Why did Barty Crouch Jr join Voldemort? (Really Long)

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 189931




> Pippin:
> First of all, Barty didn't "break out" of Azkaban. His mother and
> father rescued him. His mother was dying anyway, but she chose to
> spend her last days in a prison cell, surrounded by dementors, in
> order to save her son. Was that rational self-interest?

Mike:
Let me quote myself from the paragraph prior, that you snipped:

In http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189929
"The question you have to ask is: what could Barty Jr do? Well, he could have not fought the Imperious curse of his father and remained a prisoner in his father's house,"

That's the "prison" I was referring to when I said: "Barty Jr's other choice is to break out of that prison and to rejoin Voldemort."

But beyond that, Barty did "break out" of Azkaban. The fact that he made the escape because his parents did all the work, doesn't make it any less of a break out. He wasn't released or paroled or exonerated, was he? He didn't have his sentence shortened or commutated either.

Rational self-interest on the part of his mother? Is that the question? If it is, I'd say that whatever was killing Mrs Crouch must have either made her remorseful towards her son or she had lost enough of her marbles that living amongst the Dementors for her last few days made no difference to her. In either case, she had so little time to live that she came up with this plan to save Barty Jr. Barty Jr certainly believed his mother loved him, unlike his father.



> Pippin:
> Barty Jr had been a free man, completely unsuspected, after
> Voldemort's fall. He could have refused to join Bella in her mad
> quest to locate the fallen Dark Lord, and slipped back into normal
> wizarding life like the Malfoys and so many others. He didn't.
> Whatever his motivation was, it couldn't have been rational
> self-interest either.
> <snip>
> Barty Jr  was fanatically loyal to him. Simply put, Voldemort knows
> how to inspire loyalty in his servants. He's not good at *keeping*
> it, and most of them became disillusioned sooner or later. But
> Barty and Bella did not. Certainly they are depicted as irrational
> in canon.

Mike:
I never said Barty Jr wasn't rabidly loyal to Voldemort. In fact, I said: " In hindsight, we know he was a willing follower, probably as rabid as Bellatrix." and I said: "His desires are his own, albeit his desires are to please Voldemort."

I suppose he could have "slipped back into normal wizarding life like the Malfoys" if he was like the Malfoys, but he wasn't. He was someone who, like Bella, enjoyed torturing, IMHO. He wanted the wizarding world that Voldemort promised and wanted to be a top follower of Voldemort. Obviously we are supposed to see that as irrational, we are supposed to see all LV followers as irrational, aren't we? But I'm trying to put myself in Barty Jr's mind. And I'm arguing that Barty was not subsumed by LV's personae. He wanted Voldemort's world, he wanted free reign to feed his evil side. Voldemort was going to give him that.

So, was he a rabid follower? Sure. Was he evil-minded? You bet. But was it self-interest? I say yes. I say that he wanted what Voldemort stood for. Is that irrational? By definition, yes. But in Barty Jr's mind, no. And that's the fine line. He was making a rational decision to act irrationally, if that makes sense. In other words, he was not criminally insane, he was just criminally minded.

 
Mike, who thinks Barty Jr would not have gotten off on an insanity plea, at least not in the Muggle world. But, of course, that doesn't matter because the WW doesn't have that plea available to him.