CHAPDISC: DH27, The Final Hiding Place

[olivierfouquet2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 184121

  > 4)  Voldemort initially believes his Horcruxes must be safe because 
> he would feel 'if he, himself, most important and precious, had been 
> attacked, mutilated[.]'  Comments about either Voldemort's reasoning 
> or how he describes his Horcruxes?  Did the course of Voldemort's 
> thoughts about his Horcruxes and the realization that Harry is 
> hunting them offer any new glimpses into his interior life?  

I like this question very much. Voldemort is an interesting, and in fact somewhat atypical, 
villain. Unlike your garden-variety evil overlord bent to world domination (à la Sauron or 
Palpatine), he is in fact not overtly concerned with power, in the sense of having the 
ability to make other people do his bidding. With his talents and Slughorn support, he 
could have probably easily become Minister of Magic, or headmaster of Hogwarts, or 
appoint himself in DH after the fall of the ministry. But he doesn't. And what he really 
cares about, he does himself. Nor does he seem to really believe in pure-blood 
supremacy or in any coherent political ideology (à la Magneto or Lucius). And love or the 
appreciation of others leaves him apparently supremely cold (unlike, say, Jafar or Maurice 
de Bracy or Draco). Yet he is not totally devoid of motives either. What Voldemort is after 
is another sort of power: that of negating the external reality of the world. If something 
frustrates him, he refuses to even consider the possibility that something could be wrong 
with his desires. Rather, like an impatient very young child, he breaks something. So 
when he cannot kill Harry, he seeks a new wand, killing everyone in the way, when he 
doesn't get the prophecy, he tortures Avery...

And the ultimate frustration being that he is going to die, he will leave no stone unturned 
to escape death. Others around him, he simply doesn't care, and if he kills them or 
torture them, it is seemingly just because they are obstacles to the satisfaction of his 
desires or because he needs their deaths. Incidentally, because I understand Voldemort 
along those lines, I am with Carol on the questions of the battle of Hogwarts. In my 
opinion, Voldemort just doesn't care about other creatures as long as he is not frustrated, 
so I don't think he would have slaughtered anyone in Hogwarts if Harry had been handed 
to him (and until his next frustration). I even go as far as to take him at face values when 
applying for the DADA job: at this point in his life, I think he still respects and maybe 
even admires Dumbledore, but turns pure spite when denied what he wanted. That makes 
him a very Kantian villain, in the sense that his ultimate fault is neither ambition, nor lust, 
nor hate, nor pure baseless evil (à la Sauron or Palpatine again, or a la Greyback) but 
simply the fact that he treats others as means, and not ends. And so it is not surprising 
that the greatest evil in the Potterworld is to use another life as a mean to sustain one's 
(think Horcruxes and unicorn blood).

This also explains why the current Voldemort, contrary to Diary!Riddle or Locket!Riddle, is 
rather devoid of seductive powers. The deeper he goes in his deluded quest to negate 
external reality, the lesser his ability to communicate with others (or in the literal 
incarnation of symbolism typical of JKR, the more Horcruxes he makes, the less human he 
literally is).

And finally, this is also the reason why, in the end, I feel some pity for Lord Voldemort. I 
can't help but see, through the flaring nostrils and the red eyes, an insecure toddler 
which has grown too fast and who throw fits and tantrums at everything that displease 
him, in the hope, perhaps, that a loving mother will eventually take him in her arms and 
whisper in a soothing voice that everything is going to be alright.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "Could you possibly be feeling sorry for 
Lord Voldemort?" HBP 13

Olivier