The Deathly Hallows

[loves_the_lit]

No: HPFGUIDX 164600

Carol wrote:
> But what *is* evil in JKR's view? Is it a negative, the
> absence of good (as cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the
> absence of light)? Or is it an essence in itself?
>
> In SS/PS, Quirrell quotes Voldemort as saying, "There is no such
> thing as good and evil, only power and those too weak to use it."
>
> What *is* evil in the HP books?

Nancy:
JKR does have a lot of questions to answer.  But I feel that yours are ones that we'll be thinking and debating about for a long time.
Certainly at least part of her view of evil is the very fact of
believing that there is no such thing as evil, only power.  That is
suggestive of the true sociopathic personallity-someone who is
incapable of understanding that other people actually exist. In the
sociopath's view, other people are merely instruments to meet one's own needs.  Other people are there to be used, or to make suffer, or to kill without remorse because the sociopath is totally lacking empathy for anyone else. Voldemort has no friends;  he has no need for friends.  In his mind, other people are little different from the
inferi-just a bit trickier to manipulate.

Carol:
<FWIW, it's "neither can live while the other survives," not vice
versa.>
SNIP


The reversal of "lives" and "survives" does make a big difference.
(I'll have to run to the bookshelf in the future.) But personally, I'll want to vomit if LV doesn't die in the end.  They say everyone is capable of change and personal growth. But that would be too much for me to accept.  You are right. LV has already sacrificed his humanity.   can't see him changing enough to get even a part of it back.  Maybe that's the true nature of evil, that one has lost one's humanity to the  xtent that there's no coming back?

Nancy-aka "loves_the_lit"