Why Voldemort?
Voldemort is the antithesis of Harry in terms of roles. But if we dig deeper, we will soon realize that they are not that different. It’s as if Voldemort couldn’t exist without Harry and Harry didn’t exist without Voldemort.
They are opposite, but like the poles of magnets, it is impossible to separate them. They are two sides of a coin: no hero without a villain and no villain without a hero.
We are also confronted here with certain peculiarities. Has certain circumstances which lead us to wonder what would have happened if things had been different for the two of them. What if Voldemort had grown up in a happy house? What if he had discovered what love is? Was evil born with it or is it the result of a series of circumstances?
Throughout the saga, we learn about the Dark Lord’s past. Of this character who is much more than “the bad guy”. The films reveal little about his past. But JK Rowling devotes entire episodes in the books to memories of his life before he became “the one whose name must not be mentioned”.
This character aroused such fascination among fans of Harry Potter that it even has its own movie. An Italian production made by fans under the title Voldemort: The Origin of the Heir .
The Harry Potter saga hides a lot and a lot can be said about Voldemort. We will try in this article to collect important data to deepen his personality. And also his wickedness.
Influences
JK Rowling studied French and classical philology. She did not have an easy life – neither economically nor personally – until she achieved success thanks to Harry Potter . Rowling introduced her classic influences into the saga. The names of the spells and the characters. Mythological beings, too. Everything seems to be imbued with the imprint left by his knowledge of Greco-Latin culture, and his personal experiences. She often confessed that characters like Hermione were inspired by her.
It is also not insignificant that Harry’s birthday falls on the same day as his or that the Dementors absorb the soul as his depression did with it. For Voldemort, Rowling herself indicated that her name comes from the French: flight of death. She also admitted that she was inspired by Adolf Hitler.
Come to think of it, both believed in the existence of a superior race. Voldemort wants to exterminate anyone who is not “pureblood”. In other words, a child of wizards. He considers that the “unclean blood” ( Muggle children ) should disappear and not have access to Hogwarts. Purity is therefore of great importance to both of them. They consider that the inferior race, at the origin of the evils of the world, must be exterminated.
It is striking that Voldemort himself is not pureblood. His father was a Muggle. Just as Hitler was of Jewish origin. An inferiority complex, fear of rejection, and lust for power may have led them both to commit utterly atrocious and irrational acts. Voldemort was otherwise a brilliant young man. A great wizarding future awaited him. Hitler, meanwhile, had a special affection for painting.
Another similarity with our history is found in the existence of two magic wars. The first, in which Voldemort and his Death Eaters killed many people, including Harry’s parents, was a war they lost, forcing Voldemort to disappear. The second puts an end to an era, to Voldemort and his followers. Germany lost both world wars, as did the Death Eaters.
Voldermot’s rise comes gradually and in the shadows, until he finally manages to control the entire Ministry of Magic (the equivalent of our political system).
Voldemort’s past
Voldemort was an orphan. It was the fruit of a deception of his mother towards his father. A child conceived despite the absence of love, who grows up without the warmth of a home. Her maternal family were descendants of Salazar Slytherin (founder of House Slytherin and staunch defender of purity of blood). Like their ancestor, all family members could speak Parsel (the language of snakes).
This obsession with purity has led the family to years of inbreeding. Of marriages between parents. So Merope Gaunt (Voldemort’s mother) and her family lived in the most extreme poverty and suffered from some kind of intellectual disability. Merope was abused by her father and brother. They psychologically abused her and called her squib (girl of sorcerers unable to practice magic).
Merope’s father and brother were imprisoned in Azkaban. Finally freed from their grip, she finally managed to practice magic. Merope fell in love with a rich muggle named Tom Riddle Sr. She cast a spell on him in order to marry him and get pregnant.
Merope thought maybe Tom Riddle had fallen in love with her, that she could end the spell. The latter finally abandoned him. Merope gave birth in an orphanage and died in childbirth. Little Tom Riddle therefore grows up without knowing love. Neither his family. It wasn’t until a few years later, when Dumbledore went looking for him, that he found out he was a wizard. That he could develop his skills at Hogwarts.
It is dist ingua at Hogwarts as one of the greatest wizards of all time. His thirst for power and his passion for dark magic made him the most feared dark wizard. Like Harry, Voldemort was an orphan. He grew up alone and without the love of his parents. Hogwarts was his salvation.
There is a strong bond between the two characters beyond their antagonistic relationship. They are not that different as they seem. The main difference, however, remains that Voldemort never managed to like. He never managed to forge a true friendship. He was cruel even to his most loyal followers. Their similarities make us wonder why everyone has chosen to face life in such different ways. Was Voldemort bad by nature or was he the result of his experiences? Was his hatred of Muggles real? Or motivated by the abandonment of his father and the shame generated by his past?
Both Harry and Voldemort had to deal with deep loneliness as a child, abandonment and lack of affection. However, each of them decided, faced with a very similar situation, to undertake it in their own way.
Rowling draws a character full of traumas, feelings of abandonment, complexed. The character of Voldemort is much deeper than it first appears. He is indeed a complex character who reminds us of the importance of childhood and the consequences that abandonment can have on the person. This does not justify his wickedness but helps us to better understand his reasons.
Our thoughts JK Rowling is the epitome of how you can lose all hope in life and use a little imagination to achieve your ends.
