Merope is pitiful was Re: In defense of Molly + Merope comments

[susanmcgee48176]

No: HPFGUIDX 136480


> 
> Seperate note: I saw in your post about mothers that Merope is to be 
> pitied and is a sad, pathetic character. I would disagree. She is 
> evil and pathetic, but definitely not to be pitied. Don't forget 
> that she is basically a rapist. She used love magic to force herself 
> on Tom Sr.  What would be your reaction if Crabbe or Goyle used a 
> love potion to have their way with Fleur? It's the same thing.
> 
> My rant for the day,
> 
> phoenixgod2000

So Romilda Vane is a rapist too for trying to give Harry a love potion?

I absolutely think that Merope's use of the love potion was unethical 
and wrong. I do not believe it is ever right to coerce someone about 
romance, sex, and love.

But I do believe Merope is  pitiful. I do not believe that she is 
evil. Someone can do something wrong and still not be evil.

Merope has been so mistreated as a child that I would doubt she has 
any real sense of right and wrong. Her father strangled her in front 
of two witnesses -- what does he do in private? He screams at her that 
she's a squib, that she's a "useless sack of muck", calls her 
a "pointless lump". He says "perhaps he'll (the man from the 
ministry)  take you off my hands, perhaps he doesn't mind dirty squibs"
"you filthy little blood traitor.", etc. This is clearly the way she 
is treated on a daily basis. Her brother is a truly scary character, 
singing to a snake and nailing snakes to the door. She is isolated. No 
one in the village talks with her. She unquestionably internalizes her 
father's viewpoint of herself. Her only dream of escape is the 
handsome Muggle riding past her door.

Then she makes a great leap of hope and faith, and stops her control 
of him. She stops drugging him. He of course abandons her. She is 
reduced to utter abject penury, and has no where to go except to a 
muggle orphanage. She dies in abject poverty, grief, loss and 
dejection.

Yes, she is indeed to be pitied.

Susan McGee