Alternative A-Level Questions: Lord Voldemort

Discuss the ways in which Lord Voldemort is presented in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, referencing your wider reading and not bullshitting your way through this essay.

Lord Voldemort: a Wildean dandy or a Pinteresque nightmare?

Lord Voldemort is revered as one of the great villains of classical literature, a name that inspires Dickensian connotations of terror, coupled with a constant threat that looms over every page of The Half-Blood Prince. But how has Rowling created such a fearsome character? Is he an original creation, or can we find parts of him – horcruxes, if you will – throughout past works of theatre, film and literature?

“As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them…”,  explains Albus Dumbledore to Harry in Chapter 17, A Sluggish Memory. This concept of a person who can dominate a room and a conversation without caring at all for those people to whom he is actually speaking calls to mind the image of Lord Darlington in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, towards the end of Act 3, Lord Darlington invites a large group of gentlemen back to his rooms, and the conversation pivots around him, although he somehow remains aloof, separated from the action. The comparison between Lord Darlington and Lord Voldemort is one which shines a light on the characters of both. Lord Darlington’s aloof attitude to the conversation of his peers is the result of his love for Lady Windermere, which has, in his mind, elevated him to a higher moral plane than the others – “No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Lord Voldemort’s separation from his friends stems from a similar attitude of deeper moral understanding, which Rowling draws our attention to through the words of Professor Slughorn. “…Wizards of a certain calibre have always been drawn to that aspect of magic…” he explains, in reference to the young Tom Riddle’s probing questions about dark magic. Riddle considers himself to be descended from a very respectable line of pure-blooded wizards, whilst Lord Darlington considers himself to love a woman who “has purity and innocence”. Perhaps then, it is this preoccupation with purity that separates the two characters from those that surround them.

Voldemort does not reject human company though; he thrives upon the adoration and power he receives from the death eaters, even though we have already ascertained he feels no affection for them. One of the most surprising characteristics that the young Lord Voldemort possesses is charm. As we see in Chapter 20 “Lord Voldemort’s Request”, his visit to Hepzibah Smith demonstrates his naturally appealing manner:

He picked his way through the cramped room with an air that showed he had visited many times before and bowed low over Hepzibah’s fat little hand, brushing it with his lips. “I brought you flowers,” he said quietly, producing a bunch of roses from nowhere.

This allure is perhaps something which one would be more likely to associate with a romantic hero, Rochester, Darcy or Cullen, than a villain as iconic as Lord Voldemort, and yet it recalls the charm of characters such as Goldberg in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. Goldberg is a sinister character, prone to moments of impassioned anger, much like Lord Voldemort, and yet during this exchange with Meg, a woman in her 60s and proprietor of the dingy boarding house in which the play is set, he demonstrates a charm that almost mirrors that exhibited by Lord Voldemort:

MEG: I do hope I look nice in my dress.

GOLDBERG: Madam, you’ll look like a tulip.

MEG: What colour?

GOLDBERG: Er… well, I’d have to see the dress first.

Here we see echoed that same ability to mask a violent nature with charming behaviour, which is perhaps a device used by both Pinter and Rowling to create a further sense of threat. Goldberg and Voldemort are both all the more terrifying because at one stage or another. Each of them have tangible social appeal, perhaps an essential element for a threatening character is his appeal to those who are weaker than him. Lord Voldemort’s gang of loyal followers, the Death Eaters, suggest that he has an inherently persuasive nature, which is eventually replaced by a terrifying power. The need for charm is eventually extinguished by the ability to strike fear into the hearts of others. This is perhaps also true of Goldberg, whose language falters towards the third act of The Birthday Party, and is replaced by thinly veiled brutality. He threatens the character of Petey, when he objects to the removal of the central character by Goldberg, with the simple line “Come with us to Monty. There’s plenty of room in the car.” Petey makes no more attempts to save Stanley from his fate with the illusive “Monty”, the threat of the line is therefore not in the words, but in the tone behind them. A similar effect is achieved in The Half-Blood Prince when Hepzibah catches a flicker of malice in Voldemort’s eyes, “and, for the first time, Harry saw her foolish smile falter.” Voldemort has not said anything threatening, but the brutality that lies behind his charming exterior is momentarily revealed, shocking Hepzibah, and sufficiently heightening the tension for the reader.

In conclusion, the character of Lord Voldemort is more than a simple villain. Rowling has created a multi-faceted character that brings a cloud of threat and danger with him, not merely by his violent acts and distorted morals, but by the appeal of his character and his separation from those who would ordinarily be considered his equals.