Why didn't Voldemort die? (long)

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 110260

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mz_annethrope" <mz_annethrope at y...> wrote:
<regarding Voldemort's survival:> 

> I suspect the biggest clue is Fawkes, who has given a feather both 
> to Voldemort and Harry. 
<snip>
 
> My suspicion is that Voldemort bears some relation to a phoenix. He 
> doesn't go on living for ever--that would require the philosopher's 
> stone--but he can rebound, phoenix-like, albeit with quite a bit of 
> help. 
<snip>
> 
> In the beginning of the graveyard scene of GF, Voldemort looks 
> something like a baby; after being dropped into a vat of a 
> particularly nasty potion he has the body which everyone recognizes 
> as Voldemort's (at least Fudge does in OP). Whether this body is 
> substantively drawn from his old body, we don't know; what we do 
> know is that he is transformed from the infantile figure into 
> himself. Like a phoenix.
> 
> My hypothesis is that Voldemort's protection against death was 
> somehow related to how a phoenix is reborn, only his protection was 
> incomplete and though he was not fully dead (and perhaps not fully 
> alive even before then)he was unable to reanimate himself completely 
> without a lot of help. In this way he is unlike a phoenix, which is 
> self generating. But then his protection was incomplete.

<snip> 

This suggestion ties in a way with my own pet theory, that has been 
revolving around in my head for quite a while. 

I agree that Voldemort has rising-from-the-dead qualities. However, 
I suggest that this is related (symbolically and practically) not to the phoenix 
but to the snake.

Snakes are symbols of immortality, due to their ability to shed their skins. 
The skin that is left behind looks like the snake itself (remember the 
Basilisk skin that Harry encounters in CoS?), but is only a shell, a fake. 
The snake thereby "cheats" death by leaving behind something that looks like 
it, but escapes with his essential being (body) intact. 

The phoenix, on the other hand, truly dies. His body turns to ashes 
("ashes to ashes, dust to dust" ...). When the phoenix is born again, this 
is therefore true resurrection. Indeed, the phoenix is one of the symbols of 
Christ: true death, true resurrection.

So, compared to the phoenix, the snake would symbolise immortality 
achieved through fake dying or cheating death . (vol-de-mort - can be 
translated as thief of death.). This is exactly what happened to Voldemort 
in Godric's Hollow: he lost an external aspect of himself (his body), but 
retained his essential being (some kind of spirit, vapor.. etc.). He didn't 
die, something that JKR actually hammers into our heads quite a bit - 
Voldemort taunts Harry about it ("I wouldn't know, I've never died"), and 
Hagrid, right at the beginning said something about Voldemort not having enough 
human in him to die. 

Obviously, Voldemort is inatimately linked to snakes, on various levels: 
He is a pareseltongue, he looks like a snake (eyes, shape of the face), 
his ugly!baby self was created by and fed on snake venom, he has a pet snake, 
and possibly the most significant of all: When Harry feels Voldemort rise in 
him (in OoP), he feels him as a snake; when he has the vision of the snake 
attacking Arthur, this is through his connection to Voldemort - and he is 
seeing the world through the snake's eyes!

This is kind of a preliminary sketch - I thought I would throw out a few 
ideas (I have some more, but they would make the post longer). I would 
love to hear new ideas from other people regarding this. If I'm correct, 
Voldemort's snake like features are closely related to his immortality - 
does this mean that in order to vanquish him (for good), these features must 
be reversed or eliminated? 


Naama