On Dumbledore’s Sexuality, Romance and Wisdom
When I first heard (somewhere on the road in Kansas as I journeyed cross country) that the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (for the better part of the first six books of the Harry Potter series) was gay, it just made sense. As I wrote at that time:
When I heard the news, it just made sense. There was something in the wise wizard’s manner which suggested a certain gay sensibility, but also a sense that he had somehow sublimated its sexual aspect.
As a young wizard, Albus Dumbledore had fallen for Gellert Grindelwald, his equally precocious colleague from the Durmstrang Institute, but forsook that then-fair young man, largely because of his beloved’s increasing fascination with the dark arts.
I can’t quite put my finger on it (and hope to be able to provide a few examples should I re-read the series), but as I noted previously, there was something in the wizard’s manner which suggested that he was gay, perhaps it was the avuncular tenderness he showed to Harry. Or maybe he just had a more gentle disposition than do most men, a gentleness which he manifested in a number of contexts, but particularly in his relationships with other men.
It was also a gentleness, devoid of sexual obsession*. He may have been more drawn to Harry (and other male pupils) because of their gender, but he did not see them as objects of sexual conquest. Perhaps, it’s because after turning away from Grindelwald, he had somehow sublimated his sexual longings. He had found that deeper connection and could not conceive of sexuality without such a bond.
Or perhaps it’s all just because Dumbledore’s experience seemed to parallel that of the wizards in my fantasy realm, a world I hope to reveal to others if I find myself ready to write the “epic” which has been kicking around in my head for about five years. I have a strange sense that the Harry Potter books somehow influenced my writing. When I read the first book, it struck me as odd to find a world with so many wizards. In most fantasy realms (as well as medieval legends), there are only a handful. (In Tolkien’s Middle-earth, there are only five, with two having disappeared not long after their arrival from the Undying Lands.)
In mine, there are only four alive at the time my story takes place, with one imprisoned and a second having lost his human form because he abused his power of transformation. In my realm, each wizard gains his wisdom, in large part, after losing his beloved. For you see, these wizards because of their semi-divine origin have extraordinary long life and also have a great capacity for love, but living in the mortal world, they fall for those around them.
The luckier ones fall for elves who while not immortal (unlike Tolkien’s elves), do live longer than the humans whose forms they take. But, as their beloved will die during their life times, they all must learn to live without the individual for whom they have the strongest, most passionate and most tender of feelings.
And yes, there is a wizard in my epic who does fall for another man.
Maybe it’s just the similarity between Dumbedore’s story and that of my wizards which engendered these thoughts. But, I want to offer one final thought. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart’s Rick finds his own redemption (in a manner of speaking) when he realizes he must forsake the love of his life for a cause greater than both of them. In that way, Albus Dumbledore has much in common with one of the great characters of the silver screen. It seems then that part of wisdom is understanding that while there is truth in romance, romance is not the ultimate truth.
- B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriotWest@aol.com)
*Not sure this is the right word.
ADDENDUM: And while you’re pondering Albus Dumbledore’s sexuality, take a gander at Pink Elephant’s post on the topic. That blogger is a “little put off by the current fashion of including a stock gay character for whom sexuality just comes up constantly.” Read the whole thing so as to better understand his point.
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Just curious: Is Rowling sensitive to the gay world, or did she create a character of sensitivity who speaks to many worlds?
No one has ever challenged me to help make a character more at one with gay sensibilities. Thank God! I wouldn’t know what to do other than fall back on stereotypes and insights garnered from friends. I would be so paranoid about offending through ham-handedness that I would crumple under the weight of it all.
Comment by Heliotrope — November 16, 2007 @ 9:38 pm - November 16, 2007
Having experienced surprisingly little loss in my life, and *realizing* that, I tend to think that life is more about the going-on afterward part than we often realize. Not to minimize anyone else’s pain, but sometimes I think that tragedy is, is “fetishized” be a word that works? Everything is the “end of the world” when in fact, the world doesn’t end. It goes on. Or else we’re supposed to be “cured” of the pain or sorrow. So there’s therapy and grief counselors that show up the next day after a tragedy because sense needs to be made of the bad stuff and it needs to be made *now* dangit.
When I was reading about Dumbledore’s youth it made me think of how Rowling showed Harry’s father and his friends fairly as young men who weren’t always kind or noble, but who grew up and were real. Dumbledore’s selfishness and the pain it led to were something he carried with him but none-the-less his life was full and rich and he’d gone on to be a real person who truly cared about others and had a host of close friends and companions. Like Snape, not defined by his past mistakes or his human failings.
I was disappointed when Rowlings said Dumbledore was gay and that he’d been in love with whatever-his-name-was. Firstly, because I think fiction (and television) often doesn’t allow for non-sexual closeness and loyalty. I think this is bad because we lose examples and role models of platonic love and friendship. (I made this charge and someone came back with “Frodo and Sam!” as proof I was wrong… so when was tLotR written? Hm?) But it bothers me, too, that changing Albus’s loss to a romantic loss, seems to diminish the fullness of this life. Sure, I wondered, “Where is Mrs. Dumbledore” but I figured whatever romances he’d had were part of the larger tapestry of friendships. And I suppose there’s no reason that this isn’t still true, except that it just *feels* like this is saying that youthful passion was his One True Love and he never loved again.
Comment by Synova — November 16, 2007 @ 9:43 pm - November 16, 2007
On Dumbledore’s Sexuality, Romance and Wisdom
I have to wonder who really cares?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — November 17, 2007 @ 7:35 am - November 17, 2007
“Dumbledore is gay” seemed pretty random when I heard it… It sounded a lot like Rowling was dropping that in there for more publicity after the fact. “Oh, by the way, none of you probably know this since I didn’t allude to it at all in the actual writing, but Dumbledore is gay. Yeah, I know I dropped it out of the clear blue sky, but there you go.”
Comment by DoDoGuRu — November 17, 2007 @ 10:56 am - November 17, 2007
There was a certain “Is it because I’m a lesbian?” quality to the Dumbledore announcement.
Comment by V the K — November 17, 2007 @ 1:13 pm - November 17, 2007
What I love about literature is that one can interject oneself into a story. The author creates the characters, but we tend to invest ourselves into them. Literature has given us some amazing characters, and every so often movies do as well.
One of the many commenters of JKR’s post publication announcement, felt that once the book is done, it belongs to the public, the author should no longer make statements. I tend to agree with that. If Dan feels that Dumbledore is gay, that is fine, though I doubt the JKR would see Dumbledore in the terms that Dan does.
As to your comment that it is interesting to have a world populated by wizards. To me, the fact that everyone was a wizard sort of diminished the meaning of Wizard. By the end I was feeling that only Dumbledore was a true wizard, Hermione and Harry had potential to become real wizards, but squandered it by simply becoming bureaucrats in the ministry.
What made Dumbledore great, was that he was one of those heroes you mentioned in your Beowulf post, a man who makes hard choices in life, makes a real decision to face and fight evil - even at the expense of his own personal happiness. I guess JKR feels that after vanquishing Voldemort there is no more evil in the world, so Harry and Hermione can simply be bureaucrats, but then she is missing out on history, we never vanquish evil, we overcome it for a while, until it rises again and a new generation must fight the battle again.
Comment by Leah — November 17, 2007 @ 1:39 pm - November 17, 2007
Oh, please! Ilsa was just a beard. Rick was in love with Louie and got to walk off arm in arm with him at the end. I can’t believe you didn’t see that.
Comment by Draybee — November 17, 2007 @ 4:21 pm - November 17, 2007
#4
I don’t know what’s worse, that or the No Shit Sherlock approach such as the Vampire Lestat.
Then there’s the spooge-in-your-eye angle: You know that fictional character you’ve come to respect and admire? Total fag!
You know, sorta like claiming that James Dean, Carey Grant etc. are gay. That sort of thing.
Not to be confused with those that some wish were gay like Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Eddie Furlong, Daniel Radcliffe, Wil Wheaton etc.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — November 18, 2007 @ 8:09 am - November 18, 2007
I suspect that Dumbledore, as well as most of the teachers, are based on schoomasters and administrators Rowling knew both as a student and as a teacher. In fact there’s a whole level of HP that is a commentary and occasionally a parody of the British educational system.
Rowling never fills us in on the private lives of the teachers (or Dumbledore for that matter) because those facts are rarely known to students.
I don’t believe she ever intended to announce that Dumbledore was gay. It was subtext that she didn’t want contradicted in the movies so she wrote a note and from there it was leaked.
At one point Rowling promised to fill us in on the question of whether any of the professors were married but that information never showed up in any of the books. There are hints that she might publish a lot of her back stories that didn’t make it into the books in some sort of book written for charity. I suspect there might be some surpises in there.
Comment by Houndentenor — November 18, 2007 @ 1:33 pm - November 18, 2007