Merope (Was: The Locked Room)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162277

Nikkalmati:
> > I think she [Merope] is in the mode of mothers who loved their
sons in the book and that will be revealed. <snip>

> Jen:  This I definitely agree with re: Merope.  Even if the book
doesn't revisit Merope's story again, I believe she felt some kind of
love for the baby she carried and knew for one short  hour.  She
didn't use magic to take care of herself and the baby, but he was OK
when he was born and a healthy weight and size.   In a book about
choices it wasn't simply the biological imperative at work, she chose
to eat, rest and find a safe place to deliver in the end and to ensure
her baby would survive.

Carol responds:

Good points. She sold the locket as a desperation measure to keep
herself alive long enough to give birth to the baby and make sure that
he had someone to take care of him even though she herself had lost
the desire to live. And I see her last act, giving her baby the name
of the two men she loved (though neither loved her) as an act of love.
The name Tom Riddle linked him with his father and gave him the means,
if he so desired, of locating that father. The name Marvolo linked him
with his Wizarding heritage. The act of naming your baby is an act of
love, and Merope made sure that her child had the name she wanted him
to have.

Carol, who agrees that Merope is a variation on the theme of a
mother's love for her son and who sees her primarily as an object of pity