Of identities and truth (and Boggarts)

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 38944

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "brenna_britton" <brenna_britton at h...> 
wrote:
> Amanda Geist wrote:
> 
> > Has anyone noticed that people associated with Voldemort seem to 
> spend an
> > awful lot of time faking identities? 
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Examples:
> SS/PS - Quirrel
> COS - Ginny's forced actions
> POA - Pettigrew
> GOF - Crouch Jr.
> 
> 
> Amanda, you've got a very interesting point, and I just have one 
more 
> character to add to your list: Tom Riddle. In COS, Voldemort 
assumes 
> the identity of his younger self, which was his true identity at 
one 
> point, but certainly isn't now. Moreove, Tom presents a false front 
> designed to gain Ginny's trust and enable him to feed on her soul. 

In CoS, it is not current Voldemort that Ginny and Harry encounter. 
It is a magical memory of Voldemort's self at sixteen. That is why 
for Diary!Tom it came as news that Harry had vanquished him. 

However, Tom Riddle is the most complete example of a fake identity 
in the books. In all the examples given above, the fake identity was 
assumed as a temporary measure for a specific goal. Tom Riddle was 
completely false. The persona by which he was known to the people 
around him (handsome, "poor but so brave", etc.) was a cold, 
deliberately constructed facade designed to get him what he wants. He 
is the complete psychopath (or is it sociopath?) - using his charm to 
manipulate everybody around him, intentionally and with full self-
awareness. 
After he matures, gains strength and no longer needs others, he 
discards the facade and emerges as his true self - Voldemort. 

(Although, from a deeper perspective, when he becomes Voldemort he 
really gives up any possibility of becoming an authentic self. In 
discarding his name he is discarding his heritage and with it, his 
humanity. His flight from death has this point of origin, the 
shedding of his human self. He must achieve immortality, since death 
is the point at which his true, mortal self necessarily catchs up 
with him.)


Naama