Thursday 6 May 2021

The new literature assignment

                  Assignment 



  • Name  : chudasama payal 

  • Batch:  2019-20

  • Roll no: 18

  • Submitted by: smt.Gardi Department of English MKBU 

  • Paper name : The new literature

  • Paper:   13

  • Sem : 4

  • Course: M.A. English   

  • Topic : Compare and contrast all professors of Defence Against the Dark Arts in the “Harry Potter” series. Who is the best teacher?

  • Email I'd chudasmapayal1997@gmail.com 





Question:


Compare and contrast all professors of Defence Against the Dark Arts in the “Harry Potter” series. Who is the best teacher?



☆Introduction:



Through the Harry Potter series, some of the most powerful wizards thought defenses against the Dark Arts. Today, we rank them based on power.The Harry Potter franchise introduced a world inside a school for wizards. Several of the teachers were mainstays, there for the kids through their entire journey through the education system. However, there was one teacher that changed year after year. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professors seemed to change every year.


The reason for that is simple. Tom Riddle, who later became Lord Voldemort, wanted to take on the role of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor but was rejected. Because of this, Riddle cursed the position, and no professor lasted more than one year in the position. Through the Harry Potter series, some of the worst people imaginable held that post, from frauds and sadists to those working alongside Lord Voldemort. Here is a ranking of the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.


Compare and contrast all professors of Defence Against the Dark Arts in the “Harry Potter” series  :-


Professor Quirrell was the first Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that fans of the Harry Potter franchise met. He appeared in The Sorcerer's Stone and was seen all the time wearing a turban on his head. The reason for that turban became apparent at the end of the story.


Professor Quirrell and Lord Voldemort attached to the back of his head. With Voldemort as the most dangerous master of the Dark Arts in history, the man teaching the defense techniques to children having him in his head was not the best choice.


Dolores Umbridge could have been a good professor if she was a decent human being at all. However, her orders, when placed in charge of teaching the children of Hogwarts the Defense Against the Dark Arts, was not to teach them defense against Dark Arts magic.


Harry and his friends had to create their secret society to practice and develop their magic skills since she did nothing in her classes to help them at all. It was Umbridge's goal to make sure none of the kids could defend themselves, and that makes her the most worthless person to hold the position.


Patricia Rakepick was an exceptional student when she studied at Hogwarts and mastered curse-breaking, but she always seemed to get into trouble. Because of her curse-breaking exploits around the world, Dumbledore invited her back to Hogwarts because he needed help with the Cursed Vaults.


After helping out with that, Dumbledore offered her the position of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and she accepted. Sadly, she was a mole sent in and was working for an evil organization called "R" and betrayed Dumbledore and Hogwarts.


The last person to hold the position as professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts was Amycus Carrow in The Deathly Hallows. Remember, this book was where Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters set in to take control of Hogwarts.


The biggest thing against Carrow was that he was a Death Eater, and that makes him the evilest person to hold the position. Since Harry and his friends were not at Hogwarts during this time, most of his actions were second hand, as Neville Longbottom called him "sadistic" teaching the kids Dark Arts and also using the Cruciatus Curse as punishment.


Mad-Eye Moody would have been a fantastic Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. As a matter of fact, in The Goblet of Fire, the kids received some good lessons from "Mad-Eye Moody." However, the problem here is that it wasn't the real Mad-Eye Moody.


The professor this year was Barty Crouch Jr., and he kept the real Mad-Eye Moody locked up in a box. With that said, Crouch did teach the kids a lot, and it was all about rigging the Triwizard Tournament, as Crouch worked for Lord Voldemort. At least he was more helpful than Carrow since he was undercover.


Gilderoy Lockhart was not a bad person, and the rest of this list does not include villains. However, while not a villain, Lockhart was still a worthless Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. The problem with Lockhart is that he was not a bad guy, but he was a conman and a fraud.


This, however, made him dangerous. He was a "hero" to the masses who built this reputation on lies. He did it to become a celebrity and wrote books about his false exploits. Because of this, he was utterly incompetent to teach children defense against Dark Arts, and this puts every child who followed him in danger.

Albus Dumbledore is arguably the most celebrated professor and headmaster in Hogwarts' history. After Dumbledore finished school, he moved on to become a professor in two subjects, as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and then later the Transfiguration Professor. That let him to serving as the Headmaster of the school.Albus Dumbledore started out teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to better prepare students for battle after falling out with Grindelwald. He taught students such as Newton Scamander and Leta Lestrange. The Ministry of Magic banned Dumbledore from continuing as the professor in that subject when he refused to battle Grindelwald.

Professor Galatea Merrythought was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor somewhere in between the 1920s and 1940s. She taught at the school for 60 years, also working in a variety of other subjects. There is one reason she is ranked higher than Dumbledore.


Before she retired, Merrythought worked with Dumbledore and Horace Slughorn, who were students in her classes. When Merrythought retired, Tom Riddle wanted to replace her, and when rejected, he cast the curse on all future professors. Merrythought authored several books that Hogwarts uses to teach students today.


For most of the Harry Potter series, Severus Snape was not a good person. He was sadistic, cruel, and was the apparent antagonist to Harry Potter amongst the Hogwarts professors. He spent most of his time teaching Potions, which he was masterful in this role. He was one of Hogwarts' most brilliant professors, despite his bad attitude.


Then, in The Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore assigned Snape to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he excelled in this position as well. While he would have ranked low if he was still a Death Eater, Snape was good and pure on the inside and helped give Harry what he needed to survive.

While Snape was the best professor to teach Defenses Against the Dark Arts, Remus Lupin was the best professor in that specific subject. Lupin was brave, kind, and patient, and was one of the best professors at Hogwarts because he had the student's best interests in mind.


He made classes fun for the young wizards and kept them safe  something few other professors can attest to. He was also dedicated to Harry Potter and was there to teach him the Patronus Charm, something that came in very handy for the Boy Wizard as the battle with Voldemort neared.



Seeing as we’re counting down to the worst Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, we’re going to start with the best: Remus Lupin, a wizard whose bravery, kindness and patience made him one of the finest professors at Hogwarts – and, as far as we saw, the only decent one to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.


Lupin’s classes were a fun and inventive breath of fresh air; he taught the third years how to fight dark creatures such as Hinkypunks and Boggarts, and set them a monster-filled obstacle course as an exam. Fun! Then there was his dedication to Harry Potter, who he taught in private to cast the Patronus Charm. But, of course, there was no escaping the job’s curse; Lupin was revealed as a werewolf and resigned the position before the influx of owls from outraged parents flooded in. An irony, given some of their childrens’ other Defence Against the Dark Arts professors…


As revealed at the end of Deathly Hallows, Professor Snape was secretly one of the bravest and most noble men Harry ever knew. But that doesn’t mean that he was the most breezy and easy-going of teachers.


We all saw how he was in Potions, after all, and then there’s just Snape’s personality in general. In fact, Dumbledore held off giving him the job for so many years thinking it would bring out the worst in him  you know, all that company he kept with Dark wizards.


But in comparison to some of Harry’s other teachers, Snape was at the very least dedicated, firm and very qualified. Well, maybe a little too qualified, judging by his first lesson speech calling the Dark Arts ‘unfixed, mutating, indestructible’. Calm down, Snape.


Nonetheless, in a year where Voldemort was on the ascent, who better than Voldemort’s very own double-spy to teach the class? It could’ve been a good gig for Snape, if only he hadn’t had that pesky Unforgivable Vow promising to kill his bos.



☆ Conclusion:


In short,although Professor Quirrell seemed quite harmless at first, what with his nervous tics and his turban, we do have one very small reason why Quirrell might be the worst of the bunch.this was not because of his slightly jumpy demeanour, or his classrooms always smelling of garlic or the fact he seemed to be scared of absolutely everything, but because he literally had Lord Voldemort on the back of his head. Yep, he had one of the Darkest wizards in wizarding history on the back of his head. And we feel it’s fair to say that having Lord Voldemort on the back of your head may just be the worst way possible to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Ever.



☆ Reference: 


  • Frankel, Valerie E. Teaching with Harry Potter: Essays on Classroom Wizardry from Elementary School to College. McFarland, 2013.


  • Library, British. Harry Potter - A Journey Through A History of Magic. Pottermore Publishing, 2017.


  • Beaton, Tisha. "Teacher to Teacher: Harry Potter in the Mathematics Classroom." Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, vol. 10, no. 1, 2004, pp. 23-25.


  • Using Harry Potter to Introduce Students to DNA Fingerprinting & Forensic Science." The American Biology Teacher, vol. 72, no. 4, 2010, pp. 241-244.












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