into marrying her, but released the spell hoping he would fall in love with her – he did not. Tom Sr. abandons his family on the streets of London after the spell is lifted, leaving Merope to give birth, with no interest in his son’s fate. Merope’s heritage for Riddle is an ancient line of wizards. The House of Gaunt were an ancient, and formerly wealthy wizard family. It was also noted for producing violent and unstable personalities, suggested due to inbreeding in a desire to maintain the purity of the line. Marvolo Gaunt (Merope’s father and family patriarch) considered himself the last known male, pure-blood descendent of Slytherin and as such considered himself royalty – regardless of his poverty, squalor, lack of education and evidence of mentaland physical disorders. He is the tyrant in his own home, and is abusive to Merope, a situation that could be inferred to suggest that regardless of if she had lived Voldemort would still have emerged from this unhealthy patriarchal family. In contrast Tom Riddle Sr. was a very wealthy muggle living in a manor near the shack of the Gaunts. Although his actions cannot be defamed for reacting poorly to being placed under a spell, his actions in relation to the disregard of his unborn child suggest a particular lack of empathetic characteristics.

The Choices of a Lonely Teen

Hogwarts became a period of vital importance to Riddle. He was placed in Slytherin, which echoed his own family history but also situated him within a particular “category” of expected