The Dark History Of Voldemort

The "Harry Potter" novels and movies are technically aimed at children, but they also enjoy huge popularity among adults because the franchise wades into much darker and more mature themes than standard kid-friendly fare. The grimmest aspect of "Harry Potter" is embodied in its main villain, Tom Marvolo Riddle aka Lord Voldemort. 

A dark wizard so deeply feared that most people in the "Harry Potter" series refuse to say his name, Voldemort combines the worst aspects of Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" and Hannibal Lecter, with a bit of inspiration from real-world despots and bigots also thrown into the mix. Far from a one-dimensional baddie, Voldemort has a complex backstory and tangible motivations for his desire to rule over the wizarding world of "Harry Potter."

After only being mentioned and whispered about in the first three books/movies of the franchise Voldemort makes his proper debut in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," played in the film by Ralph Fiennes. While many of the bad things Voldemort does are on display in the series, a lot of the worst stuff from his backstory is only hinted at or referred to in passing. Here are some of the worst aspects of Tom Riddle's backstory that turned him into the dreaded Lord Voldemort. 

Considering the sorry circumstances under which Tom Marvolo Riddle grew up, you might think his younger self would cut a deeply tragic figure, but this was far from the case. Lord Voldemort's cruel and dominant nature was not something he picked up in later years — it was always a pronounced part of his personality.

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the titular protagonist of the franchise does a deep dive into Voldemort's backstory to understand what makes the dark wizard tick. Harry discovers that Tom Riddle spent the first 11 years of his life in a muggle orphanage run by a woman named Mrs. Cole. Even back then despite not yet being a teenager, Tom Riddle had already started developing a scary reputation among the other children. 

"[Tom] scares the other children," Mrs. Cole says at one point in the story. "But it's very hard to catch him at it." Among the cruelties inflicted by Tom Riddle on the other children of the orphanage are: somehow making Billy Stubbs' pet rabbit hang itself from the rafters and leading Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop into a secret cave. No one knows what Tom did to Amy and Dennis inside the cave, but the children were deeply traumatized by the incident and could never bring themselves to talk about it again.

Despite being born without a family support system or even being aware of his true heritage, Tom Riddle always had a remarkable amount of confidence in himself, as well as a breathtaking measure of ruthlessness. Both these traits were evident in his early years at the orphanage, and they came out in full force at Hogwarts.

Using his genius intellect, Tom soon established himself as a model student in front of teachers. In private, he started gathering a coterie of friends and followers who'd commit all kinds of crimes against other students on Tom's orders without him ever getting blamed for it. Tom Riddle also finally learned about his heritage as a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and the Gaunt family. 

Armed with this knowledge, Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets in his fifth year, which directly led to the death of a Hogwarts schoolgirl who would come to be known as "Moaning Myrtle." Then, during the summer before his sixth year, Riddle took a journey to the village where his birth father lived. Not only did Tom murder his father's entire family, but he also pinned the blame for the crime on his Uncle Morfin, and took from him the signet ring family heirloom belonging to Salazar Slytherin. 

In his youth, Tom Riddle had often been acknowledged for being an uncommonly good-looking man. Those good looks and an unfailingly polite manner helped Riddle gain the confidence of most people. But after disappearing from society for some time following the death of Hepzibah Smith, a drastic change began to occur to Riddle's appearance. 

As is described in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by Dumbledore, Riddle spent the next decade falling deeper and deeper into the embrace of the dark arts in his quest for power and immortality. More specifically, this is the time when Riddle began the ancient and taboo practice of splitting his soul into separate parts via murder to create "Horcruxes." Each of these Horcruxes was placed inside objects of great value to Riddle, guaranteeing his immortality even if his physical body perishes.  

Due to the repeated breaking apart of his soul, Riddle's physical appearance became steadily more grotesque and horrifying, but he did not care. In fact, it was around this time that Riddle started referring to himself as Lord Voldemort, thereby permanently severing all past connections to his life as Tom Riddle, and gathering an army of dark wizards around himself to one day take over the world. 

After failing to secure a job at Hogwarts, Voldemort embarked on his plan of conquest in earnest. The next few years were dark times for the wizarding world, as Lord Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters and assorted evil magical creatures attacked Britain from all sides and brutally cut down anyone who stood in their way. 

So great was the terror exerted by Voldemort that people were afraid to even say his name. That is the time when the Dark Lord came to be known by such monikers as "He Who Must Not Be Named" or simply "You Know Who." These names would continue to follow Voldemort even after his first fall at the hands of Harry Potter, proving just how great a hold he still exerts over the popular imagination of the wizarding world in the events of the main story. 

It was also around this time that Voldemort gave a few of his Horcruxes to his most trusted servants with instructions to keep the objects under strict lock and key at all costs. One such servant was Regulus Black, who, unknown to Voldemort, had decided to stop being a Death Eater, and who left behind clues to the location of one of the Horcruxes that would one day be deciphered by Dumbledore and Harry.  

The one thing that has always typified Lord Voldemort's character is his complete disregard for any human being other than himself. Despite having an army of followers, Voldemort treats all of them as disposable fodder in his quest to gain ultimate power — all except Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort's only prominent female follower. 

Even among Death Eaters, Bellatrix is infamous for her extreme cruelty, like the time she literally tortured Neville Longbottom's parents until they lost their minds and taunted Neville about the incident when she met him years later. Bellatrix's cruelty is only matched by her utter devotion to Voldemort, which leads to an unexpected union that would have major implications decades after the events of the final "Harry Potter" novel. 

In "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," it is revealed that Voldemort fathered a child with Bellatrix somewhere during the events of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." That child is then raised in secret, and grows up to become Delphini, who attends Hogwarts at the same time as Harry's children. Delphini would later attempt to resurrect Voldemort using a time-turner, but the attempt is successfully thwarted by the children of Harry and Draco Malfoy.

Befitting his status as one of the most famous villains in the history of fiction, a lot of academic research has been done into the inner workings of the mind of Lord Voldemort. Many experts have weighed in on the issue, with the general consensus being that Voldemort exhibits many signs of suffering from an "anti-social personality disorder." 

J.K. Rowling seems to agree with this assessment. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author described Voldemort as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering." While everyone seems to agree that Voldemort is incapable of feeling empathy, the question of why he is this way might be answered by looking at his lineage. Voldemort is a descendant of the Slytherin family, who prided themselves on being pure-bloods. This pure-blood mania compelled Slytherin's descendants to inbreed heavily. 

In turn, this led to Voldemort's family on his mother's side, the Gaunts, suffering from many genetic defects due to years of inbreeding. It is possible that the defects that showed up outwardly in Voldemort's mother and her relatives took a different form in Tom Riddle. Of course, his years of splitting his soul into smaller pieces only served to increase Voldemort's tendencies, making him steadily more wicked in later books and movies. 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

After years of only being fearfully mentioned or seen in brief flashbacks, the movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" presents audiences with the live-action version of Lord Voldemort. At the end of the movie, Voldemort gets resurrected in all his terrible glory, and he is played by renowned British actor Ralph Fiennes.

Naturally, playing such an iconic villain comes with a bunch of responsibilities to do the role justice. "I think the one thing we were aiming for [with Voldemort's character] was a sort of question," Fiennes told Dark Horizons. "A certain amount of unpredictability in him so no one quite knows what he's going to do next or say next, which I hope makes him slightly sort of dangerous."

The actor's strategy worked, and he knew his take on Voldemort was going to be a hit when he saw the reaction of children to him in full costume. "[On set] the script supervisor had a little boy, he was on set," Fiennes told Graham Norton. "I just looked at the boy, and he burst into tears." After that unusual moment on the "Harry Potter" set, the actor grew certain that he was going to be able to be truly menacing in front of the camera.