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Albus Dumbledore and the Destruction of the Parent

Part 1 : Laying the groundwork

In one of the final chapters of the Harry Potter series, when Harry finally gets to meet Dumbledore again after his sacrifice, the extent to which the past haunts our favourite headmaster is finally revealed to our hero. Indeed: not only does Dumbledore fully confirm to the boy that he was a neglectful parent (when he was put in charge of his extremely sensitive little sister after both of their parents had left the house), but he also even suggests/insinuates that he may very well have been the one out of Grindelwald and Aberworth to have accidently struck her with his hand and caused her tragic death during their duel.

One question that readers may immediately ask themselves is why the old wizard is telling any of this to Harry? Indeed: by this point in the story it has almost been a year since the headmaster has been killed at the hands of Severus Snape, and Dumbledore cannot possibly still hold on to the notion or hope that he will be able to influence Harry. His complete acceptance of this fact can be shown straight after this confession when he states wholeheartedly that Harry’s choice of staying here or of returning to the Living World and trying to defeat Voldemort is completely “up to him” (590). It is almost as if a responsibility or pressure has now been lifted from our mentor’s shoulders.

In an interview with the writer of the fifth Harry Potter movie, Michael Goldenberg states how one of the major themes that he noticed within the novels and which he then wanted to transfer into his own script was the increasing “need” for Dumbledore “to come down from his pedestal” so that Harry may be “disillusioned” and “grow up and take on the responsibilities that he needs to take on” (CMU). This particular moment in one’s life is described elsewhere as “when [one] see[s] the authority figure [that they’ve] either idealized or demonized revealed as more complicated” and/or “[realize] that [their] parents are normal, flawed human beings” (Salon). But the question of how it could be important for Harry’s maturation is never addressed.

In order to answer this question, one must properly define what Harry is facing within the story. Indeed: after but a cursory glance at the scholarship surrounding the series, it is clear that “[our main protagonist’s] battle with Voldemort may be seen as an internal conflict between aspects of his own psyche, culminating in Voldemort’s defeat and the repudiation of those aspects he represents” (Rosegrant, 11). Moreover, the fact that JK Rowling has chosen teenagehood as the setting/backdrop for this conflict equally should not be seen or interpreted as a coincidence. As Call and McAlpine go on to state: “Much of Harry’s journey through adolescence is a struggle to reject the part of himself that links him to Lord Voldemort” (Call/McAlpine, 76). This link is finally broken however when Voldemort inadvertently curses himself after Harry does a rebound spell.

What is especially significant is that not once in the story does Harry play into his enemy’s game (even when he is tempted). In the end, it is this very difference between the two characters – how one will never submit to the lowest depths of trying to kill the other – which ultimately decides/dictates the winner. You may naturally wonder, then, where does Dumbledore fit in all of this? Indeed: if the main battle of the story can only be fought inside/within Harry’s own psyche, then what even is Dumbledore’s role/function/purpose towards our main character? And, what’s more, how does this go beyond the fact that he will almost always just be accepted as an “influential parental figure” (Reynolds, 272)? In other words: how does Dumbledore’s ‘status’ as a parent have any sort of connection with Voldemort himself (- the very thing that Harry must defeat)?

This question becomes even more important when one observes the specific studies that have already been made on the character. Indeed: it is almost unanimously agreed amongst scholars that the fact that Dumbledore chooses to withhold information from Harry concerning Voldemort and the Prophecy that “either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives” must mean that the need to defeat Voldemort belongs to Dumbledore and not Harry. In her paper titled ‘Doubting Dumbledore’, Jenny McDougal describes the old wizard’s manipulation and deceit towards Harry as proof of a “larger endgame” at work (McDougal, 162). Alicia Wilson-Metzger goes on to state that Dumbledore wants to “[shape Harry] into [his] ultimate weapon in the war against Lord Voldemort” (WM, 15). Here, Voldemort is clearly separated from Harry’s psyche and stands out as a character of his own.

However is this the only possible interpretation? Indeed: if we are truly to see Voldemort as just another part of Harry’s psyche – as I hope to have already demonstrated to you within this essay – then it is only natural that the Prophecy’s true intended message should change as well. Now, instead of talking about actual death, what the Prophecy could actually be saying is that in order for Harry’s “soul” to remain “whole and untarnished” he must kill or destroy that Dark part within himself (Los, 33). With this new perspective, it might then equally be possible for us to consider Dumbledore’s secrecy towards Harry in a new light and even start to be able to justify it. Now, instead of “offering [up]” Harry “as a sacrificial lamb to Voldemort” by withholding information from him until the very last moment, what Dumbledore could in actual fact be doing is protecting the boy from knowledge that might otherwise have a negative impact on his growing-up process (WM, 294). In other words: Dumbledore might actually be carrying out his parenting duties.

This may help to explain why it is so important for Dumbledore to come down from his pedestal in order for Harry to mature properly. Indeed: in progressively removing/detaching himself from our main hero, Dumbledore is essentially trying to break away at the “great” and “infallible” image that Harry has created for himself of this old man, all the while being fully aware that it might cost him the affection of someone that he holds very dear (Woodford, 71). By the end of the story, when Dumbledore finally confesses to the boy wizard about his troubled past, one ultimately gets a sense that the headmaster’s job as a parent is finally complete. Now, the old man has completely unveiled himself before Harry, and the latter’s romanticized image is broken.

Part 2 : Raising the question

Now that we have established how Dumbledore carries out his parental role towards our favourite student, the question will naturally become why the old man even chooses to go through with this process at all / in the very first place (since as I have already previously stated one of its innate/ultimate requirements/characteristics will invariably be that Dumbledore shall be obliged to gradually separate himself from someone that he self-admittedly “[loves]” and “[cares] about” (Book 5, 772)). And so in a way one could say that there is not much the poor, old headmaster could possibly stand to gain from following through with it. This is a particular question that has never been asked before, and which I would specifically like to address within my essay.

In the first book of the series, there is a scene where Harry chooses to sneak off during the middle of the night under his Invisibility Cloak so that he might have a glimpse of his dead parents in the Mirror of Erised (an object which is said to display/show the “deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts” (Book 1, 229)). However, after the little boy is found by Dumbledore, the two characters hold a small conversation on the dangers of wanting too much out of life and by the end of it the former is asked by the latter “not to go looking for [the object] again” (230). But as Harry is just about to exit the room however, a curiosity seems to wake up inside him and he dares to ask his headmaster what the Mirror would display if he himself were ever to look into it. As readers we may see this as our first good opportunity to learn about Dumbledore, a character which to that point we have not been given much information about.

Much to our surprise and dismay however, it immediately becomes evident to us that the old wizard is already well-educated on matters of self-protection from potentially revealing sources or leaks of information to others. Dumbledore manages to use his wit and cleverness in order to successfully avoid having to properly answer Harry’s question: “I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks” (Ibis). His insincerity with this quippy remark is even spelt out to us later on by the author herself when she makes sure to include: “It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful” (Ibis). However since by this point the headmaster still represents the little boy’s hero, this action is equally justified by our narrator within the very same sentence on the terms that it had been “quite a personal question” (Ibis).

Harry and the readers unfortunately have to wait until the end of the series – during that famous confession scene when Dumbledore wishes he could go back in time after having  “[neglected] the only two members of [his] family left” – in order to finally get an honest answer (Book 7, 586). In the end, it is the very idea that our headmaster wants exactly the same thing as Harry – i.e. the notion of having a full family – which begins the process of humanifying him in our minds. For the first time in the whole story, Dumbledore releases himself from this parental role/position of superiority that he has always and dutifully exercised over Harry. Now, he is not the one to give advice or of focusing on the other’s weaknesses anymore. Both characters are to be seen on the same terms and/or equal grounds from this moment on.

What can these passages both at the beginning and at the end of the story reveal to the readers? Namely the extent to which a feeling of parental responsibility towards Harry can govern/control Dumbledore’s own words and actions. It will be so strong in fact that Dumbledore will not even be able open up about himself to his favourite student until he absolutely knows for sure that the boy will be mature enough to take/hear it (so as to not hinder his development process). This is why Dumbledore’s process of stepping down from his pedestal within the eyes of Harry Potter cannot be done too early but must be done gradually. Harry himself only understands the need for such a process until the very end of the story, which explains why as the books go by the reader will often find him to be getting more and more angry and disillusioned with the headmaster.

And so now I have arrived to the main challenge of my thesis/essay. If I want to answer the question of why the character of Dumbledore feels such a need to serve or act as Harry’s parent within the novels, then I will invariably have to try and separate or detach him from that very association in the first place (in order to have a chance of unearthing the ‘human’ underneath). This means that any decision or utterance that our favourite headmaster has made which could possibly be connected or tied to his role/function as a parent will eventually have to be discarded from my analysis. Hence why I have chosen ‘Albus Dumbledore and the Destruction of the Parent’ as the title.