Was Tom Riddle, Sr. Selfish?

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 148617

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
 
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> Before we go too far eulogizing poor Tom Sr, let us look at what GoF
> has to say about him and his family.
> 
> "Riddle had been rich, snobbish, and rude, and their grown-up son,
>  Tom, had been, if anything, worse."
> 
> So, the Riddles definitely had a 'superior' attitude, and were well
> aware of their wealth and status. 
> 
> Now that doesn't in any way excuse what happened to them. But let's
> not paint them as saints in death when they never came close in 
life.
> 
> Just a small point.
> 
> Steve/bboyminn
>

Hickengruendler:

But who is? 

I find the comparison between Tom and Cedric problematic, because 
Cedric, all in all, is too good to be true. And he is probably meant 
to be, to show, that the most innocent person can fall victim to evil 
due to circumstances beyond their control. But as a character, he is 
not all that compelling, IMO. In fact, I think Tom is a much more 
interesting character, despite of the fact that he has much less 
screentime.

I do not see why him accepting the glass of water from Merope makes 
him a particularly decent person. In fact, one could argue that it 
was rather selfish from him. He mocks the Gaunts behind their back, 
but once he can gain something by interacting with them (even if it 
is only a glass of water on a hot day) he takes the chance. But to be 
fair, the Gaunts are certainly not the people one likes to socialise 
with. They, and especially the males, are creepy and despisable and I 
do not think Tom can really be blamed for not thinking well of them. 
Still, seeing how Tom was described I'm pretty sure he would have 
ignored them even if they were saints, simply because they are poor.

Nonetheless, HBP did a pretty big step to redeem Tom, at least in my 
eyes. What we heard about him in CoS, that he left his wife and child 
after discovering that she was a witch actually paints him in the 
same light as the Dursleys or the Malfoys (and in some ways he 
probably was pretty similar). But the revelations in HBP make his 
actions much more understandable, and quite frankly, if I found out, 
that I was bewitched by an ugly witch, I would run as fast as 
possibly as well. We don't even know for sure that he knew, that she 
was pregnant.

That said, I also feel sorry for Merope. I know that what she did was 
despisable, but she probably really didn't know any better. Not only 
was she probably mentally ill due to circumstances beyond her control 
(the cousin-marriages in the Gaunt family), she also was practically 
kept as a slave all her life, didn't have the opportunity to leave 
her family or Little Whinging and therefore probably lacked the 
ability to recognize right from wrong. For her, Tom was the escape of 
her horrible life and she desperatly wanted to use it, telling 
herself that Tom would be happy as well. Once she got free and 
realised what she was doing, she stopped feeding him with the Potion 
after all (even if it was because she thought it wasn't necessary 
anymore, she still stopped it). Therefore I can't bring myself to 
agree with some of the harsher opinions of her on this site. I think 
both were victims.

Hickengruendler