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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152366

Maria8162001 wrote:
<snip> What Merope did IMO is also rape and he violated TOm Sr's
rights, physically and mentally. She used love potion to make Tom Sr.
marry her, is that rape? IMO, YES! Why? because even in marriage
without  using love potion if a woman is forced by her husband to have
sex with her when she doesn't want it, that is also called rape. A
husband cannot forced his own wife to make love or have sex with him
if she doesn't want to without calling it as rape. So how much more
with a false marriage like what Merope did to Tome Sr.

Carol responds:
Where is the evidence that she used force or that she "used love
potion to make him marry her"? All we know is that she wanted him to
love her. The potion, which creates an obsession with a person may
have compelled him to propose to her, take his marriage vows, and make
love to his lawfully wedded wife, but there's no evidence that Merope
had either sex or marriage in mind when she gave it to him. (See my
other posts for more detailed arguments. I'm simply asking people to
look at the canon here rather than making unfounded assumptions based
on postmodern Muggle moral judgments with which Merope could not
possibly be familiar.)

maria8162001 wrote:
>    
>   All I could say in this is Merope is well capable of giving a
better life for her son if she wanted to, but she chose not to. I do
not blame Tom sr., for this I blame Merope. She should take
responsibility for her action. this is what we all have to know and
remember for everything we do there are consequences and we should
take responsiblity for our every actions and not blame it on anybody.

Carol responds:
Whom is Merope blaming for her circumstances? It's Tom Sr. who claims
that he's been "hoodwinked." Merope does take responsibility for her
actions by telling him that she's a witch and has been giving him a
love potion. Her reward for her honesty is to be abandoned in London,
penniless and pregnant.

Merope has been brought up in filth and poverty by a man who does not
even have a job and has provided her with no training in eithics or
social skills. There is no evidence that any of the Gaunts attended
Hogwarts or can even read. She clearly has not found a way to earn a
living or she would not have been forced to sell the locket for a tiny
fraction of its worth (or so easily duped into accepting a mere ten
galleons for a priceless artifact). She is ragged and starving, and
not merely because she has either lost her powers or refusing to use
them. You cannot conjure money or food even if you're a witch. She has
no means of earning a living, and Tom Sr. knows that. He has seen her
hovel and her father and her madman brother. His fear that his child
may turn out like them does not justify neglect of his parental
responsibilities, regardless of the circumstances under which the
child was conceived. Merope, of course, shares that responsibility.
The problem is that she must bear the burden of pregnancy with no
resources. She is frightened, desperate, and demoralized. Tom, however
angry and humiliated he may be, does not have to carry the child or
give birth to it. He merely needs to provide for its welfare so that
it won't be born in the street or taken to an orphanage. However he
may feel about Merope, he is the child's father and is as responsible
as she is for its welfare, both morally and legally, and in a much
better position to do something about it.

Carol, again wondering why so few posters have any compassion for the
abused, neglected, ignorant, and traumatized Merope