hold to it steadfastly.

While I’ve prepared myself to be wrong about this, I don’t think I will be. Dumbledore is the “epitome of goodness,” and I don’t think Rowling has spent 6 books turning Harry into “Dumbledore’s man through and through” just to make his great mentor turn out to be a “manipulative old codger,” as one writer called him.

But there certainly are a lot of unanswered questions about Dumbledore, and a good deal of mystery. We just didn’t learn a lot about him. I think there’s a perfectly good literary reason for this. In writing Dumbledore, Rowling faced an impossible challenge: writing a character who epitomizes goodness, a character so wise that Rowling herself would want to sit and learn from him. I say that the task is impossible, because to write someone you’d love to learn from is to write someone smarter and wiser than yourself, which one cannot do with one’s own brain and resources. How to do it, then? Inject a healthy dose of mystery into the character. I think this is what Rowling did with Dumbledore, and I think it means there will be continued debate about Dumbledore on into the future. Unless Deathly Hallows concretely proves me wrong, I’m sticking with my defense of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows?

So, then, in what ways will our late Headmaster be “present” in the final book? I propose a few key ways:

• Aberforth: Here’s a minor character who will become quite important to Book 7. Rowling said that Dumbledore’s family is a valuable line of inquiry, and Aberforth is the obvious candidate.
• Memories: I think it will become quite evident in Book 7 that Dumbledore was quite prepared for his death at any moment – prepared enough to have left plenty of guidance behind for Harry. This will most likely come in the form of a few more pensieve memories. After all, why did Dumbledore have his own memories in bottles when Harry showed up in his office for lessons? My guess is there are more. The problem with this, of course, is that Dumbledore told Harry that the Slughorn memory was the most important of all – so what more could Dumbledore have to reveal through memories? Well, it’s most certainly true that Dumbledore had quite a lot of horcrux research under his belt which he had not yet had the time to show Harry. Or, could he plan to reveal his reasons for trusting Snape? Doubtful that this will happen in the pensieve, but that does lead us to…
• Trust Vindicated: Loyalty to Dumbledore has been a key theme of the series, because loyalty to Dumbledore is loyalty to Good. As such, while there are things I loathe about Snape’s character, I believe Dumbledore’s trust in Snape will be vindicated. A long time ago, I playfully suggested that the “unlikely pairing” JKR referenced in an interview was Dumbledore and Snape’s mom (Irma Pince!). While this is a lunatic theory, of course (I don’t actually believe it, though I do like the theory that our favorite librarian is Snape’s moms), we’ll finally learn what Dumbledore didn’t tell Harry just before leaving for the cave.

There’s so much more, but I’ll end it there. I’ve written volumes about Dumbledore, and you can read the essays in the category, Albus Dumbledore. If you’ve only got time for one or two, I’m partial to Dumbledore’s Mercy: Why Draco Couldn’t Pull the Trigger, and Loving Lupin: Dumbledore, Harry, and Jesus.