Dumbledore Revealed - Blog Post 3

The end of a series is always bittersweet, particularly one that you have grown up with.  Eagerness and anticipation rise for the release of the final book, in which you will learn whether your theories regarding the plot and characters were true.  In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we learn information regarding Dumbledore’s past unbeknownst to us previously, secrets that came as quite the shock to me.  I began to question the true character of Albus Dumbledore, as we understand how much Dumbledore had not confided in Harry.

When Harry meets Dumbledore at King’s Cross Station after being hit by the Killing curse from Lord Voldemort, we learn from Dumbledore himself that his greatest personality flaw was his desire for power.  After the death of his mother, Dumbledore went back to Godric’s Hollow to look after his emotionally unstable sister, Ariana.  During that summer, he meets Gellert Grindelwald, a wizard who Dumbledore considered to be an “equal”.  They became fast friends, planning for “the greater good”, where Muggles would be enslaved allowing wizards to re-establish themselves as natural rulers of the world.  However, his daydreams cost him a heavy price.  During a duel between himself, Grindelwald, and his brother Aberforth, Ariana attempts to intervene but is killed from a deflected curse.  From this, Dumbledore learns that those best suited for power are those who do not seek it.  From this moment on, Dumbledore seeks change in his own life.

The death of Ariana weighed heavily on Dumbledore, as his selfish acts had resulted in the destruction of his own family.  He led the rest of his life dealing with guilt at the possibility of casting the spell that killed his own sister.  What was one to do after going through such trauma and loss?  Dumbledore learned from his mistakes and made himself a better man.  Rather than chase the Hallows like his young self, he channeled that energy into searching for Horcruxes and information to bring Voldemort down.  His character development was for the true greater good – to bring down dark magic.  With a character like Dumbledore, we learn that people’s actions in the past define who we are at the present.  Dumbledore was swept up in his lust for power, but quickly learned the consequences such power can create.  Like Harry, Dumbledore’s greatest desire was to reunite his family.  Dumbledore has a great capacity for love, something we had seen developing through the series, and that became his greatest strength of all.