Amortentia and re The morality of love potions/Merope and Tom Sr.

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 152297

> Potioncat:
> I pity Merope as well. JKR really turned the tables didn't she? We
> were expecting a woman who had been cruely used by her husband.
> Instead we have two victims. Three, actually. Or thousands if you
> count the WW.

Alla:

Could you give me an example of Merope being a victim in her
relationship with Tom Riddle? I mean, I don't think anybody would
argue that she was the victim of horrible abuse, but how is it in
any way, shape or form diminishes the wrongness of what she did to
that poor man?

He did not ASK for his life to be destroyed, as you said he never
remarried. I speculate that he was so traumatised that he was unable
to rebuild his life ever again, basically the woman he loved was
taken away from him, IMO.

And I am also not talking about Tom Riddle general character, for
all we know as somebody told me he could have been a real jerk in
his relationship with the world in general. But it is irrelevant IMO.

He did not do anything to Merope, he had a misfortune to be seen by
her.

Luckily, I never had ( and hopefully never will) the misfortune to
deal with something as terrifying as rape, but I think I can still
imagine the humiliation, the hurt Tom Riddle felt the moment he woke
up from his nightmare.

Do I blame him that he fled and never wanted to see Merope ever
again?

Not in the slightest.

Carol said that it took an act of courage from Merope to stop
feeding him love potion.

Well, maybe, although the fact that she indeed stopped makes me also
be MORE hard on her, not LESS. Because IMO it means that she cannot
claim "insanity" or something like that as her defense.

To me it means that she knew right from wrong and that makes in my
book her crime even more horrifying.

> Potioncat:
<SNIP>
> Why do you suppose Tom Riddle, Sr. never re-married? (Other than 
JKR
> thought 3 people sitting in the dining room were quite enough for a
> teenager to take out?) Did he know Merope had died? Did he know 
where
> the baby was? Again, did he know there was a baby?

Alla:

As I said, I speculate he was too traumatised to ever think about 
building relationship with anybody ever again.

I can easily imagine him replaying in his head what Merope did to 
him and thinking that his former love Cecilia can be just like 
Merope and can also "hoodwink" him. I can easily imagine him 
thinking that maybe he also does not love Cecilia, but only thinks 
he does.


JMO,
Alla