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
please like the video and subscribe to the channel.
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY