What makes voldemort evil

Nasty things She took yet another gulp of gin and her rosy cheeks grew rosier still. All I know is he and Billy had argued the day before. And then" — Mrs. Cole took another swig of gin, slopping a little over her chin this time — "on the summer outing — we take them out, you know, once a year, to the countryside or to the seaside — well, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they'd gone into a cave with Tom Riddle.

He swore they'd just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I'm sure of it. And, well, there have been a lot of things, funny things. She looked around at Dumbledore again, and though her cheeks were flushed, her gaze was steady. Always, I knew there was something. Riddle threw Dumbledore a long, clear, calculating look. Riddle took off the lid and tipped the contents onto his bed without looking at them.

Harry, who had expected something much more exciting, saw a mess of small, everyday objects: a yo-yo, a silver thimble, and a tarnished mouth organ among them. Once free of the box, they stopped quivering and lay quite still upon the thin blankets.

And be warned: Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts. Riddle did not look remotely abashed; he was still staring coldly and appraisingly at Dumbledore. At last he said in a colorless voice, "Yes, sir. A second part is about whether your Film critic Phil Hoad is right when he, in your words, considers:. He merely doesn't concern himself in his head with any distinction between "good" and "evil" and will choose what other people would consider evil IF it achieves his ends and desires better but won't choose evil "just because it's evil"; and will choose "good" when good would work better.

In other words, he was what's defined as a highly functioning sociopath. Of course, as we all know from Master Yoda, evil will always triumph because good is dumb evil Dark Side is the easier path, so it just happens that Voldemort usually chooses evil acts. People who read that as Voldemort being evil merely commit the logical fallacy of confusing correlation with causation.

But we have sufficient canon proof that he never chooses to act "evilly" only because something is "evil" and appeals to him because of its evilness. Then the child turned and ran away.

Beneath the robe be fingered the hand of his wand. One simple movement and the child would never reach his mother. He also was a Prefect presumably a good one and a model student at Hogwarts when it served his purposes to do so. Both required him to act as socially adept "good" member of society on a continual basis for years. He had in his own mind a valid justification for his actions.

His sociopathy manifested in his drastically inappropriate response to the offense. He stole because he wanted their things and not because he enjoyed the pain of someone whose thing was stolen. To summarize: If your question is "Is Voldemort evil", the answer is "it depends on how you define evil". If you define "evil" as someone who does evil things because they want to do evil things merely because they are evil and cause pain needlessly, Voldemort is NOT inherently evil.

If you define it as "a person who chooses to commit evil acts towards others", he was unquestionably evil. Personally, I would choose the latter definition, since for the victims of his evil acts, it really isn't that much of an important distinction whether they were victimized because the victimization served some logical purpose for Voldemort or because he enjoyed the evilness of it. Lord Voldemort.

View source. History Talk 0. I'm going to destroy you. After tonight, no one will ever again question my power. After tonight if they speak of you, they'll only speak of how you begged for death. But no. Voldemort simply had to go for him personally. And that cost him his life. No child deserves to never be loved. However, Harry was never loved growing up either and may have actually suffered MORE abuse in childhood than even Voldemort himself growing up, but it never stopped Harry from trying to do the right thing in the end.

I really just came here to find out what happened to his nose. But ended up with a great article nonetheless. I learnt more about the whole story in this article then as to when I was watching the actual movies. A wonderful mini documentary of a very complex character.

Well done!! I really enjoyed reading this! Lord Voldemort was unable to feel love. Nicely done. All those with a service-to-self mindset display the same symptom, plus they will never understand that the only way to progress is to relinquish the ego.

What goes around, comes around. Thanks for your hard work. A fascinating read. Finally we get to know the story of Lord Voldemort… The details are incredible.

It must have demanded a lot of research. An enjoyable essay to read—particularly after remembering reading each of the Harry Potter books to my children. Loved it! You know—serial killer, Wizard Hitler, pure evil, seen it a hundred times, yawn, yawn.

But you pulled out some highly interesting things about him that lend a lot more depth and lead me to give Voldemort more credit. Anyway, super job.

I agree; there are many details that were nicely described. Make sure to read my comment below on another piece of information that was missed! This is a good article. However, there were a few key points missing. Another reason Voldemort met his demise was because he could never understand or at least try to , that even non-humans and objects have feelings that may be more powerful than him.

So he assumed Snape was the owner of the Elder Wand for killing Dumbledore. In the end, it was actually Draco who disarmed Dumbledore and whom the Elder Wand chose to recognize from then on. A well researched, insightful article into the characterisation of Voldemort, a very enjoyable read to those who are fans of Harry Potter, nice work! Lord Voldemort has been always ambitious. Love your analysis of such a famous villain. Your point about his obsessive behavior adds another layer to his complex nature that I had not thought of before.

Great article — I love something that J. K Rowling said about Voldemort in an interview once:. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Prove you are human, type c a t s in singular form below:. Chronology of change. Nature versus Nurture Nature versus nurture, regardless of its real world actuality is a common trope in literature. Standing in the Chamber of Secrets. The Horcruxes A Horcrux is the attempt to beat death by concealing part of the soul in an object.

Rebirth of a Monster The new face of Lord Voldemort. An Inevitable End Rowling sets the inevitable end of Voldemort from the start.

The End. Works Cited Lord Voldemort. Villains Wiki. Jung and Harry Potter. Sapere Aude. Harry Potter Wiki. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The Daily Beast. Nature versus nurture: where we are in Psychology Today. Villains and other misunderstood individuals. Maverick Youth. The sad history of Merope Gaunt. The psychology of Voldemort. The Atlantic. For instance, in the book, it was said that the items that Tom had stolen and hidden away were actually trophies of his victims — namely, the other children of the orphanage whom he tormented.

This behavior of collecting things is also a known trait of serial killers — for instance, Ed Gein 's collection of furniture made from human body parts. The book also reveals that Tom killed another child's pet rabbit, and the killing of helpless animals is also an early sign of psychopathy. Maybe Dumbledore should have had Tom admitted into a mental institution instead of taking him to Hogwarts, but unfortunately, his pity for the young man would ultimately be his downfall.

As he demonstrates his cruelty and wickedness upon the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, it's difficult to understand why anyone would willingly follow someone as evil as Lord Voldemort — aside from the threat of torture and death, that is. Yet at one time, Voldemort had many allies on his side, and that was long before he grew into his full power as the Dark Lord. In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Harry is tasked with retrieving a very important memory from the new Potions master, Professor Slughorn, which could lead to the secret source of Voldemort's powers.

Slughorn is reluctant to give up the goods, however, since he is ashamed of the memory. He reveals to Harry that when Voldemort then known as Tom Riddle was at Hogwarts, he was a charming and brilliant young wizard who was liked and admired by all of the students and professors.

He was given the title of Head Boy in his final year, and no one but Dumbledore had ever suspected young Riddle of having a darker side. Riddle's good looks and charisma were essential traits which he used to manipulate many to his way of thinking. In fact, there were several incidents in the book in which we see Riddle's influence first hand. While working for Borgin and Burkes, he learns the location of two artifacts belonging to Hogwarts' founders — Salazar Slytherin's locket and Helga Hufflepuff's cup.