Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Millicent Bullstrode
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Millicent Bulstrode | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Unknown |
| Eye color | Unknown |
| Related Family | Unknown |
| Loyalty | Slytherin House |
Overview
[edit | edit source]Millicent Bulstrode (or Bullstrode) is a Slytherin student in Harry's year. "She was large and square and her heavy jaw jutted aggressively." CS11
Role in the Books
[edit | edit source]The Sorting Hat places Millicent Bulstrode into Slytherin House, the first new one for the school year.
Millicent Bullstrode, identified by last name only ("Miss Bullstrode"), is partnered with Hermione Granger in the Dueling Club. While we don't see exactly what happens in their duel, the end result is that Millicent has Hermione in a headlock, which Harry ends up breaking. Hermione later tries to use a hair that Millicent left on her in a Polyjuice potion to turn into Millicent and sneak into the Slytherin common room; unfortunately, this fails, as the hair is not in fact one of Millicent's own. As it was a cat hair, Hermione surmises that Millicent is a cat owner.
Millicent is one of the Slytherin students who are appointed to the Inquisitorial Squad by Professor Umbridge.
Millicent pins Hermione to the wall of Umbridge's office after Harry and the others are captured while trying to contact Sirius Black. We are led to believe that it was Millicent who captured Hermione, although we can't be sure because this action happens offstage.
Strengths
[edit | edit source]Millicent is shown to be physically very strong and tends to rely on her body rather than magic. Both times we see her, she has overpowered Hermione with physical strength.
Weaknesses
[edit | edit source]We do not see Millicent enough to infer any weaknesses. Due to the above, the reader can infer that she is reticent to use magic when her strength is enough, but this is little more than conjecture.
Millicent is described by the author in a way that suggests she is physically unattractive. Harry's first impression of her is that she reminds him of a picture of a hag in Holidays with Hags.
Relationships with Other Characters
[edit | edit source]Millicent is seen to be a member of Slytherin House and Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad.
The Trio assume that she is close enough to Malfoy and his crew to get some information out of him - she is part of their plan in the second book.
The above things suggest she is relatively well-ensconced into Slytherin culture and follows the general line there; of course, she could otherwise be a simply unpleasant person and just enjoy being a nuisance.
Analysis
[edit | edit source]Despite the fact that she plays a relatively minor part in the books, Millicent is immediately introduced as someone the reader can dislike. Throughout the series she makes occasional reappearances as a "typical" Slytherin girl - unpleasant, brutish and unattractive.
Unlike some other Slytherins, such as Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy, and Zabini, she is never really seen as part of Malfoy's gang. This doesn't mean that she isn't; she isn't, however, present on the train with them, or ever seen accompanying him anywhere.
Questions
[edit | edit source]
- Do you think Millicent follows Voldemort's line or not? Why or why not?
- Do you agree with the Trio's assumption that Draco Malfoy would reveal secrets to Millicent?
- Why does Millicent use physical violence rather than magic?
Greater Picture
[edit | edit source]While we will note Millicent's apparent ugliness, we will do so in the context of the fact that these are books for children. An adult reader may be confused by something outside of the character's control as a negative thing, a young reader may just accept it. At the very least Millicent is presented with enough objectionable qualities to make her an unpleasant character, whatever her appearance.