The creature under the bench (again) (was: Of Sorting and Snape)

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 175809

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Annemehr" <annemehr at ...> wrote:
>
 
> Annemehr:
> Voldemort reads like a psychopath.   
> Psychopathy happens to a person; they don't choose it.  We first meet 
> Tom Riddle at age 11, and we see that his personality is already well 
> established, so clearly he's been that way since early childhood.  
> Whatever anyone claims that JKR is writing about free will, it is 
> impossible to believe in the concept of a young child who has freely 
> chosen to lack any feeling for anyone else (and everything that 
> follows from that).

Renee:

Are we meant to see him as a psychopath? An example of what happens
when someone is depraved of love? Or is asking how Tom Riddle came to
be the way he was like asking after the origins of evil? I wonder if
the author isn't just as much at a loss as we are when it comes to
answering that question. I've been wondering for a long time why she
called him Riddle, a question seldom addressed in HP discussions.
Maybe she did so because she hasn't answered the question herself and
is putting it before us as readers. 

As for free will, I'm not sure JKR is writing about unlimited free
will. Our choices "showing" who we are doesn't exactly sound like
proclaiming complete freedom of will either. And yet, faced with a
choice, how often do we actually feel unfree? We have preferences, but
do we feel limited by them? What would Tom have said if someone had
suggested he wasn't really free?  

Of course, when choices have damaging consequences to ourselves and
others, the problem of responsibility arises, and with it that of
accountability. If someone's evil choices were preordained by their
sick personality, how can we hold them accountable? Can any punishment
be just in such cases? But wat if the one who makes the choice
considers himself free? To me, these are baffling problems, and
actually I'm not entirely sure wether JKR offers a solution to them. 

The only thing I can see is that Tom Riddle isn't punished at the end
by anyone but himself. Harry doesn't kill him; he doesn't even try.
Alle he does is try to disarm him, because whatever you think of his
accountability, letting him get away is not an option. And then Tom  
goes and causes his own death. As Tolkien said, `oft evil will shall
evil mar'. 

Renee