So, we all know that Rowling is a word-genius, so it’s no surprise that Voldemort, one of the most known villains in fiction has a fear of death and craving for immortality, but the interesting part is that Voldemort can be translated to Vol de Mort which means ‘Flight of death’ in French. Of course, respect the Queen who brought such an amazing series to our attention and gasp at her amazing imagination and wonderful play on words. How interesting Tom Riddle’s stage name is, was not the point of this however. I have yet to delve into the darkness that is the philosophy and lore of Tom Marvolo Riddle, the Darkest Lord in Wizarding History. (He even beat Johnny De-- I mean Gellert Grindelwald, excuse me.)
So, in 1926, on a cold December night (the 31st of December to be accurate) Tom Riddle was born to Merope Gaunt, last female of the direct bloodline to Salazar Slytherin. Of course, we all know his story from there (and if you don’t there’s this wonderful thing call Wikipedia and another one called Pottermore), but how did a child turn so bad? Was it his crappy childhood in a neglectful orphanage where he was constantly bullied for being different? Perhaps it was Dumbledore’s singling him out and always pinning all the wrongdoings on a child who was just trying to do his best, or maybe it was that snapping point when he realized that he couldn’t change anything without violence. I admit, when I first thought about Voldemort actually being a good guy I didn’t believe it at all. I mean, he’s the big baddie, he killed Lily and James Potter for Merlin’s sake! But, nature vs. nurture, was Tom born evil? Or was he created? If he was created, then how?
I have many a great theory of how Voldemort became Voldemort, and most of them involve heavy Dumbledore and Weasley bashing, but then I have been influenced by a variety of other opinions in the helpful not-so-accurate tales that we call fanfiction. I have read so many fanfictions, long, small, wordy, purple-prose, concise, annoying, badly-written, etc… and I have seen so many different ways that Voldemort could have turned ‘bad’. So, let us go with the theory that Dumbledore is actually the bad guy here. Dumbledore knew that Tom was a Parselmouth and let him get sorted into Slytherin thinking he was a muggleborn (a big no-no for Slytherins), then he gained respect in order to survive the ‘snake-pit’. By the time he has become obsessed with immortality, likely due to the fear of death like his mother, or perhaps a fear of death by being bullied into such horrible conditions by his fellows at the orphanage (bare with me since most of this is substantial we can only really make things up to get the true story; while that doesn’t make sense, it sort of does), he had already been forced to find ways of protecting himself from the mockery of being a ‘mudblood’ in a dorm full of pureblood elitists so he picks up on the Dark Arts, he loses control of himself and boom! He’s Voldemort.
Look at Bellatrix Lestrange, she was crazy, like clinically insane from the power that she let go to her head. Power that she got from the Dark Arts, it’s like heroin, it’s addicting and powerful and it ruins lives. Bellatrix had at one point been the Hermione of Hogwarts, only twenty-eight years before the Golden Trio was born!
So, factoring in the insanity that power produces, and then the obsession with immortality, you have a boy on a mission of self-destruction. Did anyone help him? Recognize the signs? No. They watched him crash, and burn and become a monster that was too powerful for them to fight so they got a little boy to fight him for them.
I’m not saying what Voldemort did was necessary nor was it logical like Tom Riddle would have approached his empire and planned his raids. He was highly illogical and due to his insanity, he couldn’t properly think and therefore you come out with a literal monster. His need for self-preservation, immortality, and the lack of care and love provided to him as well as need for defence against his peers, drove him to this cliff that he couldn’t hold onto and pull himself back up from. He was plunged head-first into shallow waters with sharp pinnacles and poisonous eels ready to come out and zap away at him. He was a child, he wasn’t a monster, until he was made into a monster.
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