Why Would Chocolate Help After Escaping a
Dementor?
DEMENTORS, AS EVERY HARRY POTTER fan knows, are
deadly magical creatures. J. K. Rowling introduces them in
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:
faceless, wearing shapeless cloaks that cover skin that is
“greyish, slimy-looking, and scabbed,” they “drain peace, hope, and
happiness out of the air around them.”
ROWLING’S EXPLANATION
Rowling has told an interviewer that Dementors
represent the mental illness known as depression. She said the
choice was deliberate, and based on her own encounter with the
disease, which she called the worst experience she has ever
endured. Much worse, she says, than merely feeling “sad”—a
perfectly normal emotion—depression is an actual loss of feeling.
That is just what happens to humans in the presence of Dementors.
Dumbledore hates Dementors, because they aren’t satisfied until
they’ve consumed all hope and feeling.
Appropriately, Madam Pomfrey’s name comes from a sweet. Pomfret cakes are
discs of licorice from Pontefract, Yorkshire. A surprising fact:
the area’s renowned licorice was first cultivated to be used as a
medicine.
One can’t help but notice that the remedy
offered to lighten the effects of Dementors is chocolate, which
doctors say can make depressed people feel better. The chocolate
has some of the same effects as the medicine that doctors
prescribe. Of course, chocolate does seem to be a cure for nearly
every ill in Harry’s world.
One also can’t ignore the connection between
Rowling’s own experience and the uncomfortable moment in Phoenix when Harry sees Neville Longbottom and
Neville’s grandmother, who are visiting Neville’s parents at St.
Mungo’s Hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom are in the hospital
because Voldemort’s attack damaged
their minds. Neville is ashamed; Harry is embarrassed on Neville’s
behalf; but Neville’s grandmother, older and wiser,is
matter-of-fact about the whole thing, which makes it much easier on
everyone.