[HPforGrownups] Moaning Myrtle's murder (Was: Harry a Horcrux?)

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 154022

justcarol67 wrote:

> Here's what we, as opposed to the WW, know about Tom and the Basilisk.
> 
> Tom was guilty of murder, three murders, in fact, about a month after
> Myrtle's death. (She died in June of his fifth year, when he was
> sixteen. The Riddles were murdered during summer break of the same
> year. He returned to school the following year wearing Marvolo Gaunt's
> ring but unable to create a Horcrux at that time. So Tom is capable of
> murder.
> 
> Tom can control the Basilisk. "It won't come until it is called," he
> tells Harry (308). IOW, it does not roam through the pipes on its own,
> much less enter the school, on its own. Tom summons it by saying in
> Parseltongue, "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four"
> (317). Only then does it leave the statue of Slytherin.
> 
> Tom views himself as the Heir of Salazar Slytherin, whose "noble work"
> was to free Hogwarts from Muggleborns. That was the whole reason that
> he kept the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. He worked for "five
> whole years to find out everything [he] could about the Chamber of
> Secrets and discover the secret entrance" (312), meaning that he
> started this attempt as a first-year. After Tom frames Hagrid, he
> doesn't dare open the Chamber again (i.e., release the Basilisk)
> because DD is watching him, (and besides, that would reveal that the
> monster who killed Myrtle was not Aragog). But he doesn't want to
> waste "those long years [he] spent searching for it," so he preserves
> his memory in the diary so that he can "lead another in [his]
> footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work" (312)--i.e.,,
> ridding the school of "Mudbloods."

   KJ writes:

      Without disagreeing with you entirely, because we both know that 
Tom is a nasty murdering little swine, one part of this post intrigued 
me. At the time of the opening of the chamber the first time, Tom did 
not know that he was related to Slytherin.  He discovered that fact 
after tracing his family via the information on his mother, which 
allowed him to find his relatives.  It was not until he had spoken to 
Morfin, in my mind, that he developed his true hatred for Muggles.  That 
was the moment in time that Tom found out that he had a living father 
who had rejected him utterly. It was that knowledge, as well as the 
knowledge that he had played a part in the death of Myrtle that gave him 
the ability to kill in rage.  Those murders, which were easily 
accomplished for a wizard, gave him the ability to kill in cold blood. 
As he also had an interest in horcruxes following those killings, it 
gave him a reason to continue his killing, that in his mind justified 
his murders.  All serial killers can give some kind of justification for 
what they have done.
      My feeling is that Tom had been intrigued with the legend of the 
chamber, had tried to find it in the hopes of finding something that 
would make him more than he was. This occurred when he discovered that 
he now had complete control of a basilisk. I'm certain that he gave not 
a tinker's damn about Myrtle's death, but I don't see a clear intention 
to kill her. It seems to me to be a way to commit mayhem, a way to give 
himself power as the only person who knew what was going on, and it 
actually prevented him from opening the chamber again, which must have 
driven him crazy.
       I think that prior to Myrtle's death he felt inferior to the 
children who knew their parents, knew that they were pure-bloods, and 
death of Myrtle must have given him an enormous feeling of superiority. 
I just don't see it as an end in itself. So, I just can't view it as a 
soul-splitting experience, unlike the killing of his father and 
grandparents. JMHO
KJ