Blog #3: Dumbledore's Development

Dumbledore's Development

            I’ve read the final Harry Potter book too many times to count, but the first time I read the book, almost six years ago now on the time of its release, still remains very vivid in my head. Going into the seventh book, I really did not know what to expect. We find out at the end of the sixth book that the trio will not be attending Hogwarts the following year. Well, what’s a Harry Potter book with out professors, classes, exams, and all of the people associated with the school? At this point in the series, we are used to a certain type of structure. Sure, each book presents new and exciting problems and events, but I knew going in that the final book would lack this set structure that Hogwarts presents. This made me both excited and nervous to read the seventh book.

            I was expecting the trio to be working together to try to locate and destroy all of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and I certainly got that. One of the things that I was not expecting, though, was the negativity and frustration surrounding Dumbledore throughout the entire novel. I was surprised to find out all of the things about Dumbledore’s past; his family drama, his obsession with “the greater good”, and most notably, his friendship with Grindelwald, who is said to be the second most evil wizard of all time, after Voldemort of course. These revelations definitely changed how I viewed Dumbledore, but not necessarily in a negative way. Throughout the first six books, we see Dumbledore as this utterly good wizard with very little flaws who seems to have the answer to everything. However, in book seven, Dumbeldore’s character is really put into question, and in my opinion, that just makes Dumbledore a more realistic and human character. We all have our flaws, some more than others, but until this point, Dumbledore’s main flaw that we saw was that he cared too much. Sure, that can cause some problems, but is that really such an enormous flaw? The fact that we are shown that Dumbledore struggles a great deal when it comes to power just makes him more realistic. I think that these new details surrounding Dumbledore’s character just made me like him even more. The fact that he went from being friends with such an evil wizard and had plans that were quite dark and sinister at a young age to a wise old wizard who just wants to see the Wizarding World whole again without the presents of Voldemort’s reign shows the true character of Dumbledore. He was able to recognize his flaws and downfalls and avoid them at all costs to make himself the best possible person that he could be. Among many other thoughts feelings that the seventh book has given me about the series, one of the most prevalent is my admiration for Dumbledore.