Skip to main content

harry potter - Why didn't Voldemort use the Ministry to rise to power and instead chose to become a criminal?


There are often parallels between Hitler and Voldemort, but one thing that is missing is that Hitler came to power "the official way" - via elections.


Why didn't Voldemort do the same?


Here’s a quote from Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, chapter 20):



He reached the seventh year of his schooling with, as you might have expected, top grades in every examination he had taken. All around him, his classmates were deciding which jobs they were to pursue once they had left Hogwarts. Nearly everybody expected spectacular things from Tom Riddle, prefect, Head Boy, winner of the Award for Special Services to the School. I know that several teachers, Professor Slughorn amongst them, suggested that he join the Ministry of Magic, offered to set up appointments, put him in touch with useful contacts. He refused all offers. The next thing the staff knew, Voldemort was working at Borgin and Burkes.



With his skills, intelligence, and perfect reputation, at that point he would have had very good chances of succeeding in becoming Minister of Magic in the next 10-15 years or more.



Answer




Tom Riddle wanted to bury his past. He couldn't do that in politics.


Riddle is a pure-blood supremacist, and hates his family:



  • He detests the Muggle family who gave him his name (and later tracks them down and kills them)


  • He detects the magical mother who died giving birth to him, decrying her as weak:



    “My mother can’t have been magic, or she wouldn’t have died,” said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore.






  • He detests his (apparently good-for-nothing) Gaunt ancestors, who are a pack of violent and petty criminals.




If he’d acquired power through the Ministry, it would have been hard to shake his old name. He’d be stuck with a reminder of his Muggle parentage, his inferior blood status, and unsatisfying family. Even if he changed his name, there would still be a fairly direct line between Tom Riddle the Hogwarts student and the successful politician.


Acquiring power by underground means lets him shed the trappings of his family. He can re-emerge with a new identity, and nobody will remember the half-blood with a Muggle’s name. And as Dumbledore explains in Harry’s second year, it was very successful:



“Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle.”



I don’t think Voldemort was opposed to the idea of becoming a politician. He was opposed to what it would drag along with him.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more