Bellatrix Lestrange

Everyone loves the magical world of Harry Potter. However, there is one character that amazes me and I wanted to go into depth with.

Any Potterhead would know Voldemort’s fanatically faithful and devout lieutenant who is a part of the ‘bad guys’, but was Bellatrix really so malicious? Whilst Helena Bonham Carter (the actress) played her role to perfection, the movies didn’t do the character as much justice as the books did. To be very frank, even the books don’t seem to treat her as an important part, however, there are a lot of implicit references that highlight the importance of her character. The name itself “Bellatrix,” translated from Latin, means “war-like.” It also refers to a female warrior, as “Trix” is a feminine suffix and “bella” is the feminine version of “bellum,” which means “war” proves that she was a born fighter. Her married surname ‘Lestrange’ has been derived from the French word- “l’ étrange” which means ‘the strange one,’ which could be a play on Bellatrix’s psychological instability. Interestingly, the French origins of the name Lestrange are a wonderful parallel to the name ‘Voldemort’ which also has its roots in French. After a critical analysis of her character, it seems that she may have had good intentions after all. To begin with, not all Slytherins are evil. Just because they are ambitious and some of them have been evil, we can’t term all Slytherins to be loyal to the evil side. For instance, we have people like Severus Snape and Horace Slughorn who do not fall into this category of being ‘evil.’

While it isn’t tackled in the movies, the Polyjuice Potion changes in taste and appearance based on the individual person who drinks it. Since it helps someone take the essence and form of another person, the potion reflects the personality of that person. Therefore, when Hermione must change into Bellatrix, she whines that the potion tastes ‘revolting’. A potion that reflects the soul of a merciless and masochistic narcist turns out to taste like rubbish. No one was alarmed by that!

Secondly, Bellatrix strongly shared and believed in her family’s pure-blood ideas so much that she married Rodolphus Lestrange (from the esteemed Lestrange family) in a political marriage even though she did not love him. She did not want to embarrass her family nor denounce its beliefs and felt that this marriage would be a perfect example of upholding the Black’s family name. One detail that was disappointing was that she had a daughter with Voldemort during his time at the Malfoy Manor, Delphine Lestrange Riddle. This was only revealed in the eighth book- the Cursed Child- where Delphi was disguised to be Amos Diggory’s niece. That was simply disgusting- she was married for crying out loud! Voldemort isn’t purely evil but also a genocidal maniac! The twist was an excellent idea, however, even a description of the child (without revealing the name) would have created even more suspense for the readers. There is empathy created for Delphi as she has neither a father nor a mother to look after her and throws a bit of shadow on Molly Weasley’s decision to kill Bellatrix in the Deathly Hallows.

Thirdly, Bellatrix was obsessed with blood purity and madly in love with her master, Voldemort. She barely hesitated to use the Unforgivable Curses and tortured anybody that crossed her path. It is even mentioned in the Half-Blood Prince that ‘she’s proud of spending time in Azkaban’ due to her support for Voldemort. Another mention of her love for Voldemort was in the Deathly Hallows when she tells him that ‘there is no higher pleasure than to host him at Malfoy Manor.’ She wells up when he answers: ‘That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you.’ She agrees impulsively when he admits that, ‘Like Bellatrix’s, many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time.’ She also offers her aid to Voldemort when he briefly falls unconscious after hitting Harry with the killing curse. The final mention of Bellatrix is in Chapter 6 of the Deathly Hallows- ‘Bellatrix’s gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: for the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.’

Her love for Voldemort had driven in her a desire for bloodlust and it seems that Voldemort took advantage of her weakness (her love for him) and abused her, making her do all the dirty work. She engraved the word ‘Mudblood’ on Hermione’s hand just to grab his attention and to find out if the golden trio had snuck into her vault. She was wronged despite that she abandoned her family for Voldemort. Bellatrix’s character is the perfect example of her courage (a master duelist) and vulnerability which Voldemort understood and manipulated to serve his interests. However, we do feel at times that Voldemort had some feelings for her as he is shown screaming when she dies and can’t help feeling sorry for him despite having all the faults.

Overall, she appears as rather a hateful character. The negative words like ‘gloating’, ‘evil’, ‘ugly’, ‘gaunt’, ‘strong’, ‘heavy-lidded’, ‘mad’, ‘arrogant’, ‘indifferent’, ‘astonished’, ‘skull-like’, ‘fanatical’, ‘commanding’, ‘glowering’, ‘dishevelled’, ‘passionate’, ‘exhilarated’, ’triumphant’, ’furious’, ‘breathless’, ‘astounded’, ‘feverish’, ‘eager’, ‘sharp’, ‘ruthless’, ‘grotesque’ are used to describe her in Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows. J.K. Rowling has however created her character such that she has motives behind every move. She may seem like a lunatic, but she did everything for a greater purpose. She is known to use the Cruciatus curse the most and even teaches Harry how to use it in the Order of the Phoenix after killing Sirius who was her favourite cousin while she was growing up. “Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean them Potter! You need to really want to cause pain -- to enjoy it -- righteous anger won't hurt me for long -- I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson.” This phrase supports the fact that she was psychotic.

Moreover, she has a lot of ulterior motives. The woman is committed to the (incredibly awful) cause she has chosen that’s perseverance and grit at its best. Most importantly, Bellatrix was a natural leader and took charge of any difficult situation that required leadership. Therefore, she was very effective as Voldemort’s lieutenant. She showcased this capability during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in the Order of Phoenix during which she caused the death of Sirius Black and also during the incident in Malfoy Manor, taking control in order to extract the accurate information before calling the Dark Lord (Voldemort).

One aspect of Bellatrix’s extraordinary magical abilities is her skill with Occulumency, the aptitude of closing one’s mind to forestall people retrieving one’s thoughts or feelings. She is so competent that she’s apparently trusted to share the talent with others. In the sixth book, it is observed by Snape that Draco has been schooled in Occulumency by Bellatrix. The training is so fruitful and comprehensive that Draco can keep Snape entirely out of his mind.

In fact, the author admitted that her death was representational during the Battle of Hogwarts in the Deathly Hallows. Her attempts to kill Ginny Weasley were futile as they were foiled by Molly Weasley who overpowered her in order to protect her daughter. Molly was apparently fighting out of motherly love for Ginny while Bellatrix was fighting out of neurotic love for Voldemort. This highlights that though there are many types of love, motherly love will always succeed as again proved by Harry being unable to die as his mother had died protecting him. Bellatrix also appreciated the safety of her family. Even though she was madly dedicated to Lord Voldemort, she genuinely and sincerely cared for Narcissa’s and Draco’s welfare. She escorted her sister, behind her master’s back, to the House of Severus Snape to seek his help in safeguarding Draco. Voldemort had plotted on Draco to fail entirely in order to penalize him in front of Lucius. Had he known Bellatrix had aided in preventing Draco from harm, he may have chastised her ruthlessly.

Her wand had a core of ‘dragon heartstring’ that made her turn to the dark side as Mr Ollivander describes her wand as ‘unyielding’ in the Deathly Hallows. However, Hermione had a wand that had the same core and she was one of the few who didn’t turn towards the dark side. Bellatrix is one of the two characters who could block a spell of Dumbledore’s- that’s remarkable! She generally gravitates to stand towards and sit on Voldemort’s right expressing the pun that she is his right hand (wo)man in the movies.

To conclude, Bellatrix is the character whom I love to hate. She is an exemplary example of a warrior who has shortcomings and makes a few wrong judgments. Her character seems quite realistic as compared to most characters in fiction novels. She is daring but also has her weaknesses like impetuosity, overdemanding character and capacity to sometimes ‘tread on toes’. She thinks more human-like which renders a reader to sympathize with the character to some extent. She is callous but also has her strong points and glorious moments. In short, Bellatrix Lestrange is unhinged, crazed and sadistic.

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