Tom Riddle's inability to love

[bdclark0423]

No: HPFGUIDX 181278

Hi,

I'm glad I came across this site just by accident.  I actually
joined the HP FanFiction Forum because, well, I'm an HP fan, and I
like to write.  One of the topics in the forum was assistance needed
for creating a short story on how Tom Riddle had the inability to
love.  I thought I'd lend my advice to the topic, but after
submitting my ideas, I started to read some of the other responses.
Needless to say, it was quite obvious that most subscribers to this
site are in the young adult range.  The author of the post, however,
quite impressed me, and since I haven't seen this topic posted on
HP4GUs, as far as I could tell, I wanted to do so.

Forum Posting:
"Albus Dumbledore said that Voldemort was unable to love, he didn't
think Voldemort ever loved or even had the ability and that was why
Harry could defeat him. Because he did not know love. What my theory
is that maybe - any theory on Voldemort and love will be slightly AU
so bear with me - he was unable to love because he despised love.
Well, that point was obvious, but why he despised love is debatable
"

My response was:
"Wow, the most popular human emotion to try to explain
it's been a
topic revisited and never fully understand by humans, so probably
makes it number one.

You seem to have been circling your own logic on this you've
expressed several concerns that you won't be able to get your way
out of it, so I am offering a fresh perspective.  I say, let's step
away from the details in the background of Tom first and define the
topic.

I have this passage on my fridge, so that I am reminded of it every
now and then:
TO BE LOVED, IS TO BE LOVE
Love is Patient, Love is Kind.
Love does Not Envy, Love does Not Boast,
Love is Not Proud. Love is Not Rude,
Love is Not Self-Seeking,
Love is Not Easily Angered,
Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs.
Love does Not Delight in Evil,
but Rejoices in the Truth.
Love Always Protects, Always Trusts,
Always Hopes, Always Perseveres.


As you can see, the person who wants to be loved, must become love.
A lot of risk to be taken, right?  The words say that just by
following this decree, you will find what you are searching for, but
no one can achieve this at 100% efficiency, and the more failures
along the path, only makes those odds worse.  However the person who
understands that all these aspects support each other when others
may fail, will use that strength to continue the journey.

Now back to the story, perhaps a reference to Tom actually wanting
to rip his soul not only in half, but even into more unstable sub-
parts could be reasoning on why he felt the need to ignore
foundational elements in which he never considered to be of
importance?  I also like the idea of how the love potion used was
never a basis for love and in contrast, Harry having the similar
situation flung on him had the love of both the father and mother as
his initial foundation for building his character.

Anyway, you can continue to try to find reasons, causes, etc.
Basically, it's the person's character that decides how strong they
are in whatever obstacle they face.  Harry sought the light:  truth
and that which was right, Tom sought power through the darkness."

bdclark0423