Why did Voldemort go bad?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 184135

"lesley" wrote in 184123:
> snip
> Ok so he [Tom Riddle]was an orphan, the childrens home (from the 
little we saw of 
> it) seemed like a nice place, at least it wasn't a bad one anyway!
> 
> I don't believe in blood will out personally and there isn't a lot 
of 
> evidence as to the nature of his parents, his mother didn't behave 
in 
> the best way but she did act out of love and you can't judge his 
> fathers actions after he left as being under a potion was the same 
in 
„« the real world as being given the date-rape drug

Potioncat:
Why does anyone go bad? There are so many theories of personality 
development, that we could discuss this one question forever. The 
important thing is, why does JKR think people go bad?

Blood will out? I don't know how I feel about that. Certainly there 
are behavior traits that are inherited. JKR showed us a little of 
Tom's family. His uncle and grandfather were distrustful, emotionally 
distant, quick to anger, proud. Whether or not we believe those sorts 
of traits can be inherited, I think JKR showed them for a reason.

JKR has said that she doesn't think people are born bad (IIRC). I'm 
not sure if she writes with that in mind, but that's another matter. 
Tom Riddle seems to have been born angry and most of his actions seem 
to be in retaliation.  All Tom knew was that his mother came to the 
orphanage to give birth, then died. She probably planned to leave him 
there at any rate. He could only have wondered about his father. Very 
likely he felt abandoned. Put it all together and you get Lord 
Voldmort.


Combining two posts:
> Lesley
> By the sound of things Harry's upbringing was a lot worse than LV 
> could ever have imagined so why wasn't he evil? Why didn't he let 
all 
„« the fame go to his head? 

>Justcorbly wrote in 184130
>I can't answer that. But, the parallels between Voldemort and Harry 
are so
>apparent that JKR must have intentionally led us in that direction


Potioncat:
Not just a parallel between Harry and Tom, add Severus and you have 
the three lost boys. All have unpleasant backgrounds. All had similar 
desires and temptations.  DD has watched all of them grow up. I think 
this is why DD was so impressed with Harry's ability to love.

Tom went all the way into Darkness. Severus started down that path, 
but his ability to love one person stopped him. Harry was able to 
love many people and sort of skirted the Dark path, but managed to 
stay off it. 


> Carol responds in post 184128:
>snip
> Curse. As for Tom Riddle Sr., yes, he was taken advantage of and
> tricked; yes, he had every reason to hate Merope (poor ugly, 
unloved,
> wall-eyed Merope, whom he laughed at before she tricked him into
> "loving" her), but that did not give him the right to abandon his
> child by her and leave them both in direst poverty. 
> 

Potioncat:
I would agree fully except for one thing. I'm not sure we know if Tom 
Riddle Sr. ever knew about the baby. If he knew, then there's no 
excuse for not making some provisions for him. 

If he knew, and did nothing, does that go back to "blood will out"? 
Was he as emotionally unloving as the Gaunts? Come to think of it, I 
think that is what JKR is saying.