Hey guys,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter
Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing Dudley Dursley, the dementors,
and the opening sequence of the order of the
phoenix where their worlds collided.
It was the second of August 1995- Harry was
home for summer vacation and was wandering
around little whinging-eventually finding
himself in a park in Magnolia crescent. Harry
had a lot to think about that year, and his
thoughts brewed-but not before being being
distracted by the sound of Dudley Dursley
and his gang beating up a ten year old. After
a verbal altercation with Dudley and his friends,
Dudley and Harry began walking home together-and
it was at this point in time that they got
in to a proper argument. Harry proceeds to
pull out his wand, and all of a sudden the
world went dark, cold, and quiet. This sudden
darkness and cold environment was of course
the result of dementors. Dementors are dark
creatures that represent unhappiness and despair.
They are commonly known as the guards of Azkaban
prison, responsible for ensuring that all
of the darkest witches and wizards inside
do not escape. However, on occasion, they
have been known to congregate in other areas-
and on this occasion, they had clearly been
sent to Little Whinging.
The following excerpt from the Prisoner of
Azkaban describes Harry’s first experience
with a dementor:
“An intense cold swept over them all. Harry
felt his own breath catch in his chest. The
cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside
his chest, it was inside his very heart. . . .
Harry’s eyes rolled up into his head. He
couldn’t see. He was drowning in cold. There
was a rushing in his ears as though of water.
He was being dragged downward, the roaring
growing louder… And then, from far away,
he heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading
screams. He wanted to help whoever it was,
he tried to move his arms, but couldn’t
. . . a thick white fog was swirling around
him, inside him.”
And all of a sudden, Harry and Dudley were
faced with these awful creatures-and in the
unlikeliest of environments. Caught completely
off guard, the boys were viciously attacked.
The following excerpt from the book describes
Dudley’s condition after the attack:
“Dudley seemed incapable of saying. He shuddered
again and shook his large blond head, and
despite the sense of numb dread that had settled
on Harry since the arrival of the first owl,
he felt a certain curiosity. Dementors caused
a person to relive the worst moments of their
life. What would spoiled, pampered, bullying
Dudley have been forced to hear?”
And what I always found interesting about
this passage is that, while the book itself
poses the question ‘what would Dudley have
seen?’-its never actually answered. So,
what did the ‘spoiled, pampered, bullying’
Dudley see?
In a 2004 interview, Rowling was asked this
very question, and replied with a rather ambiguous
“Ah, good question. You’ll find out!’.
But of corse, we didn’t find out, as this
was never furthered addressed in the books.
Perhaps it was her intention, but we never
got it.
However, fortunately for us, Rowling was asked
this question yet again, much further down
the road in 2007, and she said the following:
"People usually ask me, what is it that Dudley
saw during the Dementor attack?" Rowling said.
"My feeling is that he saw himself, exactly
for what he was, and for a boy that spoiled,
it would be terrifying. So he was jolted out
of it. Dementor attacks aren't usually good
for people, but this one was."
This is an interesting answer, and not quite
what I expected, but it does make sense. After
Dudley was attacked by the Dementors, he was
left in quite a state, but after some time
had passed-he did seem to settle down a bit.
From that point onward, he wasn’t quite
so awful to Harry, and perhaps his little
run-in with the dementors gave him an opportunity
to realize the type of person that he had
become, that he had been raised to be. Dudley
didn’t have to be terrible, he just started
off a bit terrible and it was perpetuated
by his awful parents. As terrifying as being
attacked by a Dementor is- it certainly did
Dudley some good.
And that’s it for this video! What did YOU
think Dudley saw? If you enjoy the content
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channel.
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY
