This presentation focuses on the portrayal of the female characters in the first four Harry Potter books, and how the characteristics given to the 'good' females are distorted and inverted to create the 'bad' female characters of Bellatrix Lestrange and Dolores Umbridge in the fifth book of the series. Incorporating arguments from Elizabeth E. Heilman, John Kornfeld and Laurie Prothro in favour of stereotypical, one dimensional females throughout books one to four, the paper argues that this is essential for the creation of believably evil characters. Rather than being supernaturally terrifying, Umbridge and Bellatrix are not entirely removed from the domestic side of the wizarding world.
Bellatrix, Umbridge and Rita Skeeter are examined in terms of their inclusion and subsequent distortion of the mothering characteristics displayed by the more conventional female figures of Molly Weasley, Professor McGonagall and Petunia Dursley. The paper examines the qualities shared by the 'good' female characters, such as their treatment of children, their reactions to people they consider subversive and the extent they will go to protect their loved ones, and how these are altered by the 'bad' women. Umbridge and Bellatrix are willing to hurt children physically, and their cruelty highlights their fanaticism as they believe they are doing it to protect their leaders - the 'evil' equivalent of loved ones.
Taking Sirius Black's idea that "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters" , a comparison is drawn between Bellatrix and Umbridge to explore the idea of degrees of evil, with particular emphasis on the behaviour expected of those who are Death Eaters and those who are not. Bellatrix, as the self-declared most loyal member of Voldemort's followers is expected to be violent and abhorrent, whereas Umbridge, although not expected to be entirely on board with Dumbledore's plans (as so ably demonstrated by Fudge), is not at all what we believe a character who is allied with the 'good' (ie not Death Eater) side to be. It is this difference between expected and actual behaviour contributes to the idea of degrees of evil, and explores the possibility that Dolores Umbridge is more 'evil' than Bellatrix Lestrange - Umbridge is unlike any teacher, government official or woman encountered in the Harry Potter series.