Voldemort's Immortality Goal

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 46403

The one goal we know for sure that Voldemort is aiming to achieve is 
that of immortality.

I suppose he might want to become immortal in order to rule over some 
portion of the world forever, but I wonder if that isn't it at all.

I suspect that Voldemort wants to become immortal because he's afraid 
of dying.  "Voldemort" means "flight from death."  He could be 
fleeing death because he's afraid to die.  If this is correct, it may 
be the one area in which he's actually very human!  

In Ch. 4 of PS/SS, Hagrid tells Harry "Dunno if he [Voldemort] had 
enough human left in him to die."  Perhaps it's more accurate to say 
that Voldemort didn't die because he was still very human in his fear 
of dying, and that fear led him to conduct the many 
immortality "experiments" which actually allowed him to survive the 
Baby!Harry rebounded AK.

But while it's very human to fear death and not want to die, why is 
Voldemort so particularly obsessed with avoiding death?  I suppose it 
could be that he has no hopes of an enjoyable afterlife (for those of 
us who believe in an afterlife), given the evilness of his earthly 
life.  But I wonder if there isn't more to this that JKR has yet to 
reveal thus far.

If I'm correct about Voldemort's fear of death, the comparison 
between Voldemort and Harry when Harry faces death in Ch. 34 of GoF 
is all the more notable:  "...he [Harry] knew one thing only, and it 
was beyond fear or reason: He was not going to die crouching here 
like a child playing hide-and-seek; he was not going to die kneeling 
at Voldemort's feet...he was going to die upright like his father, 
and he was going to die trying to defend himself, even if no defense 
was possible..."  Harry is noble and brave in facing death, while 
Voldemort is a coward.  Perhaps this difference between Harry and 
Voldemort will prove to be crucial in Harry's final defeat of 
Voldemort.

~Phyllis