Was Tom Riddle, Sr. Selfish?

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 148597

--- "ericoppen" wrote:
>
> One of my learned colleagues *slamming my ears in the oven door for 
> forgetting just who* mentioned above that Tom Riddle, Sr. 
> was "selfish," apparently for his contemptuous dismissal of the 
> Gaunts as an old tramp and his family.
> 
> <BIG SNIP> 

I was the person who said he was selfish.  I thought he was selfish 
because he abandoned his unborn child, no matter what his reason --
whether it was his traumatized psyche, or disgust at the product of 
a union with a tramp's daughter, or dislike of kids, or jealousy of 
his fortune -- whatever it was.  He could have placed the child in a 
decent boarding home, or hired a nanny, or found foster care, or done 
what other gentlemen in his position might have done.  Instead, he 
washed his hands of the whole thing.  Because he walked away from his 
child, I do not think he is meant to be a sympathetic character, even 
though we can have sympathy for him because of the circumstances that 
caused the child to be conceived.

His interactions with the Gaunts did not show selfishness, but rather 
arrogant disregard.  I think his only obligation to the Gaunts at the 
time he was riding by was to assist when he heard a woman scream -- 
but nobody except, briefly, Harry and Ogden seemed too concerned 
about Merope.

lealess