Poll: Is Merope Gaunt-Riddle the Tragic-iest HP Character?

brIt-()nstar

At some point in her life, Merope secretly fell in love with Tom Riddle, an exceptionally handsome and wealthy Muggle, and the only child of Thomas and Mary Riddle, who lived nearby. Her father was livid when Morfin revealed this to him in the summer of 1925, and attacked her physically, but was restrained by Ministry official Bob Ogden. Ogden arrested both Marvolo and Morfin, who had cursed Riddle because his sister found him attractive. With her family gone, Merope manipulated Riddle into marrying her. She left the shack with a farewell note revealing her marriage to Riddle, and her existence was never again mentioned by Marvolo.
Although Harry Potter, upon learning of these events, speculated that she might have used the Imperius Curse or a Love Potion on Riddle, Dumbledore believed that she most likely used a Love Potion because it seemed more romantic. Dumbledore also speculated that Merope got hired alongside Frank Bryce on the Riddle estate ostensibly to earn a living, but covertly to get close to Tom Riddle Junior, in which she could administer the love potion to him while mixing it with water or some other beverage. In any case, Riddle became infatuated with her and they were married in late 1925, running away to London together. This caused great scandal in Little Hangleton.[4]

After a year of marriage, Merope Gaunt soon became pregnant and decided to release Riddle from his mental enslavement, having grown tired of living a lie. Dumbledore thought that she did this hoping either that her husband would have truly fallen in love with her by that point, or that he would at least stay for the sake of their unborn child. Unfortunately for her, Riddle did nothing of the kind. Riddle awoke into a nightmare and fled back to his family's home, believing to have been bewitched, although according to Albus Dumbledore, he probably did not say that exactly, for fear of being thought insane.

Childbirth and death

After her husband's sudden abandonment, Merope soon fell into a deep depression and lived as a pauper in London, selling her valuables to survive in order to gain some gold. Specifically, she sold her locket, a family heirloom which was one of her father’s most treasured ones, to Caractacus Burke for only ten Galleons, either not knowing that it was a priceless artefact, no longer caring, or a desire to sever ties with her abusive father and valuing the paltry profits much more than the painful reminder of her family. With her heart broken and her dreams in tatters, Merope stopped using magic altogether after Riddle's desertion, not even willing to raise her wand to save her own life (although, according to Dumbledore, it was also possible that her powers may have been sapped as a result of depression and also because of her unrequited love for Riddle).

On the night of New Year's Eve in 1926 (as described by Mrs Cole), she stumbled into an orphanage, then staggering up the front steps of the orphanage and was ready to give birth to a son. She told Mrs Cole, a woman who worked in the orphanage (who was the matron), to name him Tom for his father, Marvolo for her father, and Riddle to be his surname. Tom Marvolo Riddle, according to Mrs Cole, specifically, Marvolo was a "funny name", and she wondered whether Merope had come from a circus. Merope died within an hour, and her last words were a final wish that her son would turn out to look like his father, which Mrs Cole said that she was right to hope it since Merope was no beauty. This specific cause of her death is not stated.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Merope_Riddle

Are you mad that they ditch ha in the movies?

brIt-()nstar

Don't let this thread flop like Warner let Merope flop in oblivion, atrlers....

HeWolf

I never read the books and watched only the movies so...

brIt-()nstar

Quote:

Originally posted by HeWolf

I never read the books and watched only the movies so...

You better educate yourself then by buying all the books.

Can't_M!ss_This

First, I would like to say that anybody who hasn't read the books, you've missed out. Read them.

The movies just suck in comparison. There is no other way to say it. As is always the case, the book is better than the movie. Big scenes are cool but it's the tiny details hidden away in the most unlikely of sentences are what bring words to life. They give us a reason to care when somebody wins, a reason to cry when somebody dies. They are the bond that links the literal to the metaphorical.

With that out of the way, I would say that Merope and Voldemort's existence is sad. It seems that anybody related to Salazar Slytherin is doomed to a life of misery. Tom Marvolo Riddle, if conceived due to a love potion, would be unable to feel love. His abandonment, magical powers and lack of empathy lead him to become a monster.

It's very clear, if you're fully up to date on the Harry Potter universe, that the Slytherin descendants have been marred by hatred and it has cost them dearly. Had the backstory been included in the movie, it could only have served to paint a fuller picture. But alas, the movies suck in comparison

Wonderland

I love how her story shows that Voldemort came into this world out of a relationship built on fake and false love. Many people theorize that this is why he seems so incapable of love himself.