Paper no.13 New Literature

 

 

Name : Alpa Ponda

Class : M.A Sem. 4

Roll no : 2

Paper no. 13 : New Literature

Topic : Voldmort in Harry Potter

Batch : 2016-18

Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi

Department of English,

M. K. Bhavnagar University.

Character of Lord Voldemort

"I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

—Lord Voldemort

Introduction:

Lord Voldemort Formerly known as Tom Marvolo Riddle and commonly referred to as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” is a fictional character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels.

Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was released in 1997. Voldemort appears either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series, except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where he is only mentioned.

He is actually the most powerful Dark wizard of all time. Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his unmentionable name, and refers to him instead with such expressions as "You-Know-Who", "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "the Dark Lord".

Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.

As antagonist:

‘Voldemort’ or ’Tom Marvolo Riddle’  or Dark Lord is the main antagonist.  The most powerful evil wizard who ever lived, recently restored to his body and full powers after fourteen years.  When Harry was one year old, Voldemort murdered Harry’s parents and tried to murder Harry, but his curse rebounded upon him and tore his soul from his body, and made him lose most of his powers. Though, he is villainous character, his role is so much important after ‘Harry’ in the series of Harry potter. From the childhood he was not evil, But opposition of society made him ‘Tom Riddle’ to ‘Voldemort’. He hates his own ‘parents’, Because, he believes that they were responsible for the impure blood of Tom-Riddle. So, he hates his surname also. So converts his name through the technique of ‘Diagram’.

He believed that the school should only be for pure blood students. And despite the fact that he, himself was a half blood wizard, followed the path of Slytherin house founder of going against of Hogwarts. so he turned into a villain, having a mindset to rule the wizarding world.

Facts :

His bitrthday 31 December 1926 and he died on 2 May 1998. His wand was Thirteen and a half inches, yew, phoenix feather, shares its core with Harry Potter's wand. He was in Slytherin house. His parents Tom Riddle Sr (Muggle) and Merope Gaunt (witch), he was half blood. His skills are Dark magic, Inferi creation and control, Parseltongue and the power to possess living creatures.

His early life :

He The only child and son of wealthy Muggle gentleman Tom and Merope Riddle (née Gaunt) via the coercive use of a Love Potion, Riddle was raised in the Muggle-run Wool's Orphanage after his father abandoned his new family on the streets of London when the potion's influence was lifted, and his mother died moments after giving birth to and naming him after his father and maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt.  

Riddle began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1938 and was sorted into Slytherin house. Some of his early activities included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of secret and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students; several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes; the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality between the years of 1942 and 1998, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of 16. Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Lord Voldemort created seven Horcruxes; one unintentionally and without his knowledge - Harry Potter. Abandoning his 'Muggle' name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures, committed numerous murders personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic by installing a puppet Minister. 

Voldemort was ripped from his body in 1981, after attempting to kill Harry Potter, and though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body until 1995, thus spending the intervening 14 years "a shell, less than the meanest ghost", but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes. 

Tom Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit. Unknown to most however, Lord Voldemort's legacy and blood would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange. Delphini was conceived sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996 and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry Potter in 1998.

Personality and traits

"His knowledge remained woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth that he has never grasped." —Albus Dumbledore on the power of love

Voldemort was considered by many to be "the most evil wizard in hundreds and hundreds of years". His nature far exceeded that of any common evildoer and Dumbledore stated that he "went beyond normal evil" in the extent of his crimes. Hagrid claimed that while all Dark Wizards "go bad", Voldemort went "worse than worse". Indeed, Voldemort speedily developed into a power-obsessed megalomaniac of the worst kind and the worst of any known Dark Wizard, even Gellert Grindelwald. These anti social traits were seen in his childhood, from stealing, to disturbing incidences with other orphans. Dumbledore stated that the young Riddle had a certain disregard for rules. In adult life, he performed the darkest of magic and had no regard for human life. He was a prolific killer, killing so many he created an army of Inferi. He was highly intelligent, as evidenced by his top performance at Hogwarts and his tremendous magical achievements, but his interests were narrowly focused on the usefulness of people, objects, and powers to his goals. His inability to see the larger picture and inattention to events, powers and human traits that were not immediately useful to him was a serious flaw that led to most of his setbacks and ultimately his downfall.

As Defence Against the Dark Arts was the subject Voldemort offered to teach when he tried to become a teacher, it can be assumed that despite being far more intrested in using dark magic than learning to defend from it, Voldemort had achieved a high score on his O.W.L and N.E.W.T exam and was excellently skilled in defending from dark magic in addition to being the most powerful practitioner of the Dark Arts. It can also be assumed that his knowledge of the Dark Arts also made him aware of many advanced defensive spells that few knew of, as he claimed that he could teach students magic they cannot learn from any other should he be the Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Physical Appearance :

"The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry...and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's but with slits for nostrils...."

—Description of Voldemort after his rebirth

During his childhood and early adulthood, Tom Marvolo Riddle was tall and handsome, with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark eyes. When Harry saw him in the a memory in the Pensieve, he saw that there was no trace of the Gaunt family in his face, and that he was his father in miniature: "tall for eleven years old, dark-haired and pale". Riddle's good looks continued to increase as he grew older, and he cunningly used them to charm many of the teachers at Hogwarts. While in Wool's Orphanage, he wore the standard grey tunic as with all the other children, and switched over to the Hogwarts uniform when he attended the school, gaining the Prefect and Head Boy badges when he attained those positions. When he worked in Borgin and Burkes, he wore a simple black suit.

However, as he became more involved in the Dark Arts, his good looks gradually left him. His features became increasingly waxy and reptilian, his skin became bone-white, and the sclera of his eyes took on a perpetually blood-shot appearance. After he regained his body, his features became even more warped. In his final body, Voldemort was described as having pale white skin, a skeletally thin body, and dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils. He had a chalk-white face that resembled a skull, snake-like slits for nostrils, and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers like spider's legs.

It is also mentioned that Voldemort had no hair or lips. He had long, sharp, pale blue fingernails, and took to wearing a black hooded cloak and several sets of elegant black robes. Voldemort had a high, cold voice which was sometimes described as being sibilant. The transformation into this monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes, becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. Dumbledore also speculates that Voldemort may have gained his hideous appearance by undergoing dangerous magical transformations.

Death :

“I was ripped from my body, less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost … but still, I was alive”- Lord Voldemort

As he has preserved the parts of his soul in 7 different objects, harry had to destroy all of them to get rid of Voldemort. Throughout all the books, harry and his friends destroy them one by one. And at the end the last one, Nagini, Voldemort’s pet which was a huge snape is killed by Neville Longbottom and then Harry’s final straw causes him to die. And that is how his power is over and he is finished. As well as his team “Death Eaters” are also no more.

Work Cited

 (wikipedia) (Wikia)

Wikia, Fandom. Harry Potter Wiki Tom Riddle. n.d. <http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Tom_Riddle.

wikipedia. Lord Voldemort. n.d. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort>