THE ANALYSIS OF DOLORES JANE UMBRIDGE’S PERSONALITY IN ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
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THE ANALYSIS OF DOLORES JANE UMBRIDGE’S PERSONALITY IN ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX By
SEPTIANI LINDA AYU LARASATI
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
Abstrak
Penelitian ini berjudul “The Analysis of Dolores Jane Umbridge’s Personality in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix karya J.K Rowling merupakan sumber data tunggal penelitian ini. Penelitian ini difokuskan pada kepribadian Umbridge yang mempengaruhi perilakunya terhadap guru dan murid di sekolah Hogwarts serta komponen kepribadian yang mendominasi reaksi dirinya ketika menghadapi konflik. Tokoh Umbridge dipilih berdasarkan beberapa pertimbangan, 1) Umbridge merupakan tokoh antagonis dengan dominasi sifat jahat dalam dirinya, 2) Umbridge memiliki peran penting dalam novel setelah tokoh utama. Penelitian ini menggunakan teori lima macam kerangka kepribadian Costa dan McCrae (1992) dan teori kepribadian Sigmund Freud (1923). Dari penelitian ini, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Umbridge memiliki beberapa sifat kepribadian. Reaksi Umbridge ketika mengatasi konflik didominasi oleh aspek id dan superego dalam dirinya..
Kata kunci: sifat kepribadian, komponen kepribadian, umbridge
Character in fiction is just like a human being who shows certain specific patterns of thinking, feeling and acting that represent who the real character is and provide the basic interaction with the other character in a novel. Naturally, the first impression which the characters carry with them while interacting is called personality but literally, personality is one of psychological mechanism which guides behavior.
Understanding personality is a difficult thing to do, it’s too complex that no single theory can cover the total personality. This case inspired me to analyze personality of a character. The character that has been analyzed is Dolores Jane
Umbridge from the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix novel. I chose this character because there have been many studies about psychological analysis within the main character and protagonist. It was very challenging to analyze the antagonist and the public enemy of the story.
Based on the background above, the problems can be formulated as follows:
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1. What personality traits does shape the Umbridge’s attitude to the student and teacher of Hogwarts?
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2. What components of personality are dominant in the Umbridge’s reaction when facing the conflicts?
The aims of this study are:
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1. To identify and classify the personality traits of Umbridge;
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2. To describe the dominant component of personality in Umbridge’s reaction when facing conflicts.
The methodology in this research is concerned with three aspects, namely data source, data collection, and data analysis, each of which is further described below:
The data source of this study were written data of Umbridge’s character; Umbridge’s dialogue, Umbridge’s monologue, and narration between other characters that were taken from novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix written by J.K Rowling published by Bloomsbury in 2003.
The data in this study were collected through library research method using note taking and documentation method. The data were selected according to the scope of writing. The first thing that was done was close reading of the source. Next list of the traits was established. Then attention was paid to the narrative and
dialogues, the conflicts occurring in the story involving Umbridge was selected, her reaction was found out and a list of the component of personality that became dominant was made.
The data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive method. In the qualitative method, the data were systematically and accurately analyzed based on the theory applied in the study. The first thing that was done after collecting the traits was to identify and classify the traits which shape her attitude. After that the conflicts and Umbridge’s reactions were described using the psychoanalytic theory.
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5. The analysis of Dolores Jane Umbridge’s Personality in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Dolores Jane Umbridge was one of the characters in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Her first appearance was in the Harry Potter’s hearing as an interrogator. She was described as a short fat woman who looks like a large pale toad with a broad, flabby face and a very wide slack mouth. Umbridge was placed as the new Defence Againts the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts as a spy. Because the Ministry did not want the rumor that Voldemort has back spread over the school.
Openness to experience involves general appreciation of art, active imagination, intellectual curiosity, and variety of experience. People with high scores of openness tend to have more liberal view and hold unconventional belief. But people with low scores are more traditional and see all things conventionally.
Umbridge tended to show low scores in openness to experience; she was closed to experience. She kept the traditional rule when she’s teaching at the class the students had to call her professor in a very formal way. With keeping this kind of rule; calling her professor, she wanted to be respected by the students of Hogwarts because she felt that she had a great power as the Ministry of Magic representation.
Conscientiousness is characterized by self-discipline; act dutifully, organized, neat and systematic. Umbridge showed very high scores in conscientiousness. She was appointed as The Hogwarts High Inquisitor which gave her power to inspect other teachers and made sure that they were appropriate as teachers based on the Ministry’s standard.
And Umbridge did her task in a thorough and careful way. She did the inspections in every class bringing clipboard and asking questions relevant to the inspection and making note of them. When she was interrogating Professor Trelawney, she asked many questions which made Professor Trelawney feel uncomfortable. She did not care about that situation as long as she could do her task in perfection.
Extraversion tends to be manifested in outgoing, talkative, and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others. Umbridge showed that she was an extravert; she loved to draw attention to herself even by interrupting someone else, she would make “hem hem” sound to assert her presence. Before, there was no one who dares to interrupt Dumbledore’s welcome speech but Umbridge did.
People scoring high in agreeableness tend to show kindness. They are generally considerate, friendly, generous, helpful and cooperative. On the other hand, people with low scores in agreeableness show less concern with others. Umbridge had a tendency to characterize as a person with low agreeableness; she had lees empathy. When Harry asked Umbridge if he could skip detention on Friday night because there would be tryouts for the new keeper and Harry was supposed to be there Umbridge with no empathy refused Harry’s request. She thought that Harry deserved to get this punishment. Even she felt good if Harry could not do something that he liked and thought that it would be the best punishment for him.
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. People with high scores of neuroticism interpret ordinary
situations as threatening and minor frustration as hopelessly difficult. But others with low scores are less easily upset and get anger. Umbridge showed low scores of neuroticism; she tended to be calm when facing Harry’ s anger. Harry never talked about what had happened on the night that Cedric had died. Students knew only the fact that Cedric was dead, they did not know how he died or who was killing him. Umbridge stated that Cedric’s death was an accident and this made Harry frustrated. He was there seeing his friend was killed by Voldemort. He could not let what Umbridge had stated spread over the school. So for the first time he spoke up about Cedric’s death at the Umbridge’s class; everyone had to know the truth. Harry knew by doing this would guide him to Umbridge’s anger but he was wrong, Umbridge did not show any anger or lose her temper. She spoke in her softest sweetly girlish voice instead of screaming at Harry.
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5.2 The Analysis of Component of Personality of Dolores Jane Umbridge when Facing Conflicts
There were only few of internal conflict within Umbridge’s self. But once it happened in Dumbledore’s office. Umbridge felt furious when Marietta Edgcombe one of the students who joint the Dumbledore’s Army told her all about Dumbledore’s Army and led Umbridge to the seventh floor to catch those in meeting red-handed, she got Harry and brought him to Dumbledore’s office together with Marietta. Umbridge asked her many questions as evidence, but Marietta showed an uncooperative behavior, she did not talk. Every time Umbridge asked her a question, Marietta would shook her head as an answer which meant no. This made Umbridge lost her temper and seized her; tried to hurt her. But before she successfully hurt Marietta, she realized that what she did would get her in the trouble.
There was an internal conflict in Umbridge’s mind. She did not understand why Marietta denied everything that she has told Umbridge before. Her ‘id’ wanted to attack Marietta to find the answer; what happened but the condition and situation that time was not very good. For the first it seemed that her ‘id’ won, but her ‘superego’ told her that what she did was wrong, so she could control herself from hurting Marietta.
Harry had a vision that his God Father, Sirius got caught by Voldemort. He tried to confirm this vision; contact Sirius, but the only way was using Umbridge’s fire in her office as she had watch all the mail and fire. So Harry helped by his friends sneak into Umbridge’s office. Unfortunately, Umbridge had Stealth Sensoring Speels placed all around her doorway and there she caught Harry. The worst, Umbridge also got Harry’s friends; Hermione, Ron, Luna, Ginny and Neville. Umbridge interrogated them to get answer what Harry was doing in her office. But Harry, of course, did not give any clue. Feeling a deep frustration and furious, Umbridge asked Snape to give her another Veritaserum so that Harry would not tell lies and tell her the truth but Snape had run out of it. This made she lost her temper, she was very furious, decided to curse Harry with Cruciatus Curse which was illegal.
Umbridge showed the strong ‘id’ by deciding to use Cruciatus Curse. Her ‘id’ did not care about the reality that the curse was illegal. The only thing Umbridge wanted was to make Harry speaks no matter how. She sought herself satisfaction ignoring what she did would kill Harry and she could be jailed because of that. If her ‘ego’ was being able to control her ‘id’, she might be giving other rational punishment.
From the analysis of the character Dolores Jane Umbridge in the Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, there were some points that could be taken as conclusions:
Based on Big Five Framework of Personality Traits, Umbridge had various personality traits in different degrees. She was closed to experiences, kept the traditional rule like insisting students to cal her Professor Umbridge. Umbridge showed very high scores in conscientiousness, she did her task as Hogwarts High Inquisitor in a thorough and careful way; there should be no mistake when she was inspecting other teachers. Her love to draw attention to herself indicated she was an extraversion; she had a habit of making “hem hem” sound to assert her presence. Having less empathy to other people showed low score in
agreeableness. Low scores of neuroticism made Umbridge able to control her emotion.
When facing conflict, Umbridge’s ‘id’ almost won. She would be selfish when making decisions. It was Umbridge’s ‘id’ that took control when she used Cruciatus Curse to Harry. Her id told her to curse Harry because she caught Harry sneaking into her office. Her ‘id’ did not care about the reality that the curse was illegal. The only thing Umbridge wanted was to make Harry speak no matter how. She sought herself satisfaction ignoring what she did would kill Harry and she could be jailed because of that.
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