All you need is love
Note: The following is reposted from a discussion thread elsewhere. It was in response to this piece, and maybe some of the other discussion in that thread. I'm not sure anymore, because it was quite a while ago and the thread has apparently vanished in the meantime. No archive, no nothin'.
I want to cover my bases discussing most topics in this journal, but when I looked back at this I realized it has most of the points I would probably try to make on the subject of why Voldemort can't love. And if I repost it, I don't have to write something new. Even if something new would be more elegant. July 21, people. Elegant is out the window.
This is one of those subjects my brain really likes to get stuck on, even if I never get very far toward real answers. I’m going to try to type up a few of my thoughts now, though I’m on the verge of falling asleep at my desk.
About the “love gene”-- I’m not so sure how I feel about that idea. I tend to imagine that if we do get any answers on this, it’ll be dealt with in the magical realm more than the scientific realm. Then again, JKR has referred to a magic gene on her website. (“Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene.”) So the “love gene” idea may not be far off after all.
Genetic mutation or not, I do think Voldemort was born without the ability to love. In case OotP left any doubts, HBP made it clear that he had never loved anyone and generally couldn’t tolerate love. Like several people have pointed out, the orphanage staff noticed he was strange even as a baby. We don’t really have any reason to believe that he was treated differently from any of the other orphans at that young an age, so the nature vs. nurture balance seems to be tipped pretty heavily toward nature in his case.
I should probably stop to clarify that I don’t think Voldemort was born evil. Like I said, he was simply born without a drop of love in him. We all tend to be somewhat self-centered-- it’s hard not to be when you’re living in your own body and mind all the time. It’s love and compassion for others that help a person do “the right thing” even when it doesn’t provide tangible personal gain. Without love, Voldemort would have less incentive to be good-- but he still had the choice to make. Just because you can’t feel love doesn’t mean you have to go out and murder people. Voldemort chose to be evil. Being unable to love simply made that choice and the resulting actions a little easier.
Back to Voldemort’s love-deficiency... I’ve been wondering for a while what caused it, but I haven’t come up with a single answer that completely satisfies me. A few possibilities:
But I think I’m on the verge of going off-topic, so I’ll stop here and go to bed.
I want to cover my bases discussing most topics in this journal, but when I looked back at this I realized it has most of the points I would probably try to make on the subject of why Voldemort can't love. And if I repost it, I don't have to write something new. Even if something new would be more elegant. July 21, people. Elegant is out the window.
This is one of those subjects my brain really likes to get stuck on, even if I never get very far toward real answers. I’m going to try to type up a few of my thoughts now, though I’m on the verge of falling asleep at my desk.
About the “love gene”-- I’m not so sure how I feel about that idea. I tend to imagine that if we do get any answers on this, it’ll be dealt with in the magical realm more than the scientific realm. Then again, JKR has referred to a magic gene on her website. (“Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene.”) So the “love gene” idea may not be far off after all.
Genetic mutation or not, I do think Voldemort was born without the ability to love. In case OotP left any doubts, HBP made it clear that he had never loved anyone and generally couldn’t tolerate love. Like several people have pointed out, the orphanage staff noticed he was strange even as a baby. We don’t really have any reason to believe that he was treated differently from any of the other orphans at that young an age, so the nature vs. nurture balance seems to be tipped pretty heavily toward nature in his case.
I should probably stop to clarify that I don’t think Voldemort was born evil. Like I said, he was simply born without a drop of love in him. We all tend to be somewhat self-centered-- it’s hard not to be when you’re living in your own body and mind all the time. It’s love and compassion for others that help a person do “the right thing” even when it doesn’t provide tangible personal gain. Without love, Voldemort would have less incentive to be good-- but he still had the choice to make. Just because you can’t feel love doesn’t mean you have to go out and murder people. Voldemort chose to be evil. Being unable to love simply made that choice and the resulting actions a little easier.
Back to Voldemort’s love-deficiency... I’ve been wondering for a while what caused it, but I haven’t come up with a single answer that completely satisfies me. A few possibilities:
- It’s a completely random fluke that is unexplainable.
- It’s a result of his inbred family line.
- It’s a result of Merope’s physical/magical condition around the time of his birth.
- It’s a result of his being conceived while his dad was on heavy doses of love potion. (This one could probably be considered the most hinted at in the book, but it has a big problem. In a world where love potions exist, surely Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle, Sr. are not the only two people ever to have conceived a child while one of the couple was “under the influence.” If that automatically makes the baby un-loving, where are all those children? Voldemort’s lack of love is always presented as something highly unusual, if not completely unique.)
- It’s a result of a hate potion Merope took while trying to get over Tom. Yes, I know “hate potion” sounds like a fanfic concept, but it’s not. JKR apparently mentioned a hate potion in one of the Daily Prophet newsletters Bloomsbury sent out in 1999. I don’t have a copy of the newsletter, so I only know about hate potions from the limited information posted about them on the Lexicon. Due to that lack of information, I have no idea how likely or unlikely it is that we’ll even learn about hate potions in the final book. But since it came from JKR originally, I do think it’s worth keeping in mind as at least a remote possibility.
- It’s a result of something Merope did (deliberately or unconsciously) in a misguided attempt to protect her child. She had been so badly burned by her unrequited love that she may have wanted her baby to never feel that pain, and somehow magically stopped him from being able to love before she died. There’s no real evidence to support this, but I think it’s kind of an interesting idea because it runs so contrary to how things worked out for Lily and Harry.
- It’s a result of something else entirely. (I’m compulsively making lists with 7 items lately.)
But I think I’m on the verge of going off-topic, so I’ll stop here and go to bed.