Of Souls and Death

[Paul]

No: HPFGUIDX 148795

Tsavorite_1 wrote:
>
> 
> It seems clear to me that Harry could not be a horcrux as he and 
> Voldemort are, despite a sharing of 'abilities' are not linked
> on a soul level.
> 

>From at least the age of sixteen, Tom Riddle has been obsessed with 
escaping death. For him, it is the worst thing that can happen to 
him. Riddle is not, like Sauron or Morgoth, a cosmic or superhuman 
being. He is just a very bad man, who uses the technology available 
to him (aka magic) to preserve his life and to dominate others. He 
discovers that there is a way to achieve his first end, by making 
a "horcrux", that is by encasing a part of his soul in a material 
object. (This, by the way, suggests a further reason for not 
normally using a living creature as horcrux, since it would itself 
be naturally mortal.) In order to do this, he must somehow "split" 
his soul. Without querying what the implications of this are for the 
nature of the soul itself, we note simply that it requires a 
deliberate murder. Why? I can only speculate, but as the noblest act 
possible for a human being is to sacrifice one's own life to save 
another, so it would seem to follow that the vilest act is 
deliberately to take another's life to preserve one's own. There is 
a certain symmetry here.

However, all that one achieves by splitting and then "horcruxing" 
one's soul is that part of it becomes as it were anchored in a 
material object. If one is "killed", which would normally mean that 
one's soul leaves the world entirely and goes "beyond", or at least 
remains simply as a powerless ghost, the fact that part of one's 
soul is thus anchored means that the whole soul is kept in (this-
worldly) existence. In fact, one cannot be killed.

But the process of dividing up one's soul clearly diminishes the 
primary part which animates the body- Voldemort/Riddle shows actual 
physical signs of this effect, in his appearance. The "horcruxed" 
part cannot act independently, except in extraordinary 
circumstances, as with the diary interacting with Ginny and Harry. 

What happens to the soul if a horcrux is destroyed? This is an 
interesting question. Does the released part "go on"? Does it 
continue as a ghost? Or does it re-unite itself with its primary 
part? It is clear that, though divided, the soul somehow 
remains "one", linked with its other parts- that is how the person's 
life is preserved. The point of the process is to keep all parts of 
the soul earth-bound. I speculate, then, that as the horcruxes are 
destroyed, Riddle (perhaps unconsciously) regains the separated 
parts, perhaps reverting to his natural appearance. He is, after 
all, little more than fifty years older than Harry, so still not 
seventy at the end of The Half-Blood Prince. 

But a bigger flaw is involved. The use of one or more horcruxes may 
prevent death, but it does not increase life, it only prolongs it, 
like Sauron's Ring. Riddle's secondary aim is to dominate others, 
but how satisfying will that prove to be in the long-term? Riddle's 
nemesis (apart from anything Harry may achieve) may be simply 
boredom- a never ending but ultimately aimless life, just being 
beastly to people. I think, eventually, he would be glad to destroy 
the horcruxes himself!

What do you think?

Paul