The dementors are an apt analogy for clinical depression and a sign of a penal system in need of reform.
Their presence at Hogwarts is viewed by most as a necessary evil and their life-draining powers take a substantial toll on anyone in their presence, (most particularly, our young hero.)
No one has of yet questioned their use at Azkaban, an island prison where the world’s worst wizard criminals are sent, and this is a troubling echo of our own society’s relentless preference for prison programs that serve to demoralize their subjects beyond repair rather than to rehabilitate them.
The “last and worst weapon” of the dementors is not capital punishment. It is by far worse, and known as the “Dementor’s Kiss,” whereby the hooded horror lowers his hood only to clamp his jaws on the victim’s mouth, removing one’s memory, sense of self and very soul. The prisoner becomes but a shell.
Of course it is my noble and thoughtful heartthrob Lupin who first introduces the idea that maybe there is something morally askew with all this when he asks Harry if he really thinks anyone could deserve such a fate. Harry Potter is a 13 year old who was robbed of his parents and a happy childhood by a murderer, and now lives under the threat of being killed himself, so I can hardly hold his answer of “yes, for some things,” against him.
Still, with 450 million Harry Potter books in print, it is my sincere hope that J.K. Rowling continues to explore these themes for her diverse global audience through a critical lens.
Harry Potter Virgin 