Why did Barty Crouch Jr join Voldemort?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189730


> > Message #47931
<snip>? He told us when he was under the veritaserum. He said that his greatest ambition was to serve. To serve, and to prove himself worthy of service. In other words," she says. "He wanted to be as truly devoted to the service of some cause as his father, the supposed public servant, merely pretended to be."
> > 
> > "You aren't really trying to blame Barty Crouch Sr. for his son's decision to become a Death Eater," asks Eileen. "Are you, Elkins?"
> > 
> > "No, of course not. People have to make their own choices in the end, don't they? Not that Crouch Sr. believed in that, of course. I'm just pointing out the extent to which the falsehoods that Crouch projected about himself influenced his son's behavior, and in ways that really weren't healthy. It doesn't excuse Crouch Jr. for his bad decisions. He should have found a worthier cause to devote himself to. Much like Percy should have, actually. Or Winky, for that matter, although Winky didn't really have as much choice in the matter. Crouch Sr. didn't deserve the kind of loyalty that he inspired in others, and he didn't have a very salutory effect on those who were drawn in by his charisma, or by the lies that he told. Really, he seems to have corrupted or damaged or destroyed just about everyone that his life touched in one way or another. His son. His Aurors. Percy. Winky. Not to mention Bertha Jorkins! But most of all, the Wizarding World as a whole. Do you remember what I was saying before, about Crouch's relationship with his son?"
> > 
> > "You said that you thought that it reiterated on the personal level his political relationship with the wizarding world," answers Eileen.
> > 
> > "Right. Well, the reason that parricide and tyrannicide are so closely conceptually linked is because fathers and leaders are closely conceptually linked. Crouch had very much the same effect on his public as he did on his son, I'd say. He told lies that people believed, and the lies that he told were really very bad for them. We keep being told about how fearful and paranoid everyone was during the war, don't we? Sirius mentions it. Hagrid mentions it. Well, how do you think that they got that way?"
> > 
> > "Because Voldemort and his DEs were conducting a war of terror?"
> > 
> > "In part. But also because they were being encouraged to react that way by their own leaders. Paranoia like that is never a one-way street."
> > 
> > katherinemaurer who really wants to understand what Elkins was talking about.
> >
> Nikkalmati:
> 
> Not sure I get this either.  I don't see Barty Sr as inspiring great devotion (except in his house elf, no surprise).   I am also not sure what lies he told.  He was leading a society in very hard times and used extreme methods to do it.  I don't see how he was resonsible for Bertha Jorkins' fate either.  He appears to have misused his power, but we don't know the circumstances under which he authorized the AK for the Aurors.  "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they arn't after you" comes to mind.  His reaction to his son's behavior, comdemning him without a sign of emotion seems to have freightened everyone who saw it.  He maintained his place in society after the war and was not condemed for his actions.  

Pippin:

I think the pretense Elkins was referring to was Barty Sr claiming to act in the public interest when he had become obsessed with increasing his own power.  Whether he was perceptive enough to notice this at the time I am not sure, but I am sure that his son saw it, was repelled by it, and expected Voldemort to reward his devotion as his father had not. Barty Jr would have known that he couldn't win his father's love by devoting himself to the public good since his father didn't really care about it any more, so why not show his scorn  by turning against everything his father stood for? 

I think Elkins is suggesting that Crouch fanned the public's paranoia about Voldemort in order to consolidate his own support, that he knew there was no tactical or strategic advantage in using the Unforgivable Curses, but it made him look like the kind of take-no-prisoners  leader that  people thought they needed. By authorizing the use of the unforgivable curses against suspects, he attracted people to the Auror Office who *wanted* to use them, people who were in some cases as cruel and ruthless as the DE's themselves.

JKR's own view seems to be that people are going to do whatever occurs to them if they are defending their families or fighting for their lives, but those who undertake to defend others  as a public trust have a responsibility to learn to do so in ways that cause the least amount of damage. 

Elkins, IIRC, was fascinated by the Crouches not least because she couldn't figure out what they were doing in the story. We can see now, IMO, that they are there to give some substance to Dumbledore's fears. He was afraid to seek the office of Minister of Magic because of what he might have persuaded himself to do in order to get it, and he was afraid to commit himself to raising a family of his own because he did not trust himself to walk the line between neglecting their interests and putting them ahead of the public's. 

There is more than a little similarity between Barty's half-mad confession in The Madness of Mister Crouch and Dumbledore's confession in the horcrux cave.

Barty Sr was not responsible for Bertha falling into the hands of Voldemort, but he did memory charm her in order to keep her from telling anyone that Barty Jr was still alive. If she hadn't been the unwilling and unknowing repository of Crouch's secrets, she might at least have had an easier death.


Pippin