Book Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Bit of an awkward and sweaty year at Hogwarts for Harry. Not much goes his way.
For the reader, though, it is all good. The wizarding world becomes more real and the characters have a chance to develop and relationships evolve. Despite the structure of the novel being fundamentally the same as the others, it doesn’t feel that way; it is just as if they are living their lives and things happen and they react to them as they might. There is, of course an overarching sense of build-up, especially in Harry’s mind, to a classic Harry Potter climax and swift resolution – but in general, this felt as it was written by a much more confident writer; Rowling was allowing herself to indulgently flesh out her imaginative creation thus providing her readership with a far richer experience. I can see why she has inspired so much fan fiction; every character begs for their back story to be written.
The novel is long. It took me a while, what with one thing and another, to get through. But it didn’t drag. There’s too much to talk about, so I am going to have a think about the character of Dolores Umbridge for this post. I dressed up as her for World Book Day 2022, so I was interested to re-read this novel and see her in a new (pink) light, having been her for a day.
Umbridge is present at Harry’s trial. (He had saved his cousin from a Dementor attack, against the law, allegedly.) The first reference to her was (I think): “On Fudge’s right was another witch, but she was sitting so far back that her face was in shadow.” Her name pretty Dickensian: Dolores meaning sorrow and Umbrage has connotations of irritation/hostility as well as associations with shadow. Very good, JK.
“(Harry) thought she looked just like a large, pale toad. She was rather squat with a broad, flabby face, as little neck as Uncle Vernon and a very wide, slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round and slightly bulging. Even the little black velvet bow perched on top of her short, curly hair put him in mind of a large fly she was about to catch on a long sticky tongue.”
She then turns up as a teacher at Hogwarts:
“…like somebody’s maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan over her robes… he saw with a shock of recognition, a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent poachy eyes.”
She then gives a speech of utter mince, sounding like someone who has read too many management paperbacks. Hermione could see through the jargon that this woman would become troublesome.
She turns out to be the worst sort of teacher. She won’t let the pupils do anything; it is all theory and nothing practical or interactive. She is a stickler for meaningless rules and gives mean punishments.
One low point is her giving lines to Harry. He had to repeatedly write: “I must not tell lies.” Every word he wrote also appeared scratched on the back of his hand, so that the back of his hand pretty much split open. He was telling the truth, so he was utterly enraged as he had to complete his punishment. Nothing like injustice to make the blood boil.
She then goes from bad to worse. It turned out she was a mole from the Ministry of Magic and she started poking her nose in everywhere, banning things and eventually taking over the school. She is appointed as a “High Inquisitor” and then takes over as Headteacher. Simon Sinek wouldn’t have liked her. She totally didn’t embody the ethos.
Along the way she carries out various lesson inspections and is generally unkind. She doesn’t like Harry as he doesn’t hold to the party line; he knows Voldemort is back (as he saw him at the end of the previous novel); She, and the powers that are, thinks he isn’t (or is she a Death Eater and therefore on his side?).
Harry’s conflict with Umbridge begins to come to a head when she catches him in her office. She is frustrated and considers using an illegal curse on him, despite her unhealthy jobsworth attitude. Hermione does well and gets them out of the situation.
During this kerfuffle, Harry’s wand gets taken by Malfoy. He has it later at the climax of the novel, but I missed him getting back… I am looking for that now, as it annoyed me when reading. Found it – Ginny had got Malfoy with a “Bat Bogey” hex. Phew. I am glad it wasn’t a continuity glitch!
Dolores gets her comeuppance eventually and is a broken woman. All good.
Umbridge aside, there was a lot in this novel. There was a very high-cringe failed romance with Cho Chang; There was a lot of exploration of the different school subjects and their related assessments. There was more about the fickle nature of the media. There were centaurs and thestrals (weird leathery invisible horses) and new characters.
The Order of the Phoenix were a rag-taggle bunch of people philosophically on Harry’s side and by the end of the novel they came across as a genuine potential life-giving peer group. I am not sure they merit being titular, but there you go. I would probably have called it Harry Potter and the Department of Mysteries. But hey; I didn’t write it.
Also, if I had written it, “Death Eaters” wouldn’t have been called “Death Eaters”. It struck me as awkward every time I read it. “Death Eaters”? Naw.
The end of the novel contains a lot of explanation and clarity of reality (well, reality within the willing suspension of disbelief…) and sets us up for the last two completely massive books to round off the series.
Wee Scoops 