What Drives You Know Who?

[Brenda M.]

No: HPFGUIDX 111211

>>> Dungrollin wrote:
> I was re-reading CoS the other day, and started making a list in my 
> head on what drives You Know Who.

Brenda:

Welcome! ;)

I would say his motivation is even more simple - POWER. I think 
Quirrell's words in the Mirror chamber describes 
Voldemort's 'teaching' the best:

"There is no right or wrong, only power and those who are too weak to 
seek it" (paraphrased)

I think the rest of VM's actions follows the pattern of his attempt 
to:
(1) be almighty powerful, so no one will think of desert him like his 
father once did
(2) eliminate anything/anyone that stands in his path to power
(3) enjoy the power as long as possible, hence quest for immortality


> 1. Purity of blood:
> And that is just about all we know. Slytherin was trying to get 
> muggle-borns out of Hogwarts, it never says that he held a wider 
> grudge against them, though it appears that due to YKW's horrible 
> father, he does. Though his attitude to Malfoy's Muggle-torture at 
> the world cup suggests that finishing Salazar Slytherin's noble 
work is not, for the moment, his top priority. <<<

Brenda:

While this is certainly true for Tom Riddle, I don't know about 
Voldemort. This is how I think Voldemort sees pure-blood mania:

Tom Riddle comes to Hogwarts from Orphanage. Soon he realizes he has 
been selected as Heir of Slytherin, by Salazar Slytherin 
himself, "the greatest of Hogwarts four". He realizes he is much more 
magically powerful and brilliant than most wizards. For an orphan boy 
who has never been properly loved, this is quite an attraction. He 
realizes he could be very powerful, and gives himself the title of 
Lord Voldemort (already power-hungry!). He behaves well enough to 
earn himself the position of Head Boy. He opens the Chamber of 
Secrets after 5 years of searchng, and attacks Muggle-borns in 
school, until death of a student makes him realize it's too risky to 
open it again. He writes a diary and leaves his saga with someone 
else.

Then he graduates from Hogwarts, disappears, goes through numerous 
dangerous transformations, associates with darkest of their kinds, 
and fashions himself as Lord Voldemort.

He starts gathering followers in Wizarding World. His catch is the 
whole "Let's revive the Pure-Bloodism", which majority of wizarding 
community is in favor of. It's flying very well! He is becoming more 
and more popular, lots of wizards and witches are supporting him. It 
is a great propaganda, works very nice for him till he shows his true 
color. After gathering enough followers, he starts the massive 
massacre.

Do you know what this strongly reminds me of? Hitler's regime around 
World War II. He used the pure German blood line as a means to unify 
the country, to strengthen it. People need to be strongly motivated 
to stand united, ready to fight. But there must be a mutual enemy --
whether it be another country or different idealogy-- for this 
propaganda to work efficiently. So what does Nazis use? 
The "contamination" of purity by 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood. Hitler 
probably hated the minority population himself -- without personal 
emotion I don't know how *anyone* can be so driven to commit such a 
horrible crime without feeling anything. But it worked very nicely 
for him as well, very effective method to lead the country. Vast 
majority of social problems can now be blamed upon this poticial 
fictitious enemy rather than themselves.

This is how I see Voldemort use the Pure-bloodism in WW -- he 
believed in it himself, but his greater and true motivation was to 
amplify his power by fooling everyone.

The following is from JKR's website, FAQ section:

----------------------------------------------------[F.A.Q Section]
[Q] Why are some people in the wizarding world (e.g., Harry) 
called 'half-blood' even though both their parents were magical?

[A] The expressions 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' have 
been coined by people to whom these distinctions matter, and express 
their originators' prejudices. As far as somebody like Lucius Malfoy 
is concerned, for instance, a Muggle-born is as 'bad' as a Muggle. 
Therefore Harry would be considered only 'half' wizard, because of 
his mother's grandparents.

If you think this is far-fetched, look at some of the real charts the 
Nazis used to show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood. I saw 
one in the Holocaust Museum in Washington when I had already devised 
the 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' definitions, and was 
chilled to see that the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic as 
the Death Eaters. A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, 
according to their propaganda.
----------------------------------------------------[F.A.Q. ends]


> 2. Killing Harry
> There's so much on this in the books that I think quotes would be 
> over-indulgent, so I shall restrict myself to comments.  
> 
> I'm not sure that there's anything hidden here.  Obviously, YKW 
> wants him dead because Harry's the one with the power to vanquish 
> him, and the sooner he can kill Harry (before he grows up and 
> becomes too powerful), the better.  For the moment, this is his all-
> consuming passion. 

Imagine your greatest life ambition is to gain as much power as 
possible. You are now 70+ years old, or around there. You have been 
powerful, extremely powerful for most of your life, till 10+ years 
ago you lost *everything* you've worked for in your entire life, by 
an infant boy, who is half-blood by the way. And he keeps managing to 
escape you, each and every bloody time. HELL yeah, wouldn't *you* 
want to kill the boy?? <g>


> 3. Immortality.
> In fact, there are a great many more direct references to YKW's 
> desire for immortality than there are to his desire to rid the 
> wizarding world of half-bloods.  His sixteen-year-old self was 
> obsessed with getting rid of muggle-borns, until he found out about 
> Harry and his story, at which point his fear of (or interest in)
> someone he couldn't kill, or someone who could 'defeat the greatest 
> wizard of all time' (CoS, p231) became more important.
> 
> And why name his followers 'Death Eaters'?  What has he promised 
> them?  If he knows that one or more of his experiments worked, will 
> he be performing them on his Death Eaters now he has his body back?
> Somehow I don't think so. 

Bren:

Now, what good is power if you can only enjoy it for only a short 
while? Wouldn't you want to feel that way for eternity?? :o)


Brenda

ps. Apologies for poor memory, but what/who is YKW??
...
OH! You-Know-Who? Lol you must be the first person to use acronym on 
the euphemism (as far as I can remember!) ;P