Over the years, Albus Dumbledore has often been deemed as the true villain in the Harry Potter series — a cold manipulator who merely used Harry to win the wizarding war. But this mentality was largely borne from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 film, which chose to depict only a select few of the truths from the original Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book. Dumbledore was flawed, yes, but he wasn’t merely a man who raised Harry “like a pig for slaughter.” So, why leave these essential truths from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book out of the film adaptation, and leave people’s perceptions of Dumbledore battered and bruised?
In the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book, Severus Snape does accuse Dumbledore of using Harry. Snape tells the old wizard: “You’ve kept him alive so that he can die at the proper moment. You’ve been raising him like a pig for slaughter!” Dumbledore does not deny these accusations, which doesn’t help his case. In a way, yes, Dumbledore did guide and bestow to Harry the skills in which he would need to defeat Voldemort, thus putting the young man at risk, and yes, the vital part of that grand plan of defeat was to ensure Harry stayed alive until all the other Horcruxes were destroyed. However, unlike its movie counterpart, in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book, it is revealed that Dumbledore never intended for Harry to die — he only intended for the Horcrux within Harry to die.
After Harry meets Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest and faces his “death,” Voldemort’s killing curse doesn’t kill Harry at all; rather, it sends him to an obscure place that acts as the conduit between life and death. In the Harry Potter series, this place is referred to as Limbo. Limbo is where Harry meets the afterlife version of Dumbledore, who, in the book, is practically beaming at the knowledge that Voldemort’s killing curse did not kill Harry — it only killed the part of Voldemort’s soul that lived within Harry. We learn that this is what Dumbledore hoped to happen all along, and he is teary-eyed at the sight of Harry meeting him in this curious place, doting on Harry’s bravery and reiterating the fact that Voldemort never stood a chance against the power of Harry’s love and courage. Harry isn’t quite sure how long he and Dumbledore remain within Limbo for time doesn’t really exist in such an otherworldly place. However, they do remain in this Limbo place for a lot longer than they do in the movie.
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’ Left Many Unanswered Questions
It is a tough feat trying to adapt such lengthy books into two-hour time frames, and with these time constraints, it is inevitable that certain scenes and subplots will be cut from the book. However, why choose to cut such integral quotes from Dumbledore during this Limbo scene, where he answers so many of Harry’s important questions that bring clarity to the whole saga? During this Limbo scene in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 film, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) remains as aloof and riddle-some as ever, essentially leaving Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) to work out the facts for himself and come to his own conclusions. There is a sense that Dumbledore is pleased to see Harry, but only in the book do we see Dumbledore emanating with overwhelming relief, gratitude, and love for Harry. Furthermore, the Limbo movie scene doesn’t divulge the important facts that Dumbledore shares with Harry in the book, including truths about the dangerous nature of the Deathly Hallows, about Dumbledore’s troublesome past, about his self-sacrificing plan with Snape, and the true reason why Dumbledore left such scarce clues for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to find Voldemort’s Horcruxes. The absence of clarification in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 film not only illustrates Dumbledore in a faint light, it also leaves a lot of plot holes.
It doesn’t seem fair that the infamous “raising him like a pig for slaughter” line was drawn from the book, but not any of the other important lines that really showed how Dumbledore wasn’t a bad person. He was incredibly multilayered and imperfect, but at his core, Dumbledore was imbued with compassion and integrity, and he cared for Harry deeply. Yes, Dumbledore had a habit of keeping secrets, revealing some of them to one person and different ones to another. Snape and Harry for instance were only fed information from Dumbledore in doses and at precise moments, but Dumbledore did this with their best interests in mind, all in favor of protecting them for as long as he could. In the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book, Dumbledore admits to Harry that he only offered him scarce clues towards Voldemort’s demise because he was afraid that Harry’s hot-headedness would overwhelm his good heart if he were to know everything too soon.
The Young Dumbledore Was Very Different From the Old Dumbledore
Curiously, Dumbledore possessed his own hot-head in his youth, and at one very detrimental point, that hot-head of his did overwhelm his good heart. Unlike the modestly stoic elderly Dumbledore, the young Dumbledore had a stint on the dark side; dabbling in the Dark Arts, allured by the temptation of power, and sharing these things with his then friend, Gellert Grindelwald. As young men on the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, Dumbledore and Grindelwald got carried away with their nasty visions for the future of the wizarding world, which involved the sacrifice of Muggles. We could argue that a young Dumbledore might have raised Harry like a pig for slaughter, since Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s prejudicial visions involved making sacrifices all in the name of “the greater good.” It’s strange to imagine the kind and eccentric Dumbledore we know of, to be capable of such wickedness, but unlike Grindelwald, Dumbledore luckily came to see the error of his ways. But sadly… his way of seeing the light came at a bitter cost.
When Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth intervened and challenged Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s plans, a terrible fight ensued and Dumbledore’s sister Ariana, got swept into the fray and ended up dead. This whole catastrophe shocked Dumbledore to his core — he suddenly woke up to the dangerous path he had been walking and realized how utterly foolish he had been. Following Ariana’s death, Dumbledore’s greedy arrogance was shrunk down to sheer remorse. The loss of his sister struck him with a heartache that would become a burden for his entire lifetime.
But it is this insight into Dumbledore’s disturbing past that gives us answers toward the nature of his older self, who remained elusive and detached from those who admired him. In his old age, Dumbledore harbored an air of melancholy. His unrivaled intelligence and intuition seemed to be informed by somebody who had endured great heartache, which he had — not only due to the loss of his sister, but also from the loss of his friend Grindelwald, who would go on to wreak havoc through the wizarding world during the 1940s.
Dumbledore’s Tragic Past Explains His Distance
There’s a bit more to it, though — how did Dumbledore, who was an excellent and generous student at Hogwarts, come to be swept up so suddenly by the temptation of power and the dark side of magic? Curiously, it wasn’t out of hate, but out of love. Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald. No doubt through his desire to be near him, and to perhaps even appease him, Dumbledore went along with Grindelwald’s corrupt ideologies. Dumbledore’s feelings were not reciprocated, however, for Grindelwald merely valued Dumbledore’s magical talents. So, not only did Dumbledore stomach the pain of physical loss, he stomached a metaphorical loss too — the resentful sufferings of unrequited love.
This knowledge informs us further of the gently distant Dumbledore we know of, who hid his pain behind eccentricities and peculiar wisdom. The woes of unrequited love evidently taught Dumbledore a few things: caution, detachment, and repentance to name a few. Indeed, the older Dumbledore had a habit of offering up pieces of himself to others, but never the whole package. Following Dumbledore’s death, even Harry came to face the uneasy fact that he barely knew anything about his late professor’s life, and this wasn’t because Harry never wanted to ask — it was more so because Harry sensed that Dumbledore wouldn’t share anything anyway, and he felt it was useless to pry. Indeed, Dumbledore remained a mystery to the wizarding community, whose only certainty they had about the former Hogwarts Headmaster was that he possessed immense magical power, but rarely wielded it.
Dumbledore Valued Love Above All Else
We know now that Dumbledore’s infrequent use of his magical powers was because he feared power, and he feared what its temptations could inflict onto others, thus keeping the Elder Wand — the most powerful wand in the world — for himself lest it fell into the wrong hands. Dumbledore was also asked numerous times to accept the post of Minister of Magic, in which he always declined for he did not trust himself with power. Frankly, it was the grave consequences of Dumbledore’s turbulent youth that set him forth into a life dedicated to selflessness, generosity, kindness, community service, and a lifelong stay at Hogwarts, preferring to wield his teachings powers, as opposed to the powers that the Elder Wand possessed. His tragic past also spurred a strong and unchangeable belief in his mind that love will always win. Dumbledore believed that friendship, unity, connection, and love are powers far greater than any magic spell. And whenever Harry’s hot-headedness got the better of him, Dumbledore reminded Harry that it is his ability to love and be loved that remains the most formidable power against all that is dark. Dumbledore deeply admired Harry, continually praising him for his valiant resolve, and he often told Harry how much better a man he was than Dumbledore could ever hope to be.
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’ Did Dumbledore a Disservice
Let us also not forget that Harry was a Gryffindor, bubbling with courage and guided by a fiercely moral compass that would not allow anyone else to take his place when it came to defeating Voldemort. Harry made that choice willingly, and with or without Dumbledore, he would have risen to his Chosen One destiny. It was not in Harry’s nature to let anybody raise him like a pig for slaughter. And after we learn about the many complexities of Dumbledore’s character, maybe we could just say that Snape’s accusation was slightly dramatic. Nevertheless, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 film should have depicted Dumbledore’s multidimensionality, in order to show that he was much more than an aloof and mysterious old wizard. The untimely death of his sister forced Dumbledore to see what his arrogance and selfishness could do, and so he chose to tread a path of humility and consideration instead, and with every intention of wanting to see Harry prevail.